For Dave Dietsch, safety supervisor at the University of Maryland, no news is good news.
"You know you've done your job if nothing happens," says Dietsch, who says he's seen enough accidents and injuries in his years as a paramedic.
"I've seen my share of injuries and fatalities -- over 4,000 injuries and five fatalities in my days as a paramedic."
The stress of working as a paramedic forced Dietsch to think about a career change, so he decided he'd like to have a role in preventing accidents.
Dietsch decided to become a safety officer and spent almost 20 years working in a steel plant, a glass factory and a brewery before taking up his supervisory role at the university.
"I was thinking about a career change, so I thought about getting into prevention of injury by correcting safety hazards and getting things fixed before people got injured."
Dietsch and other safety professionals are an important part of any organization. Not only do they prevent injuries, they also keep the companies and organizations they work for out of the courtroom.
"Not only do we prevent personal pain and injury to people, we also avoid liability costs and keep costs down at the university," says Dietsch.
An important part of Dietsch's job is educating the people on the campus about the importance of safety.
"We try to make people more aware of safety, get them to wear goggles, protective clothing and things like that. And we have to get people to take it seriously," says Dietsch. The University of Maryland stores over 40,000 different chemicals on campus.
Everything Dietsch and his team do works toward an accident-free environment. Dietsch knows perfection isn't possible, but it doesn't keep him from trying to implement his personal philosophy.
"The way you walk into work should be the way you leave, no matter what your job is," says Dietsch.
Making sure people leave the workplace healthy also makes for some hectic days for Julia Lewis, a safety supervisor for a post-secondary school.
According to Lewis, there are no typical days in her job -- she's constantly responding to the demands and concerns of others.
"Planning a day's activities can really be a challenge because you might have to respond to internal demands, government officials, municipal authorities -- as well as anyone at the university with a concern," says Lewis, who came to this job with a bachelor of science in chemistry.
In addition to responding to concerns, Lewis also has about 100 safety programs she's currently in charge of. The programs deal with everything from ventilation, noise control, ergonomics to accident prevention.
While it's a stressful job, Lewis admits it gives her a chance to meet and talk with lots of different people. Being able to relate to all kinds of people is an important part of her job.
"On any given day I can have meetings with the president of the university, a government official, representatives from a union and a caretaker," says Lewis.
Somewhere between the meetings, the programs, the routine inspections and responding to public concerns, Lewis also has to find time to keep up-to-date on changing safety regulations, legal issues and health concerns.
"One of the biggest challenges is staying current with the fast pace of change in things like regulations, legal issues, epidemiology and the concepts and theories associated with such a new field."
A lot of people don't understand her job, but the important thing is that Lewis knows the importance of what she does.
Even with all the other important aspects of her job, Lewis sees her biggest task as working toward making safety something that's on everyone's minds.
"We need to get people to understand how important prevention is in the protection of human life."