A two-day event in Pendleton will offer employers and workers multiple learning opportunities that will help them make their job sites safer and healthier. Topics include everything from how to improve your safety culture and worker well-being to safety committees and how to address the most common chemical hazards in your workplace.

The 16th annual Blue Mountain Occupational Safety and Health Conference, which will be held June 3-4 at the Pendleton Convention Center, will also feature learning sessions in Spanish. Employers are encouraged to take advantage of those sessions by sending staff members who would prefer to gain important safety and health knowledge in Spanish.

The conference is a collaborative effort by Oregon Occupational Safety and Health (Oregon OSHA) – a division of the Department of Consumer and Business Services – Oregon SHARP Alliance, and employers and employees in northeast Oregon.

On Tuesday, June 4, the keynote presentation, “Dominoes, Just Don’t Watch Them Fall,” features safety motivational speakers Brad and Delores Gardner of Helping Hand Presentations. More than a decade ago, Brad lost his right arm in a workplace accident. The accident did not have to happen. The couple will share their story to help people prevent such tragedies and to inspire them to see safety in a new light.

The two-day event, which includes several pre-conference workshops, offers an extended slate of topics in Spanish. On Monday, June 3, workers who prefer to learn important safety and health information in Spanish will have many topics to choose from. Topics include hazard identification, slips, trips, and falls, fall protection, chemical safety, lockout/tagout, and machine guarding.

Additional conference topics include:

• Introduction to Occupational Medicine
• I’m on the Safety Committee, Now What?
• Critical Incident Stress Management
• Oregon OSHA’s Heat and Wildfire Smoke Rules
• Worker Well-Being in Five Easy Steps
• What Is Your Safety Culture? How Do You Take It to the Next Level?
• Situational Thinking
• Safe Forklift Operations: Managing a Successful Program
• Is It Luck or Is It PSM? The Elements of Process Safety Management

Registration for the pre-conference workshops on Monday, June 3, is $50. Registration for the conference on Tuesday, June 4, is $115, which includes lunch. To register, go to safetyseries.cventevents.com/blue24.

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Oregon OSHA, a division of the Department of Consumer and Business Services, enforces the state's workplace safety and health rules and works to improve workplace safety and health for all Oregon workers. For more information, go to osha.oregon.gov.

The Department of Consumer and Business Services is Oregon's largest business regulatory and consumer protection agency. For more information, go to oregon.gov/dcbs.

Contact information

Aaron Corvin,
public information officer
971-718-6973
Aaron.corvin@dcbs.oregon.gov