My Story: Barb Law

I started in the production area of a plant. After a couple of years, I was offered a staff position as a safety/security attendant, and my safety journey started at this point. I took a position as an industrial hygiene technician in 1992 and, during the summer months over the next three years, took several occupational safety and health classes – concentrating in industrial hygiene – at the University of North Carolina. This was an interesting job, and I got to know the employees in the plant and work on my chemical sampling and noise monitoring with different people.

Eventually, my role expanded into the safety aspect of the plant when a co-worker became sick and was out for an extended length of time. I managed to keep doing my IH role and learn new safety requirements to keep our plant safe. I broadened my knowledge with training and certification in the asbestos field by becoming an asbestos supervisor/inspector for our plant. I attended training and became a Virginia state radiation safety officer for the site as well.

I was given the role of maintenance trainer last year to ensure that all the employees in the plant get the required training in their roles to keep the plant running. With my ongoing rapport with the employees in the plant, they feel comfortable asking me about safety/IH issues during day-to-day plant operations and, by working as a team, we make this plant safe and quality-driven every day!

Barb Law
Maintenance Training Facilitator
Narrows, VA