Practical EHS Tips, News & Advice. Updated Daily.
To protect workers from harmful exposures to air contaminants, you have to be able to calculate exposure limits accurately. Here is a review of the formulas used to calculate PELs. OSHA has developed 470 PELs (permissible exposure limits) for various forms of approximately 300 chemical substances. The PELs provide numeric standards that determine how long […]
Preparation is the key to effective response to workplace fires. Fire drills help prepare employees to respond quickly, calmly, and safely. Fire drills play a very important role in workplace fire safety. Although OSHA does not require fire drills, it strongly recommends them.
A University of Vermont–hosted safety site has published what it calls the “Fatal 5″—the primary causes of LO/TO-preventable injuries. Make sure these hazards aren’t present in your workplace. OSHA requires you to train employees to prevent lockout/tagout (LO/TO) accidents in the workplace. Have you explained how to avoid the "Fatal 5" to your employees? 1 […]
OSHA requires you to have an effective lockout/tagout program and train employees involved in or affected by LOTO. All employees who work with or around machinery and equipment should be trained to understand the importance of lockout/tagout and how it affects workplace safety. All employees who work with and around equipment that can be locked […]
According to OSHA, some 3 million workers face the risk of injury or death from hazardous energy–related accidents. Compliance with lockout/tagout rules keeps about 120 of them alive each year and prevents some 50,000 accidents. Three men were performing maintenance inside an asphalt mixer. One of them was still inside the mixer when the power […]
OSHA requires authorized and affected employees to be properly trained in lockout/tagout requirements and procedures. Do your employees have the knowledge they need to prevent deadly accidents? Here’s a true story excerpted from BLR’s Interactive CD: Lockout/Tagout that dramatically illustrates to employees why lockout/tagout is so important. Laundry Worker Fatally Injured A laundry worker propped […]
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 […]