"HERE, look through these--look at the glare on that glass building," he said, handing me a stylish pair of top-of-the-line polarized safety sunglasses. "Now, look through these.
WELDING is dangerous enough when it takes place in an enclosed welding shop with the combination of heat, burning metal, and the optical rays given off by the process. On an open manufacturing floor or maintenance shop, the welding risks to those who are nearby and unprotected include:
EACH day, about 2,000 U.S. workers suffer a job-related eye injury requiring medical treatment, according to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). In addition, roughly one-third of these injuries require treatment in hospital emergency rooms, with 100 injuries resulting in one or more days of lost work.
IF you feel that there have been more "once in a lifetime" natural disasters in the past few years to last 10 lifetimes, you're not imagining things. The International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, which publishes a World Disasters Report annually, calculates that from 1994 to 1998, reported disasters averaged 428 per year.
SINCE Sept. 11, 2001, there has been an ever-increasing demand for civilian escape masks that are capable of protecting untrained users from chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear (CBRN) inhalants. The anthrax attacks around the country also furthered this demand. To respond to this concern and demand for personal protection, a number of companies began to market escape mask products to the general public and other untrained user populations.
WE sometimes hear the expression, "His life is hanging by a thread." This becomes true literally for those who fall while protected by a "fall arrest system." By definition, this "system" consists of an anchorage connector, a body harness, a lanyard, deceleration device, lifeline, or a suitable combination of these.
ONE of the biggest barriers to effective use of hearing protection devices (HPDs) as the last line of defense against noise in the workplace is that there has never been a good way to test performance. How can we trust PPE if we don't know how well it works? Laboratory rating systems do a good job of measuring the protective capability of HPDs to block noise, but study after study has shown that real people working in real noise conditions rarely achieve the levels of protection that would be expected based on the laboratory testing reflected in the noise reduction rating (NRR) label on the HPD package.
EACH year, more than 100,000 injuries and deaths are attributable to work-related falls. According to the National Safety Council, falls are one of the leading causes of deaths in the workplace. In addition to permanent injuries and lost lives caused by falls, businesses lose billions of dollars each year from significant increases in insurance premiums, worker's compensation claims, product liability costs, and other related expenses.
SHORTcircuits and faults in electric power systems are nothing new--and are typically damaging and even deadly. One type of fault that has received particular attention in recent years is the arc fault, or fault current that travels through the air, which differs from the bolted fault current that flows through conductors, busbars, or other equipment optimally designed to withstand its effects.
RESPIRATORS are essential personal protective equipment for protection against some airborne biological hazards in health care settings, tuberculosis (TB), the virus causing severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), avian influenza, and smallpox virus among them.
YOUR hearing protection/conservation program is rolling along. Upper management is in full support. The budget is workable and approved, including audiometric testing, and engineering corrections (where possible) have been put into place. Your written program is great.
IN the construction industry, workers are consistently operating in environments where hazards abound. Employers and employees alike rely on state-of-the-art fall protection equipment as they work on various types of structures.
WE know the DuPonts and Fords can afford to maintain effective hearing conservation programs. But more than 99 percent of U.S. companies are defined as small businesses. They employ more than half of the U.S. workforce and are the dominant power in driving the economy. Small-business employers of noise-exposed workers can feel a real pinch in meeting OSHA's requirements for effective hearing conservation programs.
OSHA's PPE standards and its handy eTool are the first stops to make when the question concerns eye and face protection. 29 CFR 1910.132 (general requirements), 1910.133 (general industry), 1915.153 (maritime), and 1926.102 (construction) say employers must ensure each affected employee uses appropriate eye or face protection when exposed to eye or face hazards from flying particles, molten metal, liquid chemicals, acids, caustic liquids, chemical gases or vapors, and potentially injurious light radiation.
SAFETY is a concern to all welding and cutting operations. Yet, for small to medium-sized welding facilities, managing the safety and health of workers can be a particular challenge. Unhealthy work environments can be costly to a welding shop.
FALL protection equipment and training in the construction industry have come a long way in the past 50 years. Today, by law, any worker exposed to an unprotected fall of 6 feet or more must wear--and companies must provide--appropriate fall protection equipment.
Editor's note: Broad changes in the U.S. manufacturing sector and within the safety industry have made it more difficult to sell prescription safety glasses to employees, who collectively pay an increasing percentage of the glasses' cost, say Titmus Optical, Inc.'s Mike Franz, senior marketing/product manager, protective products, and Joe Parsons, director of sales.
MANY respirator program managers have been taught that respirator faceseal leakage increases directly with increased breathing resistance. If this were true, an increase in breathing resistance (pressure drop) because a particle filter has become loaded with a solid aerosol (clogging) would be expected to increase the wearer's contaminant exposure via increased faceseal leakage.
THOUSANDS of people are blinded each year from work-related eye injuries that could have been prevented with the proper selection and use of eye and face protection.
THE need to protect employees against air contamination in the workplace has become more critical than ever before.