5 Safety Tips for the Workplace

In life there are so many things that are constantly wracking our brains.  There is so much to remember at all times and there are so many things that we need to implement in order to remain safe.  Luckily we learn most of these things as a child, so they become second nature to us.  We don’t even notice that we are doing those things most of the time.  There are some tips that should be followed for workplace safety though, that are not always so easily remembered.

WASH YOUR HANDS – People are often quick to wash their hands after going to the bathroom – PHEW – but how often do you was your hands outside of that situation?  Here are some important times in which you should wash your hands to help prevent the spreading of disease.  Always wash your hands before AND after eating.  Wash your hands before sitting down to use a computer; it might also be wise to wash your hands AFTER using a computer that belongs to someone else.  Be aware of when you touch things that might be hording a lot of germs, such as a door knob, and wash your hands at these points.  Also, refraining from putting your hands in your mouth and eyes will help to prevent you from getting any illnesses as easily.

BE AN ALERT WALKER – In the workplace it is easy to have so much on your mind that you are reading, talking, intensely thinking, or just walking to fast.  These things can easily cause injury.  Be alert as you are walking and this way you will be able to avoid tripping, running into people, knocking things over, and running into doors, desks, or other things.

KEEP THE AIR CLEAN – Fresh, clean air is essential to a successful work environment.  Poor quality air can cause employees to work and concentrate poorly as well as causing them to become ill.  Some obvious things that can cause polluted air are cigarette smoke, mold, and a general lack of ventilation.  Employees can be sensitive to the air quality by wearing a limited about of perfumes   and colognes as well as using soaps, shampoos, and detergents that don’t have string scents.  Staying home or wearing masks when sick as well as diffusing pure oils into the air can also help to ease some of the stress of air pollution.

COVER UP CORDS – Cords are one of the largest safety factors in all work environments.  Cords need to be kept bundled and covered up as much as necessary to limit the opportunity to trip and fall.  Tripping on cords can not only cause injury to the people around, but can also damage or destroy equipment.  Computers and other items that would need to be replaced can become especially expensive.

TAKE BREAKS – Emotional and physical safety go hand in hand.  Become familiar with the laws in your area.  Different lengths of breaks are required by law in many cities and states in order to insure that employees are given the rest that they need.  In some states you can get a 10-15 minute break for every 3-4 hours that you work.  This time is essential for a person to reboot.  They can go to the bathroom, get a drink, and let their mind take a break from the often monotonous tasks of the day.

By washing your hands, being and alert walker, keeping the air clean, covering up cords, and taking breaks you can get more from your work day, leave less stressed, and add the the uplifting environment of those around you.  Working together employers and employees have the opportunity to create a positive environment where they gain each gain more than just their monetary needs from.

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Electrical Hazard Protection For A Safe Workplace

Electricity is magic stuff, providing light, powering equipment, and doing the work of many with the flip of a switch.  It is also potentially lethal stuff, able to spark a deadly blaze or snuff out a life the moment its rules are disobeyed.  It makes a marvelous servant, but a poor master, to paraphrase a saying. 
 

Engineers, power line workers, and electricians, among others, work directly with electricity; and every worker at any job works with it indirectly.  OSHA has established both general and industry-specific standards and OSHA 30 hour trainings to minimize electrical hazards and promote the safe design and use of electrical systems and equipment; they also mandate testing and certification standards for electrical equipment as a condition of its use. 

Electrical hazards to persons include shocks, the effects of shocks, and burns.  Electrical hazards to property include damage to instruments and systems, fires, and explosions.  In extreme situations, the results can be fatal; in fact, electrical-hazard accidents accounted for almost 3,000 deaths, or roughly 5%, of workplace fatalities in 1999 alone.

OSHA’s focus is always on prevention, and standards exist for unsafe equipment or installation, unsafe environments, or unsafe work practices.  One source of protection is the use of insulation, as in insulated wiring, equipment, or power sources.  Another safety protection is to post warning signs in dangerous locations.  Guarding, or placing the equipment in a separate room or elevated platform, is another safety, as is the use of lockout or tagout devices.  Frequent and regular inspection of all hazard areas is vital.

Grounding a tool or electrical system, which is accomplished by creating a low-resistance pathway for the electricity, greatly decreases risk.  A service ground mainly protects machines and tools against damage.  An equipment ground helps to protect the operator if a malfunction should cause the tool’s metal frame to become electrically charged.

Circuit protectors limit or stop the flow of current automatically if there is a fault or short circuit in the wiring system.  This includes fuses, circuit breakers, and ground-fault or arc-fault interrupters.  Fuses and circuit breakers interrupt the flow of current when too much current is going through the equipment.  Ground-fault interrupters are used in wet locations or other high-risk areas to quickly shut down too-high current flow and prevent electrocution. 

Even with all possible hazard protection in place, it is still crucial to educate workers to the dangers of their workplace, and to give them specific, frequent instruction in working safely.  Workers should be aware of overhead power lines.  They should be trained in the use of personal safety equipment such as hardhats, goggles, face guards or respirators.  There should be zero tolerance on the worksite for any violation of safety standards.  Tools should be cared for, used only for their designated purpose, and put away safely.  In short, workers should each be totally familiar with the safety protocols for their particular jobs.  They should be taught to use common sense and good judgment at all times, and to look out for one another as they come and go.  They should complete any proper osha trainings and learn the proper methods. The result will be a safe and healthy work environment.

Machine Guarding in the Workplace

An infinite variety of machines have been created over time and with one objective: to generate significant amounts of energy and to modify it for the purpose of doing work for the machine’s directors, or humans.  We are intricately connected with our machines – ask anyone with a power lawnmower, a washing machine, or an automobile: we would not be us without our technology.  As far back as the caveman who first fashioned an arrow to replace a rock in the hunt for lunch, mankind has used whatever level of technology he could master to help ease his daily labors and to help bring his dreams to life. And for almost as long as we've had machines, we've had the government monitoring safe use through osha trainings and regulations. And for many of these machines that's been an important part to making sure the machines are used safely.

But, to mangle an old saying, every silver lining has a cloud.  Machines can present their own threats to the humans who operate them, and must be designed so as to protect operators from the very energy the machine was designed to create.  To guard a machine is to shield, fence in, or cover any hazard-producing portions of that machine, usually found in one or more than one of three main areas:

·        The point where energy is released and work is performed on the material: cutting, shaping, punching, etc. Any point at which power is transmitted to the working part of the machine: pulleys, belts, couplings, spindles, cranks or gears; or any other moving parts of the machine.

         Any projectiles which result from the machining process: bits of wood, metal, or glass, even dust from cutting or polishing; objects which accidently fall into the machine can become deadly missiles.

Machine guards are designed for specific applications, so that they come in an endless variety of shapes and sizes.  Guards are frequently fixed in place and integrated into the machine itself at the time of manufacture, which can be an ideal solution.  Another great solution is to install presence-sensing devices which stop the machine when one of its humans comes too close to the dangerous parts.

  

Machine guards can be fixed in place, interlocked, adjustable, and even self-adjusting.  To be effective, guards must prevent contact between the worker and the machine, must be and remain stable while the machine is engaged, and must be able to prevent objects from falling in.  They must be easy to service and safely lubricate.  Of course, guards themselves must create no new hazards of their own, nor interfere with the proper operation of the machine. 

But having perfectly designed safety guards in place is only part of the solution.  Injury prevention also requires that machines and guards are inspected regularly and that missing or malfunctioning guards are immediately fixed.  Workers must also know the machine they are working with and understand its quirks and potential hazards.  Machine operators are less likely to bypass the use of protective guards if they are trained to exercise due caution and follow safe work practices.

Engineering controls which act to eliminate the hazard at the source and do not rely on the operator’s behavior to be effective can present the most reliable means of protection.  However, such controls are not always available, or perhaps not able to provide total worker protection.  In such cases, machine operators need to wear protective clothing and/or make use of personal protective equipment such as hard hats, safety glasses or goggles, ventilators, gloves, or protective footgear, including hard-toed boots and boot shields.  At the same time, workers should avoid clothing that may create hazards of its own – gloves that could become caught in the machine for example, or loose-fitting shirts that could become entangled in moving machinery.  Jewelry is always dangerous; more than one worker has lost a finger or hand when his ring or watch has been caught and pulled into moving machinery.

In summary, employers should provide safe equipment and machine-specific training to operators and provide them with appropriate personal protective equipment.  Supervisors should ensure the day-by-day actual use of machine safeguards, and workers should operate machines only with all safeguards in place – all of which adds up to promoting a culture of safety in every workplace.

Valve Safety Issues In The Workplace

A valve is a mechanical device whose purpose is to open, close, and regulate the flow of liquids or gasses within pipes and vessels.  Valves are very important to workplace safety, and thus they are important in OSHA trainings to increase awareness and safety protocol in the workplace. The names of valves give some idea of their variety – ball, butterfly, control, flow limiter, needle, safety shutoff – an almost endless array, from simple to highly complex, each with its specific function and purpose.  Three of the most common types are

Gate Valve:   Also known as sluice valves, gate valves open by lifting a gate or wedge out of the path of the fluid.  Gate valves are frequently used where minimum restriction is needed, and are typically constructed from cast iron, carbon steel, or stainless steel.  Typical gate valves are designed to be fully opened or closed; and when fully open, the typical gate valve has no obstruction in the flow path, resulting in very little friction loss.

Globe Valve:   Globe valves are designed to regulate flow in a pipeline, are often spherical in shape, and have a movable disk-style element and a non-movable ring seat.  The two halves of the sphere are separated by a baffle which provides an opening and a seat onto which a movable plug can be screwed in to shut the valve off.  Globe valves can be automated, or manually operated by using a handwheel.

Plug Valves:  Plug valves have cylinder or cone-shaped plugs inside the body of the valve which can be rotated to control flow from inside.  The plugs have sideways hollow passages, allowing fluid to go through the plug when the valve is open; and have two positions – open, to allow flow, and shut, to stop flow.  Plug valves are not complex, and therefore are often quite economical to use.

Safety regulations mandate that hazard analysis be made before actual use of the equipment containing the valve takes place; both to determine any hazards and to decide how to control exposure to risk.  If the valve is used in processing corrosive gases or liquids, for example, hazard control would indicate protective eyewear and clothing for the operator.  Flammable liquids require fire-retardant protection for both site and operators.  If steam is flowing through the pipes under pressure, there may risk of explosion .  In all situations, hazard assessment of the gas or liquid and of the piping and process system itself are as vital as hazard assessment of the valves within the system.

Since many valves are controlled manually, operators should be trained to work with such valves.  When  bending or reaching below waist level to operate a valve, for example, bend at the knees and keep the spine upright to avoid injury.  The operator should be able to move around enough to avoid long periods of standing or sitting in one position; he should be able to take a moment to shift position and to stretch at least every few minutes.  Operators should always be trained to understand the process flow and fluids they are working with so that they have the background for making split-second decisions if necessary.  Operators also need to have the best tools at hand to help them.  Wrenches can provide extra leverage, so they need to know which wrench to use; the wrong size can cause the wrench to slip and possibly cause harm.  

Operators should also know enough to replace a broken valve with another of the same type and rating; if not, all affected personnel must be made aware of any system changes.  Valves may look like a small part of the overall system, but they function much like the rudder of a ship – such a small part to produce such large results.

Forklift Safety Training and Requirements in the Workplace

A forklift is a type of PIT, or Powered Industrial Truck, which is designed to move and deposit a load of materials.  There are many sizes and types of forklifts, often designed for specific jobs and powered by  diverse sources – batteries, diesel fuel, gasoline, even propane.  They are used at a wide variety of worksites and have characteristics unique to their application; for this and other reasons, forklift operators must be both trained and certified.  Even with such training there are thousands of forklift accidents each year, resulting in significant amounts of property damage, injury, and even death.

Forklift training generally consists of three parts, the first of which is the formal transmittal of information, whether by personal or online lecture, video or DVD lessons & demos, or written text. Trainings for forklift operators must conform to OSHA guidelines and OSHA training requirements. 

When this training is complete the would-be operator is ready for actual application - practice – of what he or she has learned, usually on the type of forklift he will be operating.  Periodically after that, the operator’s workplace performance will be evaluated.  There should be refresher training if the operator has or nearly has an accident, also if he is assigned to operate a new kind of forklift or if the worksite location or conditions change significantly.  

OSHA requires all forklift operators to be at least 18.  Every forklift operator  should follow these basic precautions in order to minimize exposure to risk: 

·         Inspect the forklift before using it.  Check horn, lights, brakes, and backup alarm.  Check the fire extinguisher and check for hydraulic fluid leaks.

·         Check the load you are about to transport.  Secure any loose items.  Be sure pallets are not broken or damaged in any way. 

·         Use protective gear.  If there is a seatbelt, OSHA requires that it be worn.  Hard hat and/or safety glasses may be appropriate at your work site.

·         Do not overload the forklift.  Keep the load low enough so that you can see over it.

·         Work with a spotter.  He can assist when you do not have a clear view or when people or materials are in your path.  Do not allow anyone to ride on the load or on the forks, and do not allow anyone to walk under the forks when they are raised.

·          Do not allow distractions such as smoking, eating, drinking, or cellphone use while operating the forklift.  Do not operate forklift when taking any medications that could alter your response abilities.

·          When finished, turn off the engine and use the parking brake.  Park in a safe, out-of-the-traffic location.  Report ALL incidents and accidents, as per OSHA Regulations.

Forklifts operators work inside, outside, in the rain, on hills and other grades, on smooth surfaces and on slick surfaces.  They lift and deposit every possible cargo and expedite material handling on land and at sea.  They operate forklifts built to accommodate a variety of specialized functions; and construction sites, warehouses, and many other locations depend on them.  Paying attention to basic safety standards is the law, as well as an 

absolute necessity. And remember--forklift safety is depending 

on everyone.