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Back Safety, Ergonomics, Eye Protection, Fall Safety, General Safety Issues, Hand Protection, Head Protection, Hearing Protection, Respiratory Safety

DO YOU KNOW HOW TO DO A JOB HAZARD ANALYSIS

In our blog, we are always mentioning “perform a job hazard analysis” in our safety tips; however, it made me ask: “Just exactly what is a job hazard analysis?”  So I went to the OSHA site and am sharing the instructions on how to conduct this analysis.  This information is for employers, foremen, and supervisors, but employees are encouraged to use the information as well to analyze their own jobs and recognize workplace hazards so they can report them to you. It explains what a job hazard analysis is and offers guidelines to help you conduct your own step-by-step analysis. The document (OSHA 3071)  also continues with pictures and form samples that you may use to complete your analysis.

What is a hazard?

A hazard is the potential for harm. In practical terms, a hazard often is associated with a condition or activity that, if left uncontrolled, can result in an injury or illness. Identifying hazards and eliminating or controlling them as early as possible will help prevent injuries and illnesses.

What is a job hazard analysis?

A job hazard analysis is a technique that focuses on job tasks as a way to identify hazards before they occur. It focuses on the relationship between the worker, the task, the tools, and the work environment. Ideally, after you identify uncontrolled hazards, you will take steps to eliminate or reduce them to an acceptable risk level.

Why is job hazard analysis important?

Many workers are injured and killed at the workplace every day in the United States. Safety and health can add value to your business, your job, and your life. You can help prevent workplace injuries and illnesses by looking at your workplace operations, establishing proper job procedures, and ensuring that all employees are trained properly.

One of the best ways to determine and establish proper work procedures is to conduct a job hazard analysis. A job hazard analysis is one component of the larger commitment of a safety and health management system.

What is the value of a job hazard analysis?

Supervisors can use the findings of a job hazard analysis to eliminate and prevent hazards in their workplaces. This is likely to result in fewer worker injuries and illnesses; safer, more effective work methods; reduced workers’ compensation costs; and increased worker productivity.  The analysis also can be a valuable tool for training new employees in the steps required to perform their jobs safely.

For a job hazard analysis to be effective, management must demonstrate its commitment to safety and health and follow through to correct any uncontrolled hazards identified. Otherwise, management will lose credibility and employees may hesitate to go to management when dangerous conditions threaten them.

What jobs are appropriate for a job hazard analysis?

      Jobs with the highest injury or illness rates;

       Jobs with the potential to cause severe or disabling injuries or illness, even  if there is no history of previous accidents;

       Jobs in which one simple human error could lead to a severe accident or injury;

      Jobs that are new to your operation or have undergone changes in processes and procedures; and

      Jobs complex enough to require written instructions.

A job hazard analysis can be conducted on many jobs in your workplace.   Where do I begin?   Involve your employees.

It is very important to involve your employees in the hazard analysis process. They have a unique understanding of the job, and this knowledge is invaluable for finding hazards. Involving employees will help minimize oversights, ensure a quality analysis, and get workers to “buy in” to the solutions because they will share ownership in their safety and health program. 

Review your accident history.

Review with your employees your worksite’s history of accidents and occupational illnesses that needed treatment, losses that required repair or replacement, and any “near misses” —events in which an accident or loss did not occur, but could have. These events are indicators that the existing hazard controls (if any) may not be adequate and deserve more scrutiny. 

Conduct a preliminary job review.

Discuss with your employees the hazards they know exist in their current work and surroundings. Brainstorm with them for ideas to eliminate or control those hazards.  If any hazards exist that pose an immediate danger to an employee’s life or health, take immediate action to protect the worker.

Any problems that can be corrected easily should be corrected as soon as possible. Do not wait to complete your job hazard analysis.  This will demonstrate your commitment to safety and health and enable you to focus on the hazards and jobs that need more study because of their complexity.  For those hazards determined to present unacceptable risks, evaluate types of hazard controls. 

List, rank, and set priorities for hazardous jobs.  List jobs with hazards that present unacceptable risks, based on those most likely to occur and with the most severe consequences. These jobs should be your first priority for analysis. 

Outline the steps or tasks.

Nearly every job can be broken down into job tasks or steps. When beginning a job hazard analysis, watch the employee perform the job and list each step as the worker takes it.  Be sure to record enough information to describe each job action without getting overly detailed. Avoid making the breakdown of steps so detailed that it becomes unnecessarily long or so broad that it does not include basic steps. You may find it valuable to get input from other workers who have performed the same job.

Later, review the job steps with the employee to make sure you have not omitted something. Point out that you are evaluating the job itself, not the employee’s job performance. Include the employee in all phases of the analysis—from reviewing the job steps and procedures to discussing uncontrolled hazards and recommended solutions. 

Sometimes, in conducting a job hazard analysis, it may be helpful to photograph or videotape the  worker performing the job. These visual records can be handy references when doing a more detailed analysis of the work.

How do I identify workplace hazards?  A job hazard analysis is an exercise in detective work. Your goal is to discover the following:  What can go wrong? What are the consequences?  How could it arise? What are other contributing factors?  How likely is it that the hazard will occur?

To make your job hazard analysis useful, document the answers to these questions in a consistent manner. Describing a hazard in this way helps to ensure that your efforts to eliminate the hazard and implement hazard controls help target the most important contributors to the hazard.

Good hazard scenarios describe:

Where it is happening (environment), who or what it is happening to (exposure), what precipitates the hazard (trigger), the outcome that would occur should it happen (consequence), and  any other contributing factors.

Rarely is a hazard a simple case of one singular cause resulting in one singular effect. More frequently, many contributing factors tend to line up in a certain way to create the hazard. Here is an example of a hazard scenario:

In the metal shop (environment), while clearing a snag (trigger), a worker’s hand (exposure) comes into contact with a rotating pulley. It pulls his hand into the machine and severs his fingers (consequences) quickly.

To perform a job hazard analysis, you would ask:

 What can go wrong?  The worker’s hand could come into contact with a rotating object that “catches” it and pulls it into the machine.

• What are the consequences?  The worker could receive a severe injury and lose fingers and hands.

• How could it happen? The accident could happen as a result of the worker trying to clear a snag during operations or as part of a maintenance activity while the pulley is operating. Obviously, this hazard scenario could not occur if the pulley is not rotating.

• What are other contributing factors?

This hazard occurs very quickly.  It does not give the worker much opportunity to recover or prevent it once his hand comes into contact with the pulley. This is an important factor, because it helps you determine the severity and likelihood of an accident when selecting appropriate hazard controls. Unfortunately, experience has shown that training is not very effective in hazard control when triggering events happen quickly because humans can react only so quickly.

Note: This very thing happened to the son of one of my friends about two weeks ago.  The fingers of the gloves he wore were slightly too long, and the glove got caught in a piece of equipment, injuring his hand before the machine could be stopped, to remove his hand.  He missed some days of work, but luckily, none of his fingers. pb

Source: OSHA

 

 

General Safety Issues

HOW TO CREATE AN EMERGENCY KIT FOR YOUR HOME (GUEST POST)

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Sent to us by Jeralyn Nelson, of http://www.HouseSittingJobs.com

You never know when an emergency will happen, which is why you should always be ready for one if the situation does arise. To make sure you’re prepared for whatever may come, take the time to create an emergency kit for your home and make sure every member of your family and your nanny know where it is and what’s inside.  Also make sure everyone knows and understands the emergency procedures for a disaster. This kind of preparation can save you seconds or minutes in a life-threatening situation.

Stock up on supplies for a power outage. Short power outages are inconvenient, but long outages can be a danger to your family’s health and safety. Make sure you have self-powered flashlights and lanterns, an emergency radio, and plenty of batteries for book lights, portable DVD players, and handheld games.  Stock up on non-perishable food like canned meats, tuna, soups, fruits, and vegetables, plus boxed food like crackers, goldfish, and other kid-friendly snacks. Include pet foods and snacks, as well.  Make sure you have a hand-held can opener on hand too. Have plenty of water available for each person in your family. If you have a wood-burning fireplace or stove, stock enough wood to keep a fire going for a few days. In winter, this may be your only way to keep the chill away. 

Learn about your local emergency warning systems. Your local emergency management office, civil defense office, or Red Cross chapter can give you detailed information about your area’s early warning systems. Know where to get up-to-date information about natural disasters like tornados, hurricanes, and flooding. To make sure you don’t miss a critical announcement, purchase a self-powered weather alert radio (NOAA) that can be set to your location and warn you of a weather emergency. 

Create a fire escape plan. This can be a family project. Using graph paper create a map of each floor of your home, including all possible emergency exits, like windows and doors. Map out one, and two if possible, escape routes from each room. If you have a second story, include routes that use lower story roofs and home emergency window ladders. Choose a place far from the house to meet as a family once each person escapes the house. Make sure there’s a clear landmark like a street sign or large tree to avoid frightened or panicked family members becoming disorientated. Decide in advance who will help younger children out of the house. Practice getting out of the house and meeting at the family meeting spot with your children at least twice a year. This can be a fun family activity. Have everyone start in bed blindfolded to simulate a smoky, nighttime fire. Practice staying low to the ground or crawling, covering your mouth with a cloth, and checking doors to see if they’re cool to the touch and safe to open. Once you get outside, remove the blindfold and head to the meeting spot. Time the escape from start to finish to ensure your family can make it out in a reasonable amount of time.  (It has been said by several firefighters that persons become very disoriented because of smoke, thinking that they know every corner of their home.)

Choose an emergency meeting place in case of evacuation. Chances are your family members will be in separate locations when disaster hits. If your neighborhood is unsafe or has been evacuated, choose a place to meet. It should be accessible by every member of the family, in a safe area (e.g. out of the flood zone), and not in an area that gets congested during an evacuation. Each family member or caregiver should have a map with the designated location and alternative routes to get there clearly marked.

Know who to contact in case of an emergency. Often during an emergency, local phone lines are down and cell towers are overloaded, making it impossible to connect with family members or caregivers who are not with you. Designate a first and second contact person, that way if a family member isn’t able to make it to the meeting point they can get a message to the rest of the family through the contact person. Choose people far outside the local area who would likely be unaffected by the disaster.

Don’t forget your pets. Include your dog or cat in your emergency plan. Designate one person to be in charge of crating and carrying the animals in an emergency evacuation, and if your pet sleeps in a crate, releasing him in case of fire. 

Fires, natural disasters, and other emergencies can be scary, especially for children.  Also, keeping prescription medicines in one place,( in clear plastic bags), would make it easier to grab them when you must hurry.  Developing a smart plan of action, practicing the plan, knowing who is responsible for doing what, and having the right supplies on hand can not only give you peace of mind, it can also be the difference between handling an emergency and  experiencing family tragedy.

First Aid Safety, General Safety Issues

PREPARING YOUR CHILD FOR DISASTER (GUEST POST)

Sent to us by Nancy Parker.  Her bio follows this article. pb

There are many different kinds of disasters and they are always out of human control. As an adult you know how to prepare and what to do during a disaster, but what about the children? Some adults neglect to teach their child what to do base on the fact it could ‘never happen’ to them. Before it’s too late, here are ways to help you prepare your child for a disaster:

Educate: It is always good to keep your child informed of possible and potential disasters. Now this doesn’t mean that you educate them to the point where they live in fear but that they understand the potential disaster. When teaching them about disasters, keep the conversation upbeat and positive by stating that there is a solution to the disaster. Keep the conversations short, allow for questions and answer honestly.

Prepare:Always be prepared, that is the best advice for a disaster. Get the supplies that you need to help yourself during a disaster. For example if it’s preparing for bad weather, gather the tools you need like candles, emergency radios, food, water, and a first aid kit.  Teach your child what is needed in certain disasters so that they know what is available for them, if ever needed.

Plan:You should always have an emergency plan for you and your child for any dangerous situation. Teach them the first they should do for different disasters. Write out a simple and easy list that they can read. Typically that emergency plan should start with “listen to an adult’s advice and/or call 911”.

Practice:Once you have purchased the correct safety tools and figured out the right plan, practice. Practicing with your child what to do during a disaster will help them if the time comes. Explain during the practice the procedures that they need to take and why. Practice this emergency plan every few months.

Reaction: The most important advice that regency officials can give people during a disaster is to remain calm. Teach your child to remain calm during emergencies. You can do this by leading by example, if you remain calm you child is more likely to remain calm. Disasters have the potential to be worse if there is fear and panic to cause confusion and difficulty.

Disasters can’t be avoided but they can be lessened the more you are prepared and ready for one. Teaching your child this will help you and them in any future events. Remember above anything else, remain calm and work with them on the emergency plan.

 Author Bio

Nancy Parker was a professional full time nanny and she loves to write about wide range of subjects like health, Parenting, Child Care, Babysitting, nanny background check tips etc. You can reach her @ nancy.parker015 @ gmail.com

First Aid Safety, General Safety Issues, Respiratory Safety

AVOIDING CUBICLE DISASTERS (GUEST POST)

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For those who work in high risk jobs, workplace safety is a topic that stays close in mind. In truth, even the most placid of occupations and workplaces can lend themselves to some dangerous moments — the coffepot inferno or the Acme anvil that cascaded through the heavens to eventually collapse poetically onto one of the copy-editors —  when disaster strikes, it’s best to be prepared.

One of the main keys to safety in the workplace is to have an escape plan in place in the case of a fire, a bomb threat, or any other reason that makes it necessary to evacuate the building. Whether there are a large number of people in a workplace or just a few, proper organization is key when it comes to keeping everyone safe. Without it, it’s easy for employees to become panicked and the likelihood of injury increases substantially.

One of the first things that should be done long before any emergency situation occurs is choosing a leader. Because dealing with an emergency is not the same as dealing with everyday business needs, this may not be a person normally in a management role. Whoever this leader is, it’s important they’re able to remain calm and are capable of presenting themselves as an authority during a stressful situation. Because there may be many different ideas on what the appropriate procedure should be during an emergency, the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA) has developed regulations that help assure that certain regulations and standards are upheld during a workplace emergency.

  • Have a procedure for reporting emergencies.

It’s important to know what is going to happen in the event of an emergency before it happens. There may be fire alarms to pull, a plan to call 911 or an internal emergency number. Especially for larger workplaces, this should link to an intercom system so everyone knows an emergency is actually happening and isn’t a drill. For those who may be hearing impaired, another inaudible alarm, such as a flashing light, may be used to assure everyone is aware of the situation.

  • Have an emergency action plan in place.

It’s not enough to alert everyone that there’s an emergency. It’s important that employees know what to do depending on the type of emergency. In instances of a fire or gas leak evacuation procedures should be followed, and if there is a storm or some threat outside the building, seeking shelter inside is better. Larger companies often use a stairwell, smaller buildings might congregate in a closet, break room or restroom.

Often in an emergency situation, a power outage may take place, so having emergency lighting in place helps avoid potential catastrophe and keep everyone safe.

  • Designate a clear chain of command

It’s likely that your leaders in a business strategy meeting will not be the same as those who will lead the employees and visitors in a company to safety should an emergency occur. However, whoever takes on the role should be able to take it on completely. By practicing various worst case scenarios, employees will get to know and understand who they must follow in an emergency situation. Those chosen for these leadership roles should be skilled in first aid and respiratory aids such as CPR or have the ability to operate respiratory masks. 

While OSHA provides standards and guidelines for how companies should prepare from potential emergencies, having arrangements beyond those requirements are certainly recommended. Where a new business is concerned, establishing and notifying everyone of these procedures needs to be made a priority. During orientation procedures, employees should meet those who take on leadership roles in an emergencies.

Whatever emergency action plan a company puts in place, it should be tailored towards the size and type of the business. In a smaller store, one or two people in a leadership position will likely be enough in order to prevent chaos during an emergency situation. A larger corporation will need several people and will likely need to organize those persons with in a way that fits the seating arrangement of employees. Manufacturing plants, or other workplaces where there’s a lot of noise, may need to rely more heavily on the use of lights to communicate an emergency. Those who work outside, such as construction workers, may want to designate a trailer or some other safe place to go in the event of a storm or other inclement weather. The particular risks will vary depending on the size and nature of the business, so making sure the appropriate risk assessment is made is important.

In most cases, workplace emergencies will be rare, but because there is a potential of serious consequences it is important that they are treated as a real possibility. Even with all the proper plans and procedures in place, the ability of all employees to remain calm and professional is important to keeping everyone safe.

Sent by Jessica Stark

General Safety Issues, Health Issues

ARE YOU SUFFERING FROM WORK OVERLOAD?

In today’s busy, hectic world, it seems most people are burning their candles at both ends.  Because many companies have downsized, persons may be asked to perform their usual job, and have other duties added to it.  For our friends in the United Kingdom, “Stress Awareness Day” is observed on November 3rd.  Here, in the United States, it’s April 16th.  But what the heck, let’s go ahead and talk about stress in our lives both now and in April!  Maybe we’ll think of some pointers that will ease the stress in your life. 

As we said, companies are operating “lean and mean.”  This means you may be doing more than one job.  If you feel that your load is too heavy to handle, you need to think about how you can better deal with it.  No job in the world is worth losing your health over.  You may place too much emphasis on your career, and when that happens, you become stressed out.  Then, not only you, but your family and friends are affected. 

Some of the consequences of work overload can show up in many forms:

  • Physical – you may experience aches and pains, frequent colds or sickness, ulcers, heartburn, indigestion, hyperventilation, grinding teeth, weight loss or gain, blood pressure and heart problems, panic attacks, and fatigue, in general.
  • Physiological – you may become emotional to the point of mood swings, sensitivity, out of control, lack of motivation, easily irritated, tearful, angry, frustrated, or low self-esteem.
  • Psychological – you may develop a lack of concentration, memory lapses, be easily distracted, worried, depressed, anxious, or less creative. 

Have you experienced any or all of these symptoms?  Many persons can probably list quite a few of them.  When you get down to it, though, the most important thing to do to avoid any and all of these pressures is to figure out the underlying cause, and do something about it.  If you are trying to perform your work and/or duties at home at an unfavorable comfort level every day, you are under too much stress!   (You also may need to consult your physician for advice on preventing serious illness that possibly could be caused by your daily work experiences.)

We have talked previously about how fatigue causes accidents.  When a person is extremely tired or stressed, they become more prone to incidents where they or a coworker can be injured.  Most industrial work environments, such as manufacturing and construction require workers to be on their toes at all times.  An example of a stressful job that comes to mind is an air traffic controller.  He/she must be constantly alert in order to protect the safety of thousands of persons every day.  

If you feel that you have too much work to do, and too little time to do it, there are two things that will help you cope.  Plan and organize.  Take the time to write down exactly what you must do the next day.  Prioritize the important tasks that must be done.  Think about how much time you spend throughout the day on your computer checking emails, answering phone calls, and handling other interruptions.  Allow yourself a certain amount of time to do these things, and then concentrate on finishing the tasks that deserve the most attention.  You can’t avoid interruptions, but try to move on as quickly as possible. 

Stick to your daily plan, manage the time you are going to spend on the items at the top of your list.  Keep a calendar, either on your computer, or your desk, and mark down everything that you must do that day.  Check it off when it’s completed.   If you work in a situation where you feel outside interruptions cause you to lose time, talk to your supervisor about how you can manage your time more effectively.    If you work with someone who is very efficient, ask them to share ideas that can help you.  Know that you can only do so much during your shift.  When you have taken care of the work at the top of your list, chances are  the other tasks can wait until tomorrow.   

Make time for your family and friends, and enjoy life.