Safety Wars

James Poesl
  • 5.0 (5)
  • News Commentary
  • Updated Weekly

Safety from a point of view that you didn't see coming.

  1. 3d ago ·  Video

    September 30, 2026 Hijacks, Hazmat, and Half-Truths

    September 30 Hijacks, Hazmat, and Half-Truths In this September 30 episode, host Jim covers the heroic Israeli plumber who landed a hijacked Flydubai flight after learning controls from a TV show, drawing parallels to post-9/11 aviation vigilance. He reports that OSHA's 2026 penalty inflation adjustment is canceled due to a federal funding lapse that prevented BLS from releasing required October data. Jim stresses the importance of up-to-date training materials, recounting an instructor using pre-2015 penalty figures and wrong confined-space standards — a red flag for anyone vetting OSHA outreach providers. He warns about salespeople overpromising compressed training timelines and unqualified HR staff mishandling accident management. Additional segments cover the new AI-powered America.gov portal (with privacy skepticism), EPA's Boise food waste initiative, a finalized Superfund cleanup plan for the Chemsol site in Piscataway, NJ, the Tijuana sewage crisis update, and a Cleveland warehouse packed with abandoned hazardous substances. For all your safety needs give us a call at 845-269-5772 or Jim@safetywars.com.  www.safetywars.com. www.jamespoesl.com #Flydubai #AviationSecurity #PlaneHijack #Israel #OSHPenalties #InflationAdjustment #LaborLaw #HazwoperTraining #ConfinedSpace #OutreachTraining #AmericaDotGov #GovTech #DataPrivacy #EPA #Superfund #EnvironmentalCleanup #FoodWaste #NewJersey #Cleveland #SafetyWars #OSHA #WorkplaceSafety #SafetyTraining

  2. Sep 25 ·  Video

    Safety Wars 9-24-2026 Deadly Drills, Dirty Washes & Liquid Nitrogen

    This episode covers OSHA's citation of a Florida pipeline contractor after a fatal struck-by incident, willful lockout/tagout violations at a New Jersey car wash, and $65 million in community college training grants. Jim shares personal stories about noise survey failures at a warehouse that led to costly settlements, and an indoor air quality audit that debunked a cancer cluster at a law firm. The EPA segment covers glyphosate review, brownfields funding, and wetland grants. The episode closes with the Chemical Safety Board's investigation of the Foundation Food Group liquid nitrogen release that killed six workers, highlighting failures in monitoring, training, and process safety management. Music: Pond5.com Licenses Falling, 25821615, Eric B. USA National Anthem (Star Spangled Banner Use), 155546928 Supernova Music Matrix, 166797566, Encomia Music:  Safety Warriors, The Music of Safety Wars Volume 1 (c) copyright 2026 James Poesl

  3. Sep 23 ·  Video

    Safety Wars 9-22-2-26 When the Lights Go Out: Energy, EPA, and Emergency Prep

    Jim from Safety Wars covers soaring diesel prices, Trump's UN speech on Iran, and rising tanker insurance in the Strait of Hormuz. EPA updates include $82 million for San Francisco Bay watersheds, lead cleanups in Indiana and Montana, and a Clean Air Act settlement in Puerto Rico. For National Preparedness Month, Jim dives deep into disaster readiness: water storage strategies, emergency food and food safety, reading severe weather, lightning safety, flood preparedness, power outage management with generators and batteries, fuel handling dangers, and building community emergency networks. He shares personal stories from Superstorm Sandy throughout. Music: Pond5.com Licenses Falling, 25821615, Eric B. USA National Anthem (Star Spangled Banner Use), 155546928 Supernova Music Matrix, 166797566, Encomia Music:  Safety Warriors, The Music of Safety Wars Volume 1 (c) copyright 2026 James Poesl

  4. Sep 18 ·  Video

    Safety Wars 9-17-2026 Methylene Chloride, Muddy Rivers, and Diesel Spikes

    Methylene Chloride, Muddy Rivers, and Diesel Spikes **Summary:** Jim  is back from Vermont where he's working an EPA hazardous waste cleanup near the Beetlejuice filming location. The episode dives into the Fifth Circuit's overturning of EPA's methylene chloride rule, explaining why odor is an unreliable warning for the carcinogenic paint stripper and why air sampling—not your nose—should guide worker protection. Jim also covers a proposed $125M Passaic River Superfund settlement, a Hopewell Precision groundwater cleanup update, OSHA citations against a Chicago construction firm, and H-2A visa program violations. Rounding out the show: a Feature Story News segment on global headlines and a warning about rising diesel prices from refinery outages—possibly cyber-related.www.safetywars.com.  www.jamespoesl.com https://www.nfpa.org/Education-and-Research/Wildfire/Firewise-USA Music: Pond5.com Licenses Falling, 25821615, Eric B. USA National Anthem (Star Spangled Banner Use), 155546928 Supernova Music Matrix, 166797566, Encomia Music:  Safety Warriors, The Music of Safety Wars Volume 1 (c) copyright 2026 James Poesl

  5. Sep 12 ·  Video

    Safety Wars 9-11-2026 9/11 at 25: Lessons Unlearned in Disaster Preparedness

    On the 25th anniversary of 9/11, Jim Poesl of Safety Wars shares his personal experience witnessing the attacks from Hoboken, then examines their lasting safety and policy legacy. He recounts the chaotic Ground Zero recovery, the lack of respirators, and Christine Todd Whitman's EPA assurances that the air was safe—despite warnings from industrial hygienist Jeffrey Olcott. Jim questions accountability, sovereign immunity, and whether lessons were applied to later crises like H1N1 and COVID-19, arguing preparedness capacity keeps eroding. A Feature Story News segment covers current events, including Saudi pipeline attacks, the 25th 9/11 memorial ceremonies, and global diplomacy. The episode closes with an extended discussion of a Guardian article on 9/11's "dark legacy"—covering victims' families, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, bin Laden's mixed legacy, and how post-9/11 fear reshaped American politics. Jim urges honest accountability, unity ("September 12th thinking"), and better individual/community disaster preparedness going forward. www.safetywars.com.  www.jamespoesl.com

  6. Sep 10 ·  Video

    Safety Wars 9-9-2026 Star Trek at 60: The Final Frontier Is Us

    Star Trek at 60: The Final Frontier Is Us This episode of Safety Wars opens with Jim reflecting on attending the Star Trek Original Series Set Tour in Ticonderoga, NY for the franchise's 60th anniversary. He shares a written tribute arguing Star Trek was never really about space — it was about humanity's potential for cooperation over conquest. Drawing on a 2010 fan survey and the show's diverse cast of captains (Kirk, Picard, Sisko, Janeway, Archer, Pike, Burnham), he makes the case that Star Trek fandom carries a responsibility: to practice the diversity, courage, and principled leadership the franchise celebrates, and to apply lessons about psychological safety and learning from mistakes to real workplaces and society. The show then shifts into news and commentary segments, covering: - NYC Mayor Mamdani's release of 170,000+ pages of 9/11 health/air-quality records, with Jim's pointed commentary on institutional accountability failures (9/11, COVID-19) and eroding public trust in government (citing an AP-NORC poll) - Brief nuclear proliferation and "safest place in a global catastrophe" segments Two preparedness segments are woven in: building a 72-hour emergency kit and proper water storage/safety practices. www.safetywars.com.  www.jamespoesl.com https://www.nfpa.org/Education-and-Research/Wildfire/Firewise-USA Music: Pond5.com Licenses Falling, 25821615, Eric B. USA National Anthem (Star Spangled Banner Use), 155546928 Supernova Music Matrix, 166797566, Encomia Music:  Safety Warriors, The Music of Safety Wars Volume 1 (c) copyright 2026 James Poesl

  7. Sep 4 ·  Video

    Safety Wars 9-3-2026 When We Fail to Watch Out for Each Other

    Safety Wars 9-3-2026 When We Fail to Watch Out for Each Other Jim opens Safety Wars discussing the Lindsay Clancy postpartum mental health trial, arguing society readily condemns individual mental health crises while ignoring the ~5,000 annual workplace deaths caused by negligent leaders. He connects this to broader failures in caring for coworkers, wives, and family. News segments cover an Iran-US missile strike investigation, El Niño's persistence, Indonesian wildfires, and NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Telescope launch. Department of Labor updates include a $733,000 wage recovery for Florida restaurant workers and weekly unemployment claims data. The show's core disaster-preparedness segment covers emergency action plans, evacuation routes, accountability logs, and backup communication methods (radios, maps, emergency contacts) when phones and cell networks fail, as during 9/11 and Superstorm Sandy. Jim closes with personal stories about workplace fatalities, safety leadership, and the importance of showing coworkers and family they matter — tying back to mental health resources like 988 for anyone needing help. www.safetywars.com.  www.jamespoesl.com https://www.nfpa.org/Education-and-Research/Wildfire/Firewise-USA Music: Pond5.com Licenses Falling, 25821615, Eric B. USA National Anthem (Star Spangled Banner Use), 155546928 Supernova Music Matrix, 166797566, Encomia Music:  Safety Warriors, The Music of Safety Wars Volume 1 (c) copyright 2026 James Poesl

  8. Sep 3 ·  Video

    September 2, 2026 Safety Wars – Disaster Preparedness, Deadly Horseplay, and the Push for National Resilience

    This episode of Safety Wars opens with disaster preparedness tips for National Preparedness Month, covering assessing hazards, building emergency plans, and stocking 72–96 hours of supplies at home and work. A quick news roundup follows, touching on US-Iran tensions, the Ebola outbreak in the DRC, Hong Kong activist Joshua Wong's guilty plea, Nepal's landslide death toll, and NASA's newly launched Roman Space Telescope. The core segment examines a tragic Minnesota case: a tree-trimming worker was criminally charged with manslaughter after fatally crushing a coworker's head while "playing" with a hydraulic grapple's shadow, mimicking shadow puppets. The host uses this to unpack Minnesota's culpable negligence standard and stresses that horseplay involving industrial machinery can cross into criminal liability, not just OSHA violations. He outlines employer responsibilities: enforcing zero-tolerance horseplay policies, establishing exclusion zones, requiring positive visual control, verifying operator competence, empowering stop-work authority, and investigating near misses seriously. The episode closes by reading a White House proclamation on National Preparedness Month and Executive Order 14239 on localized disaster preparedness, plus a note on FEMA's National Risk Index as the closest US equivalent to the UK's national risk register. www.safetywars.com.  www.jamespoesl.com https://www.nfpa.org/Education-and-Research/Wildfire/Firewise-USA Music: Pond5.com Licenses Falling, 25821615, Eric B. USA National Anthem (Star Spangled Banner Use), 155546928 Supernova Music Matrix, 166797566, Encomia Music:  Safety Warriors, The Music of Safety Wars Volume 1 (c) copyright 2026 James Poesl

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Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
5 Ratings

About

Safety from a point of view that you didn't see coming.

Information

  • Creator
    James Poesl
  • Years Active
    2021 - 2026
  • Episodes
    452
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © (c) James Poesl
  • Show Website
    Safety Wars