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.
"IT showed something bad. . . . Come check this thing out, it showed something!" were the gasping utterances of a dirty, sweat-streaked, very excited (and obviously frightened) maintenance fellow. The multi-gas monitor, after months of use, had sounded an alarm that startled the crew while working in a tunnel.
THERE'S been a change in the motivation of the companies that call STI Machine Services, Inc. seeking help with their machine guarding concerns. The change is that most of them haven't been stampeded into action by an OSHA citation or a crippling injury.
FOR many industrial protective apparel end users, determining the proper protective garment to ensure worker safety is problematic. 29 CFR 1910.132, the personal protective equipment section of the OSHA General Industry Regulations, requires that employers "assess the workplace to determine if hazards are present, or are likely to be present, which necessitate the use of personal protective equipment (PPE)."
ON June 1 way back in 1999, a new standard for high-visibility safety apparel was established by ANSI/ISEA. This methodically researched and carefully written standard provides a concise, consistent, and authoritative guide for the design, performance, and use of high-visibility garments in the workplace. (More than 65 percent of all high-visibility garments are used in the road construction segment.)
EMPLOYING safe and substance-free employees, as well as maintaining a substance-free workforce, are high priorities for business owners and human resource administrators. Statistics show that implementing regulatory drug and alcohol screenings can potentially save a company hundreds of thousands of dollars in medical and accident claims.
IT'S a fact: 10-14 percent of the U.S. workforce abuses drugs.1 That's 10-14 percent of workers in any company, so if you think drug abuse doesn't affect your place of employment, you're probably wrong. Research also shows 65 percent of all on-the-job accidents can be linked to drug use. While these findings might surprise safety managers and CEOs, what's more surprising is that few corporations have programs in place to mitigate the problem.
USING thermal imaging cameras in addition to water from standpipes, firefighters extinguished a fire in a power-generating turbine that was protected by a sprinkler. Constructed of steel framing with concrete floors, walls, and roof deck, the building had a smoke detection system, a wet-pipe sprinkler system, and a dry-pipe standpipe system that provided full coverage.
MOSQUITOES suck. In the process, they inject a chemical that inhibits the body's ability to stop any bleeding that might begin. This chemical is mixed with the mosquito's saliva and, depending on whom or what the mosquito visited before you, other things can be mixed in, too. At best, a sated mosquito will leave you minus a few micrograms of blood and with perhaps a temporary itch. At worst, it will leave you dead within weeks.
FOR 30 years or more, industry and government managers have relied on injury statistics to rate the performance of safety programs and forecast the cost of worker's compensation insurance. While metrics such as Incident Rate and Lost Time Days are accurate measures of what has happened in the past, they are trailing indicators, do little to ferret out the cause of most accidents, and are of little use in understanding how well-trained, experienced machine operators manage to put their hands between immoveable objects and unstoppable blades.
PERHAPS sparked by the devastating natural disasters and terrorist attacks the nation has experienced in the recent past, a renewed emphasis has been placed on ensuring that decontamination procedures are established and that they are a documented component of emergency response plans.
MULTI-GAS detectors designed for use in confined space entry (CSE) are often not enough to protect against all chemical vapor hazards in the workplace. In their standard configuration, these meters have sensors for oxygen depletion, combustible gases (lower explosive limit or LEL), carbon monoxide (CO), and hydrogen sulfide (H2S). Such sensors cover the most common hazards--such as fires from natural gas, propane, or gasoline leaks, and asphyxiation in confined spaces due to lack of oxygen.
THE supervisor is on his daily walkthrough inspection when he notices damaged products staged to be shipped that morning. Upon inspection, it is clear a forklift caused the damage. There is no report of damage or injury from the prior shift, and of course the operators on duty have no idea how it happened. Relieved the product was found prior to being shipped, the supervisor separates the damaged product, knowing it will mean short shipping the customer.
ACCORDING to the Environmental Protection Agency, Americans spend an average of 90 percent of their time indoors. Approximately 50 percent of that time is spent in the work environment. Experts estimate that nearly 30 percent of office buildings nationwide experience some form of indoor air quality (IAQ) problems. Employers, building managers, and building owners are faced with complaints, worker's compensation claims, and even lawsuits.