Safety Labs by Safety Products Global Redefining Safety Success with Dr. Todd Loushine
Feb 9, 2026
Dr. Todd Loushine, Associate Professor, chemical engineer and EHS researcher focused on safety metrics. He questions common safety indicators and recordkeeping. He advocates work-centered design, empathy to improve reporting, and analyzing distributions not averages. He urges measuring responses to incidents and building databases of effective solutions.
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Record Near Misses And Investigate Each
- Expand reporting beyond OSHA recordables to include observations, near misses, concerns and first aids.
- Todd converted a site's system and received 100+ near-miss/observation reports versus eight recordables, then investigated each to redesign work and reduce injuries.
Averages Lie For Injury Data
- Common safety metrics (means, incidence rates) mislead because injury data distributions are heavily skewed and non-normal.
- Todd explains outliers, zeros, and asymptotic distributions make averages and industry comparisons unreliable.
Compare To Your Past Not Industry Average
- Compare safety performance to your own historical data and use richer metrics, not industry averages.
- Todd recommends studying distributions, outliers, zeros, and measuring learning: what you tried, what worked, and how you improved year-to-year.