QUINCY, MA — The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) suggests that now is the perfect time to Get Ready! for a disaster.

September is National Preparedness Month and NFPA is urging the public to take time this month to prepare for a disaster before one strikes.

Get Ready! Preparing Your Community for a Disaster is a comprehensive disaster preparedness guide developed by NFPA to make the daunting task of preparing for the unknown more manageable. The kit was recently sent to 30,000 fire departments across the country as a resource for them to help their community prepare. Materials are also available for download at no charge. Most materials are also available in Spanish.

“Preparing yourself, your family, and your community for the unexpected can be a frightening endeavor, but being caught unprepared in the face of disaster can prove to be deadly,” said Judy Comoletti, assistant vice president of public education for NFPA. “The Get Ready! program is designed to help people develop their emergency plan by putting much needed informational materials at their fingertips.”

Disastrous events in recent years have served as reminders that there is no single preparedness tool more important than a plan. Get Ready!  Preparing Your Community for a Disaster provides a foundation for understanding what to do, where to go, and how to survive in a disaster. Informational sheets provide guidance on what to do before, during, and after an incident on the following topics: home fires, blackouts, hurricanes, landslides, thunderstorms, tornadoes, earthquakes, national security, volcanoes, extreme heat, nuclear incidents, wildfires, floods, older adults, winter storms, hazardous materials, people with disabilities, and pets. The guide also provides a lesson plan and presentation materials, making conducting a workshop easy. A family emergency plan is available for download as well as an emergency supplies kit checklist.

Get Ready! Preparing Your Community for a Disaster was developed by NFPA for fire departments nationwide. The project was funded by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Office of Domestic Preparedness.

NFPA suggests the following tips to keep in mind when preparing for a disaster. Visit www.nfpa.org/disaster for more detailed information.

How to prepare before a disaster:

• Be informed
• Make a plan
• Get a kit
• Volunteer to help others

Have an emergency plan that includes:

• Escape and evacuation routes
• Family communications
• Utility shut-off and safety
• Vital records
• Specific needs
• Caring for animals
• Safety skills

Get an emergency supplies kit that at a minimum includes:

• Bottled water: A minimum three-day supply of water. A seven-day supply is best, with a three-day supply ready to take with you. One gallon of water per person, per day is recommended.
• Food: Avoid foods that cause thirst. Include canned foods, dry mixes, and other nonperishable food. Remember to include a hand can opener.
• A battery-powered radio with extra batteries or a hand-crank radio
• Flashlights and extra batteries
• First aid kit
• Sanitation and hygiene items
• Matches in a waterproof container
• A whistle
• Extra clothing
• Cooking utensils
• Photocopies of credit and identification cards
• Cash
• Items for infants
• Specific needs items
• A personal pack for children
• Download an emergency supplies kit checklist

WASHINGTON — Every summer, thousands of Americans are hospitalized for heat-related illnesses. Many of these cases are employees who work outdoors where heat stress is potentially dangerous. Now that summer is in full swing, OSHA is reminding all employers and employees nationwide about its safety and health resources, especially those offering best practices for working in hot weather. 

“Every outdoor jobsite faces hazards posed by the sun and heat,” said OSHA’s Assistant Secretary of Labor Edwin G. Foulke Jr. “We are encouraging employers and employees to take advantage of our published resources that offer sound advice to recognize and prevent heat stress and other heat-related illnesses.”

The two most serious forms of heat related illnesses are heat exhaustion (primarily from dehydration) and the more severe heat stroke, which could be fatal. Symptoms include headaches, weakness, nausea and dizziness. Recognizing those warning signs and taking quick action can help prevent a fatality.

Working Outdoors in Warm Climates www.osha.gov/OshDoc/data_Hurricane_Facts/working_outdoors.pdf, an OSHA fact sheet that offers advice on ways to protect employees against exposure to ultraviolet radiation (UV) highlights precautions to take if working in extreme heat and explains how to protect against Lyme disease and the West Nile Virus. The document also features information for teenagers working at summer jobs to learn more about safety and health.

OSHA’s Heat Stress Quick Card lists tips on preventing many heat-related deaths and injuries. Available in English and Spanish, this laminated card is free to employers for distribution to their employees. It is a quick reference tool on heat-related illnesses, including warning signs, symptoms and early treatment.

Protecting Yourself in the Sun is a pocket card that explains how to perform self-examinations that may detect early stages of skin cancer. The card, available in English and Spanish, also describes common physical features of skin cancer that can be caused by overexposure to the sun.

These free publications and others related to outdoor job hazards can be downloaded from OSHA’s Web site on the publications page www.osha.gov/pls/publications/pubindex.list or can be ordered by calling OSHA’s publications office at (202) 693-1888.

More information about sun and heat hazards can be found on OSHA’s Web site, and on the Web sites of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention www.cdc.gov/ and National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health www.cdc.gov/niosh/homepage.html.

The American Red Cross has an online preparedness plan with can be accessed by clicking on this link.  This is perfect for your employees, their families and friends.

The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) in the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have jointly published a Safety and Health Information Bulletin (SHIB) designed to help protect surgical personnel from needle stick injuries while using suture needles.

“Surgical personnel are at risk of occupational exposure to bloodborne pathogens from injuries caused by sharp surgical instruments,” said Assistant Secretary of Labor for OSHA Edwin G. Foulke, Jr. “We strongly encourage the use of blunt-tip suture needles when feasible and appropriate to reduce this risk.” “The effectiveness of blunt-tip suture needles for preventing needle stick injuries has been widely reported,” said NIOSH Director John Howard, M.D. “We are pleased to partner with OSHA in offering guidance to protect the safety and health of medical professionals.”

The SHIB, available on the OSHA Web site at http://www.osha.gov/dts/shib/shib032307.html and on the NIOSH Web site at http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/docs/2007-132, describes the hazards of sharp-tip suture needles and presents evidence of the effectiveness of blunt-tip needles in decreasing injuries. It also emphasizes OSHA’s requirement to use appropriate, available and effective safer medical devices.

Sharp-tip suture needles are the leading source of penetrating injuries to surgical personnel, causing 51-to-71 percent of these incidents. These injuries potentially expose staff and patients to bloodborne pathogens.

The American College of Surgeons (ACS) issued a statement in 2005 supporting the use of blunt-tip suture needles where clinically appropriate. This statement has been endorsed by the six organizations that, along with the ACS, make up the Council on Surgical and Perioperative Safety.
  
Under the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970, employers are responsible for providing a safe and healthful workplace for their employees. OSHA’s role is to assure the safety and health of America’s working men and women by setting and enforcing standards; providing training, outreach, and education; establishing partnerships; and encouraging continual process improvement in workplace safety and health. For more information, visit http://www.osha.gov/. NIOSH is the federal agency responsible for conducting research and making recommendations for the prevention of workplace injuries and diseases. For more information, visit http://www.cdc.gov/niosh.
   
U.S. Labor Department releases are accessible on the Internet at http://www.dol.gov/. The information in this news release will be made available in alternate format upon request (large print, Braille, audiotape or disc) from the COAST office. Please specify which news release when placing your request at (202) 693-7828 or TTY (202) 693-7755.
The U.S.Department of Labor is committed to providing America’s employers and employees with easy access to understandable information on how to comply with its laws and regulations. For more information, please visit
http://www.dol.gov/compliance.

I was recently walking through a company and noticed the sprinkler system overhead,  but there were no emergency evacuation plans (OSHA 1910.38) posted on walls. When I asked where these maps were, I was told “we have a sprinkler system.”  My next question was what does your sprinkler system protect? The answer given was “everyone and everything.” WRONG ANSWER.

Fire alarms and smoke detectors save lives, sprinkler systems save property.  We started to talk about this facility.  My first recommendation was for the company to write policies and procedures and an emergency action plan.  The basics of the plan should include, but not limited to, the following:

• Means of egress including MANY well placed maps
• Emergency alarms and lights (Check every quarter)
• Sprinkler System
• Extinguishers
• Fire drills
• First responders
• TRAINING

Most home and business alarm systems are now both security and fire alarm detectors.  When writing your emergency plan companies/organizations also have to also be aware of the American Disabilities Act. Remeber the first part of a good fire response plan is keep everyone safe.  It will cost a lot less to replace property than have people injured or worse.

Chest Compressions, Not Mouth-to Mouth, Best For Heart Attacks

I have been a First Aid/CPR/AED instructor and was updated to the new CPR methods which included 30 compressions(at the rate of 100 copressions/minute) and 2 breaths for cardiac incidents.  However, new information and studies now show that for most cardiac incidents it is better to use ONLY compressions, eliminating the mouth-to-mouth breathing.  This new method has shown a significant increase rate of survival.

A study published March 17, 2007 in The Lancet, one of the world’s foremost medical journals, finds that the chances of surviving a cardiac arrest outside a hospital setting are almost twice as high if bystanders perform chest-compression-only resuscitation instead of traditional cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) with mouth-to-mouth breathing. The study analyzed the outcomes of resuscitation attempts performed by laypeople at the scene after they witnessed a person collapse due to cardiac arrest.

 ”The report confirms that what we have learned in animal experiments applies to humans as well,” says Gordon A. Ewy, MD, director of the Sarver Heart Center at The University of Arizona in Tucson where chest-compression-only resuscitation was developed. “Bystander-initiated continuous chest compressions without mouth-to-mouth breathing are the preferable approach for witnessed unexpected collapse, which is usually due to cardiac arrest.” (more…)

Did you that health experts estimate that Sudden Cardiac Arrest (SCA) results in more than 400,000 deaths per year?  That OSHA attributes 13% of all workplace fatalities to SCA.  Here are even more startling numbers, using a 1st Responder CPR/AED team can reduce the fatality rate by anywhere from 49 to 74 percent according to the American Heart Association.

 Recently there have been 5 major changes to the guidelines of CPR/AED responders.

• Effective Chest Compression, push hard and push fast, at a rate of about 100 compressions per minute
• Use a 30:2 Compression to Ventilation Ratio
• Use two (2), 1 second breaths making sure to see a visible rise in the chest
• Use 1 Shock followed by CPR
• AED’s can be used with children 1+ year old.

The greatest factor for companies is to develop lay rescue response programs.  The most vital element of success is training and practice.  Create a link to local EMS responders, but always have your team ready to act.  Your team may save 1 life, or they may save many.

Emergency Eye wash stations and Emergency Showers Although the OSHA standard for eyewashes and safety showers at 29 CFR 1910.151(c) is brief, it clearly states when this equipment is necessary:
Where the eyes or body of any person may be exposed to injurious corrosive materials, suitable facilities for quick drenching or flushing of the eyes and body shall be provided within the work area for immediate emergency use.
OSHA accepts industry consensus standards, such as ANSI Z358.1 as a means of compliance with this rule.
The ANSI standard Z358.1-2004 “Emergency Eye Wash and Shower Equipment” includes the following requirements: 

Eyewash squeeze bottles or personal eyewash units are considered secondary units that can supplement plumbed and self-contained stations, but cannot replace them. They are portable and permit initial first aid by providing for immediate flushing of contaminants or small particles. However, eyewash bottles are very difficult for the user to handle, especially when alone and when both eyes have been exposed. (e.g., holding the eyelids open while handling the unit is awkward). Also, one bottle cannot flush both eyes simultaneously. Since the fluid supply lasts for only a short period of time, the bottle may not able to wash the eyes sufficiently. The main purpose of secondary units is to supply immediate flushing. Once accomplished, the user should proceed immediately to a self-contained or plumbed eyewash and flush for the required flushing/ rinsing period.
Keep a copy of the safety shower or eye wash manufacturer’s instructions. Ensure that the equipment is installed, tested, maintained and used in accordance with these instructions. Also, refer to MSDSs to identify which chemicals are corrosive and how to respond to accidental overexposure. Of course, it’s best to prevent eye injuries in the first place. Click here for OSHA’s suggestions.