• Create a Plan. Develop an emergency communications plan, including communications methods and individuals to call. Post it on the refrigerator, keep a copy with emergency supplies and provide copies to each family member.
• Prepare for the Worst-Case Scenario. During natural disasters, such as hurricanes or flooding, wireline services can be interrupted for extended periods of time because of damage caused by high winds or flooding. Wireless phones may serve as alternative means of communication.
• Conduct an Inventory. Review existing communications devices and determine whether family members would benefit by adding any services or phones that enable everyone to stay connected.
• Have a Backup Phone. Be sure that you have at least one corded telephone that is not dependent on electricity in case of an electrical power outage. Cordless telephones usually have receivers that are electrically charged, and thus will not work if there is a power outage. Consider keeping a basic hard-wired phone and a wireless phone on hand for emergencies to enable communication with safety officials and loved ones, even when the power is out. (more…)
   

Council launches preparedness Web page
The National Safety Council, in partnership with Citizen Corps, has launched an emergency preparedness page http://www.nsc.org/preparedness/ on the council’s Website. Visitors can access fact sheets; guides; checklists; downloadable tip sheets, posters and brochures; and other tools to help prepare for natural disasters, pandemics, and other potential disasters both at work and in the home and community.

Identify hazards — before an accident happens

You don’t need a safety degree to realize that workplaces are full of hazards — slips and falls, chemical exposures, temperature extremes, repetitive motion ailments, and many others.

How to identify hazards

What’s necessary is a way to identify those hazards. One of the most common methods of identifying and monitoring workplace hazards is observation. Often it is up to members of the safety committee to inspect equipment and observe job procedures to identify potentially unsafe conditions or procedures. If an unsafe situation arises, corrective action can then be taken to control the hazard and prevent it from recurring.

Workplace safety and health inspections, also known as audits, are the most widely accepted way to identify hazards. And, workplace inspections are one the best ways to improve the safety program in the workplace.

Who should do inspections?

Some self–inspections/audits are required under OSHA regulations (personal protective equipment and process safety management, for example). However, whether required or not, inspections give a baseline of information to work with and a method for tracking problems over time.

Choose an inspector

The first step is to choose your auditor.  You can do this in several ways:

• Hire an outside consultant to do an audit of your workplace.
• Use an audit plan developed by your insurance carrier, following specific guidelines.
• Do a self–inspection.

Any method is fine, as long as it accomplishes the goal of identifying hazards.

 Use a checklist

Use a workplace safety inspection checklist to assist in fact-finding. The checklist will give some indication of where you can begin to make your business safer and more healthful for all of your employees.

Workplace safety inspections accomplish several things, including:

• Compliance with OSHA regulations.
• Meeting local code requirements.
• Meeting insurance requirements.
• Improved safety for workers.

To improve the company’s safety program and reduce losses, injuries and illnesses, it’s important to identify the safety and health problems that affect the company.

OSHA Adds APFs to Respiratory Protection Standard - 08/23/2006

Three years after the agency unveiled the proposed rule in the Federal Register – and after some heated public discussions – OSHA is incorporating assigned protection factors (APFs) for respiratory programs into its respiratory protection standard.

OSHA will publish its final respiratory standard on APFs in the Aug. 24 Federal Register.

This APF final rule completes the revision of the reserve sections of OSHA’s respiratory protection standard as published in 1998. The respiratory protection standard now will contain provisions necessary for a comprehensive respiratory protection program, including selection and use of respirators, training, medical evaluation and fit testing.

APFs are numbers that indicate the level of workplace respiratory protection that a respirator or class of respirators is expected to provide to employees when used as part of an effective respiratory protection program.

Employers select respirators by comparing the exposure level found in the workplace and the maximum concentration of the contaminant in which a particular type of respirator can be used (the maximum use concentration, or MUC).

Employers generally determine the MUC by multiplying the respirator’s APF by the contaminant’s exposure limit. If the workplace level of the contaminant is expected to exceed the respirator’s MUC, the employer must choose a respirator with a higher APF.

OSHA mandates employers follow these new requirements and use APFs to select the appropriate type of respirator based upon the exposure limit of a contaminant and the level of the contaminant in the workplace.

An APF table guiding employers in the selection of air-purifying, powered air-purifying, supplied-air (or airline respirator) and self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA) respirators is included in the standard.

OSHA Administrator Edwin Foulke said the standard will help “employers and employees select the right respirator for the job.”

“And with the right respirator, employees will have adequate protection to be safe and healthy at work,” Foulke said.

Standard Gives Filtering Facepieces an APF of 10

The revised standard assigns an APF of 5 to quarter-masks (the lowest APF), 10 to half-mask air-purifying respirators (including filtering facepieces) and 10,000 to self-contained breathing apparatus helmets or hoods in certain modes (the highest APF).

While there appeared to be rough consensus on most of the APFs, the agency’s decision to give the popular filtering facepieces an APF of 10 is sure to anger labor groups and other stakeholders who argued the APF is too high and will endanger workers. On the other hand, respirator manufacturers and NIOSH were among those who generally supported the APF of 10 for filtering facepieces.

To view the standard in today’s Federal Register, click here.

 ASSE Urges Businesses To Develop, Review Emergency Preparedness PlansWith the recent news in mind — federal officials reiterating their prediction for an above-normal number of storms this hurricane season and arrests in Britain over a terrorism plot — the American Society of Safety Engineers (ASSE) is urging workplaces and communities to take steps now to be prepared to handle emergencies in an effort to minimize injury and disruption to operations. ASSE notes that there are three critical phases of crisis management: vulnerability assessment, response management and business continuity.

“While we may not be able to prevent terrorist attacks or natural disasters, if we are prepared to respond to them we will reduce the incidence of injuries and business disruption,” said ASSE President Donald S. Jones Sr., CSP, PE, of Plaquemine, La. “With the recent terrorist activities and the peak of the hurricane season approaching we are urging people and businesses to be informed and be prepared.” (more…)

Tips To Reduce Soaring Summer Electricity BillsAs heat waves blanket the country and the nation’s two most populous states, New York and California, as well as other locales had been suffering from blackouts this summer, the Alliance to Save Energy calls on consumers to switch energy-intensive home tasks to off-peak hours and to otherwise use energy more efficiently to reduce soaring summer electricity bills, pollution, greenhouse gas emissions, and potential for blackouts or brownouts.

According to Alliance projections, average households will spend more than $5,000 on energy this year to power their homes and vehicles. The Alliance offers consumers tips that can cut home and vehicle energy bills and pollution up to 30 percent and also generate some federal tax credits:

Shift energy-intensive tasks, such as laundry and dishwashing, to off-peak hours — nights, mornings, and weekends — when the strain on the power grid from business, industry, and homes operating air conditioning simultaneously is reduced. Operate washers and dryers with full loads to get the most for your energy dollars.
Cooling puts the greatest stress on the power grid and summer energy bills. Maintain your air conditioning equipment with a professional “tune-up” to save you the cost and inconvenience of a breakdown during the hottest days. Clean or replace filters monthly. Consider increasing the temperature by just three degrees to decrease your energy bills — or use a fan to circulate air so that you can increase the temperature comfortably. For optimum performance, make sure window units are sized properly.
Save water and energy simultaneously. Energy Star-certified clothes washers cut water and energy usage simultaneously, while getting clothes just as clean with less wear and tear. Also investigate Energy Star-certified (symbol of energy efficiency) dishwashers with soil sensors to shorten the washing cycle and clothes dryers with moisture sensors.
Your refrigerator runs 24 hours a day and accounts for about 10 percent of the total home electricity bill, so keep the coils clean to reduce your energy bills and extend the life of your appliance. The coils are located behind or under the fridge. Look for the Energy Star label when shopping for a new refrigerator. If all of the nation’s households used the most efficient refrigerators, electricity savings would eliminate the need for some 20-30 power plants, the Alliance states.
Forgetful? A programmable thermostat automatically coordinates indoor climates with your daily and weekend patterns, reducing cooling bills by up to 10 percent. And you don’t have to “remember” to turn the air conditioning off when you won’t be home. And for a room air conditioner, install a setback timer if it doesn’t already have one, so it does not run when you are not home. These things can reduce energy use and let you come home to a cool house.
Plug energy “leaks” with appropriate insulation, weather stripping, caulking and spectrally selective windows, glass doors and skylights. Make sure your attic and the rest of your house are well insulated. Some of these home energy-efficiency improvements can generate up to a $500 federal tax credit — see http://www.ase.org/taxcredits.
To cut your related energy bills by 30 percent, look for the Energy Star label, the symbol for energy efficiency, when shopping for room air conditioners, major appliances, lighting, home office equipment, windows, and electronics. Find retailers near you at http://www.energystar.gov/.
4 for the planet. Replacing four 75-watt incandescent bulbs with 23-watt fluorescent bulbs (CFLs) that use about two-thirds less energy and last up to 10 times longer saves $190 over the life of the bulbs. If all our nation’s households did the same, we’d save as much energy as is consumed by some 38 million cars in one year.
Light up your life — efficiently. You can also improve your home’s security and still avoid wasting money and energy when you are out by putting timers on a few lights or installing motion detectors on exterior floodlights.
Listen to your mother (”What do you think — we own the electric company?!”). Turn off everything not in use: lights, TVs, computers.
Many additional tips and free resources for all types of home and vehicle energy use can be found on the Alliance’s consumer Web site at http://www.ase.org/consumers. English and Spanish information on the federal tax credits for homes and vehicles is available at http://www.ase.org/taxcredits.