Even with the proper precautions like flashback arrestors, exhaust hoods for fumes and gases, or fire extinguishers, welding carries a lot of risk. Needless to say, a good pair of gloves are as important to a welder as a welding hood – or at least they should be.
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.
Choosing the appropriate safety knife for your company is an important decision that directly impacts your employees’ safety and your company’s brand. Many factors need to be discussed and assessed.
One of this year’s highlights: Employers are struggling with the active shooter problem. Experts from the Department of Homeland Security, law enforcement, corporate risk management and employee assistance programs will address the topic in a general session.
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.
When activity levels increase or people are exposed to extreme environments, water is lost more rapidly and needs to be replaced more frequently. Maintaining adequate hydration levels in the body can help avoid both acute and chronic health problems ranging from minor headaches to death.
Outdoor workplaces expose employees to increased sun exposure, infectious insects and poisonous plants where susceptibility is much higher. Education and protection against them are simple safeguards that are encouraged by OSHA. So how are you protecting your outdoor workers?
Recently a Hawaiian civil defense employee sent an emergency alert that a ballistic missile threat was headed for Hawaii, and that residents should seek shelter. It was a mistake, a human error. Panic ensued and it took 38 minutes to correct the error.
On January 22, 2018, a rig explosion near Quinton, Oklahoma claimed the lives of five workers, marking the deadliest incident in the U.S. oil and gas industry since the Deepwater Horizon disaster. These incidents, and many others, are tragic reminders of the need for innovation in safety systems.
Pankaj Singh is a recent Ph.D. graduate in mechanical engineering from Cornell University. He is also a co-founder of OrthoFit Inc, a new company developing smart wearables and software. ISHN interviewed Pankaj by email to discuss smart glove wearables.
Safety managers must ensure that workers of all ages stay safe. However, millennials — those born between 1982 and 1997, and expected to make up half the world’s workforce by 2020 — pose a special challenge.
Organizations adapt to recent regulatory changes pertaining to drug and alcohol program requirements, including testing for opioids. Learn steps organizations can take to enhance their compliance in regard to drug and alcohol policies and processes.
I’ve never given much thought to pedestrian safety because I’ve never been in harm’s way or seen pedestrians at risk. That’s until two months ago. In February I attended a conference in Houston.
Yesterday’s risk management practices are no longer adequate to deal with today’s threats and they need to evolve. This reasoning drove ISO to revise risk management standard 31000:2009 to 31000:2018.2
Why are we still talking and writing about confined space training a quarter century after OSHA issued its confined space standard for general industry in 1993?
In our previous two columns on this subject, developing an actionable safety plan is covered in three parts. First Actions was explained in Part One (October 2017 ISHN) and Core Actions detailed in Part Two (January 2018 ISHN). The rest of this column focuses on Sustaining Actions.
How do people get to a point where they fear safety? How can something like a checklist or an SOP or a safety manager create fear? Our body is equipped with automatic protective wiring that reacts to scary stimuli with a fear response.