Safety – Page 2 – Risk Management 365

Preventing Eye Injuries at Home

We want all Americans to be aware of the dangers to their eyes at home, in the workplace and while playing sports.

Thousands of eye accidents happen each day; 90 percent of these are preventable with the use of appropriate safety eyewear.

Because there are good eye safety regulations in the workplace, the home is the source of the fastest-growing number of eye injuries. Eye injuries are almost as great a danger to bystanders as the people using dangerous tools or chemicals in the home. Good eye protection is just as important for those watching you work as for the workers themselves.

via Preventing Eye Injuries | Prevent Blindness National.

Kids and Bicycle Safety

Safe Riding Tips

Before using your bicycle, make sure it is ready to ride. You should always inspect your bike to make sure all parts are secure and working properly.

Remember to:

Wear a Properly Fitted Bicycle Helmet. Protect your brain, save your life.
Adjust Your Bicycle to Fit. Stand over your bicycle. There should be 1 to 2 inches between you and the top tube (bar) if using a road bike and 3 to 4 inches if a mountain bicycle. The seat should be level front to back. The seat height should be adjusted to allow a slight bend at the knee when the leg is fully extended. The handlebar height should be at the same level with the seat.
Check Your Equipment. Before riding, inflate tires properly and check that your brakes work.
See and Be Seen. Whether daytime, dawn, dusk, foul weather, or at night, you need to be seen by others. Wearing white has not been shown to make you more visible. Rather, always wear neon, fluorescent, or other bright colors when riding day or night. Also wear something that reflects light, such as reflective tape or markings, or flashing lights. Remember, just because you can see a driver doesn’t mean the driver can see you.
Control Your Bicycle. Always ride with at least one hand on the handlebars. Carry books and other items in a bicycle carrier or backpack.
Watch for and Avoid Road Hazards. Be on the lookout for hazards such as potholes, broken glass, gravel, puddles, leaves, and dogs. All these hazards can cause a crash. If you are riding with friends and you are in the lead, yell out and point to the hazard to alert the riders behind you.
Avoid Riding at Night. It is far more dangerous to ride at night than during the day because you are harder for others to see. If you have to ride at night, wear something that makes you more easily seen by others. Make sure you have reflectors on the front and rear of your bicycle (white lights on the front and red rear reflectors are required by law in many States), in addition to reflectors on your tires, so others can see you.

Many bicycle-related crashes resulting in injury or death are associated with the bicyclist’s behavior, including such things as not wearing a bicycle helmet, riding into a street without stopping, turning left or swerving into traffic that is coming from behind, running a stop sign, and riding the wrong way in traffic. To maximize your safety, always wear a helmet AND follow the rules of the road.

via Kids and Bicycle Safety.

Fleet Safety is Good Business

There is a clear link between a well-managed vehicle fleet and profitability. With more than 90 percent of crashes caused by human error (per the National Safety Council or NSC) creating a Fleet Safety plan will help your bottom line! A documented Fleet Safety plan pays off in multiple fashions – tangible benefits are a reduction of vehicle maintenance, downtime, and increased fuel efficiency. Intangible advantages could be increase in employee satisfaction, owner’s peace of mind with a documented process to follow.

via Welcome to the Fleet Safety Institute.

Lawn Mower Safety

While mowing:

Wear sturdy closed-toe shoes with slip-proof soles, close-fitting clothes, safety goggles or glasses with side shields, and hearing protection.
Watch for objects that could be picked up and thrown by the mower blades, as well as hidden dangers. Tall grass can hide objects, holes or bumps. Use caution when approaching corners, trees or anything that might block your view.
If the mower strikes an object, stop, turn the mower off, and inspect the mower. If it is damaged, do not use it until it has been repaired.
Do not pull the mower backwards or mow in reverse unless absolutely necessary, and carefully look for children behind you when you mow in reverse.
Use extra caution when mowing a slope. When a walk-behind mower is used, mow across the face of slopes, not up and down, to avoid slipping under the mower and into the blades. With a riding mower, mow up and down slopes, not across, to avoid tipping over.
Keep in mind that lawn trimmers also can throw objects at high speed.
Remain aware of where children are and do not allow them near the area where you are working. Children tend to be attracted to mowers in use.

via Lawn Mower Safety – HealthyChildren.org.

Powers Tools

Power tools such as impact wrenches, pneumatic nail guns and screwguns make many workplace tasks easier and more efficient. Because they have become so commonplace in today’s workplace, however, workers are not only exposed to a variety of hazards posed by power tools, but constant use makes it easy to forget those hazards.

And while employers are responsible for the safe condition of tools and equipment in the workplace, workers are responsible for properly using and maintaining tools.

During your next workplace safety training session, remind power tool users of these general precautions for operating power tools

via Workplace Health and Safety Training from DuPont.

OSHA announces Top 10 most-cited violations for 2014

For the fourth year in a row, OSHA’s Fall Protection Standard (1926.501) is the agency’s most frequently cited violation.

The entire list is as follows:

Fall Protection in Construction (1926.501)
Hazard Communication (1910.1200)
Scaffolding in Construction (1926.451)
Respiratory Protection (1910.134)
Lockout/Tagout (1910.147)
Powered Industrial Trucks (1910.178)
Electrical – Wiring Methods (1910.305)
Ladders in Construction (1926.1053)
Machine Guarding (1910.212)
Electrical – General Requirements (1910.303)

via OSHA announces Top 10 most-cited violations for 2014 | 2014-09-16 | Safety+Health Magazine.

Is your smoke alarm still working?

A smoke alarm with a dead or missing battery is the same as having no smoke alarm at all. A smoke alarm only works when it is properly installed and regularly tested. Take care of your smoke alarms according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Below are some general maintenance tips.

Smoke alarm powered by a nine-volt battery

Test the alarm monthly.
Replace the batteries at least once every year.
Replace the entire smoke alarm every 10 years.

Smoke alarm powered by a 10-year lithium (or “long-life”) battery

Test the alarm monthly.
Since you cannot (and should not) replace the lithium battery, replace the entire smoke alarm according to the manufacturer’s instructions.

Smoke alarm that is hardwired into your home’s electrical system

Test the alarm monthly.
Replace the backup battery at least once every year.
Replace the entire smoke alarm every 10 years.

via Smoke alarm outreach materials.

Machine Safety

Machines can assist in improving production efficiency in the workplace. However these 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.

Staying Safe at the Pump

Static electricity-related incidents at retail gasoline outlets are extremely unusual, but the potential for them to happen appears to be the highest during cool or cold and dry climate conditions. In rare circumstances, these static related incidents have resulted in a brief flash fire occurring at the fill point. Consumers can take steps to minimize these and other potential fueling hazards by following safe refueling procedures all year long.

Most important, motorists should not get back into their vehicles during refueling. It may be a temptation to get back in the car for any number of reasons. But the average fill-up takes only two minutes, and staying outside the vehicle will greatly minimize the likelihood of any build-up of static electricity that could be discharged at the nozzle.

A build-up of static electricity can be caused by re-entering a vehicle during fueling, particularly in cool or cold and dry weather. If the motorist then returns to the vehicle fill pipe during refueling, the static may discharge at the fill point, causing a flash fire or small sustained fire with gasoline refueling vapors.

Motorists who cannot avoid getting back into the vehicle should always first touch a metal part of the vehicle with a bare hand, such as the door, or some other metal surface, away from the fill point upon exiting the vehicle.

via Staying Safe at the Pump.

Tips For Driving in the Fog

Driving in fog is dangerous because visibility is reduced. To keep safe, follow these five tips for driving in fog:

1. Slow down.

If you cannot see where you are going, do not drive fast. Use your speedometer as a guide to regulate your speed, because thick fog masks the sensation of speed by removing visual indicators of velocity.

2. Use low-beam headlights.

When visibility is restricted, a driver’s natural tendency is to activate the high-beam headlights. When driving in fog, this further impairs visibility because the high-beam illumination reflects off of the fog and back at your vehicle.

3. Use fog lights.

If your vehicle has front fog lights, they can help illuminate the road and make your vehicle more visible to other drivers. Some vehicles have rear fog lights, which help motorists who are following you to see your vehicle from a greater distance.

4. Use the right-side pavement line as a guide.

In thick fog, use the white line painted on the right side of the road as a guide. Do not use the center pavement markings, because doing so will guide you to move closer to oncoming vehicles, which are also driven by people having trouble seeing where they are going.

5. Do not stop on the road.

When you cannot see where you are going, a natural reaction is to slow down or even stop. In fog, never stop on the road. Find a safe place to pull over that is as far away from traffic as possible and turn off your lights. Leaving your lights on may cause motorists to think that your taillights indicate the lane of travel, which could cause a collision.

via 5 Tips For Driving in the Fog | J.D. Power.