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Accidents that unexpectedly interrupt the work process carry the potential for damage, injury - or even death. Hazardous conditions also can cause loss of material or property or decrease a company's production capability.
According to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), more than 6,000 people die from workplace injuries each year, 50,000 die from illnesses caused by workplace chemical exposures and an additional 6 million suffer non-fatal injuries. The Bureau of Labor Statistics indicates that in 1997 alone there were 743 fatal occupational injuries in the
manufacturing industry, 240 of them in Illinois.
The cost of injuries alone negatively affects the economy by more than $110 billion annually. Developing and implementing a comprehensive safety/hazard communication program is essential to reducing injury risks and improving all phases of your manufacturing operations.
Elements of a Comprehensive Safety/Hazard Communication Program
Having the commitment of top management and employees to a safety program is vital to its success. Your company should develop a clearly stated policy to help all employees understand the priority of developing safe and healthy working conditions, and appropriate goals and objectives for the program should be established with your employees' input and/or
involvement.
Include these elements when developing your comprehensive safety program:
- Assign responsibility for administration of the safety program
- Communicate safety responsibility to all managers, supervisors and employees so everyone knows what is expected of them
- Establish and enforce strict safety rules
- Identify hazards through comprehensive surveys; facility, equipment, materials and process-changes analyses; and routine hazard analyses
- Provide personalized safety training and instruction for each job function
- Develop and implement a system to identify and remedy safety and health hazards, regardless of whether they're covered by existing standards
- Develop and implement reliable systems for employees to report hazards
- Investigate and document all accidents or safety incidents and recommend steps to avoid future occurrences
- Analyze patterns of injuries, accidents, and illnesses
- Review the overall safety program on at least an annual basis
At a minimum, your plan should include information on evacuation procedures, accident reports and investigations, hazard awareness communications, lockout/tagout (control of hazardous energy), and personal protective equipment. The ultimate goal of the program should be to reduce injuries and illnesses in your company. Here are five key steps to implementing the elements of your safety program:
1. Conduct Safety Assessments/Inspections
A complete plant walk-though, conducted by top management, is an essential component of a comprehensive safety program. Items you must look at include chemical container labels; accessibility of fuse boxes, fire extinguishers and hoses; noise levels; air quality concerns; and obstructed views. Job-safety questions are best identified and addressed in the setting
where accidents can occur.
Teams of managers, safety personnel and employees should be involved in safety inspections of individual departments, specific pieces of equipment or specific processes. Items to review include ensuring that necessary personal safety equipment (e.g., safety glasses, steel-toed shoes, ear plugs, respirators) is in place and that staff have been trained in using the equipment. The inspection also should review availability of eye-wash stations, MSDS sheets and emergency telephone numbers.
Tornado, fire and earthquake procedures and evacuation routes or shelters should be clearly posted. Ongoing logs, such as preventive-maintenance schedules, should be reviewed and all new or relocated equipment should be inspected before being put into service. Machine guards that may have been removed during maintenance should be examined and replaced, if necessary.
Assistance with these inspections is available from specialists at insurance companies, equipment manufacturers, local and state firedepartments and health-care organizations. Other trained specialists are independent safety consultants, community college staff and IMEC technical specialists.
2. Identify Hazards
Questions are an effective way to assess your company's potential safety and health hazards. Some of the most critical are:
w Are controls, work practices and personal protective equipment being used?
w Is a preventive maintenance program in place?
w Have physical hazards (e.g., noise levels, electrical shock, temperature extremes, poor
housekeeping, bad lighting, fire or explosive situations) been reviewed and decreased or eliminated?
w Have chemical hazards (e.g., fumes, mists, airborne particles, direct-contact chemicals) been
identified and minimized or eliminated?
w Have ergonomic hazards, such as improperly designed hand or power tools, work stations, or
processes, been identified and addressed?
w What biological hazards (blood borne pathogens, fungi, bacteria, insects) have been identified and
decreased or eliminated?
w Are there hazardous waste operations and emergency response procedures?
3. Establish Safety Rules
Develop and implement safety rules to provide optimal protection for employees. Review rules regularly to determine if they're really needed. Because too many safety rules can be meaningless to your employees, make sure your safety rules are up to date based on current operations. Rules that create an unusual inconvenience or an annoyance may make it almost "human nature" for employees to ignore them.
4. Train Employees
Providing appropriate training for managers, supervisors and employees is the next component of a safety program. New employees should complete training upon being hired, and all employees should participate in safety training at least once a year. When employees change job functions or move to new equipment, you should provide training when those changes are implemented. The training should concentrate on hazard awareness, and knowing and using proper safety procedures.
5. Implement Thorough Record Keeping and Reporting Systems
Documentation is the key to a successful safety program, because it will provide up-to-date information for management and help maintain compliance with such safety authorities as OSHA.
OSHA requires every workplace to post an OSHA or Illinois poster that contains safety and hazard information for employees. All companies must report to the nearest OSHA office all accidents that result in a work-related fatality or hospitalization of three or more employees within eight hours after it happens.
Companies with 11 or more employees must keep injury and illness records. You must maintain OSHA Form 200 and post the previous calendar year's summary record for employees from February 1 to March 1, and you must use OSHA Form 101 to supply supplementary information about each injury and illness entered. You may use substitute forms (such as workers' compensation reports) if they contain all required information.
New OSHA forms scheduled for release in June 1999 take effect in January 2000, affecting all manufacturers with 20 or more employees. These forms primarily will distinguish between injuries and illnesses.
Summary
Employee safety and well-being is an essential and responsible goal for companies. If you need assistance with developing, implementing or analyzing your safety program, IMEC can help. We have staff and other resources experienced in managing safety programs, identifying potential hazards and decreasing compliance risks. We also have tools available to help you implement safety programs using your own resources. Call us at 888-806-4632 if you have safety questions or concerns. |
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