Tag: PPE
Turn Your Supervisors into Safety Role Models
In the safest workplaces, supervisors aren’t just safety rule enforcers, they’re also safety role models. Employees’ behavior on the job is significantly influenced by the way their supervisors think and act about workplace safety. Studies show that supervisors’ effectiveness in accident prevention is dependent on the behavior they model for employees. If workers believe that […]
A Simple Approach to Computing Incident Rates and Severity
Computing accident incidence rates and severity can help analyze and correct conditions that cause accidents. A simple formula for calculating accident incidence (frequency) is to: Take the total number of recordable incidents for the year from your OSHA 300. Multiply that number by 200,000, which represents the number of hours worked by 100 full-time employees, […]
A Primer on Toxic Substances
Toxic substances are found in many facilities, and employees can suffer a variety of illnesses as a result of unprotected exposures. According to Understanding Toxic Substances, a guide for employers and employees published by the Washington Department of Labor and Industries: "The toxicity of a substance is its ability to cause harmful effects. These effects […]
Are Corrosives Eating Away at Safety in Your Facility?
Are your workers in danger from corrosive chemicals? If so, give them the information they need to protect themselves. Workers may know that corrosive materials can be hazardous to their skin and eyes, but are they aware that these substances are also highly reactive when they come into contact with certain other substances? Or that […]
Guidelines for Effective and Compliant HAZWOPER Training
7 Steps to World-Class Safety Performance: Part 1
Today, we present the first 4 steps, and tomorrow we’ll review the rest. 1. Engage Employees Involving employees in the safety process is essential to safety success. It provides a way for them to demonstrate and share their commitment while building pride, ownership, and skills. Here are a few proven methods to spark participation:
Hearing Loss: A Bigger Safety Problem Than You Might Think
According to NIOSH, 4 million workers go to work each day in damaging noise. Ten million people in the U.S. have a noise-related hearing loss. Twenty-two million workers are exposed to potentially damaging noise each year. Because of these statistics, NIOSH recommends that all worker exposures to noise should be controlled below a level equivalent […]
Supervisors’ Safety Responsibilities
Supervisors play a key role in workplace safety. According to Oregon OSHA, supervisors have five main safety responsibilities. It identifies these in its Safety and the Supervisor training instruction guide. Provide safety training. Training must create awareness of safe behavior, teach required skills for working safely, increase knowledge by providing accurate, up-to-dater information about workplace […]
Workers Ignoring Fall Protection? Research Offers Possible Solutions
Despite the significant risk of injury or death, construction workers continue to work at heights without fall protection. A recently published study examines the reasons for this and offers solutions that could prevent an accident or save a life. The researchers/authors of Fall Protection in Residential Construction Sites, which appeared in the July issue of […]