Safety professionals realize that high-dexterity gloves result in increased safety and job performance. Corporate managers know that increased safety reduces costs while increased performance enhances productivity, both of which boost the bottom line.
Editor's note: Some ideas are so smart that you wish you'd thought of them yourself. Reused protective footwear, for example. If you haven't considered the possibility until now, Wayne Elsey, president of Kodiak-Terra USA, Inc. (www.kodiakterra.com) of Portland, Tenn., may make you a believer.
GRIP is a safety issue in many industrial environments. During in-depth analyses conducted at more than a thousand workstations in more than 50 major manufacturing industries in Europe, grip in either wet or dry conditions was perceived as a need by workers at some 89 percent of the workstations.
HOSPITAL-acquired (nosocomial) infections are estimated to occur in nearly 10 percent of all acute care hospitalizations. The estimated incidence is more than 2 million cases per year, resulting in an added expenditure in excess of $4.5 billion. Transmission of both normal and pathological microorganisms by the hands of health care workers (HCWs) is one of the main routes of infection spread. Skin microorganisms may be considered resident flora or transient flora.
MANY decisions to enter confined spaces are made without recognition of the expected danger. Lack of knowledge, carelessness, and simple acceptance of the hazard are the main reasons. The decisions to enter are made in spite of all efforts to provide hazard awareness and safety training.
THERE has been a great deal of publicity, significant legislative activity, and recent case law on the authorized use of medical marijuana during the past few years that must be taken into consideration in workplace drug testing programs.
SITTING. It sounds simple enough. Yet despite years of training, training, and more training, the saga goes on. The saga "stars" the seated worker. Be it a call center employee, a manufacturer performing bench work, or an over-the-road truck driver, we continue to observe workers seated in semi-flexed, rounded postures.
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.
CONSTRUCTION workers make up only 6 percent of the total workforce, but they are involved in more than 20 percent of all work-related fatalities. Trenching accidents that are directly related to excavation work account for almost 200 deaths annually.
THE attendant is the last individual external to the confined space who can monitor working conditions that will ensure the safety of the workers inside the work space. Attention to specific details outlined on the work permit, the ability to adequately oversee "permitted operations," and the authority to "stop work" when rules are violated are the critical elements of the responsibility.
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.
THE lockout/tagout standard--29 CFR 1910.147--is arguably the best OSHA standard ever written. For the price of a lock and tag, employees can be confident they are protected from the sudden release of hazardous energy while performing maintenance, cleaning, or servicing activities on equipment.
THERE are a ton of resources available from OSHA, NIOSH, medical associations, and the like explaining all of the signs of heat stress and what to do about them. You can easily get those online or with a simple phone call. Rather than rehashing those things here, I'm going to spend a couple of minutes talking to you about a few things you may not have considered regarding your employees.