Editor's Note: Past, present and future

I’ve been a member of the Safety+Health team for a long time. Eighteen years, to be exact. I was in my 20s when I began working in the National Safety Council Publications Department, and now I’m ... not.

Being a veteran of the magazine makes me its informal historian. Still, I was taken aback a few weeks ago when, as Managing Editor Jennifer Yario and I paged through some extremely old issues, she asked me how “your team” found art to accompany the news. (“Did you take your own photos?”) When I looked at her with wide eyes and raised brows, she said apologetically, “Sometimes I forget you haven’t been here since the magazine started.”

S+H turns 100 years old in 2019.

Although we got a good laugh out of it, the conversation reminded me what a privilege it is to be part of a publication with such a long history and admirable purpose. My frequent visits to the NSC Library, where bound copies of the magazine take up many shelves, always reinforce that feeling.

I think of the people who have produced this publication – from those who put together the first issue of National Safety News in 1919 to the great group I work with now, and I hope they approve (or would approve) of the changes that have been made over the years to help keep occupational safety and health professionals informed.

I hope you approve as well. Throughout 2019, we’ll be highlighting small parts of the magazine’s history. Thank you for being with us as we begin our next 100 years.

The opinions expressed in “Editor’s Note” do not necessarily reflect those of the National Safety Council or affiliated local Chapters.