December 12, 2001—The American Society of Safety Engineers (ASSE) recently published a new general standard for safety, health, and environmental training.
Known as the American National Standard Z490.1 Criteria for Accepted Practices in Safety, Health, and Environmental Training, the standard has been approved by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) and will enable safety professionals to follow consistent training criteria applying to both the public and private sectors. It is intended to function as a basic body of knowledge to train employees and compliance safety health officers, as well as to provide a benchmark for employers to evaluate in-house and contracted training.
The standard was developed from taking elements of accepted practices in the training industry and combining them with accepted practices from the safety, health, and environmental fields. The result is a standard that provides a model of training that is transferable to every industry from material handling to construction.
ASSE serves as secretariat for the Z490 Standards Committee, which became accredited by ANSI in 1997. A copy of the Z490.1 standard is available for $32 for ASSE members and $48 for non-members. It can be ordered online or by calling ASSE at 847/699-2929.
