Practical EHS Tips, News & Advice. Updated Daily.
Few workplace machines are as useful as the forklift … or as dangerous. Some 100 workers are killed, and 20,000 injured, each year in forklift-related accidents. Here are the materials you need to legally train your employees in safe forklift operation, and to keep current with the latest developments in forklift and industrial truck safety.
Free Special Report: The 5 Deadly Forklift Dangers
OSHA is seeking comment and information about possible deregulatory action involving general industry, construction, and maritime standards for forklifts and other powered industrial trucks. The request for information appeared in the March 11 Federal Register.
Carbon monoxide (CO) in quantities that exceed OSHA’s permissible exposure limit (PEL) of 50 parts per million (ppm) as an 8-hour time-weighted average (29 CFR 1910.1000 Table Z-1) can occur in indoor work areas where fuel with a carbon content (e.g., natural gas, gasoline, kerosene, oil, propane, coal, wood, or plastic) is incompletely combusted. One […]
Motorized forklifts are an essential tool for unloading and loading trucks and otherwise moving heavy inventory. But forklifts—also called powered industrial trucks—can be highly hazardous for a wide range of reasons. National Forklift Safety Day, an observance sponsored by the Industrial Truck Association, took place this week.
Cal/OSHA fined a roofing and building supply company $62,320 for multiple serious accident-related safety violations following an investigation of a fatal forklift accident in San Francisco.
Recently, a subscriber asked the following question: Can we use a work platform connected to a fork truck to lift employees? If yes what are the regulations?
Recently, one of our subscribers asked the following question: For pedestrian safety, how wide does a designated protected employee travel path need to be? What type of stationary protective guards are acceptable to prevent forklifts from hitting pedestrians?
Forklift Safety When used properly, forklifts can help workers accomplish tasks more efficiently and safely, but when unsafely operated, potentially catastrophic incidents can outweigh their benefits. Safety managers have an additional hurdle to overcome to ensure forklift safety: forklift operators and nearby pedestrians may be distracted by their cell phones or other mobile devices, and […]
All forklift operators must be certified through a process of classroom and hands-on training in order to operate a forklift. Once they’re certified, they should be expected to operate the forklift safely at all times. If they don’t, they should be retrained before being permitted to operate a forklift again. What sorts of behaviors would […]
An unqualified forklift operator is a hazard to himself, to coworkers, and to your bottom line. The answer to the question “What makes a forklift operator qualified?” might seem straightforward—“a certified forklift operator,” right? But what goes into that qualification? What does a certified forklift operator know? Here are the basic ingredients that identify a […]
In July 2014, California’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health (Cal/OSHA) leveled $308,435 in proposed fines against NFI, a warehouse operator in Mira Loma, California. What had NFI done to merit such a stiff penalty? The company had failed to correct conditions at its workplace that put pedestrians and forklifts together in dangerous ways.