5 Keys to Preventing Chemical Exposures

1. Knowledge

• Employees need to pay attention to safety training and apply what they learn on the job. When they come to a training session or safety meeting, they should be prepared to focus all their attention on participating and learning.
• Employees who work with hazardous materials must be thoroughly familiar with labels and MSDS, including a the technical terms, warning words, pictograms, color-coding and numerical systems, etc.

2. PPE

• Workers should always read the label and MSDS prior to using any hazardous chemical in order to determine the proper PPE to use to protect against the specific hazards of the substance.
• Workers should be taught to don, remove, and dispose of PPE properly as well as to inspect it before use to make sure it fits correctly.

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3. Safe Handling

• Employees should inspect chemical containers regularly and report leaks or missing or unreadable labels.
• They should remove from the primary container only as much of a substance as they need for a job, and keep containers closed when not in use.
• Employees should use required ventilation to remove chemical vapors.
• They must store and use chemicals away from substances and conditions that could cause hazardous reactions.

4. Good Hygiene

• Workers should be required to wash thoroughly after working with chemicals.
• Workers should also keep food, beverages, street clothes, and other personal items out of chemical areas to avoid contamination.

5. Emergency Response

• Employees should report spills immediately and take appropriate action, depending on their training. If they are not trained and equipped to clean up spills they should evacuate the area and let the cleanup team handle the spill.
• Employees should know appropriate first aid for inhalation of hazardous substances, skin or eye contact, and ingestion.

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Can you picture safety training in effective, 7-minute sessions? Get the details.

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E-Z Training at a Phenomenal Price

To help train employees in a broad range of safety and health topics, including HazCom, savvy safety professionals have for years relied on the BLR^® 7-Minute Safety Trainer. This essential training resource allows you to provide concise, memorable training easily and effectively in just a few minutes. Materials are ready-to-use, and each session supplies a detailed trainer’s outline as well as a handout, quiz, and quiz answers to get your points across quickly—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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