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Safety Tips
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Do you have a good safety tip to share? We are always interested in tips from safety conscious people in the field. Please send your tips to tips@daybreak-technology.com. And don’t forget to check back from time to time. This page is frequently updated.
OSHA requires you to follow up and correct any unsafe work practices you discover during safety inspections, but what do you do when you don’t know who the offending employee could be? The simplest solution is to put up a sign where the offense occurred. You can download a set of free ready-to-print safety signs designed for this purpose on our download page.
Want employees to pay more attention to the safety bulletin board? Try adding graphics to your board and then change them periodically. Employees are much more likely to take the time to read the material on the board when they notice that something has changed. Try putting up photographs of your first-aid providers. A photo of a safety hazard in your workplace could be worth a whole lot more than a thousand words. Safety posters also draw attention and they are readily available.
Ever wonder who OSHA has fined for safety violations and for how much? This information is available on the OSHA web site.
Although many organizations have electrical equipment or compressor rooms that produce enough noise to cause hearing loss, not all work sites require a hearing protection program. A hearing protection program is only required when employees are in the workspace long enough to be at risk. In many cases, an organization can simply keep the door locked and have a written policy that restricts the amount of time employees can be in the space.
Retail stores do not have to supply an MSDS with the chemicals they sell, even though you are required to have an MSDS for every chemical you use in the workplace. If your organization purchases a chemical from retail store, you can usually download the needed MSDS from the chemical manufacturer’s web site or have it faxed to you.
When doing safety inspections, don’t be afraid to ask employees if they know of any safety hazards. Quite often you will find out about safety problems that you would not otherwise discover. Remember, some safety hazards are only visible when certain tasks are performed. If the task is not being performed when you are doing your inspection, you might not find out about a hazard until someone tells you-or until someone is injured.
A new EPA law requires that florescent tubes be discarded at authorized disposal centers. Unfortunately, this has led to safety hazards when employees put aside burnt-out tubes in an unsafe manner. Not only are florescent tubes easily broken, but they contain a toxic gas. A good place to store burnt-out tubes is on a shelf in the box they came in.
When someone is paralyzed in an accident, it is usually not the accident itself that causes the paralysis! Most accident victims are paralyzed at the very moment a well-intentioned person moves them. Only trained employees should give first-aid! All other employees should be trained to not interfere.
There is another good reason why only trained employees should provide first-aid. Our hands have hundreds of microscopic openings on them at all times. Just touching blood with your bare hands can easily infect you with a bloodborne pathogen, such as HIV.
Sometimes testing for OSHA regulations appears to be more complicated than it actually is. A case in point: Eyewash stations must provide 1.5 liters of water per minute. To check if your eyewash station is in compliance, just time how long it takes to fill a 1 liter pop bottle 3/4 of the way full. If it takes more than 30 seconds, you have a problem.
The wise safety officer concentrates his or her efforts where they will do the most good. For a small organization though, where this should be is not always apparent. So what can you do? Organizations such as the Bureau of Labor Statistics (see the Safety Links page) have a wealth of information to help you. A call to your local OSHA or Department of Labor office is also helpful. They can tell you which injuries are the most common in your industry, how the most severe accidents in your industry occur, and how much the injuries in your industry end up costing.
Most industrial fires are not caused by faulty equipment or fire hazards. The majority of fires are caused by unsafe employee activities. The good news, though, is that when an employee who causes a fire knows how to use a fire extinguisher, the risk of a major fire is greatly reduced.
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