>>> . . . CLICK HERE to Continue Reading . . . >>>
Sunday, December 1, 2013
Are Dust Masks Considered Respirators?
One question I always ask trainees when discussing personal protective equipment (PPE) during OSHA 10 hour training classes is whether or not OSHA considers a dust mask to be a respirator. It has been my experience that the vast majority of students in most classes answer “no, it is not”. But the simple answer to that question is “YES, dust masks are considered respirators per the OSHA respiratory protection standard”. However, the steps you must take to comply with that standard can vary greatly, depending on . . .
Friday, November 1, 2013
Five OSHA Standards That Really Don’t Exist!
As a safety
consultant and OSHA Outreach trainer, I hear a
lot of discussion about certain safety measures that some people mistakenly
believe must be followed “because Federal OSHA standards require it”. While
their intentions are good, many times they would be embarrassed if someone
challenged them to put their money where their mouth is and find the particular
standard to which they referred, because the standard they are referring to
does not exist. So I decided this month I would draw on my past experiences and
share some of these phantom regulations I run across often by presenting my
list of Five OSHA Standards That Really Don’t Exist.
Seat Belts on Forklifts: How many times have you heard someone state that forklift operators must wear their seat belt (a.k.a. an operator restraint system) because “it’s required in the OSHA standards”? While forklift . . .
> > > CLICK HERE to Continue Reading Blog . . . > > >
Seat Belts on Forklifts: How many times have you heard someone state that forklift operators must wear their seat belt (a.k.a. an operator restraint system) because “it’s required in the OSHA standards”? While forklift . . .
> > > CLICK HERE to Continue Reading Blog . . . > > >
Tuesday, October 1, 2013
Is Hands-on Fire Extinguisher Training Required?
One question I
get asked a lot during mock-OSHA inspections is whether or not the Federal OSHA standards for portable fire
extinguishers requires employees to do “hands on” training with extinguishers.
And the answer is not as simple as “yes” or “no”; a better answer would be, “it
depends”.
First of
all, the assumption is that unless you told them otherwise, it is reasonable to
assume that any employee at your workplace could pick up a portable fire
extinguisher hanging in their work area and try to use it to extinguish a fire
should one start. Therefore, 1910.157(g)(1)
states that “Where the employer has
provided portable fire extinguishers for employee use in the workplace, the
employer shall also provide an educational program to familiarize
employees with the general principles of fire extinguisher use and the hazards
involved with incipient stage fire-fighting.” The standard goes on to explain in paragraph
(g)(2) that the “education”
required in paragraph (g)(1) “must be
provided to employees upon initial employment and at least annually thereafter.”
So does “education” require hands-on training? If
you refer to the definitions for Subpart L that appear in 1910.155, you will
find that paragraph (c)(14) defines "Education" as . . . . .
> > > CLICK HERE to Continue Reading Blog > > >
Monday, September 2, 2013
OSHA's Fall Protection Requirements for Aerial Lifts
When I first
set down and began drafting this month’s blog post, I started off with the
intent to address the many different fall protection requirements for general
industry and construction. But I decided to shift gears (don’t worry, I’ll
cover the general requirements in a future blog) and instead address the fall
protection requirements for one specific type of equipment where I see the most
misunderstandings among employers and employees: aerial lifts.
Federal OSHA
standards 1910.67 and 1926.453 address aerial lifts for general industry and
construction (respectively). Both of those contain a specific requirement that “A body belt shall be worn and a lanyard
attached to the boom or basket when working from an aerial lift.” However, it
is what the standards don’t say that can cause confusion.
During inspections of work sites, I commonly see someone working in an aerial lift wearing a full-body harness with a six-foot fall arrest lanyard attached to a tie-off point in the basket or work platform. When I ask why they are wearing that equipment, most tell me . . .
Thursday, August 1, 2013
Misunderstandings About the Applicability of OSHA's Permit-required Confined Spaces Standard
When OSHA published their Permit-required Confined Space standard (1910.146), it was inevitable that some people would misunderstand one or more parts of that complex standard. Surprisingly, though, the employers I find who are not in compliance with the requirements of this OSHA regulation are often not the ones who have implemented a permit-required confined space entry program at their site, but rather the ones who have not! That is because many employers mistakenly believe they do not have confined spaces on their premises, or, they do have permit spaces on their site but think the standard does not apply to them because their employees do not enter those spaces.
So in this month’s blog post, I am going to address the three most common myths, mistakes and misinterpretations I have seen made by employers regarding the applicability of OSHA’s permit-required confined space entry standard to their operations.
Mistake #1 – “This standard does not apply to me because I do not have any confined spaces at my facility.”
When many employers think of OSHA’s definition of a confined space, they envision only tanks and silos. And if none of these are present at their work site, then they surmise that the OSHA permit-required confined space standard does not apply to them. But what many employers often overlook are other potential confined spaces that are present at their site, such as but certainly not limited to many crawl spaces, air handlers, duct-work, bag houses, utility . . .
Monday, July 1, 2013
Ten Most Unique, Interesting, and Quirky OSHA Standards from State Plan Programs
July 4th
is here, and America is celebrating her 237th birthday this year.
And in spite of her faults, there is not a day goes by that I don’t say thanks
to my maker for allowing me to be born and raised in the greatest country in the world. One of the
benefits of being an OSHA trainer / consultant is that my line of work has
allowed me to travel to each one of the 50 states, plus the District of
Columbia. And I’ve found that there is something interesting or unique about
each and every one of them; except for Kansas (sorry Jayhawks, but there is
absolutely nothing about mile after mile of wheat fields that excites me).
In the Wolverine state, rule 5815 (2) – (7) requires the operator
of an aerial work platform (boom-lift . . .) to carry (or have available at the
job site) an operators permit, issued by their employer, for the specific type
lift they are utilizing. That permit is valid only while performing work for the
issuing employer, and expires after three (3) years, at which time it must be
re-issued. Federal OSHA has no operator’s permit requirement . . .
>>> CLICK HERE to continue reading this blog post <<<
Saturday, June 1, 2013
GHS Label Signal Words: The Distinction between DANGER and WARNING
June 1, 2013 - No
need to panic, at least not yet. But let me remind you that the deadline for
training all employees on the changes brought about by OSHA’s adoption of the
Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labeling of Chemicals (GHS)
into the Hazard Communication standard is getting closer by the day. And while
the December 1, 2013 deadline for getting all mandatory employee training
completed may seem a long way off, just remember that it was more than fourteen
(14) months ago that the revised OSHA Haz-Com standard was published and the
deadline was first announced!
One of the best ways to understand a new (or revised) OSHA
standard, I believe, is to prepare to teach a class about the topic. I am
already covering this topic when conducting OSHA 10 and 30 hour Outreach
training classes. And I just produced and posted on our website a free online
GHS training tutorial titled “Understanding the GHS Labeling System” for
employers to use for employee training purposes, and am currently working on
the companion course on understanding safety data sheets (will be ready soon).
And many of you already know that I create and post one free toolbox talk each
month on our website related to the GHS training requirements; my goal is to
have twelve (12) free GHS-related toolbox talks posted by December 1, 2013 that
employers can utilize for employee training. As a result of these efforts, I
have come to have a much better understanding of the revised OSHA Haz-Com
standard.
When researching the labeling requirements of the GHS
system, you will note the requirement that one of two “Signal Words” must
appear on all container labels and safety data sheets (SDS’s) for harmful
chemicals and products; either “DANGER” or “WARNING”. For many employees (and
employers), these two terms may seem to be interchangeable, but once you dig
into the standard and its appendices, you can see there is a distinct
difference between their use and intent. In a nutshell, the signal . . .
>>> CLICK HERE to continue reading this blog post >>>
Wednesday, May 1, 2013
Emergency Action Plans: They Are Usually Not Mandatory, However . . .
Some terrible things occurred during the course of three short days last month. First of all, a couple of troubled young brothers decided to explode two homemade bombs near the finish line at the Boston Marathon, killing three people and critically injuring over 100 others. Then two days later, there was a tremendous explosion at a fertilizer plant located in the small town of West, TX, injuring over 250 people and killing at least 15 people, many of them first responders. And right in the middle of all this, I get the following text message from my youngest daughter:
While the explosions that occurred in Boston and West were horrific, it was that cryptic text message from my baby girl that really got to me. I felt so helpless, especially since I was stranded in the airport in Atlanta GA because the airline (which will remAAin unnAAmed) that I was supposed to be flying home on that afternoon was grounded due to a massive computer outage. But . . .
“ Daddy. The school is on lock down. I’m okay. We have the door blocked. I love you so much.”
While the explosions that occurred in Boston and West were horrific, it was that cryptic text message from my baby girl that really got to me. I felt so helpless, especially since I was stranded in the airport in Atlanta GA because the airline (which will remAAin unnAAmed) that I was supposed to be flying home on that afternoon was grounded due to a massive computer outage. But . . .
Monday, April 1, 2013
Four Best OSHA-related Safety Apps on the Web - Download Them All for FREE
Can you
believe it’s already April? This happens to be one of my favorite months of the
year for a couple of reasons. First of all, it means that Spring has sprung
and the weather starts to get appreciably warmer (at least in the part of the
country where I live). It also happens to be the month during which I celebrate
my birthday. However, when you get to be my age, you tend to have everything
you really need, and the presents I get are usually shoved
into the back of the closet. But that does not stop my two daughters from using
their daddy’s credit card to try and buy me the perfect gift.
This year,
the girls bought me one of those new “smart” phones, the fancy kind with a big
fat display screen and numerous other built-in goodies. I’ll admit it took me a
few hours to figure out how to place a call, answer a call, and send an email
using my new smartphone. But after conquering those basic tasks, I decided it
was time to try and download some of those fancy new Apps I keep hearing about.
Being the
consummate safety professional that I am, I decided the first App I should
download was the OSHA Heat App that came out a couple of years ago. You know the one; if an employee is
working his butt off, but is not sure if he should be thirsty for a drink of
water, he simply pulls out his smart phone, connects to the internet, opens the
OSHA Heat App, enters several variables like temperature, humidity, expected workload
and his mother’s maiden name, then presses a button and crosses his fingers
that the App does not crash; and if all the stars align and he bought an
unlimited data plan for the smartphone, it alerts the worker whether or not it
is time to stop and get a drink of water. I know what you’re thinking; “how did
I ever get along without this App!” But believe it or not, this App only cost
OSHA a little more than a quarter-million taxpayer dollars to have developed.
So after downloading that hot new App (no pun intended; actually, it was intended),
I set out to find more safety-related Apps to download from the world-wide web.
What I found
was that there were actually quite a few OSHA-related safety Apps available,
some good and some not-so-good. In fact,
OSHA held a contest last year to encourage people to develop health and safety-related
Apps, and you can see their list of winners on their website.
But I wanted to research ALL of the safety Apps available on the web so I could
pick out the most useful ones, based on factors like download speed, ease of
use, and most importantly, potential for preventing an injury. And I narrowed
them all down to the top four most useful Apps, which I downloaded onto my smartphone.
Suddenly a
thought came to me; since people today are simply too busy to research all of the
Apps that are available for download on the internet, I should publish my list
of what I have deemed to be the top four OSHA-related safety Apps available,
and let others share in this wealth of knowledge. So here they are, appearing
in no particular order, my list of the four best OSHA-related safety Apps
available on the web:
OSHA Cold App – this App is the
obvious compliment to the OSHA Heat App. Here are the instructions on how to
use this App:
Place your smartphone face up on the
ground in an open area located outdoors, exposed to the elements. Wait 12
minutes, and then scratch a fingernail over the screen. Then look at the
screen; if you see a layer of frost buildup on the screen, very cold weather has
been detected. You should immediately take a break and sip some hot chocolate.
OSHA Black Ice Detection App –
this is another cold weather-related App, and it helps you detect when a thin
layer of hard-to-see "black ice” has built up on sidewalks or pavement, which
could lead to a nasty slip and fall. To use this App, follow these
instructions:
Place your smartphone flat on its back
on top of the sidewalk or pavement. Use one hand (either left or right) to give
the phone a shove. If the phone easily slides across the pavement, black ice has
been detected, and you should immediately apply some ice-melting compound
before walking on the sidewalk or pavement.
OSHA Suspended Overhead Load Avoidance
App – insures you become aware that a load is suspended over your head
when working near cranes and hoists; failure to know this could result in
potential injury should the load be lowered on top of you. Here is how you use
this App:
Turn on the “camera” function of your
smartphone. Point the phone straight up into the air directly over your head,
then look up through the viewfinder or at the display screen (whichever is
applicable to your smartphone). If you see a load suspended directly over your
head through the viewfinder or on the screen of your smartphone, you should
immediately move to a different area. Repeat this process often.
OSHA Proper Lifting Technique App
– this App is designed to automatically alert you when you fail to use proper
lifting techniques when picking up a box or similar load off the floor,
exposing you to a potentially painful back injury. The instructions for using
this App are listed here:
Place your smartphone flat on the top
of your head, and maintain your head in an upright position so that the phone stays
balanced on top of your head. Then, carefully lower your body by bending your
knees while keeping your back straight and maintaining your head in an upright
position, taking care to keep the phone balanced on your head. Then grasp the
object to be lifted with both hands, and slowly stand back up by straightening
your legs while keeping your back straight and your head up. If the smartphone
slides off the top of your head at any time during this process, it is
telling you that you did not maintain proper lifting form, and the lift must be
aborted at once!
I think
you’ll agree that these four new smartphone Apps are a “must have” for both
safety professionals and employees at many of our workplaces. And best of all, each
one of these Apps work with all nine versions of the iPhone, as well as on all Android
phones. Plus, they can all be downloaded for FREE at our website (oshatraining.com). So please, share this blog post with everyone
in your network so they too can benefit from my research.
Do you have other
smartphone Apps that you highly recommend? Or better yet, can you dream up an
idea for a new OSHA Safety App that we could develop together? If so, share
your idea with me by entering it into the Comments box below. And if your idea
for a new smartphone App looks as promising as these I have found, I may even
have it developed and put up for sale on the web; then you and I can split the
profits!
Oh yeah. In
closing, I remember that there is one more thing I really like about the month
of April; it is the month during which we get to celebrate April Fool’s Day.
Hope no one pulls one over on you!
Friday, March 1, 2013
Employers: You Better Dig a Little Deeper into the OSHA HAZWOPER Training Requirements
Many employers at work sites where chemicals are used
believe the employee training requirements in paragraph (q)(6) of the HAZWOPER standards do not
apply to their work site because if they were to have a large chemical spill or
release at the site, they would simply call in an outside firm or
organization (like the local Fire Department) to handle the emergency. However,
what many employers do not realize is that even if they call in an outside
company or organization to deal with the spill, they may still have people in their
organization that are required to have a certain level of training per paragraph
(q)(6) of the HAZWOPER standards for general industry (1910.120) and construction (1926.65). To help illustrate what I mean, consider the
following hypothetical scenario:
“A
forklift operator at a factory accidentally strikes some pipes that run between
chemical tanks located behind the shop, and the chemical began running onto the
ground. The forklift operator quickly alerts his foreman about the accident.
The foreman looked at the accident site from a safe distance and realizes that the
quantity of chemical being released is beyond an incidental spill that could be
safely handled by normal operating personnel, so he tells his workers to
evacuate the area, and then he contacts the site safety manager to report the
incident. The site safety manager immediately calls the local Fire Department
to report the spill and specifically requests they send their hazardous
materials (HAZMAT) response team to the site. He then goes to the general area
of the accident, careful to remain a safe distance, and observes some of the
liquid chemical is running across the pavement towards a storm drain inlet. So
he quickly grabs some absorbent “pigs” from a nearby spill response kit and
places them across the opening of the storm drain inlet before the chemical can
reach the area.
Once
the fire department’s HAZMAT team arrives, their incident commander confers
with the safety manager, and then instructs two of his team members to gear up
and take monitoring equipment to the point of release to confirm which chemical
is involved and to evaluate any potential atmospheric and/or safety hazards. By
that time, the company’s head of the engineering department arrives at the
scene, and he gears up to go into the hot zone with the fire department’s
HAZMAT team members so he can point out which valves need to be shut off to
stop the flow of chemical. Once the valves are identified, one of the HAZMAT
team members turns off the valves to stop the chemical from running out of the
broken pipes, and then they stabilize the area to prevent further spread of the
chemical.”
Wherever there is an initial response to a hazardous
material that is spilled or otherwise released in quantities beyond an
incidental spill, such as at the factory in our scenario, the OSHA HAZWOPER
standard has specific training standards in paragraph (q) for five distinct categories
of workers potentially involved in the initial response. Here is an overview of
training requirements for workers in all five worker categories mentioned in our
scenario:
· The first worker category listed in paragraph (q)
of the standard is called “First Responder Awareness Level”, and their training
requirements are described in 1910.120(q)(6)(i). In our scenario, this person is
the foreman in the area where the forklift struck the pipes. In other
incidents, this may be someone such as a police officer who happens upon a
major wreck involving a chemical tank-truck, or perhaps a security officer
making rounds after hours at a chemical manufacturing plant who happens upon an
unexpected spill or release of chemicals. The First Responder Awareness Level employee
must be provided with training sufficient to understand that the release of
chemicals is beyond the scope of an incidental release, and that it will
require response and clean-up by specially trained workers. The foreman in our
scenario notified the site safety manager of the release, and also initiated
the evacuation of workers in the area per his company’s emergency action plan.
He did not take any further action to try to contain or confine the chemical
release. Awareness level responders must also receive adequate training to be
able recognize and identify the hazardous substance(s) involved in the release,
to understand the risks presented by the hazardous material(s) involved, and be
able to implement whatever part they are assigned in executing the emergency
action plan at the site. There is no minimum time period that their training
must cover, just a requirement that the training enable the first responder to
perform his or her duties.
·
The next person involved in the emergency
response in our scenario is the site safety manager, who had been trained as a
“First Responder Operations Level”, as outlined in 1910.120(q)(6)(ii). In other
cases, this may be a fire-fighter who responds to a wreck and sprays water on a
burning tanker from afar, or an equipment room operator who tries to
electronically manipulate valves from the control room to shut off an
electronic valve or pump on a broken chemical line. The site safety manager in
our scenario responded to the initial chemical release in a purely defensive
fashion to protect the environment from the effects of the chemicals by placing
the absorbent pigs in front of the storm drain inlet, never putting himself in
a position to be harmed by the released chemical. Operations level responders
must be trained to the same level of knowledge required for an Awareness Level
responder (previously described), as well as in whatever defensive steps should
be taken to contain the release from a safe distance to protect nearby workers
and property. Operations-level responders must also be trained to properly
utilize any personal protective equipment (PPE) necessary to perform their job
safely, have an understanding of the basic terminology used in emergency
responses to chemical releases, and know the procedures needed to ensure safe
decontamination of their equipment and PPE when needed. The OSHA standard
states their training must take at least eight (8) hours to complete or that
person must have enough experience to objectively demonstrate competency in all
required areas.
· The next level of responder covered in our
scenario are the members of the fire department’s HAZMAT crew who went into the
hot zone (where the accident actually occurred) to evaluate the atmosphere and
stop the actual leak. They are referred to as “Hazardous Materials
Technicians”, and their training requirements are addressed in OSHA standard
1910.120(q)(6)(iii). These workers must receive at least 24 hours of training
on topics needed to enable them to perform their duties safely, which includes
but is not limited to understanding the means and methods necessary to stop the
actual release of chemicals (for example, closing valves or patching / plugging
a ruptured line). Their training must consist of instruction equaling that of
the First Responder Operations Level, plus additional instruction to enable
them to implement the emergency action plan for their organization, select and
utilize personal protective equipment necessary for the particular incident in
which they are involved, utilize equipment to identify and verify the hazardous
materials (chemical, biological, and/or radiological) involved in the incident,
function within their role in the Incident Command System (ICS). They must also
have a basic knowledge of the terms commonly used in hazardous materials
responses, as well as have an understanding of the harmful effects of the
materials to which they are exposed.
· The next level of emergency responder is called
the “Hazardous Materials Specialist”, covered in 1910.120(q)(6)(iv). They
provide support to the Hazardous Materials Technicians by offering skills or
knowledge about the specific materials or processes involved in the incident,
and/or act as liaison to various agencies responding to the event. In our scenario, this is the company’s head
of the engineering department, who went into the hot zone with the Hazardous
Materials Technicians to point out which valves shut off the flow of chemicals
in the ruptured pipes. In other events, this could be someone trained to
operate specialized monitoring equipment to evaluate conditions in the hot
zone. These “Specialists” must have a minimum of 24 hours training in the same
general topics as that required for the First Responder Operations Level, plus
whatever specialized knowledge is needed to perform their designated task (such
as use of specialized monitoring instrumentation, ability to identify and/or
operate critical valves . . .). While commonly employed, a HAZMAT Specialist
may not be utilized in all emergency response incidents.
· The fifth and final classification of emergency
responder found in paragraph (q) of the OSHA HAZWOPER standard is that of the
“On Scene Incident Commander.” In our scenario, the On Site Incident Commander
was the leader of the Fire Department’s HAZMAT Response Team. However, the
person acting in this role may change from person to person over time as
different agencies respond to the scene, per the protocols outlined in the
Incident Command Systems (ICS). Their training requirements are outlined in
1910.120(q)(6)(v), and must consist of at least 24 hours training in topics
covered for the First Responder Operations Level, plus additional training to
be able to oversee the execution of the emergency action plans for all entities
involved (local, state, federal). They must have knowledge of the hazards of
the hazardous materials (chemical, biological, and/or radiological) involved in
the incident, and also be able to manage or evaluate the selection, use, and
decontamination of the personal protective equipment used in the response
incident.
As you can now see, three different company employees in our
scenario were involved in the response to the point that they were required to
be trained under paragraph (q) of the OSHA HAZWOPER standards, even though the company
called in an outside organization (the Fire Department HAZMAT team) to deal
with the spill. Those employees were the foreman (First Responder Awareness
Level), the site safety manager (First Responder Operations Level), and the
head of engineering (Hazardous Materials Specialist).
With this information in mind, reconsider your
own operations. Do you have employees who would be expected to respond in some
fashion to a chemical spill or release and therefore fall into one or more of
these five categories covered in paragraph (q) of the HAZWOPER standard? At the
least, employers with hazardous chemicals on site in quantities that could potentially
exceed an incidental spill would need a worker (or workers) trained to the First
Responder Awareness Level so someone is available to recognize when it is actually
necessary to call in outside assistance. So double check what your emergency
response plan entails, and if one or more workers are involved to the degree covered
in our scenario, you need to ensure you have documentation to show they were provided
with the necessary HAZWOPER training specified for their appropriate level of
response.Do you have employees trained for any level of response in your operations? Can you think of a different scenario that helps demonstrate an event where such training for employees might be overlooked? If so, please make a comment below. And as always, feel free to share this information with others in your network.
Friday, February 1, 2013
Ten Most Common Mistakes Found on OSHA Injury and Illness Recordkeeping Forms
February 1st
has arrived, which means that you have probably already reviewed your OSHA
injury and illness recordkeeping forms for last year, filled out and posted
your OSHA Form 300A on the employee bulletin board, and started a new set of recordkeeping
forms for the New Year. However, you might want to review the following list of
the top ten most common mistakes that I have found when reviewing OSHA injury
and illness recordkeeping forms (link to forms here)
of clients during mock-OSHA inspections performed over the years; you may even find
something that you need to go back and correct on your previous years’ forms!
Here, in no particular
order, is my personal list of the ten most-common found mistakes on the OSHA
Injury and Illness Recordkeeping Forms:
·
No case number appears on the Form 300
and Form 301. See
column A of the Form 300? This is where you have to enter a case number, which
is a unique number (e.g.: 01, 02, 03 . . .) that you make up and assign to each recordable
incident. But be aware that this case number must ALSO appear on the
corresponding OSHA Form 301 (Injury and Illness Incident Report) on line 10.
And if you utilize an “equivalent” form in lieu of the OSHA 301 (such as a
workers comp first report of injury form), this case number must appear somewhere
on the alternate form as well.
·
Check-marks are entered in both Column
“H” (days away from work) AND Column “I” (job transfer or restriction) under the “Classify the Case” section
of the OSHA 300. I see this happen often
whenever an employee has to stay off work for a few days due to their injury,
and then comes back to work on light duty for a couple of days. It seems
logical that you would check both columns, right? However, the proper procedure
in this case would be to check only one of the two boxes (the one with the most
severe classification, which in this case is column H, "days away from work”). The reason
you do not check both is that at the end of the year when you tally up the
final numbers, you would actually show two incidents instead of one, and your
incident rate would be artificially high.
·
The employer does not enter both the
number of days away from work (in Column K) AND number of days with job
transfer or restriction (in Column L)
of the OSHA Form 300 when an employee has both. This is the contrasting problem
to the previous listed problem. Even though you would only check Column H under
“Classify the Case” in the example above, you would still list the
corresponding number of lost workdaysin Column K AND
days with job transfer or restrictions in Column L. So remember, in any incident involving
both lost workdays and job restrictions or transfer, even though there would
only be one checkmark (in column H), there would be days entered in both
columns K and L.
· The employer mistakenly enters the
number of scheduled work-days missed or with transfers/restricted duty instead
of the number of Calendar days missed in
Columns “H” and “I” of the OSHA Form 300. This is often due to the
record-keeper doing things the old way, when we used to fill out the OSHA 200
form. OSHA now requires you to enter the total number of calendar days
missed or on light duty in these columns, not the number of scheduled workdays
missed or on light duty. So even if an employee who normally works Monday
through Friday with weekends off is injured on a Friday, and the doctor says he is
not able to return to work or is on restricted duty until the following Monday,
you would still have to count the Saturday and Sunday that the doctor said they could
not work as lost or restricted workdays. [Reference1904.7(b)(3)(iv) and (v)].
·
Incidents that should be recorded as
an Illness are instead being classified as an Injury under Column M. If an employee suffers flash-burn
from welding, would you classify that as an injury or an illness? It should
actually be classified as an illness (entered in line 6, titled “All Other
Illnesses”). Incidents that are cumulative in nature (such as flash-burn, sunburn,
noise-induced hearing loss, and cumulative trauma disorders) are generally
considered as illnesses, whereas injury incidents typically result from a
single exposure or event.
·
Incidents affecting temporary service
employees working under contract for an employer are not entered on that
employer’s OSHA injury and illness records. The OSHA standards require you to enter all recordable
incidents on your log suffered by any employee if you are directing their
day-to-day activities. That is typically (although not always) the case where a
company contracts with a temporary help service or employee leasing company;
the exception being when the temp service or leasing agency is also supervising
the actual work being performed by their workers. [Reference1904.31(b)(2)]
·
Recordable injuries or illnesses are
not entered on the OSHA Form 300 within seven (7) calendar days of notification about the incident
occurring, as required by OSHA. Typically, employers know about such incidents
on the day they occur, and that is when the seven day calendar day count begins
to record the incident on your OSHA Form 300 (Log of Work-related Injuries and
Illnesses). But in those cases where the employer does not learn about a
recordable incident until a few days after it occurs, the seven days begins on
the day they find out about it happening. So do not wait and update your logs
once a month (or even once a quarter), as I so often see. Keep them up-to-date
to within one week. [Reference 1904.29(b)(3)]
·
Employers often under-report the
“total hours worked by all employees last year” on the OSHA Form 300-A (Summary
of Work-Related Injuries and Illnesses). The total hours worked by all employees at the
establishment during the corresponding year must be recorded on the form (see
the right-hand side of form, under establishment information). This is
important because under-reporting your hours worked will make your incident
rates artificially high! Under-reporting is usually due to the employer
forgetting to count the hours worked for ALL employees working at the
establishment; this includes not just workers on the line, but also all
salaried positions such as supervisors and managers, employees in support
functions such as engineering, accounting, purchasing or human resources, and
even the Big Kahuna himself (or herself). If they work at that site and are
injured, that incident would go on your log, so you get to count their hours
worked too. [Reference 1904.32(b)(2)(ii)]
·
The signature certifying the accuracy of
data on the OSHA Form 300-A is not that of a “Company Executive”. If you are the site safety manager,
HR manager, or office manager, you most likely do not meet the definition of a
company executive, and therefore should not be signing this particular form.
OSHA defines an executive as the company owner (if the company is a sole
proprietorship or partnership), a corporate officer, the highest ranking
company official working at that site, or the immediate supervisor of the
highest ranking person at the site. [Reference1904.32(b)(4)]
·
An employer does not maintain OSHA
Injury and Illness Recordkeeping Forms for their company because they mistakenly
claim the “small employer” exemption.
Okay, this one is not actually addressing a mistake on a form; it addresses
people who mistakenly think they don’t have to fill out the forms. The OSHA
standards say that an employer is generally exempt from maintaining these forms
IF their company had ten (10) or fewer employees all of the previous year.
There are two operative terms here; the first one is “ALL”, as in “all” of the
previous year. You must look at your peak employment number throughout the
entire year, and if that number was more than ten at any time during the
previous year, then you must keep the forms the following year. Also, keep in
mind that this is saying the total number of employees working for the COMPANY;
you may employee ten or fewer employees at your particular site, but if there
are other establishments within the same company (for example, a manufacturer
with multiple facilities located throughout the state), you must count the
total number of all COMPANY employees to see whether or not you qualify for
that small employer exemption, not just the ones at your particular facility. [Reference 1904.1(b)(1) and (2)]
So there is my personal
list of mistakes I have found most often when reviewing the OSHA
injury and illness records of clients over the years. While you may consider some of these
findings “ticky-tacky”, they are all citable offenses none-the-less, and you
don’t want to give the OSHA compliance officer any reason to pull out his or her
pen. And in a couple of these cases, the mistakes could actually result in a
higher than necessary incident rate for your establishment, which could have
very negative ramifications. So take a few minutes to check your OSHA injury
and injury recordkeeping forms for the last five years (that is how long you
are required to maintain them) and fix any mistakes you may find.
Have you ever been cited for one of the reasons listed above? Or maybe you’d like to share some other common mistake you’ve seen that pops up too often. If so, please share with your experience with our readers in the “comments” section below. And last but not least, please pass a link to this blog post along to others in your network who you think may benefit from this information.
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Tuesday, January 1, 2013
My Prediction for the Most Cited OSHA Standard . . . in 2014?
Happy 2013! With the beginning of every New Year comes predictions
for the future, and the vast majority of them turn out to be false. However, I
have one sure-fire, slam-dunk prediction for the year after next that will no doubt come true.
In fact, you can bet the house on it! Here
it is:
“In
2014, OSHA will issue more citations for violations of 1910.1200(h)(3)(iv)
during the year than for any other standard in the book.”
Now most people who make predictions do
so for the coming year. So why am I making a prediction for 2014, which is two
years in advance? Because OSHA just revised their Hazard Communication standard
to align with the United Nation’s “Globally Harmonized System of Classification
and Labeling of Chemicals”, commonly referred to as “GHS”. And buried in that revised
standard is a significant change to the employee training requirements that every
covered employer in the country will have to have in place by December 1, 2013. And
I’m betting that many employers will be caught flat-footed when 2014 rolls
around, either having not conducted the additional required training at all, or
not covering the required topics adequately. And that is when OSHA will start
handing out the citations!
In the revised Haz-Com standard,
manufacturers and distributors of hazardous chemicals and products actually have
until December 1, 2015 to standardize how they categorize the hazards of their
products, as well as the information and format of their container labels and
Safety Data Sheets (formerly known as MSDS’s). And employers will have until
that date to get these new items in place at their facilities. However, OSHA added some significant
new requirements for employers to train their workers about these pending
changes, and they are only giving you until December 1, 2013 to complete all of
this additional training.
So what must you get started covering right
now to make certain you get all the required training completed by December 1st
of this year and avoid the possibility of citations. If you look closely at the specific
standard I mentioned above [1910.1200(h)(3)(iv)], you will see that OSHA now requires
workers to be provided with training so they understand: 1) the labels on
shipped containers and the workplace labeling system used by their employer; and,
2) new Safety Data Sheets (aka SDS’s), including the order of information on
those sheets and how employees can obtain and use the appropriate hazard
information to protect themselves.
While that standard looks very similar to the old Haz-Com training requirements, the actual elements of the labeling and Safety Data Sheets (SDS’s) have significantly changed and will require extensive training for workers. Here is an overview of the major differences that will have to be covered in the training this year:
While that standard looks very similar to the old Haz-Com training requirements, the actual elements of the labeling and Safety Data Sheets (SDS’s) have significantly changed and will require extensive training for workers. Here is an overview of the major differences that will have to be covered in the training this year:
Training
on Container Labels & In-house Labeling Systems:
All containers of hazardous chemicals will now have to be labeled with
the following information:
·
Product
identifier;
·
Signal
word*;
·
Hazard
statement(s)*;
·
Pictogram(s)*;
·
Precautionary
statement(s)*; and,
·
Name,
address, and telephone number of the chemical manufacturer, importer, or other
responsible party
The four bullet points above that are marked
with a red asterisk (*) are new to the OSHA Haz-Com
standard. Be aware that OSHA has very specific requirements for how that
information is to be formatted on labels [see 1910.1200(f)(1) and (2)], and
this must be specifically addressed with your employees during training.
Training
on Safety Data Sheets
(formerly known as material safety data sheets): Safety Data Sheets (SDS’s) for
all hazardous chemicals in the workplace will have to be formatted to include
specific section numbers and headings, and contain all associated information
under each heading, in the specific order listed below:
·
Section
1 - Identification;
·
Section
2 - Hazard(s) identification;
·
Section
3 - Composition/information on ingredients;
·
Section
4 - First-aid measures;
·
Section
5 - Fire-fighting measures;
· Section
6 - Accidental release measures;
·
Section
7 - Handling and storage;
·
Section
8 - Exposure controls/personal protection;
·
Section
9 - Physical and chemical properties;
·
Section
10 - Stability and reactivity;
·
Section
11 - Toxicological information;
·
Section
12 - Ecological information;
·
Section
13 - Disposal considerations;
·
Section
14 - Transport information;
·
Section
15 - Regulatory information; and,
·
Section
16 - Other information, including date of preparation or last revision
So while the old OSHA Haz-Com standard
required training on MSDS’s in general, the revised standard is very specific about
the training workers will need; For example, they must now understand the specific order
of the information appearing on the SDS’s, and in which sections they can obtain
the appropriate hazard information they seek.
In addition to making sure all affected
workers receive training on the new labeling and Safety Data Sheet requirements,
there is actually one more part of the standard that will also have to be
specifically covered during employee training sessions. According to 1910.1200(h)(3)(ii)
(which I also predict will be cited by OSHA quite a bit in 2014), employees have
to be trained not only to understand the general physical and health hazards of
the hazardous products in the workplace, as was the case with the old standard,
but also specifics about the simple asphyxiation, combustible dust,
and pyrophoric gas hazards, as well as hazards not otherwise
classified, of the chemicals in the work area. These hazard categories were
not specifically spelled out in the old standard, so no doubt OSHA will be
looking for clear evidence that these topics were also covered, where
applicable, in your upcoming training sessions.
I found it interesting that OSHA
requires employers to provide the training by December 1, 2013, yet the actual
labeling and SDS requirements don’t have to be implemented until a couple of
years later. OSHA did this because they believe that American workplaces will soon begin to receive labels and
SDSs that are consistent with the revised Haz-Com standard, since many domestic and foreign chemical
manufacturers already produce GHS-compliant labels and
SDSs. And the agency feel it is important to ensure that when workers begin to see the new types of labels
and SDSs at work, they will be familiar with them, understand how to
use them, and be able to access the information effectively. So for a while at least, employees will need to understand both
the old and the new Haz-Com labeling systems and safety data sheets until
everything gets transitioned to the new systems.
While it may appear to be a daunting
task to accomplish all of this training in just a few short months, there are
many resources to assist employers in meeting the deadline. Our company is offering
free monthly OSHA Toolbox talks on our sister website (click here to see the list) that you can download to assist with your in-house training efforts. Each
month, the toolbox talk will address one aspect of the revised Haz-Com training
requirements, with the goal of covering them all by December 1, 2013. We also
offer training DVDs to help you meet the mandatory training requirements (click here). And last but not least, there
are many OSHA Trainers standing by who can conduct the training for you if
needed (click here to find one). Whatever approach you take, I’d urge you to
get started right away if you have not already. And by getting started now
rather than later, you can avoid being one of the many employers who I predicted
will get dinged by OSHA in 2014.
Have you already taken
any steps to train your workers on the new employee training elements contained
in the revised OSHA Hazard Communication Standard? If so, please share with our readers how you are
going about this in the “comments” section below. And
last but not least, please pass a link
to this blog post along to others in your network who you think may benefit from
this information.
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