Cranes are among the most important pieces of machinery ever invented. They allow the construction and manufacturing of many things that would simply be impossible without them. That being said, they can also be extremely dangerous if they are not properly used. If your company relies on cranes for any type of work, it is important to develop a comprehensive crane safety strategy that is implemented and followed at all times. It is not enough …
Visual communication is essential for safety at any workplace. This is especially true for construction sites. This type of environment often has a variety of different activities going on throughout the area, which can make it very dangerous if people are not careful. Alerting people to what types of hazards exist in which areas is a great way to make sure that everyone is taking proper precautions, including wearing the right personal protection equipment, at …
PPE includes goggles that prevent debris from entering the eye, hard hats that protect workers from falling objects, rubber gloves resistant to electric currents, and any other type of equipment or garment designed to be worn for protection. When other safety measures fail and a worker comes in contact with a hazard, PPE will be the last line of defense protecting the employee from harm. There is personal protective equipment for virtually every part of …
Multiple methods exist for helping you determine the content of arc flash labels. Some companies choose to use software to calculate incident energy, some consult the calculations in the appendices of the NFPA 70E, some refer to the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) guide—IEEE 1584-2002: Guide for Performing Arc Flash Calculations—and others hire electrical engineering firms to assist them. Any of these methods is acceptable. It is the employer’s responsibility, though, to make …
The cornerstone of any good safety program is training, and the same is true for powered industrial vehicle (forklift) safety. Any person who operates a forklift is required by OSHA to take a training program set up by his or her employer. It is up to the employer to ensure that this training includes general safe principles of truck operation, the types of trucks used, the hazards of the vehicle, and the safety requirements of …
In short, a gemba walk is an expedition to examine a workplace with the overall goal of locating and eliminating inefficiencies. “You can’t solve a problem until you’ve seen the problem,” is the logic behind the gemba walk concept, and while these treks are usually the realm of management, anyone wishing for a more holistic understanding of a business and the processes therein can benefit from the occasional gemba walk. Gemba walks are not to …
Falls are the number one cause of fatal accidents in construction, with these deaths accounting for 36.9 percent of construction fatalities in 2013. Many of these deaths occur in residential construction, and beginning in 2010, OSHA began enforcing its fall protection standard for all residential construction sites, not just commercial construction sites (see 29 CFR 1926.501(b)(13)). To assist residential construction companies in achieving compliance with this standard, OSHA has published helpful guidance documents. To further educate contractors …
When looking at workplace safety on construction sites, most people focus on things like fall protection and avoiding objects being dropped from above. While these are certainly important hazards, they are not the only ones. On many construction job sites, one of the biggest types of hazards is actually breathing. This is because there is often a lot of chemicals, vapors, and other potentially toxic things that are in the air. In addition, saws and …
The hazards of lead are well known, so people may assume exposures to this dangerous metal have been reduced. To a certain extent to this true; lead levels in the general population have decreased since the 1970s. In some workplaces, though, lead continues to be a serious problem. The Seattle Times recently published a series of investigative articles about lead poisoning at shooting ranges across the country and found that workers and in some cases patrons …
Construction sites pose many hazards, and as OSHA puts it, demolition is “construction in reverse, with additional hazards.” Therefore, OSHA has dedicated extra time and attention recently to demolition safety, and it developed a resource page explaining the standards specifically related to this kind of work (29 CFR Part 1926, Subpart T). This emphasis on demolition safety came in the wake of a series of fatal accidents including the collapse of a four-story building undergoing demolition in …