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Whenever machine maintenance or repairs are performed by a group of employees, you must develop and implement a group energy control procedure that provides the same level of protection as a personal lockout or tagout device. Machine maintenance and repair operations performed by a group of employees are often more complex than similar operations performed […]
Forklift operations raise many safety issues for employers. There’s a lot to know about OSHA requirements, and not all of it is well-known. Many of your colleagues have turned to our safety experts for answers to their safety forklift questions. Here’s a sample of interesting forklift questions sent in to our sister website, Safety.BLR.com®, where […]
Every year you hear about grisly accidents caused by failure to lockout and/or tagout equipment that is being serviced or repaired—or failure to follow required lockout procedures completely and correctly. Make sure one of this year’s stories isn’t about someone in your workplace. OSHA developed the lockout/tagout (LO/TO) standard (29 CFR 1910.147) precisely to prevent […]
Compliance with OSHA’s Control of Hazardous Energy standard involves a variety of issues other than the basic lockout/tagout procedures. It’s a comprehensive standard, and you need to comprehend all its requirements. Because you’re probably already familiar with the basic lockout/tagout procedures, let’s skip ahead to some lesser-known facts about lockout/tagout compliance. (NOTE: If you’re looking […]
The national statistics on injuries and deaths from workplace slips, trips, and falls are disturbing. Today we’ll give you some actionable advice on keeping your workers from adding to those statistics. Slips, trips, and falls cannot be taken lightly. Consider: In one recent year, more than 800 American workers fell to their deaths. On average, […]
Yesterday we looked at the 10 steps OSHA requires authorized lockout/tagout (LOTO) employees to follow. Today we turn to the LOTO standard’s training requirements and look at a tool that takes the pain out of providing LOTO training. As we discussed yesterday, OSHA’s LOTO standard (29 CFR 1910.147) requires you to train three groups of […]
Every year workers are injured, maimed, or killed in grisly accidents because they fail to disconnect the power source of machinery they’re repairing or servicing—or because a co-worker restarts the equipment prematurely. The truly sad part is that these accidents can be prevented simply by understanding and following OSHA’s lockout/tagout (LOTO) standard. The LOTO standard […]
Yesterday we looked at the growing number of forklift-free workplaces, including some of the advantages they offer and some of the obstacles to a smooth conversion. But most facilities won’t be getting rid of their forklifts any time soon, so today we’ll look at OSHA forklift training requirements and at a tool that will help […]
As winter approaches and temperatures drop, you may be faced with the question of whether to allow the use of portable space heaters in the colder areas of your workplace. So, should you?
It’s easy to assume that machines are safe once they have been shut down. But that assumption often leads to tragedy. Here are some key aspects of OSHA’s lockout/tagout standard that can help safeguard your workforce Veteran safety professionals know that simply turning off or unplugging a machine before maintenance, repairs, or retooling is not […]