Safety apps can help prevent worker injuries. Paul Colangelo, a safety expert, describes his 10 favorites. Most are free, some are low cost, all are great.
Paul, ClickSafety’s National Director of Compliance Programs, put 150 apps to the test. If you have an iOS or Android device, or Windows phone, listen for great app advice.
Paul considered cost, size, content and if it would work without carrier service or wifi.
Hear Paul describe his 10 awesome apps—five in this podcast, five in the next podcast. Scroll down for links to iOS, Android and Windows downloads.
TRANSCRIPT:
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intro music and effects
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Dan Clark: The smart phone in your pocket can help you stay safe. Coming up next: 10 Awesome Workplace Safety Apps – Pt 1
Hello, I’m Dan Clark of The Safety Brief, tackling health and safety hazards in today’s demanding industrial and construction worksites, a service of Creative Safety Supply. Go to creativesafetysupply.com and score 10% off with coupon code BIG10
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Paul Colangelo: This actually was a pet project of mine for about the last year
Dan: That’s Paul Colangelo, a safety expert who looked at 150 environmental health and safety mobile apps to find the most valuable.
Paul: One of the things that I tried to stay clear of was a lot of the vendor, the commerce-related apps.
Dan: Paul is National Director of Compliance Programs at ClickSafety.
Paul: The thing was, I was really trying to focus on apps that provided some sort of utility function.
(:55)
Dan: Paul also judged apps on cost, content, size of the app, and if it worked offline without internet access.
We’ll look at five in this podcast, five in the next. Most are free, including
1. AccuWeather.
Paul: I know a lot of phones, these days—smart phones—come with their own weather apps. But I just find AccuWeather to be, well, accurate.
Dan: Three platforms. iOS, Android and Windows Phone.
Paul: This little app, it’ll constantly chime off with “There’s lightning in the area.” All types of weather conditions that safety professionals need to be aware, especially if the workforce is outside.
(1:30)
2. Pocket First Aid from American Heart Assoc.
Paul: This little Pocket First Aid app just seemed to have some incredible videos and photographs. Extremely useful information.
Dan: One platform, Android for $1.99, and it’s easy to use. [Ed. note: this app has been discontinued]
Paul: I’ve got to tell you I could give this app to my kids and in a matter of 20 minutes they could understand the basics of first aid / CPR.
3. Incident Cost Calculator. This is for injury incidents.
(1:59)
Paul: What does the cost of an injury mean? Besides the impact of the individual, what does it actually translate to? So, something as simple as spraining ankle, for instance. The direct and indirect costs. What does that actually equate to?
Dan: It’s especially good for safety managers.
Paul: Typically management doesn’t speak safety language, you know. But they understand dollars and cents. They could easily look at an injury and say “Well, maybe if we did a little bit more proactive learning and training, it would prevent an injury.
(2:29)
Dan: The app is free from WorkSafeBC in Canada, and comes in iOS & Android.
4. Electrical Safety Tests.
Paul: Especially with the rise of NFPA 70E, the dangers of arc flash and arc blast. And even just basic electrical safety. I’m still surprised at the amount of safety professionals out there that don’t even know their way around a multimeter, simple voltage and amperage.
Dan: Two platforms, iOS and Android for $2.99.
(2:55)
Paul: I just found that this app seemed to, in a very basic way, allow the user to understand electrical theories and Ohm’s law. Some of the things like grounding safety, very very valuable and, again, universal in scale, no matter what industry you’re from.
5. NIOSH Pocket Guide to Hazardous Chemicals. This app isn’t developed by the National Institute For Occupational Safety & Health.
Paul: The developer was a private company but they did in accordance with NIOSH’s emergency response guidebook, which I thought was really great.
(3:30)
Dan: It comes in the iOS platform only, but is a great off-line reference.
Paul: Working off-line was a big plus for this app and I thought, for $7.99, it was definitely something that I would consider using.
Dan: Paul says the app is very comprehensive, with 677 chemicals.
That’s 5 of Paul’s 10 best apps. Thanks to Paul Colangelo of ClickSafety. What is ClickSafety?
Paul: We are an e-learning company that we specialize in 10 and 30 hour OSHA online training courses. Check it out at clicksafety.com.
(4:01)
Dan: That’s all for this episode, 10 Awesome Workplace Safety Apps – Pt 1. We’ll review the other five apps in our next episode. I’m Dan Clark of The Safety Brief, a service of Creative Safety Supply. Save 10% off your entire order at creativesafetysupply.com with coupon code BIG10.
(4:20)
END
app icons © ℗ 2015 Google Play; Paul Colangelo image by ClickSafety; smartphone by PixaBay OpenClipartVectors; iphone by PixaBay ClkerFreeVectorImages; scissorlift solar array image by US Army Corps Eng, John Prettyman; fuel storage image by US Dept of Energy
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