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.
Slips, trips, and falls are among the most common workplace accidents, and they cause a lot of very costly—and painful—injuries every year. Are you doing all you can to prevent them? Everyone reading this has certainly slipped, tripped, or fallen at least once. More likely, you’ve had several falls during your lifetime. Fortunately, many such […]
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says that planning for pandemics is critical. During a pandemic, organizations such as yours play a key role in protecting employees’ health and safety as well as limiting the flu’s negative impact on the economy and society. Although the most recent pandemic threat from the H1N1 virus […]
PPE provides head-to-toe protection for your employees and keeps them safe from physical and health hazards when engineering and administrative controls alone can’t do the job. As the general PPE safety meeting in BLR’s OSHA Training System explains, personal protective equipment (PPE) is one of the most effective ways to protect against job hazards. PPE […]
The basic objective of any PPE program is to protect employees from safety and health hazards that can’t be engineered out. To pick the right PPE for your employees, you must assess the potential hazards. Personal protective equipment (PPE) in one form or another has been around for centuries. There’s evidence, for example, that early […]
Forklifts are the workhorses of industry. They’re essential to efficient material-handling operations. But forklifts are also big, dangerous, and potentially deadly pieces of equipment. To protect employees, you need strict rules and a comprehensive training and evaluation program. Preventing forklift accidents is within the reach of any forklift safety program. What you need is: A […]
Young workers are involved in a disproportionate number of forklift accidents. Lack of training, inexperience, and risk taking are all culprits in these accidents. But they are no excuse. Federal laws and regulations require you to protect your young workers and prevent forklift-related incidents. OSHA’s Powered Industrial Truck standard (29 CFR 1910.178) requires you to […]
Many, or perhaps even most, workplaces have something on the premises that would be correctly termed a “confined space.” If you have regulated confined spaces, you need to have a confined spaces program to protect workers. OSHA defines a confined space as a space that is large enough and configured in such a way that […]
OSHA’s permit-required confined spaces standard (29 CFR 1910.146) establishes safety requirements for confined spaces operations from entry to rescue. Compliance with the regulation, however, often raises important questions. Here’s a “best of” selection of the questions BLR® customers have asked us about confined spaces safety requirements, along with some very important answers. Does a company […]
Safety must always be the top priority when driving. Employees driving company vehicles have to understand that, and a comprehensive cell phone policy will reflect your concern Drivers today love their electronic toys. Cell phones and navigation devices allow them to stay connected and find their destinations. These wireless devices have become indispensable, especially with […]
OSHA says that distracted driving is a factor in 25 percent to 30 percent of all traffic crashes. Researchers say that cell phone use while driving is among the biggest distractions—even with hands-free phones. Here’s yet another study about the hazards of using a cell phone and driving. This one, conducted by University of Utah […]