Risk Management – Page 16 – Risk Management 365

Machine Safety is Critical

Machine safety is critical for worker safety, because machines have many ways to injure workers: Many machines have moving parts, sharp edges, and hot surfaces with the potential to cause severe workplace injuries such as crushed fingers or hands, amputations, burns, or blindness. Safeguards are essential for protecting workers from these preventable injuries. Any machine part, function, or process that might cause injury must be safeguarded. When the operation of a machine may result in a contact injury to the operator or others in the vicinity, the hazards must be eliminated or controlled.

via CDC – Machine Safety – NIOSH Workplace Safety and Health Topic.

Nonfatal Injury and Illness in Construction

There were 3.3 million nonfatal injuries and illnesses reported across all industries in 2009, of which almost 95 per cent were injuries and just over 5 per cent were illnesses. More than 9 per cent of the nonfatal illnesses and injuries requiring days away from work were experienced by construction workers (92,540). Construction workers reported 4.3 nonfatal injuries and illnesses per 100 full-time workers.

Falls accounted for more than one in every five of these injuries and illnesses (22%). Construction laborers experienced the seventh-highest rate of nonfatal injury and illness requiring days away from work of all occupations (382 per 10,000 full-time workers). Hispanic/Latino workers experienced nonfatal injuries and illnesses disproportionately, with almost one-fifth of cases (19%).

via CDC – Construction Safety and Health – NIOSH Workplace Safety and Health Topic.

What is Behavior-based Safety?

Behavior-based Safety is a method to use positive reinforcement to change unsafe behavior.

The system:

Is employee-based for continuous improvement;
Analyzes tasks and hazards to identify critical safety behaviors;
Analyzes behavior based on job observation;
Uses feedback about safety performance as reinforcement;
Behavior-based Safety Principles;
Behavior is the cause of accidents;
Consequences motivate behavior;
What gets measured gets done;
Feedback is essential to improvement;
Quality is built-in early in the process;
Conversations change organizations;
Behavior-based Safety and Integrated Safety Management.

via Safety Training – Safety Guidance Specialists: What is Behavior-based Safety?.

Texting and Driving is Dangerous

A texting driver is 23 times more likely to get into a crash than a non-texting driver.

One million people chat and text while driving each day. People feel pressure to remain in constant contact, even when behind the wheel. What drivers do not realize are the dangers posed when they take their eyes off the road and their hands off the wheel, and focus on activities other than driving.

The average text takes a driver’s eyes off the road for nearly five seconds. When traveling at 55mph, that’s enough time to cover the length of a football field. The message being conveyed is that texting while driving isn’t multitasking, it’s essentially driving blind.

via Texting and Driving Prevention.

Sleep, Performance, and Public Safety

Insufficient sleep may not have led the news in reporting on serious accidents in recent decades. However, that doesn’t mean fatigue and inattention due to sleep loss didn’t play a role in these disasters. For example, investigators have ruled that sleep deprivation was a significant factor in the 1979 nuclear accident at Three Mile Island, as well as the 1986 nuclear meltdown at Chernobyl.

Investigations of the grounding of the Exxon Valdez oil tanker, as well as the explosion of the space shuttle Challenger, have concluded that sleep deprivation also played a critical role in these accidents. In both cases, those in charge of the operations and required to make critical decisions were operating under extreme sleep deprivation. While the Challenger disaster put the multi-billion dollar shuttle program in peril, the Exxon Valdez oil spill resulted in incalculable ecological, environmental, and economic damage.

via Sleep, Performance, and Public Safety | Healthy Sleep.

Eye Safety: Tips

1. Create a safe work environment

Minimize hazards from falling or unstable debris.
Make sure that tools work and safety features (machine guards) are in place.
Make sure that workers (particularly volunteers) know how to use tools properly.
Keep bystanders out of the hazard area.

2. Evaluate safety hazards.

Identify the primary hazards at the site.
Identify hazards posed by nearby workers, large machinery, and falling/shifting debris.

3. Wear the proper eye and face protection.

Select the appropriate Z87 eye protection for the hazard.
Make sure the eye protection is in good condition.
Make sure the eye protection fits properly and will stay in place.

4. Use good work practices.

Caution—Brush, shake, or vacuum dust and debris from hardhats, hair, forehead, or the top of the eye protection before removing the protection.
Do not rub eyes with dirty hands or clothing.
Clean eyewear regularly.
Prepare for eye injuries and first aid needs.

5. Have an eye wash or sterile solution on hand.

via CDC – Eye Safety: Checklist – NIOSH Workplace Safety and Health Topic.

Electricity – a serious workplace hazard.

Working with electricity can be dangerous. Engineers, electricians, and other professionals work with electricity directly, including working on overhead lines, cable harnesses, and circuit assemblies. Others, such as office workers and sales people, work with electricity indirectly and may also be exposed to electrical hazards.

Electricity has long been recognized as a serious workplace hazard. OSHA’s electrical standards are designed to protect employees exposed to dangers such as electric shock, electrocution, fires, and explosions. Electrical hazards are addressed in specific standards for the general industry, shipyard employment, and marine terminals.

via Safety and Health Topics | Electrical.

Protect Young Workers this Summer

Most youth find paid employment, either during the summer or year-round, before graduating from high school. Young workers, ages 14-24, are at risk of workplace injury because of their inexperience at work and their physical, cognitive, and emotional developmental characteristics. They often hesitate to ask questions and may fail to recognize workplace dangers. OSHA has made young workers a priority within the agency and is committed to identifying ways to improve young worker safety and health. OSHA’s Young Worker Initiative addresses this group’s safety and health through a multi-pronged outreach program.

via Young Workers.

What is employee assistance?

Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs) serve organizations and their employees in multiple ways, ranging from consultation at the strategic level about issues with organization-wide implications to individual assistance to employees and family members experiencing personal difficulties. As workplace programs, the structure and operation of each EAP varies with the structure, functioning, and needs of the organization(s) it serves.

In general, an EAP is a set of professional services specifically designed to improve and/or maintain the productivity and healthy functioning of the workplace and to address a work organization’s particular business needs through the application of specialized knowledge and expertise about human behavior and mental health.

via EA FAQs – Employee Assistance Professionals Association, Inc..

Beware – Confined Spaces

“Confined Space” refers to a space which by design has limited openings for entry and exit, unfavorable natural ventilation which could contain or produce dangerous air contaminants, and which is not intended for continuous employee occupancy. Confined spaces include but are not limited to storage tanks, compartments of ships, process vessels, pits, silos, vats, degreasers, reaction vessels, boilers, ventilation and exhaust ducts, sewers, tunnels, underground utility vaults, and pipelines. According to data collected by the U.S. Department of Labor (USDOL), Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries (CFOI) program, fatal injuries in confined spaces fluctuated from a low of 81 in 1998 to a high of 100 in 2000 during the five-year period, averaging 92 fatalities per year.

via CDC – Confined Spaces – NIOSH Workplace Safety and Health Topic.