HAVE you ever cringed to see someone wearing a filtering facepiece for protection from exposure to organic vapors? The worker probably thought one respirator was as good as another. Misunderstandings in respirator selection can lead to overexposures and illness.
WE interrupt this issue for an important seasonal report. The arctic winter air sweeping across the country within the next few months brings hazards most workers do not have to face the rest of the year. Slips and falls, road accidents caused by ice and snow, and carbon monoxide poisonings from faulty furnaces and automobiles all have elevated incident rates during the winter.
MEASURING live voltages and current in today's high-energy environments can result in a severe hazard to equipment and users if proper precautions are not applied. Given the risk of transients, surges, and old-fashioned human error, it always pays to follow safe work practices and use test instruments rated for the voltage or current you're measuring.
EMPLOYEES of MEGTEC, a leading manufacturer of air flotation dryers and oxidation pollution control equipment, often have to work in dangerous situations. Some of these require lockout/tagout controls, with employees placing locks on electrical, gas, or air supplies to make sure nothing happens while they're working.
WE see emergency rescue personnel use a seat belt cutter to remove an injured child hanging from his infant car seat in an upside down, wrecked vehicle in flames. Museum staffers easily remove hundreds of layers of plastic wrapping from historic antiques arriving for an exhibit with a hook knife, or bakers open bags of powdered chocolate effortlessly with food-safe bag cutters, creating little dust while the mixers churn.
The following summarizes key provisions of the Hexavalent Chromium (CrVI) standards potentially affecting the selection and use of respiratory protection for CrVI exposures in the workplace. Where applicable, guidelines assisting employers to comply with OSHA requirements are offered. This summary was prepared by the 3M Occupational Health and Environmental Safety Division and does not represent an official, legal, or complete interpretation of the regulation.
ELECTRICITY powers the wheels of industry and commerce, but the dangers and the hazards associated with the use of damaged electrical equipment and the use of faulty electrical tools and appliances in the workplace can be costly in both human and corporate terms.
AIR quality test instruments must deliver accurate and verifiable performance, both to ensure precise and reliable air quality diagnosis and to provide credible answers if results or procedures are challenged. The air quality professional's reputation depends on the quality and performance of the test tools in use, as well as on the user's understanding of instrument specifications, technologies, applications, and maintenance.
THIS writer is of the opinion that terminal cancer is the only disease worse than depression. This article will not give (nor intends to give) the exact reason why I feel that way. However, upon reading the following, I hope the reader will discover the reason for him/herself.
THE National Electrical Safety Code® (NESC®) is the standard normally used by electrical utilities when implementing safety procedures for the worker. NESC is also the standard OSHA cites when enforcing utility electrical safety. This standard provides an outline for safeguarding a worker while performing the various tasks that are associated with utility workers.
ACCEPTABLE IAQ in commercial buildings can often be achieved by maintaining air temperatures, relative humidities (RH), air movement, and background odors at levels that a large percentage of occupants (typically 80-90 percent) find satisfactory.
THERE is no better way to ruin a perfectly good day than to make a mistake in the use of your air monitoring instrumentation. Industrial hygienists; military, industrial and public-sector hazmat teams; fire departments; and safety personnel from all sectors routinely make decisions regarding life safety based, in no small part, on data obtained from air monitoring instrumentation.
PAIN is putting a strain on your bottom line. Employees who are suffering from repetitive motion injuries are not able to work at their ultimate performance level, causing decreased productivity and often incurring medical problems that can lead to disability claims.
WITH the proliferation of lawsuits stemming from mold contamination, securing adequate insurance coverage for these types of claims can be a real challenge. As a result, the insurance manager is not always able to determine all of the risk management controls necessary to procure insurance coverage for this issue.
SIGMUND Freud, the father of psychoanalysis and one of the most authoritative thinkers of all time, is often quoted as having said, "Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar." By that he meant, sometimes a person just wants to smoke a good cigar, so people shouldn't try to read any special significance into it. It's not something a person should overthink.
HARMONIZATION. It's not a word we often hear in discussions of global policy or international relations these days. But when faced with the safety of millions of people worldwide, the idea of having a system in place that defines a single, effective way of communicating hazard classification on a global level is invaluable.