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.
Medical surveillance is a fundamental strategy for optimizing employee health, says OSHA, which is why it is required in a number of general industry standards and recommended in other cases, such as when employees work with nanomaterials (yesterday’s topic). Although the terms medical screening and medical surveillance are often used interchangeably, they are actually distinct […]
OSHA has not issued regulations for most nanomaterials, but that doesn’t mean the agency is unconcerned about the hazards of working with these super-tiny particles. So how small is "nano"? A nanometer is one billionth of a meter. A sheet of paper is about 100,000 nanometers thick. And there are 25,400,000 nanometers in one inch. […]
Yesterday, we reported on Alcoa’s efforts to achieve the goal of zero accidents. Today, we tell you what Skanska USA is doing to reach zero. "I’m convinced that zero is not only an aspirational goal but also something that is achievable," says chief EH&S officer Hendrik van Brenk. "Had we predicted 5 years ago the […]
According to the safety director of this global corporation, “zero” is not only possible, it is a guiding principle that shapes corporate safety efforts. Turning zero accidents from an aspiration into an attainable goal is a worthy challenge that has been taken up by many companies, among them Alcoa and Skanska USA. Today, we’ll tell […]
Yesterday, we focused on key aspects of OSHA’s lockout/tagout standard. Today, we conclude this quick review of written procedure and training requirements. As an employer, you are required to establish written procedures for locking out the piece of machinery or equipment that will be worked on and to provide training for all employees who might […]
Every year, people are killed on the job by activated machinery. Many of those deaths could have been prevented by following lockout/tagout procedures to turn off machinery that is being serviced or repaired. OSHA’s rules and procedures for lockout/tagout are found at 29 CFR 1910.147. The standard identifies three employee roles: Authorized employees are those […]
Yesterday, we talked about preventing amputations. One of the best protections is machine guarding, the topic of today’s Advisor. The purpose of machine guarding is to protect the machine operator and other employees in the work area from hazards created by: Ingoing nip points Rotating parts Cutting and shearing Punching and bending Reciprocating and transversing […]
Workplace accidents resulting in amputations are often severe, sometimes disabling, and always preventable. A moment’s inattention—and a hand is caught in machinery. A single misstep; a foot slips in. Maybe the amputation is immediate, or perhaps the doctors determine later that a limb is too damaged to repair. Either way, it could have been prevented. […]
Authorized employees who service or maintain machinery and equipment need special training on lockout/tagout procedures. Today’s Advisor includes a training exercise that you can use to help train your workers. The information in today’s issue comes from BLR’s PowerPoint® presentation, "Lockout/Tagout—Authorized Employee Training." The objective of the following exercise is to evaluate authorized employees’ understanding […]
Work-related ATV injuries are on the rise. Forty-one workers were killed using ATVs in one recent year. According to OSHA, the primary reasons for All-Terrain Vehicle (ATV) accidents in work situations involve: Unbalanced loads and loads in excess of the ATV’s specified limits (especially overloading the rear cargo rack) Operating at excessive speeds for the […]