February 2008
Monthly Archive
Fri 29 Feb 2008
One of the most common questions I get asked about is Exits Routes (Means of Egress) and Emergency Action Plans. These two are synergistic with each other. A good Emergency Action Plan should include all exit routes. Too often we hear of employees getting injured or dying in an emergency situation. Proper planning and training can help eliminate many of these incidents.
Below are some of the highlights of OSHA requirements for Exit Routes and Emergency Action Plans.
Exit Routes (1910.34 - .37)
OSHA has specific requirements for design and construction of exit routes that include:
- Exit rout must be permanent
- Exits must be separated by fire resistant materials
- Openings must be protected by a self-closing fire door
- There must be a minimum of two (2) exits in the workplace
Exits MUST discharge to the outside or a space with access to the outside. The exit should always remain unlocked. Exit routes should be a minimum of 7 feet 6 inches high and 28 inches wide. Exit signs should be clearly marked and illuminated, that can be seen by normal vision.
Emergency Action Plans (1910.38)
Workplaces with 10 or more employees must have a WRITTEN Emergency Action Plan that is available for employees to review. The plan must include the following:
- Procedure for report emergency
- Procedure for emergency evacuation
- Procedure for employees who remain to operate critical plant operations before they evacuate
- Procedure to account for all employees
- Procedures for employees performing rescue or medical duties
The workplace MUST have an alarm system that complies with 1910.165. An employer MUST designate and train employees to assist in a safe and orderly evacuation of other employees. Every employee MUST be trained on the Emergency Action Plan.
It is recommend that employers practice the Emergency Action Plan at least twice during the year. Once when employees know in advance and once without prior notification. The fire department should always be aware of your practice schedule. Both the fire department and your insurance vendor will assist you in inspecting the workplace to make sure it complies with regulations.
The Red Cross and others have Emergency Kits available. They have small inexpensive Safety Tube that includes, a mask, whistle, light stick and water pouch. This Safety Tube should be given to all employees, to keep at their workstation. Making sure the Exit Routes are unobstructed and your Emergency Action Plan is practiced can help save lives.
Mon 25 Feb 2008
What is a Job Safety or Job Hazard Analysis and how can you use it successfully?
- identifies hazards associated with each step of the task that has the potential to cause serious injury
- determines how to control the hazard
- produces a written tool which can be use to train others
- meets OSHA requirements that develop polices and procedures specific to that job
What jobs are appropriate foa a job hazard analysis?
A job hazard analysis can be conducted on many job in you workplace. Priority shoudl be given to the following types of jobs:
- Jobs with the highest injury or illness rates
- Jobs with the potential to cause sever or disabling injuries or illness, even if there is no history of previous accidents
- Jobs in which on simple human error could lead to a severe accident or injury
- Jobs that are new to your operation or have underdone changes in processes and procedures
- Jobs complex enough to require a set of written instructions Now What?
Supervisors can use the findings of a job hazard analysis tl eliminate and prevent hazards in their workplace. This is likeley to result in fewer workers injuries and illnesses; safer, more effective work methods; reduced worker’s compensation cost; and increased work productivity. The analysis also can be a valuale tool for training new employees in the steps required to perform their jobs safely.
For a job hazard analysis to be effective, management mus demostrate its commitment to safety and health and follow through to correct any uncontrolled hazards identified. Otherwise, management will lose credibility and employees may hesitate to go to management when dangerous conditions threaten them.
For more information and to help get started OSHA has a JSA publication available.
Wed 20 Feb 2008
Can you picture what it means to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 1 million metric tons? News stories are packed with measurements of greenhouse gas reductions, but understanding them can be difficult — until now. EPA’s new Greenhouse Gas Calculator helps turn greenhouse gas savings into more easily understood terms.
The calculator converts greenhouse gas-related savings estimates, typically presented in “million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalents,” into familiar terms such as the greenhouse gas emissions that would result from:
- Driving a particular number of cars for a year,
- Using a particular amount of gasoline or barrels of oil,
- Using a particular number of tanker trucks’ worth of gasoline,
- Providing energy to a particular number of homes for a year,
- Growing trees across a particular number of acres for a year,
- Recycling a particular quantity of waste instead of sending it to the landfill, or
- Generating electricity from a particular number of coal-fired power plants for a year.
Users can enter savings in emissions, electricity consumption, gallons of gasoline, or number of vehicles into the calculator and determine up to 13 different ways to express the magnitude of the savings. The calculator uses the latest emission factors, approaches and statistics available through 2007.
As an example, if a typical household switched all its incandescent light bulbs to Energy Star-qualified compact fluorescent light bulbs, it would save about 75 percent of the lighting electricity use, or about 1,463 kilowatt hours a year. After five years, these energy savings are equivalent to:
- Saving about 10,289 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions,
- Conserving 530 gallons of gasoline,
- Saving 11 barrels of oil,
- Planting 120 tree seedlings, or
- Recycling 1.6 tons of waste.
Mon 18 Feb 2008
A unified effort by the public, educators and policymakers is needed to reduce deaths from sudden cardiac arrest by increasing the use and effectiveness of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), according to a statement from the American Heart Association. The statement, “Reducing barriers for implementation of bystander-initiated cardiopulmonary resuscitation,” appears online in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association.
“Bystander cardiopulmonary resuscitation rates are woefully inadequate, resulting in an enormous missed opportunity to save lives from cardiac arrest,” said Benjamin S. Abella, M.D., M.Phil., clinical research director for the Center for Resuscitation Science at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, and lead author of the statement.
Studies indicate that in many communities only 15 percent to 30 percent of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest victims receive bystander CPR before emergency medical services (EMS) personnel arrive at the scene. Considering that cardiac arrest survival falls an estimated seven percent to 10 percent for every minute without CPR, the low rate of bystander CPR has a big impact on outcomes, he explained.
Approximately 166,200 out-of-hospital sudden cardiac arrest deaths occur annually in the United States. Sudden cardiac arrest often results from an irregular heartbeat called ventricular fibrillation (VF) which causes the heart to quiver so that it cannot generate blood flow. Treatment of VF requires CPR to keep blood moving through the body until the patient’s heart can be shocked to terminate the VF and allow the heart’s pacemaker cells to establish a normal rhythm, AHA officials said.
In the last decade, automated external defibrillators (AEDs), portable defibrillation machines, have become increasingly common in public buildings such as casinos, airports and schools. However, Abella said defibrillation is only one of the four links in the Chain of Survival, a sequence of four actions that must occur quickly to help assure the best chances of survival.
The Chain of Survival requires:
early recognition of the emergency and phoning 911 for EMS.
early bystander CPR.
early delivery of a shock via a defibrillator if indicated.
early advanced life support and post-resuscitation care delivered by healthcare providers.
“Quick initiation of CPR, as well as providing high quality CPR, is crucial to survival,” Abella said. “What’s needed is a two-pronged approach: first, substantially increase the number of bystanders trained in CPR who then provide CPR during an actual emergency and second, improve the quality of training and actual CPR performance through measures of its effectiveness.”
The statement identifies specific potential barriers to improving U.S. cardiac arrest survival rates including: fear of infectious disease, fear of litigation and fear of poor performance, all of which Abella said could be overcome with adequate education, training and public awareness.
Thu 14 Feb 2008
The 2008 Emergency Response Guidebook is the first release of the ERG since 2004, containing new information for first responders in the event of an incident involving hazardous materials. The Guidebook provides a consistent and standardized approach for handling hazardous materials emergencies. Labelmaster, a manufacturer of regulatory compliance products, will print the updated 2008 Emergency Response Guidebook (ERG).
New in 2008:
-
Over fifty amendments to proper shipping names and ID numbers (United Nations numbers)
- Lists of hazardous materials will be updated
- Lithium Ion batteries entry will be added
- Ethanol entries and identification numbers will be added
- The “Initial Isolation and Protective Action Distance Table” will be split into two tables to better facilitate initial incident response actions for emergencies involving TIH (Toxic Inhalation Hazards)
The Emergency Response Guidebook is the foundation of many emergency response plans and incident management systems. It provides a consistent and standardized approach for first responders in the event of an incident involving hazardous materials. It is intended to assist responders in managing the first fifteen to thirty minutes of an emergency response, often the most critical moments. It provides crucial information concerning scene management and response procedures that can save lives and enhance public and environmental safety.
Since its introduction in 1976, the ERG has been and will continue to be the “go-to” reference for first responders faced with the possibility of a hazardous materials incident. This guidebook is published in a user-friendly format and is divided into five sections which are color coded to maximize efficiency and ease of use. The goal of the US Department of Transportation is for all public emergency responders to carry a copy of the ERG.
The ERG is developed jointly by the US Department of Transportation, Transport Canada, the Secretariat of Communications and Transportation of Mexico (SCT), and with the collaboration of CIQUIME (Centro de Informacion Quimica para Emergencias) of Argentina. The 2008 ERG represents the first publication since the Department of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials programs were merged, so there will be new information introduced regarding pipeline markers.
Wed 6 Feb 2008
OSHA is reminding employers that beginning today until April 30, 2008, they must post OSHA Form 300A, a summary of the total number of job-related injuries and illnesses that occurred during 2007.
“The OSHA 300 logs provide employers and employees a broad view of where injuries and illnesses are occurring at their worksites,” said Assistant Secretary of Labor for OSHA Edwin G. Foulke, Jr. “Identifying and posting injury and illness information provides employers and employees with useful information to help ensure a more safe and healthful workplace.”
The summary must include the total number of job-related injuries and illnesses that occurred in 2007 and were logged on the OSHA Form 300. To assist in calculating incidence rates, information about the annual average number of employees and total hours worked during the calendar year is also required. If a company recorded no injuries or illnesses in 2007, the employer must enter “zero” on the total line. The form must be signed and certified by a company executive and must be displayed in a common area where notices to employees are usually posted.
Employers with 10 or fewer employees and employers in certain industries are normally exempt from federal OSHA injury and illness recordkeeping and posting requirements. A complete list of exempt industries in the retail, services, finance, insurance, and real estate sectors is posted on the OSHA Web site, www.osha.gov.
Copies of OSHA Forms 300 and 300A are available in either Adobe PDF or Microsoft Excel Spreadsheet format on the OSHA Recordkeeping Web site at www.osha.gov/recordkeeping/index.html.
Mon 4 Feb 2008
Are you familiar with the EPA law The Emergency Planning and Community Right-To-Know Act (40 CFR Parts 350-372)? The Emergency Planning and Community Right-To-Know Act believes you should know the following:
• What chemicals are located near you.
• Evacuation routes for your home, workplace and children’s schools.
• Shelter-in-place procedures.
• Industry and community warning systems.
• How to prepare a family and/or a business plan.
The act requires facilities that have hazardous materials to report their inventories to the State Emergency Response Commission, their Local Emergency Planning Committee (LEPC) and local fire department. The 11 LEPCs also train first responders and give emergency authorities the technical assistance to safely handle hazardous-material incidents.