14th Annual VOSH Conference: Roanoke,Va

The Virginia Department of Labor and Industry will be hosting the 14th Annual Virginia Occupational Safety and Health Conference (VOSH) June 2-5 2009 at The Hotel Roanoke and Conference Center in Roanoke, Virginia, which is located at the western foot of the Blue Ridge Mountains in Roanoke Valley. Several dozen break-out sessions covering a diverse spectrum of topics on occupational health and safety will provide employers, employees, and health and safety professional the tools in developing a healthy and safer workplace.

Attendees also look forward to the Thursday morning keynote address by Chemical Safety Board Member, the Honorable Gary L.Visscher with the topic, "Heading Towards the Future in Workplace Safety." Visscher was appointed to the U.S. Chemical Safety Board by President Bush on August 2, 2004. Prior to the CSB appointment he served from 2001 as Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).

On Tuesday, June 2, pre-conference events will include an OSHA General Industry 10-Hour Course in addition to an OSHA Construction 10-Hour Course. Instructors from the Virginia Department of Labor and Industry, BECO Construction, Thor, Inc., Southern Air, and Western Refining Yorktown, Inc will be teaching these classes. Course fee is $55.oo

Wednesday, June 3 the VOSH Conference kicks off with Lunch and Conference Opening remarks by C. Ray Davenport, Commissioner of the Virginia Department of Labor and Industry and Jennifer S. Wester, Director of Cooperative Programs. Following lunch, nearly 50 hourly training break-out sessions will continue for two days until adjournment at noon Friday, June 5, 2009

Employers in the Commonwealth of Virginia will not want to miss the Wednesday and Thursday morning breakout sessions that Anna E. Jolly, JD, CHMM, will be presenting on, "Workers’ Compensation vs OSHA Recordkeeping Requirements." Ms. Jolly in addition to being an industrial hygienist is Vice President at Circle Safety and Health Consultants, a full service Occupational Safety and Health consulting company.

Combustible dust hazards topics will also be included at the VOSH conference with presentations that provide insight and potential solutions in minimizing the probability of incidents occuring at facilities. Currently OSHA is in the Prerule stage in developing a general industry comprehensive combustible dust standard and stakeholders must begin developing potential cost effective risk management solutions so as to provide input to OSHA during the comment period of the lengthy OSHA rulemaking process.

Subsequently, the combustible dust sessions will provide an overview of national industries (NAICS) experiencing combustible dust incidents not listed in the Dust NEP in addition to helpful insight and possible cost effective administrative control measures that are also utilized in the OSHA Process Safety Management (PSM) standard where deflagration hazards also exist with vapor cloud explosions.

On-site fee for the VOSH Conference is $290.00. Major contributors to the VOSH conference include:
• Virginia State Association Of Occupational Health Nurses
• Colonial and Tidewater chapters of the American Society of Safety Engineers
• Central and Tidewater VA sections of the American Industrial Hygiene Association
• Virginia AFL-CIO

Resource
VOSH Conference Brochure