Practical EHS Tips, News & Advice. Updated Daily.
Safety is a process, and as such, needs to be managed. This section offers resources to create a viable safety program, sell it to senior management, train supervisors and employees in using it, and then track and report your progress. Look also for ways to advance your own skills in these areas, both for your current job, and those that follow.
Mismanagement of safety committees undercuts their effectiveness. Avoid these common mistakes. Mismanagement of safety committees undercuts their effectiveness. Avoid these common mistakes. SFM Mutual Insurance Company considers safety committees “the heart of an organization’s safety efforts.” But if committees are not handled properly, their effectiveness can be diminished. Failure to articulate a purpose and top-heavy […]
A well-managed, mature safety committee can serve as a valuable adjunct to your safety department. Depending on members’ training and experience and the amount of time they have to work on committee business, you can expect assistance with: Regulatory compliance Emergency planning Rewriting the company safety manual Writing and reviewing job hazard analyses Drafting safety […]
HAZWOPER rules (29 CFR 1910.120 Appendix B) delineate four levels of PPE required to protect workers under various site conditions. Here’s what you need to know. Level A Should be worn when the highest level of respiratory, skin, and eye protection is needed (i.e., for use with highly toxic releases, such as chlorine or ammonia). […]
It’s just dust. How could it be that dangerous? Because any combustible material (and some materials normally considered noncombustible) can burn rapidly when in a particulate or finely ground form. In simple terms, a dust explosion is a very rapid combustion or burning of the dust when it is suspended in air. In addition to […]
Combustible dust explosions have leveled workplaces and killed workers. Although there is still no specific combustible dust standard, OSHA regulates the hazard in other ways. OSHA included combustible dust in its definition of a hazardous chemical when it revised the hazard communication standard to include the requirements of the Globally Harmonized System of Classification and […]
Here’s a list of the top 10 posts on the Safety Daily Advisor website so far this year. Have a happy and safe 4th of July from the Safety Training Daily Advisor staff. OSHA Lockout/Tagout Rules: Q & A OSHA has specific and strict rules about lockout/tagout. Today, we present some questions BLR has received […]
British government researchers have found that for every lost-time injury more than 3 days in length, there were 189 noninjury cases. You just can’t afford to ignore near misses. Understanding the circumstances surrounding a near miss can be valuable to employers. But according to an article in the American Society of Safety Engineers (ASSE) journal, […]
Research indicates that temporary workers are at greater risk of accidents and injuries than regular workers. Now OSHA is getting involved. According to CBS News (www.cbsnews.com), "recent data suggest that roughly a third, and perhaps up to 40 percent, of American workers are in part-time, contract or other non-standard jobs. Recruiting firm MBO Partners projects […]
Here’s a simple four-step plan to improve PPE deployment in your workplace and help ensure that employees always use the right PPE for the hazards they face. 1. Assess. Section 1910.132(d)(1) of the OSHA standard says that employers must “assess the workplace to determine if hazards are present, or are likely to be present, which […]
PPE is an employee’s personal barrier against many workplace hazards. That’s why OSHA makes a point of strictly enforcing PPE rules. And so should you. OSHA requires you to provide personal protective equipment (PPE) and training to employees who are or may be exposed to physical or health hazards in the workplace when engineering and […]