Tips for Managing Safety in Machine Operation Areas: Part II

The machines in your workplace are hard workers. But they’re only machines. They can only do the grunt work. They can’t think. It’s your human workers who have to do the thinking in order to prevent machine accidents.

To be sure your workers are thinking straight and fully in command when they operate machinery, they must properly trained.

Training for machine operators should include at a minimum:

• Machine hazards
• Machine operation, including safeguards and emergency stops
• Lockout/tagout procedures and rules
• PPE
• Machine area housekeeping and storage rules
• Slips, trips, and falls
• Maintenance schedules and authorizations
• Procedures for reporting malfunctions and handling repairs
• Emergency response, including fires and first aid

PPE

PPE for machine operators usually includes:

• Eye and face protection (safety glasses with side shields or goggles as well as a face shield when there’s a risk of flying particles)
• Hearing protection when noise levels exceed regulatory limits
• Head protection if there is a risk of materials or other objects falling from above
• Foot protection to keep feet and toes safe from falling materials or machine movement

Gloves should be worn to protect hands when handling materials, but machine operators must understand that gloves should not generally be worn when operating machinery. Gloves can interfere with precise grip or get caught at pinch points or at the point of operation, which can cause crushed fingers or amputations.

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Whatever safety meeting you need, chances are you’ll find it prewritten and ready to use in BLR’s Safety Meetings Library on CD. Try it at no cost or risk. Here’s how.

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Fires and Medical Emergencies

Fires are an ever-present danger in machine operation areas. For example, at the workplace mentioned in yesterday’s Advisor, an employee received third-degree burns when he carried an open container of flammable liquid through an area where an electric sander was being used. A spark from the sander ignited the liquid.

Avoid fires by considering all potential fire hazards and the precautions necessary to prevent ignition.

Also, just in case you fail to anticipate every possible risk, make sure to have fire extinguishers on hand that can contain the classes of fires common to machine operation areas. For example:

Class A—Combustibles (paper, cardboard, wood)
Class B—Flammable liquids (solvents, oil, etc.)
Class C—Electrical fires

Multipurpose extinguishers may also be an appropriate choice for machine operation areas.

OSHA has strict requirements for the use and placement of portable fire extinguishers (see 29 CFR 1910.157).

First aid kits should also be available, and employees should know how to report accidents and medical emergencies.

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We challenge you to NOT find a safety meeting you need, already prewritten, in BLR’s Safety Meetings Library. Take up our challenge at no cost or risk. Get the details.

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Train for Safety

BLR’s Safety Meetings Library provides a wealth of materials for conducting frequent and engaging training on a wide range of safety training issues, including machine safety. This cost-effective resource provides safety meeting materials that come complete with supporting handouts, quizzes, posters, and safety slogans.

All told, the CD provides you with more than 400 ready-to-train meetings on more than 100 key safety topics—a shrewd investment in this time of tight safety budgets. In addition to the meetings’ supplemental quizzes and handouts, you also get relevant regulations (OSHA’s CFR 29), a listing of the most common safety violations cited by OSHA, and case studies of actual OSHA cases and their outcomes.

Safety Meetings Library lets you choose from a variety of training approaches, including:

• Mandatory—Sessions that are OSHA-required
• Comprehensive—Sessions with broadest coverage of a topic
• 7-Minute—Short, simple, targeted sessions to fit tight schedules
• Initial—A session used as introductory training on a topic
• Refresher—Sessions that follow up on or reinforce previous training
• Tool Box Talk—More informal reinforcement of a topic
• PowerPoint^®—Graphic presentations for comprehensive initial or refresher training
• Hands-on—A session in which there are training activities
• Spanish—Including Spanish language handouts and quizzes coordinated with English sessions

You can get a preview of the program by using the links below. But for the best look, we suggest a no-cost, no-obligation trial. Just let us know and we’ll arrange it for you.

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