OSHA stresses its three lines of defense philosophy to help eliminate or reduce potential exposures to hazards. The first line of defense is to utilize engineering controls to eliminate the hazard. Adding ventilation to reduce air contaminants from a welding operation is an example of an engineering control.
During 2014, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported that approximately 357,400 welders, cutters, solderers, and brazers were employed. Welders and those who perform welding-related activities are susceptible to many occupational hazards, particularly to their ocular and respiratory health.
Personal protective equipment (PPE) helps keep welding operators free from injury, such as burns – the most common welding injury – and exposure to arc rays. The right PPE allows for freedom of movement while still providing adequate protection from welding hazards.
Welders risk many workplace accidents including:
Electrical shock. Electrical shock is one of the most common accidents welders face. It can be caused when two metal parts that have a voltage between them touch or by secondary voltage shock where the welder touches part of the welding or electrical circuit at the same time his body touches a part of the metal he is welding.
Many proximity sensors are used in automated equipment, so it’s good to have a basic understanding of these critical devices. Proximity sensors allow non-contact detection of machine tooling and objects in a variety of automation applications.
The IRSST has just made available a free online tool for analysing and managing the risks associated with work in confined spaces. The tool, called CLOSE, is intended for use by people already qualified for confined space risk management, including prevention officers, supervisors, clients, principal contractors, designer-integrators and rescuers.
If you have seen a construction site recently, you may have noticed workers standing on elevated equipment that resembles scaffolding, except with only one platform level for workers. With its ship-like mast, this equipment is aptly called a mast-climbing work platform, or mast climber for short.
Elon Musk, owner of SpaceX and Tesla is a seriously strange and driven guy. That can be a good thing in some circumstances and even amusing if it’s your next door neighbor or crazy uncle. But when you own a major car company, it can mean workers getting hurt or killed. Last May we wrote about a report chronicling Tesla’s poor safety record.
A professor of safety management at West Virginia University has been named William E. Tarrants Outstanding Safety Educator by the American Society of Safety Engineers (ASSE). Gary Winn, Ph.D., CHST, who teaches in the school’s Department of Industrial and Management Systems Engineering, heads up the school’s safety management master’s degree program and occupational safety and health doctorate.
The eternal battle is production versus safety, and at the very center of this is lockout, or better – avoiding lockout. The complaint, by both production and maintenance is that locking out equipment takes too long, or if they lockout, getting the machine back on line could be difficult.
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