If It’s Dangerous, Safeguard It!

Amputations are among the most severe and disabling workplace injuries. According to some estimates, the number of annual job-related amputations is about 5,000. That’s an average of almost 14 a day—and that’s a lot.

According to OSHA, the first step in preventing amputations is to ensure that employees can recognize contributing factors.

Three types of mechanical components present amputation hazards:

• Point of operation
• Power transmission apparatus
• Other moving parts

Various types of hazardous mechanical motions and actions can contribute to an amputation, including:

• Rotating motions
• Reciprocating (back-and-forth or up-and-down) motions
• Transversing (continuous-line) motions
• Cutting action
• Punching action
• Shearing action
• Bending action
• In-running nip points (pinch points)

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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!

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According to OSHA, activities that increase the risk of amputations include:

• Machine set-up/threading/preparation
• Machine inspection
• Normal production operations
• Clearing jams
• Machine adjustments
• Machine cleaning
• Lubricating parts
• Scheduled and unscheduled maintenance

Safeguards Prevent Injuries

Machine guards—the primary devices for safeguarding equipment and preventing amputations—prevent inadvertent access to hazards in one of several ways:

• By preventing operation if a hand or body part is placed in the danger area
• By restraining or withdrawing the hands from the danger area during operation
• By requiring the use of both hands on machine controls or the use of one hand if the control is mounted a safe distance from the danger area
• By providing a barrier that is synchronized with the operation cycle to prevent entry to the danger area

For safeguarding specifics, OSHA refers you to ANSI’s Performance Criteria for Safeguarding. This consensus standard provides guidance on design, construction, installation, operation, and maintenance of safeguards.

OSHA also requires that machine safeguarding be supplemented with an effective lockout/tagout program that ensures employees are protected from hazardous energy sources during service and maintenance.

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Effective, 7-minute sessions providing comprehensive safety training at an average cost of $1 a day. Get the details.

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When equipment and employees interact properly, the result is safety, productivity, and quality. But when those interactions are risky due to unsafe equipment or unsafe actions on the part of employees, the result can be tragic.

Your site might not have experienced at equipment-related incident or been cited by OSHA for machine safety violations, but to maintain that status, you must stay vigilant and make sure employees who work with machinery do too.

Safeguard Employees with Training

In addition to machine guards, you need to guard your employees from injuries with plenty of effective training. And that’s where the BLR® 7-Minute Safety Trainer can help. In fact this essential training resource has a whole section of machine-related safety sessions.

7-Minute Safety Trainer 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.