Pre-start Health and Safety Review (PSR) legislation has been in effect for over 20 years in Ontario factories and in most cases these reviews must be completed by a Professional Engineer.  Over this period these reviews have improved safety levels for some of the most hazardous conditions in the workplace. Statistics show that there has been a significant reduction in the number of workplace accidents since the implementation of the PSR legislation and had a positive effect on improving overall factory workplace safety.  Presentation topics will include: -history of PSR -recent changes to PSR legislation and the new PEO guideline for Engineers Providing PSR -current applications of PSR -how PSR knowledge and expertise can be applied to hazards in non PSR legislated workplaces Jim VanKessel and Renee Frigault have worked with the Pre-start Health and Safety Review legislation since its inception and provide machine guarding (Circumstance 2) Pre-start Health and Safety Reviews. Many of our clients, including those that don't fall under PSR legislation see value in having an engineering specialist conduct PSRs and PSR type reviews because we are able to stay up to date on the most recent standards and changes in safeguarding technology applications. In our experience, we have found that manufacturers of equipment, maintenance personnel, as well as staff engineers simply do not have time to achieve the required specialized knowledge to fully understand potentially hazardous systems and therefore may rely on a subjective sense of what is safe. In examples such as machine safeguarding, it is common for technical staff to not even realize that there are design standards and guidelines. The PSR legislation ensures that these potentially hazardous systems are reviewed by engineers who have a full understanding of the applicable safety standards and how to evaluate compliance.  Machine safeguarding standards are revised on a five-year cycle with continuous improvements constantly being updated to reflect new technology as it evolves making it hard for engineers designing machinery, to keep up to date on the standards information.