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The GHS and You - 5 Big Changes April 10, 2014 by Tony Ferraro If your workplace handles chemicals, particularly as the initial producer or as a distributor to clients, it's time to familiarize yourself with the global harmonization system (GHS) of classification and labeling chemicals, or the GHS, for short. What is the GHS? The GHS, first proposed to the United Nations in 1992, is an attempt at bringing some uniformity to the chemical labeling procedures of the developed world. Member nations, based upon their own time-frames, signed on to promise to convert to the GHS method of labeling chemical substances by a certain date. The idea was and still remains to make international business and production easier by having chemical labeling procedures that wouldn't slow down import and export, and would be easy for everyone involved to understand. This also greatly reduces transport costs as materials aren't having to be re-labeled or re-inspected as they cross borders. Last, but certainly not least, the GHS protects workers by ensuring the risks of handling any given material are clearly stated in an easy to understand manner from the beginning. According the UN's publishing of a GHS guide, the following are succinct statements of the GHS' most important goals: Defining health, physical and environmental hazards of chemicals: Creating classification processes that use available data on chemicals for comparison with the defined hazard criteria; and Communicating hazard information, as well as protective measures, on labels and Safety Data Sheets (SDS). OSHA.gov - GHS What does this mean for me? In the United States, the time-frame for adoption is staggered over several stages. On March 2012, the final rule for how workplaces should adopt their policies was published, and employees were required to be trained on these new procedures by December 1, 2013. Interestingly enough, the adoption of the standard by product manufacturers is not required until Ju

OSHA Steps Up Chemical Safety HAZMAT Team Members Discusses Chemical Disaster Unfortunately, thousands of U.S. workers continue to get sick or die from occupational exposures to the many chemicals used in the work place each and every year. Yesterday, the U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration launched two new web resources that are directly aimed at reducing these figures by assisting companies with keeping their employees safe. Chemical Safety Gets A Boost The new tools from OSHA are designed to help employers in every industry sector select safer, alternative chemicals to substances they currently use, as well as adopt more protective exposure limits. We know that the most efficient way to protect workers from hazardous chemicals is by eliminating or replacing those chemicals with safer alternatives whenever possible. Dr. David Michaels, assistant secretary of labor for Occupational Safety and Health Administration Chemical safety Both tools were announced during a brief news conference on Oct. 24 by Dr. David Michaels. The first being a toolkit for employers to identify safer chemicals that can be used in place of more hazardous ones. This toolkit will walk employers step-by-step through information, methods, tools and guidance to either eliminate hazardous chemicals, or make informed substitution decisions in the workplace by finding a safer chemical, material, product or process according to OSHA's press release. The new toolkit for identifying safer chemicals can be found here. The other online tool OSHA announced is a resource; the Annotated Permissible Exposure Limits, or annotated PEL tables. This will enable employers to voluntarily adopt newer, more protective workplace exposure limits. The PELs set mandatory limits on the amount or concentration of a substance in the air to protect workers against the health effects of certain hazardous chemicals. Since 1971, when OSHA was first formed, many of their PELs ha

This week's webinar features Guest Speaker Rich Stocks Rich Stocks Youngevity business trainingwho has been with Youngevity for 21 years. Rich helped the company to launch in Australia and New Zealand about 20 years ago. He has an impressive history in Network Marketing and as a business entrepeneur. Some of the highlights of Rich's career are: 4 Star Executive with Youngevity Author / International Speaker and Trainer Successful Entrepreneur Youngevity Circle of Excellence Inductee Member of Youngevity Circle of Honor A member of the Multi Million Dollar Earner's Club Featured in The Greatest Networkers in the World by John Milton Fog

Transforming into a tech company has become top of mind for executives in all major industries. It is clear that modern technology will fundamentally alter what and how business is done in every domain, sector, and industry. This has led to a call to arms in every enterprise to understand how they can transform into a tech company. The Tech Company Magic Tech companies have fine-tuned the art of bring new digital products and services to the market, quickly, efficiently and effectively and understanding customer feedback to iterate and improve. This capability makes them incredibly agile and leads to faster experimentation that is cheaper and involves less risk. In turn, this enables them to bring new capabilities to the market and even if all do not succeed or get traction, a few do and that drives innovation, customer satisfaction, and growth. From the outside, tech companies appear to be massive juggernauts that are unstoppable and able to crush everything in their path. The 'Non-Tech' Technology has been leveraged in every sector and industry, however, it has almost always been treated as a means to an end, something that is required but never the real value driver for the customer. This has led to the typical organizational structure in enterprises into "Business", "Operations" and "Information Technology". The "Business" arm generates value for customers, the "Operations" team carries out the requirements of the Business team and the "Information Technology" team provides the systems (databases, network and compute) required to "keep the lights on" for the Operations and Business Teams" This structure served enterprises well in the last decades as customers did not have an alternative to directly working with the enterprise and this fortified the value supply chain and also established a hierarchy of sorts within the enterprise where the business looked down upon operations who looked down upon technology. The purpose of

Safety - An Issue worth Taking Seriously! Safety is of great importance no matter if it is for the work place or home. If we are talking about home, we might discuss how kids who are messing around the house and playing games could be exposing themselves to dangers, resulting in injury or in worst case scenario, even accidental death. However, there are many safety products available in the market specifically designed to prevent injury in and around the home. It is in this frame of mind that we will occasionally be introducing some safety products for home use, in order to help parents and their children avoid any accidents, where possible. two workers discussing safety planAs well, when it comes to workplace safety measures, ignorance or lack of proper safety measures, can also lead to considerable financial loss for a company, or even the greatest of losses - someone's life. It is therefore very important that an employer take great care in installing and using safety measures, which includes proper safety training, materials, supplies or products. While there is no denying of the fact that it can be difficult for an employer to fully provide adequate safety products and measures to prevent any mishap, it is a task that must be accomplished. The task of safety management may prove even more complex for a team leader who must engage in managing safety at a construction site or workplace, as seen in this set of videos from OSHA. For those of you who have not yet researched the market, there is a huge range of safety supplies available for you to choose from. It pays to shop and compare, but even then, just when you think that you found the right solution, someone else comes up with a product even better and more efficient. That is why we have created this blog and review site. We hope that with our help as safety product experts we can help you or your firm to select the proper, most helpful safety supplies. You can find solutions and insight by reading ou

One of the most common misconceptions out there is the belief that technology equates innovation. Innovation is the creation of new value through a better solution for a problem that either does a better job in solving the problem or does so in a manner that the solution is accessible in a larger set of circumstances by a larger number of people. On the other hand, technology is simply the tooling that holds the promise of new solutions but by itself, is meaningless. Enterprises can become enamored by the promise and hype about technology and go down long, complex journeys, invest millions in upgrading technology and still come out empty on the other side because they built technology for technology's sake. Even in well intention boards and C-suite, industry peer pressure and hype around technologies can force action that ultimately leads to massive investments in people, software, technology, and vendors but does not yield the ROI promised by the technology. Leadership The problem can be accentuated when not enough due diligence is done on the applicability of the technology to the enterprise given the current state i.e. the point in time when the technology is being introduced, the customer's propensity to accept the technology-driven solution i.e. are the users ready to embrace, adopt, learn and utilize new solutions and burning problems that necessitate the adoption of new technology to better solve the problem. When the timing of new technology introduction is gotten wrong, it almost always fails to deliver on its promised ROI. Leaders need to rise above the hype and peer pressure and ensure that they understand, first and foremost, the burning problems that plague their customers or make the bedrock of their future strategy. Next, leaders need to ensure and validate that the technology in mind can actually be used to solve the problem through rapid prototyping and minimal investment. Once customer feedback on the prototype has been validated, then only

Lean has been helping companies streamline their production, eliminate waste, and generally improve the way things are done for many years. Initially, the concepts behind lean were primarily used only in companies and facilities that were directly involved with physical product creation, such as manufacturing plants, factory floors and things of this nature. However, over time the lean methodologies have been adapted and implemented in almost every other type of business, ranging from health care to information technology, and many more. When done properly, lean can help improve virtually any work environment to help eliminate waste, improve communication, and to help ensure that the products or services being developed are indeed something customers will be interested in. For instance, when working in an information technology environment, it is important to be able to understand how lean strategies can be implemented, and why they are so important. The following are some of the most significant reasons why lean IT strategies should be taken seriously by any company that uses technology in their business (which is almost all of them!). Lean Promotes Ownership One of the things about lean strategies in an IT environment is that virtually every task completed is owned by an individual. Even if a person does not do all the work for a particular project, he or she will be directly responsible for overseeing it. This creates a sense of ownership, which can help in a variety of ways. It will give other teams a single point of contact for obtaining updates, providing feedback, or requesting changes. This will also allow the owner of a specific project to drive the progress directly, rather than having to rely on large committees or other types of groups to receive pertinent information. It is important to note that just because one person owns a process or project does not mean that he or she can simply dictate things to other groups. Instead, that person is there to

The Adventure of Reducing Risks and Hazards in the Workplace Whenever starting a new job, it can be difficult to figure out exactly what you should be doing, and how it needs to be done. When I started working at a new facility as a safety manager, I began my first day with a meeting with the facility manager. The meeting was set up so he could tell me what was expected of me in my new role, and provide other details of the job. I was quite surprised when the meeting took less than two minutes, and the only objective I was given was to 'reduce risks and hazards in the workplace.' I asked for some clarification or guidance in what exactly he was looking for, but he simply said that I was hired to improve safety, and he was leaving the task of finding out how to do it in my hands. He gave me a sheet of paper with some information about what resources I had available, including my annual safety budget and told me to get to work right away. I should point out there that I had several years experience as a safety manager at a large company, which is why I was brought in to this new facility. The facility had recently been cited by OSHA for a variety of safety hazards, and there were even some fairly severe injuries that occurred in the previous months. The facility owners made it clear that safety was a priority for them, and they were willing to do whatever it took to pass inspections, and keep the employees safe. Planning My Safety Program While that initial meeting was unique, to say the least, I was also quite excited about the opportunity. It is quite rare that a safety manager is given such flexibility, and I wanted to make sure the manager wouldn't regret that decision. I got to work right away planning my safety improvement program. OSHA Safety Sign Guide I wanted to make some quick changes to help improve safety in the short term, and then also plan out ways to create a culture change within the facility so everyone would be more safety focused. I kne

Your facility probably has many written safety procedures-hazard communication or emergency response, for example-but do you have a comprehensive health and safety management system (HSMS)? OSHA mandates many kinds of safety plans, but there is no federal mandate regarding a health and safety system that covers all other safety plans (though some states do require one). This system governs how safety works in your facility and gets everyone involved. If OSHA doesn't require an HSMS system in your state, then why bother implementing one? While a safety system does require a lot of work, the benefits are numerous. Not only will employee morale improve, the number and severity of injuries will be reduced and production may actually increase. Safety, it turns out, is good for business. OSHA also recognizes businesses that have used effective HSMS to achieve lower-than-average injury and illness rates through their Voluntary Protection Programs. Data suggests companies that have developed these kinds of safety systems have seen positive results. According to OSHA: "Companies in OSHA's Voluntary Protection Program, VPP, all of whom have implemented comprehensive safety and health management systems, experience lost workday incidence rates that are 60% to 80% lower than their industry counterparts. They also experience reduced absenteeism and turnover, improved productivity, and lower Workers' Compensation costs. Safety and health management works and adds to the company's bottom line profits." Getting a health and safety system started at your workplace takes a lot of legwork, so let's take a look at how to begin and how to get everyone from management to employees on the work floor involved. Management Leadership Business-Meeting-1 For a health and safety system to be effective, it can't just be left entirely up to a safety manager. Management needs to set the tone for the program and demonstrate their commitment to it by providing necessary polic

Modern, RESTful APIs are not considered standard, table stakes and expected out of any new project, effort, application, system, service or product. It has become so normal to talk about developer interfaces, developer adoption, application development and innovation in the same breath as APIs that a distinct effort to build APIs for a new product or service seems out of place and abnormal. APIs are the defacto standard of app development. So where do we go from here? We believe that APIs are about to enter the second growth spurt. APIs will evolve from not just interfaces and integration enablers into the rockets that propel enterprises towards innovation and market dominance. Here are three key trajectories that will lead the next API evolution and revolution. Innovation - Starts, and Ends with APIs All modern technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, ChatBots, Analytics, BlockChain etc. begin and end their stories with APIs. APIs are what enables the communication between front-end user interfaces and the backend technology services. All new machine learning capabilities offered out of the big four tech companies have seen the light of day through APIs. Intent & Sentiment extraction, Topics, Categories, Summarization, Image Recognition, Entity Extraction etc. are all capabilities powered by Machine Learning, Natural Language Processing that is ultimately being delivered as APIs to application developers. Similarly, ChatBots are typically designed to get the user entered text, use an intent API to determine intent and then use a service API to respond to the user conversationally or with a service. Clouds - Multi-Cloud, Hybrid Cloud As the big three cloud providers grow their market share and attempt to attract attention, increasingly, enterprises need to think about how they minimize their risk by building in the flexibility to switch their cloud provider if and when they need. In addition, hybrid architectures or a cloud migration

In the business world, there is a constant need and desire for improvement. It doesn't matter whether a business specializes in the market of rare auto parts or in making the best enchiladas. The plain and simple truth is that improving business practices to meet the ever-changing and diverse needs of society is essential to the success of any business endeavor. However, with all this change and improvement often comes a little struggle. Sometimes business processes are changed so radically that employees struggle with the changes if they are not adequately informed about what changes are taking place or how the changes actually benefit the specific process or end product. Furthermore, in some cases the problem is not with the employees at all, but instead embedded within the actual process changes. When looking into making improvement changes, it is important to really take the time to evaluate the changes fully to make sure that they are win-win for both the employees and the desired business objectives. Employee Involvement In the improvement process, there are often many things to consider especially such as metrics, data, resources, etc. However, it is important to make sure that employees are also considered within the grand scheme of things. There are times when businesses make essential changes that are needed to stay current with the changing times, but often neglect to involve the actual employees in the process of determining changes, or in the reasoning why specific changes were made. This can leave employees feeling a bit resentful and also leave processes lacking in certain important fundamentals. For instance, the top managers in a business make the decision to improve a production line within the factory because many of the machines were getting older and not handling the work as effectively as needed. In order to update the production line to new standards, new machines were installed and tweaks were made to previous processes in order to help

Since the inception of factory production in the industrial revolution, safety has been a concern. However, safety today looks nothing like it did back then. We now have OSHA and other government groups, unions, and lobbies that safeguard the safety of workers and make sure that they are adequately provided for. In addition, workers themselves have more rights in suing an employer over unsafe conditions and receiving compensation in the event of an incident that leaves them injured. Especially if an injury prevents them from providing for their family. The point is, a lot has changed over the past few hundred years in workplace safety, and those changes have unanimously been in the best interests of the workers that inhabit those workplaces. However, just as changing times caused safety evolution in the past, it is important that this trend continues now with the advent of things such as the internet, tablets, smart phones, and more. Safety is no longer limited to physical seminars and training sessions. That being said, let's take a look at exactly how you can use technology and engagement to enhance your safety efforts. eNewsletter to Employees One way that employers are reaching their employees both in a new way and outside of the physical confines of the work area is through email newsletters. The vast majority of working adults (and most every demographic, for that matter) are online these days and employers need to make sure they are taking advantage of that online time and platform. Formatting an email newsletter is great because it can be easily sent out to every single employee in your workforce. This can be used for general company news and the like, but can also be used to send out weekly safety lessons or reminders for employees about any witnessed unsafe behavior. To get started down this round, you'll need to make sure your emails get opened and engaged with. Here are a couple of ways to do that: 1. Keep your subject lines short but catchy. Sub

Believe it or not customer satisfaction is somewhat of a new focus within the business industry. For many years the main focus of business was based upon staying in the black, increasing sales, growing business visibility and making a product or supplying a service that is needed or valued. However, with the changing times of our variable economy, there has been a major shift in the business mindset. Instead of focusing inward on the business and its growth and financial aspects, many companies have chosen to move their focus outward towards the satisfaction of the customer. With this innovative mindset, companies are really trying to put customer satisfaction above all else. It is actually much easier to keep customers when they are satisfied with the product or service provided than it is to go out and attain new customers. In fact, new figures estimate that it will cost a company 5 to 8 times more money to reach out and attain a new customer than to just keep a current customer satisfied. Furthermore, if a customer is satisfied with a product they will often recommend or talk highly of the product to others within the industry as well. Word of mouth is a very powerful tool during this age of online communication. With the click of a button, a person can "like" or "recommend" a product to many other people on his or her communication database.

Sentiment, Sentiment Analysis, Sentiment Tracking have become a hot topic with multiple 'AI' startups focussing on providing sentiment driven insights to enterprises. The number of such startups points to the potential that enterprises see in Sentiment analysis and the impact it has on how the enterprise plans, operates, executes and delivers value. Sentiment Analysis is process of extracting sentiment (emotion or feelings) captured in signals that are embedded in various types of media such as print, text, audio, video, images etc. For example, if a reporter submits a report on a particular enterprise, the sentiment embedded in the article can point to how excited, worried, upbeat or impassive they might are about the enterprise. This sentiment can be then used by the enterprise to understand the perception about the enterprise that the external market carries and whether that perception is improving, degrading or staying unchanged. This insight can be used by the enterprise to improve their go to market plans, change their PR strategy or even go deeper and change their product strategy. Sentiment Analysis Is Not New The tracking, measurement and use of Sentiment is not a new scenario. Enterprises have been leveraging the output of sentiment analysis for a long time. User surveys, focus groups, market research, customer interviews etc. are all examples of generating data to perform and track sentiment. Similarly, influencer marketing through association with influencers or events or organizations with a certain perception or sentiment associated with them is a common technique to improve the enterprise's own sentiment. Sentiment Analysis and strategizing based on the analysis is a common and required function for any enterprise. Sentiment Analysis Using Artificial Intelligence With the advent of Artificial Intelligence (AI), enterprises now have another technique in their kitty to understand how they are perceived in the market and how that perception i

For many enterprises, transforming into a digital organization is a very big priority. Digitization is more than a passing fad; instead it almost is a precursor to survival in the next decade. Analog mechanisms of running businesses are no longer sustainable nor likely to give confidence to customers, employees, stakeholders and shareholders. Measuring Digital A digital organization is characterized by the following Time to Customer Insight The Time to Customer Insight in a digital organization is the time it takes to collect, process, analyze information to determine the health of a customer, their satisfaction with current products and services, their unmet, possibly unstated needs and the impact that external market events might have on the customer. Time to Reaction Time to Reaction is the time taken to react to a customer insight through the introduction of a new product/service to solve an existing or a new problem or through better packaging of existing solutions to address otherwise existing problems. Time to Market Time to Market is the time taken to bring a new capability, product or service to market often as reaction to a customer or market insight or feedback Time to Iteration Time to Iteration is the time taken to solicit, gather, process, analyze customer feedback and effect a change in existing products or services or bring new products and services to market to address the customer feedback. Digital Organizations Digital organizations are characterized with minimal Time to Customer Insight, Time to Reaction, Time to Market, Time to Iteration and a constant effort and investment into further optimizing and minimizing these metrics. Digital organizations focus on the flow of information through the organization and use of the information to generate and deliver more value for the customers. Key Characteristics of Digital Organizations Instrumentation of Interfaces, Products, Systems, Applications, Processes A digital organization ensures

One of the top reasons for digital innovation and transformation failures can be summarized as the enterprise trying to reinvent the wheel. This is the tendency of the enterprise to attempt to create technology, platforms, and applications that have already been implemented, scaled, optimized and almost perfected. This tendency almost always ends up a failed one as it does not create any net new value for the enterprise but comes with a massive opportunity cost as the enterprise spends crucial resources on reinventing the wheel than innovating for the customer. How The Wheel Is Reinvented Nontechnology enterprises can get trapped in a reinvent state where they conclude that homegrown technology is the only path towards customer and business value. This in itself is not entirely false however the type of enterprise and their decision-making process along with the capabilities they have in house have a very large impact on the success of the strategy.eRaaadada Reinventing the wheel happens when a non-tech enterprise discovers a technology trend towards much later in the hype cycle almost towards the end when the technology is hitting the mass market and decides to recreate or reinvent its own version of the technology. This is often done with the assumption that with some investment, the enterprise can have a home grown version of technology or platform that is designed specifically for its needs and is thus a better fit. However, enterprises assume that the state of the technology will remain constant and while they are attempting to home grow a version that can match the current state of the art. In reality, the state of the art shifts and the enterprise is not able to bridge the gap. Who Reinvents The Wheel Typically, technology teams often decide to go down the path of reinvention when they are allowed to make technology upgrade or technology creation decisions without business KPIs and cost constraints i.e. clear success criteria with fixed cost and clear ti

Digital Transformation is tough, even for seasoned technologists. This is because it is a transformation of an organization at its core. Everything from culture, technology, ideation, development, integration, delivery, and support needs to fundamentally shift to be more customer-centric, service driven, automation first and experimental in nature. No wonder that a lot of organizations take a long time and a lot of investment to see ROI from their digital transformations. Here are 5 signs that your digital transformation might be in trouble. Culture mistrusts the core digital transformation team You are spawning new initiatives before completing previous ones Decisions are top down with low accountability at the leaf nodes You tend to focus on technology stacks with little focus on customer value Inter-organization politics stifles cross-organization scenarios Culture mistrusts the core digital transformation team It is almost impossible to make an entire organization aware and participate in digital transformation at the same time. There are exceptions but in our experience, starting out with a core digital transformation team is a much better strategy than otherwise. This team should be enabled to attack a limited set of important and business relevant problems, build cutting-edge solutions and use them as examples to train and evangelize digital transformation strategies to the rest of the organization. However, the more entrenched an organization in the old way of doing things, the harder they might this central team. Resistance can be active and passive such as refusal to share data or provide the relevant context of the problem. An organization that does not set up the early crusaders for success almost always has a much harder time showing value from their digital transformation activities. You are spawning new initiatives before completing previous ones Executing on a digital transformation strategy is much harder than defining the strategy especially fo

Are you AI-First? By editor Posted October 13, 2018 In Artificial Intelligence, Digital Strategy, Technology & Design 0 An AI-First company is an enterprise that has transformed to believe and understand the incredible and disruptive potential of Artificial Intelligence. Such an enterprise not only sees the value but can see the destructive impact of being left behind. An AI-First Company understands that it might not know all the answers but realizes that it needs to seek out a path forward with AI or risk being marginalized. Key Characteristics of an AI-First Company A-First companies might not be any different from their previous form but think and act differently. Here are some key characteristics of such companies. Approach to Problems and Planning An AI-First company evolves its approach to problems. AI-First companies realize that determining the existence of a problem and selecting the most consequential problems is a function of data and analytics. An AI-First company invests in building predictive mechanisms that can signal current or upcoming problems including the severity and priority of these problems. Building these predictive mechanisms becomes the first step in determining how and when to prepare for problems or upcoming issues. In addition, these companies leverage news and information that is generated inside and outside the enterprise as it is generated and ensure that their employees and customers have access to the insights embedded in the news and information. Approach to Products and Product Development An AI-First company understands how a prediction or classification could help them deliver a better solution to a problem faced by their customers and how their existing products can be adapted or new products created that change behavior based on the predictions and classifications. Enterprises that understand the power of AI ensure that data scientists come part of the core product ideation and development team with a heavy infl

Technology Congestion is a not a recent phenomenon but the urgency around Digital Innovation and Digital Transformation has brought it front and center. Technology Congestion is a point in the Digital Journey where multiple technology initiatives, executed in parallel become entangled with each in a state where none of the initiatives, hampered by inter dependencies, prioritization, and cost, is able to complete, make progress and deliver business value. Modern Experiences Require Multiple Technologies Building a consumer driven, customer centric experience that truly delights and moves business KPIs requires several technologies to come together in almost a magical experience. This means that not on boarding and deploying multiple technologies is not an option or possibility. Enterprises have to build competencies in multiple technologies (and they have multiple strategic options to do so) and this can be a daunting task. Managing Technology Dependencies Often, an app-centric methodology requires a complete focus on the user and customer's experience. Delivering that experience can requires technologies that leverage each other or are inter-dependent on each other. Inter-dependencies can be sequential i.e. Technology A is required to be installed and operational before Technology B can be initialized. Inter-dependencies can also be matrixed i.e. a service X might require service Y to be complete and Service Y requires Technology B. Inter-dependencies can also be circular where System M feeds information into System N and System N, in turn, provides feedback to enable System M to iterate and improve. Innovation To A Screeching Halt Technology congestion can stall innovation. Sorting out dependencies can delay innovation and new product development and cause the enterprise to become anti-app-centric. The net impact is lost time and energy in technology installation and deployment with less than ideal focus and attention on customer value and user experience.

Improving Indoor Air Quality Indoor Air QualityWhen trying to make improvements to the workplace, many companies don't even consider the actual air that is breathed in by everyone all day. Indoor air quality can be a significant problem that can have a wide range of different effects on employees throughout the facility. Some of these issues can be immediately seen, such as with allergies. Others may take longer to develop, but can be very serious. If you are not taking air quality seriously in your facility, you are not only doing everyone a disservice, but you could be exposing the company to the risk of potential lawsuits years down the road. With this in mind, take some time to look at five of the most important things that you should know about indoor air quality, and how you can make simple changes to improve it. According to OSHA's Safety and Health Topics: Poor indoor air quality (IAQ) has been tied to symptoms like headaches, fatigue, trouble concentrating, and irritation of the eyes, nose, throat and lungs. Also, some specific diseases have been linked to specific air contaminants or indoor environments, like asthma with damp indoor environments. In addition, some exposures, such as asbestos and radon, do not cause immediate symptoms but can lead to cancer after many years. 5 Things to Know about Indoor Air Quality 1. Proper Ventilation and Filtering One of the biggest problems in most workplaces is that the air in the facility doesn't get properly circulated. As the air is breathed, moved around machinery and exposed to cleaning chemicals, it keeps picking up more and more contaminants along the way. Over time, this air can become hazardous to your health and lead to things like headaches, allergies and many other issues. This is why OSHA and many other regulatory organizations recommend reviewing your facilities air ventilation system and filtering. By taking the air from within the facility and venting it outside, all of these common contam