It would be tragic if a worker’s family member became ill because of chemical contamination brought home from the workplace. Train your workers to prevent the spread of contamination.
In yesterday’s Advisor, we quoted safety consultant Fred Rine, who says about workplace safety: "If employees don’t understand the ‘why,’ not just the ‘how,’ they’ll never get beyond a certain point. You need to motivate them by reminding them that the reason to work safely is to protect their lives and their families."
That brings us to today’s topic. One of the ways employees can help protect their own as well as their family’s lives is to make sure they don’t bring chemical contamination home with them.
Chemical hazards can easily move from the workplace to home and harm loved ones. Contamination can be carried home on:
Work clothes- Tools and equipment
- Work-related materials such as boxes, bags, or scrap brought from work
- Workers’ bodies, if they don’t wash carefully at the end of a shift
Think you have no time to train? Think again. BLR’s 7-Minute Safety Trainer helps you fulfill key OSHA-required training tasks in as little as 7 minutes. Try it at no cost and see!
Simple Rules Protect Families
A few simple rules can protect employees’ families from contamination:
- Always remove contaminated clothing and PPE before going home.
- Wear gloves when removing contaminated clothing.
- Remove clothes from the upper body before those on the lower body.
- Shower or wash thoroughly with soap and water, and change clothes before going home.
- Never keep work clothes and PPE in the same locker with street clothes if you work with or around chemicals.
- Place contaminated work clothes and equipment in the proper place for decontamination or disposal.
- Never wash contaminated work clothes with family laundry.
- Don’t ever bring home items from the work area such as tools, boxes, etc.
Also remind employees to be aware of the signs of exposure to any chemicals in your workplace so that they can recognize those symptoms in family members. Point out that because children’s bodies are small, they may be more easily affected by even small amounts of a chemical.
And be sure to tell workers that if they think a hazardous chemical they work with could be affecting someone in their family, they should immediately consult their doctor and notify their supervisor as well.
Can you picture safety training in effective, 7-minute sessions? Get the details.
E-Z Training at a Phenomenal Price
To help you train employees about chemical safety, the BLR® 7-Minute Safety Trainer has the perfect collection of sessions explaining the hazard information found on MSDSs and labels and how to reduce chemical exposure. Each session provides you with a detailed trainer’s outline, as well as an illustrated handout, quiz, and quiz answers to get your points across quickly, easily—and cost-effectively.
All told, this "trainer’s bible" contains 50 prewritten meetings covering almost every aspect of safety you’d want or need to train on, in a format designed to be taught in as little as 7 minutes. Major topics include:
- Confined spaces
- Electrical safety
- Fire safety and emergency response
- HazCom
- Machine guarding and lockout/tagout
- Material handling
- PPE use and care
- Housekeeping/slips, trips, and falls
- … and dozens more
Just make as many copies as you need of the included handouts and quizzes, and you’re ready to train.
Equally important is that the program ships new meetings every quarter to respond to new and changed regulations. This service is included in the program price, which averages just over $1 a working day. In fact, this is one of BLR’s most popular safety programs.
If you’d like to personally evaluate 7-Minute Safety Trainer and see how it can build safety awareness, we’ll be happy to send it to you for 30 days on a no-cost, no-obligation trial basis. Just let us know, and we’ll arrange it.
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