Fall Prevention Tip
Are your employees “catapedamanics”? They are if they are obsessed with jumping from high places. If their thing is falling from high places, like ladders or scaffolds, the correct term is either “unsafe employees” or “unsafe employer”!
Falls are one of the most frequent causes of employee injuries and are also related to several of OSHA’s top ten list of violations, especially in the construction trades. Your responsibility as an employer is to provide the training and tools to prevent employee falls, whether this includes fall protection devices–such as harness and lanyards–properly erected scaffolding, safe ladder use, or simply good housekeeping. If you don’t provide these things, you may end up “taking the fall” for your employees.
Compliance Tip
Two trucks loaded with thousands of copies of Roget’s Thesaurus collided as they left a New York publishing house. According to a newspaper report, witnesses were astonished, stunned, startled, flabbergasted, taken aback, stupefied…
It takes a lot more than a thesaurus to understand the meaning of complex OSHA and EPA regulations. The OSHA requirements for General Industry alone fill almost 1000 pages! These extensive federal, state and local regulations can be difficult to follow, but the agencies sometimes provide guidance which may make the task a bit easier. Remember that not knowing what’s needed is not a defense; what you don’t know can hurt you! If you need help figuring out what applies to your operation, contact CPSE. We’ve got what you need; expertise, proficiency, know-how, competence…
Warning Signs Tip
A man enters a little country store and sees a sign reading “Danger! Beware of Dog.” Just inside the door, he sees an old hound dog lying asleep on the floor. “Is that the dog folks are supposed to beware of?” says the man to the clerk. “Yep,” replies the clerk. “Before I posted that sign, everyone kept tripping over him.”
Warning signs can be a very effective way of preventing accidents, and in most cases these are required by regulation. Requirements include signs for emergency egress, signs for machine and electrical safety, signs locating fire extinguishers, signs for safe chemical storage and use, and many more situations. Many of the OSHA regulations have signage requirements. Failure to have the required signs can result in injuries, property loss, and non-compliance.
Safety Awareness Tip
An American Admiral, spotting a blip on the radar screen, told his radio operator to send a message to the other ship to alter its course 15 degrees. The reply came back, “You need to change your course 15 degrees.” The Admiral grabbed the microphone and snapped “You change your course. I am an Admiral in the US Navy!” To which a calm voice replied, “And I am a lighthouse.”
Safety is very much a matter of attitude. It’s important for your employee to know their limitations and liabilities, and to be open to new ideas and change. Employees will “buy into” your safety program if they feel involvement and ownership. An effective safety training program is one way to get this point across.