General Safe Work Practices for Portable Powered Tools
Your company should have some established safe work practices for the safe use of portable powered tools based on your jurisdiction’s requirements. Safe work practices should address the following issues: Disconnection of Tools All tools should be disconnected when they’re not being used, during servicing and for repairs and maintenance like changing blades or tips. Most power tools are what are called “cord and plug” meaning they can be completely de-energized by unplugging them from the outlet. So, while you don’t need a LOTO program for this, you do need to ensure that the person working on the tool keeps [...]
How to Save Money on Workers’ Compensation
How to reduce your risks, liabilities and costs while still keeping employees safe. Responsible business owners want their employees to be happy, healthy, and safe on the job. However, we are all aware that accidents can sometimes occur. Workplace injuries and illnesses are costly. If you own a small business and have two or more employees, by law your business may have to carry Workers’ Compensation Insurance (It’s worth mentioning that in some states workers’ comp is mandatory and in others, it is not). In addition to their social costs, workplace injuries have a major impact on an employer's bottom [...]
Trench Safety a Rising Concern
Working in an excavation or trench is one of the most dangerous jobs you’ll have. It’s so dangerous that on average, two workers in North America are killed every month in trench collapses. How Cave-Ins Happen Undisturbed soil stays in place because opposing horizontal and vertical forces are evenly balanced. When you create an excavation, you remove the soil that provides horizontal support. Soil will eventually move downward into the excavation. The longer the face (a side of the excavation) remains unsupported, the more likely it is to cave in. Workers were digging a trench at an abandoned motel, preparing [...]
Heat Wave Conditions Require Heat Stress Protections
With record temperatures in the forecast, you need to remind your work crews of the dangers of heat stress. An estimated 220 workers in Canada and the US die annually from occupational heat stress. Trust me, this is the last thing you want for any of your own workers. Educating Workers about Heat Stress Heat illness doesn’t strike without warning. There are signs and symptoms associated with each of the various forms of heat illness—heat cramps, heat exhaustion and, most dangerous of all, heat stroke (we’ll refer to these illnesses collectively as “heat stress”). The problem is that supervisors and [...]
Focus on Lightning Safety Practices
Did you know you can still be struck by lightning even when the center of a thunderstorm is 10 miles (16 kilometers) away? No place outside is safe when thunderstorms are in your area, according to the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) National Weather Service. “When thunder roars, go indoors,” advises NOAA, adding that if you can hear thunder, lighting is close enough to strike you. Anyone working outdoors needs to immediately move to a substantial building with electricity or plumbing or an enclosed, metal-topped vehicle with windows up, and stay inside that shelter for at least 30 minutes [...]
Using Incentives and Rewards
Training is important. It helps people succeed at their jobs, becoming more efficient and effective in the workplace. There are those people who are self-motivated and make the time for training on their own. It’s all too easy for the rest of us to push training aside or rush through it without retaining the information. IT’S ALL ABOUT MOTIVATION In our increasingly busy world, it can be challenging to get people to actually show up to training, let alone retain the information. How do you get people to be present and engaged? Incorporate training incentives to give people the extra [...]
Reviewing The Engagement And Efficiency Of Your Safety Training Program
Measuring safety training is often a factor that is overlooked after businesses have met their necessary requirements, yet measuring training can answer the two questions that matter the most in the whole OHS process; did anyone learn anything - and did they actually do anything different as a result? Download Reviewing The Engagement And Efficiency Of Your Safety Training Program Special Report
The Importance of a Job Safety Analysis
This week a large organization was hit with over a million dollars in workplace safety fines. The US Department of Labor proposed fines of close to $1.3 million for workplace violations at multiple stores - the Assistant Secretary for OSHA said that “Dollar General continues to demonstrate a willful pattern of ignoring hazardous working conditions and a disregard for the well-being of its employees,” even after being hit with fines previously. Facing big fines is not the only risk to ignoring the citations – companies that don’t fix hazards risk employees lives when they ignore orders to comply with investigation [...]
Raising the Temperature on Heat Exposure Training
Most areas are going to be entering their warmer summer months – and it’s not going unnoticed. Safety organizations like OSHA and Workers Compensation Boards are reminding industries to start training before it’s too late. According to the US Bureau of labor statistics, fifty-seven deaths occurred to workers ages 55 to 64 from 2011 to 2019. During that period, 144 workers died from environmental heat exposure while they were engaged in construction, repair, or cleaning, and 54 workers died while conducting materials handling operations. It's easy to assume that most people use common sense when the temperature starts to rise [...]
Teaching Fall Protection
Fall protection is a complex subject. It takes hours, if not days, just to come to grips with the regulatory requirements. And the regulations represent only a minimum standard. As safety professionals, we should be concerned with not just meeting the regulations but going beyond them. That might involve implementing voluntary standards from organizations such as ANSI and CSA. And, of course, we must also consider the recommendations of the PPE and equipment manufacturers. When teaching fall protection (about two to six times a month), you should always cover regulatory requirement. But also try to present a more holistic view [...]
How to Deal With Unengaged Learners
HOW TO BUILD A MORE EFFECTIVE SAFETY CULTURE IN YOUR ORGANIZATION? Adults, unlike children, teenagers and students, in most cases, have a lot of things on their minds and your eLearning course is probably the last one of them. In addition, your adult learners don’t see the rewards of their efforts as soon as they would expect, and giving them candy doesn’t work as it works with children. Also, academic habits, they once possessed are also long forgotten. Least but not last, a lot of the learners are often forced to take on your eLearning course to enhance their skills, [...]
When Communicating Safety – Keep Statistics Simple
Train the Trainer – Tips for Presenting From 2020 to 2021, the top five accident types for Company A in the field servicing sector were: struck by – 16% motor vehicles – 11% falls from elevation – 10% musculoskeletal – 22% Meanwhile, Company B in the drilling sector reported these figures: struck by – 16% falls from elevation – 22% caught in object – 10% musculoskeletal – 22% Not by the Numbers Now, without looking, can you repeat all but a couple of those statistics accurately? Probably not. No doubt they left an impression, perhaps even a surprise, but by the [...]
