Jeff Gavin

Making safety even safer is a continuous goal. Prevention through Design (PtD) is a risk assessment methodology and standard that has helped on the manufacturing and shop floor, construction site and many other locations touching medical, agriculture and beyond. PtD is largely unknown to engineers, safety directors and company managers. Maybe it has been hiding in plain sight. PtD was formally introduced by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) in 2007.

Power undergrounding replaces the power pole with buried conduit. Once used selectively, its adoption is now expanding, spurred by calls to harden the grid. Utilities and the communities they serve want to remediate power losses from fires and storms while providing an aesthetic alternative to transmission lines strung across the landscape. what was once a new world for lineworkers is becoming more familiar.

Convenience power isn’t new, but it is even more available. Look no further than the modern office desktop. It’s a workspace tailored to meet users’ needs and expectations. Such powered workstations are clean, adaptable and worker-friendly, whether in an office, college classroom or healthcare setting.