Hello all,

I am Evert VanderBerg and I am a Safety Manager (No this is not a twelve step program, even though we all may feel like we need one). Safety has been a passion for me since my college years because I am one of those lucky people that is allergic to most everything. This has given me a certain view on life that was only amplified when I got involved with Chemistry as a major. To my young mind it was a shock to find out that even in the “quiet” world of inorganic chemistry there were many substances that not only triggered my allergies but were, and here is the big shocker, toxic! Well this put me into a small panic as I looked at other options to shift my career to because in the mid 1980′s very few people where talking industrial safety at the college level and the closet most of us got to thinking about safety was using the ubiquitous green safety goggles, a combustible cotton lab coat, and, if we were really paranoid, rubber or latex gloves. However, I was lucky because several of my professors understood my worries because they too had run-ins with hazardous chemicals. Under their guidance I  was given additional information on how to protect myself from overexposure and how to limit my overall exposure. This kept me happy in my major and in my Junior year the chemistry department even started to offer a full course on safety.

When I completed college I entered the paper industry as a process engineer. Immediately I was struck by the inherent hazards of much of the equipment and chemicals that I was asked to work with, and if that was not enough a lot of my intellectual innocence was burned up by coworkers that proudly displayed large scars, missing digits, arm & leg breaks that left them with permanent disabilities, and of course major hearing loss.  Driven by the fact that my coworkers were proud of the fact that they took one for the team instead of improving their work conditions and behaviors, I did what I thought was logical and  in the first months of my career I asked the general manager if I could start a safety committee. He said yes, joined it himself, and off I went down the path to becoming a safety manager.

Many years have passed and there have been many road blocks: negative employees, negative managers, myths, trust issues, and most importantly lack of good communication. I fell for a lot of different programs, systems, corporate initiatives in my time all which for the most part did not add a lot of value to my goal of employee safety. I have been the bad guy, the good guy, and the guy that everyone wonders what he does for a living. Now I am a “Corporate Manager” so I find that I have reached the place where the buck stops. I am where I always claimed I wanted to be when I said things like “If only…”, “When I control…”, etc. and what have I learned? Well that is what this website is about. Here I will share with you in as plain and blunt language as possible what it takes to have employees go home safe every day, how you can do this in-house, with minimal need for outside help (that you have to pay for), and how to spend what budget you have wisely.

On this website, you will find as I build it, many tools, policies, procedures, presentations, reviews, and a little humor to help you keep yourself and your employees safe. What am I charging for this? Nothing. I believe that open communication is one of the best investments I can make because if it makes your business better that means its making people’s lives a bit better. Now, I would really love it if you did some of my sponsors a bit of traffic so that I can focus on my goals of bringing you quality content but, hey that is optional too.

Thank you for stopping by. Please book mark my site, and if you like it please spread the word.