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Safety Training Resources Transforms Safety Costs Into A Safe Investment

May 24th, 2011

The benefits of workplace safety performance are often undervalued because of communication barriers between safety professionals and executive management, and the challenge of instituting metrics that demonstrate safety performance in financial or strategic business value terms.

To turn that situation around, Safety Training Resources incorporates four basic strategies to enhance the business value of safety.

1. Identify safety as a core business value driver. Profitability is an obvious corporate value driver, but so are your brand name, compliance risk, and the productivity of your workers. All of these drivers are influenced to some degree by workplace safety activities.

 Safety Training Resources believes that increased productivity and reduced costs are the top benefits of workplace safety and health.   An investment in workplace safety can have a positive impact on your company’s financial performance. Many believe that a return of investment of $3 for every $1 they invested in workplace safety programs.  

2. View safety as an investment in continuous improvement. An “investment” is a commitment to earn a financial return or gain future benefits or advantage. Safety programs have been directly linked to the benefits of increased productivity and efficiency.

3. Use a combination of leading and trailing indicators of safety performance. Using the combination instead of just trailing (or lagging) indicators to measure progress toward business objectives is much more effective.

Leading indicators tell you about the future value or direction of performance.

  • Employee turnover rate can indicate future changes in productivity and/or injury rates.
  • The number and frequency of near-misses can indicate the risk of future accidents.
  • Hours of employee safety training completed or the number of employees trained can indicated changes in productivity and safety.
  • The number and/or frequency of completed inspections can indicate the level of compliance risk, integrity of equipment, and changes in productivity.

Trailing indicators tell you where you’ve been. For example:

  • Injury and illness reports
  • Lost workdays
  • Workers’ compensation claims

Trailing indicators can highlight past costs, but they are inconsistent and often unreliable indicators of future performance.

4. Enhance employee involvement. It’s not effective just to tell employees what to do and judge them on how well they follow directions. Since they are working with the process all the time, workers are more sensitive to the integrity of safety and productivity data than management. For example, workers can see what is really going on behind the data in the injury and illness reports where management often cannot. Employee involvement is now a major component of most true safety performance evaluation methods.

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Safety Training Resources Specializes In Smart Recordkeeping

May 22nd, 2011

OSHA has extended its Recordkeeping National Emphasis Program (NEP) through early 2012.   They are looking for employers who are underreporting injuries and illnesses, and they are not leaving any stone unturned. 

 Safety Training Resources is helping Missouri employers track and record injuries and illnesses in compliance with the OSHA recordkeeping standard.  In addition to helping you avoid costly OSHA citations, smart recordkeeping practices can also help you make injury-reducing and profit-boosting improvements by allowing you to learn from past mistakes.

Safety Training Resources will help your management team better understand the key elements of an effective recordkeeping program and design a system that will track and record your injuries and illnesses in compliance with the OSHA recordkeeping standard.  Our training strategy will ensure the following:

  • The proper use of the three OSHA required forms: OSHA Form 300, OSHA Form 301, and OSHA Form 300A  
  • Where to get the forms to use, and how to complete them properly
  • Which incidents must be reported and which merely need to be recorded
  • How to differentiate between medical treatment and first aid, and why the distinction matters
  • Which cases require restricted work activity or days away from work, and how to record the number of days
  • How to maintain employees’ privacy when reporting an incident
  • How to perform a recordkeeping audit and assess the working environment

In addition,  by improving your recordkeeping, Safety Training Resources can help you:

  • Measure the effectiveness of your safety program
  • Identify high incident areas
  • Enlist management support
  • Enlist employee support
  • Measure the effectiveness of your countermeasures

Bottom line, effective and efficient recordkeeping for occupational injuries and illnesses provides the foundation for a successful, well-managed safety program.

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Safety Training Resources Steps Towards Effective HazCom

May 19th, 2011

Safety Training Resources takes 7 simple steps to ensure an effective hazard communication program.

1. Train supervisors and safety personnel to communicate hazard information and safety procedures effectively. Also train them in general communication skills so that they can interact more successfully with employees.

2. Encourage employee participation in the development and implementation of workplace safety and health programs—for example, through safety committees and other team initiatives.

3. Welcome employee suggestions about ways to improve chemical safety in the workplace. Take their concerns and suggestions seriously and incorporate them into safety programs. Remember that to be truly effective, hazard communication must involve two-way communication.

4. Emphasize safety protections as well as hazards in hazard communication and other chemical safety training programs. Make sure employees understand that working with chemicals is safe as long as they follow established work practices, use appropriate engineering controls, and wear assigned PPE.

5. Provide intensive MSDS and label training. Teach employees how to find and interpret the information in the MSDS and on the label. Provide them with glossaries defining technical terms in plain language. Make sure that they are comfortable with their ability to understand and use chemical safety and health information. Your training effort is not complete until they are.

6. Involve experienced, knowledgeable employees in training programs as trainers and coaches. These workers have a natural rapport with trainees, and they are also well positioned to provide practical information about how to perform the job safely and efficiently.

7. Work hard to build trust between management and employees by demonstrating your commitment to employee safety and health every day. Involve top management in safety awareness campaigns and feature safety as a fundamental organizational goal.

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Safety Training Resources Illuminates OSHA’s Expectations: The Electrical Safety Questions OSHA Will Ask During an Investigation

May 13th, 2011

When it comes to electrical safety, OSHA standards can be technical and confusing. What requirements do safety managers need to know?

Wouldn’t it be nice to know exactly what OSHA is training its inspectors to look for during an inspection that includes electrical safety, including surprising new areas of emphasis based on national OSHA directives?

Safety Training Resources covers some of the typical electrical safety questions that OSHA inspectors will ask during a field investigation, what they mean and how to be prepared and in compliance.

A good starting point is to understand OSHA’s approach to electrical safety. OSHA’s goal is for employers to identify all electrical hazards, both potential and actual. In the past, OSHA focused on process changes, encouraging companies to de-energize circuits before working on them, perform lockout/tagout procedures and develop ongoing safety programs that include worker training and retraining. A more recent area of emphasis is arc flash safety, which means electrical safety professionals must analyze the workplace for shock and arc flash hazards, establish safe protection boundaries and define what personal protective equipment (PPE) must be used within these boundaries.

For electrical safety in the workplace, OSHA relies on expert consensus bodies such as the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) and its standards published in NFPA 70E. To ensure that employers are following NFPA and OSHA guidelines, OSHA trains its inspectors and compliance officers to ask specific questions in the event of an electrical safety incident. Some typical questions follow.

1.  Is there a description of the circuit or equipment at the job location?

OSHA expects employers to know their workplaces. If an employer cannot provide a written description or drawing of the circuit or equipment, then the compliance officer may assume that the employer has not assessed the facility for electrical hazards.

2.  Is there a detailed job description of planned work?

In order to know which safety procedures to use, the worker must be provided with a description of the job task. OSHA publication 29 CFR 1910 lays out employer responsibilities for protecting their workers from electrical safety hazards. It states that the employer shall train workers to use safe work practices that are designed to avoid injury.

3.  Can you justify why equipment cannot be de-energized or the job deferred until the next scheduled outage?

Per OSHA 1910.333(a)(1), live parts to which an employee may be exposed must be de-energized before the employee works on or near them, unless the employer can demonstrate that de-energizing introduces additional or increased hazards or is not feasible due to equipment design or operational limitations. (Live parts that operate at less than 50 volts to ground need not be de-energized if there will be no increased exposure to electrical burns or to explosion due to electric arcs.)

The message is clear: never work on live circuits unless it is absolutely necessary. OSHA allows work on live circuits in some cases, but the reason cannot be simply that turning off the power is inconvenient or will interrupt production. Nor can workers use the excuse that they didn’t have the authority to shut off power.
When it is necessary to perform work on energized equipment, OSHA 1910.333(a)(2) requires safety-related work practices to be used and NFPA 70E Article 110.8(B)(1) requires an Electrical Hazard Analysis before work is performed on live equipment operating at 50 volts and higher.

Other questions you can expect from an OSHA inspector include:

  • What about safe work procedures?
  • Has a detailed work procedure been established?
  • Are there detailed descriptions of work practices to be employed?
  • Was a job briefing checklist performed, and was the job briefing completed for those performing the work?
  • Was proper management approval secured?

OSHA wants employers to make electrical safety procedures and practices part of regular work processes. Several annexes to NFPA 70E offer guidelines for lockout/tagout procedures, checklists and approvals. NFPA 70E annexes are not strictly “enforced” by OSHA, as they are appendices to the NFPA standard. However, OSHA inspectors and investigators will ask if the content and information contained in these annexes was followed and adhered to.

Safety Training Resources will help you prepare to answer these questions when an OSHA inspector comes knocking on your door:

  • Were required electrical safety analyses performed?
  • Was an arc flash hazard analysis performed?
  • Were flash protection boundaries established?
  • Were all other potential electrical hazards identified?

OSHA regulations state that every employer shall furnish a place of employment free from recognized hazards that are causing or likely to cause death or serious physical harm, and that the employer must assess the workplace to determine if hazards are present and select PPE to protect employees. When it comes to electrical safety, OSHA refers to NFPA 70E, which requires employers to conduct an electrical hazard assessment consisting of a shock hazard analysis and an arc flash hazard analysis before work is performed on live equipment operating at 50 volts and higher.

These requirements may be fairly complex, as they involve calculating the potential fault current at each piece of equipment, understanding the characteristics of the overcurrent protective devices and how they are coordinated for each circuit and creating or updating one-line electrical drawings. Complex or not, OSHA inspectors are trained to ask if these analyses were performed, because they are essential to reducing the number of arc flash-related deaths and injuries that occur each year, as well as ensuring a safe installation.

When the safety of any job task involves electricity or electrical equipment, ask yourself these questions:

  • Were proper tools and equipment used?
  • Was the necessary PPE determined?
  • Were the proper insulated tools used?
  • Were insulated blankets and/or sheeting used to properly cover all of the live parts?

OSHA 1910.132 requires employers to assess hazards, select PPE and make sure that employees are trained how to use it. Electrical PPE, safe work practices such as lockout/tagout and safety training are covered by OSHA 29 CFR 1910.301-.399, also known as Electrical Subpart S.

For example, OSHA 1910.333 (a)(1)(i) states: “Employees working in areas where there are potential electrical hazards shall be provided with and shall use, electrical protective equipment that is appropriate for the specific parts of the body to be protected and for the work to be performed.”

For electrical workers, this standard’s effect is multi-fold. First, employers must facilitate workers’ understanding of the PPE required for each task on each piece of equipment. This may be communicated via a work order, a descriptive label on the equipment or a one-line drawing. Second, employers must select the PPE, which includes insulated tools and protective clothing. Third, the employer is required to train workers in safe work practices – and in particular, how to match the PPE to the level of the electrical hazard. And finally, OSHA 1910.269(a)(2)(iii) requires employers to “determine, through regular supervision and through inspections conducted on at least an annual basis, that each employee is complying with the safety-related work practices …”

4.  Were the workers performing the tasks qualified to do so?

OSHA defines qualified workers as those specially trained to work on live electrical equipment. Qualified workers must protect themselves against all electrical hazards including shock, arc flash, burns and explosions. Training is key. Even an experienced electrician is not “qualified” in OSHA’s eyes unless the employer can show proof of the appropriate training and certifications.

OSHA 1910.332(b)(2) also requires unqualified workers to be trained in the electrical safe work practices that are necessary for their safety. Unqualified workers, such as painters or cleaners, occasionally come into contact with energized equipment, and therefore they must be trained to recognize and avoid electrical hazards.

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Safety Training Resources Shares Tips for Managing Safety in Machine Operation Areas

May 10th, 2011

Machine operation areas differ from workplace to workplace. Production areas in manufacturing plants expose workers to a wide variety of potential hazards. During an OSHA inspection, violations can range from machine guarding to electrical hazards. Safety in machine operation areas is an ever-changing challenge that requires continuous management.

Design for Safety

Machine operation areas should be designed for safety. For example:

  • Machines should be equipped with all the necessary safeguards.
  • The area should be well lit so workers can see what they’re doing and where they’re going.
  • There should be adequate space between machines and materials and finished products.
  • Walkways should be clearly marked with yellow lines to separate them from machine work areas.
  • Floors should be made of, or coated with, a nonslip material.
  • There should be a good general ventilation system and a local exhaust system for any processes that produce dusts, mists, fumes, or vapors.

Insist on a Clean Work Area

A well-maintained, orderly production area is another essential. Look around the machine operation areas in your facility. What do you see?

  • Are floors wet, dirty, or cluttered with tripping hazards?
  • Are tools, materials, and other items left lying around when they ought to be put away after use?
  • Is there trash and debris everywhere?
  • Are carts or pallet jacks with materials or finished products blocking walkways?

 If you don’t see reasonably neat, clean work areas, you might be looking at an accident waiting to happen.

Maintain Proper Storage

Along with good housekeeping comes proper storage of raw materials and finished products.

Make sure employees do:

  • Stack materials to be processed on a secure base.
  • Place heavy objects on the bottom of the stack.
  • Use ladders to reach stored items overhead.
  • Wear gloves when handling materials to avoid cuts and scrapes.
  • Secure stored items so that they can’t topple over on someone’s head or fall to the ground and get damaged.

 Make sure employees don’t:

  • Store items too close to machinery.
  • Stack items so high that they could topple over or block fire sprinkler heads.
  • Pile materials too close to sources of heat or electricity.
  • Store items so that they block or stick out into walkways.
  • Lift incorrectly or try to lift and carry objects that are too heavy to handle alone.

Emphasize Safeguards and Lockout

Machine guarding violations generally hit OSHA’s Top 10 list every year. To avoid citations and keep workers safe, make sure machine operators understand the reason for, and operation of, machine guards and safety devices. No machine should ever be operated without properly functioning safeguards.

An effective lockout/tagout program is another essential safety component for machine operation areas. Employees authorized to repair and maintain machinery should be specially trained and certified in lockout/tagout procedures.

But you can’t stop there. All employees who work in machine operation areas should receive lockout/tagout training to be sure they understand the procedure, OSHA requirements, and your rules—even if they don’t actually perform lockout/tagout.

Fires and Medical Emergencies

Fires are an ever-present danger in machine operation areas. Avoid fires by considering all potential fire hazards and the precautions necessary to prevent ignition.

Also, just in case you fail to anticipate every possible risk, make sure to have fire extinguishers on hand that can contain the classes of fires common to machine operation areas. For example:

Class A—Combustibles (paper, cardboard, wood)
Class B—Flammable liquids (solvents, oil, etc.)
Class C—Electrical fires

Multipurpose extinguishers may also be an appropriate choice for machine operation areas.

OSHA has strict requirements for the use and placement of portable fire extinguishers (see 29 CFR 1910.157).

First aid kits should also be available, and employees should know how to report accidents and medical emergencies.

The machines in your workplace are hard workers. But they’re only machines. They can only do the grunt work. They can’t think. It’s your human workers who have to do the thinking in order to prevent machine accidents.

To be sure your workers are thinking straight and fully in command when they operate machinery, they must be properly trained.

Training for machine operators should include at a minimum:

  • Machine hazards
  • Machine operation, including safeguards and emergency stops
  • Lockout/tagout procedures and rules
  • PPE
  • Machine area housekeeping and storage rules
  • Slips, trips, and falls
  • Maintenance schedules and authorizations
  • Procedures for reporting malfunctions and handling repairs
  • Emergency response, including fires and first aid

 PPE

PPE for machine operators usually includes:

  • Eye and face protection (safety glasses with side shields or goggles as well as a face shield when there’s a risk of flying particles)
  • Hearing protection when noise levels exceed regulatory limits
  • Head protection if there is a risk of materials or other objects falling from above
  • Foot protection to keep feet and toes safe from falling materials or machine movement

 Gloves should be worn to protect hands when handling materials, but machine operators must understand that gloves should not generally be worn when operating machinery. Gloves can interfere with precise grip or get caught at pinch points or at the point of operation, which can cause crushed fingers or amputations.

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Safety Training Resources Prepares Missouri Employers For Crisis

April 30th, 2011

In the wake of the recent natural disasters, Safety Training Resources is prepared to work with Missouri employers as they assess their plans for responding to emergency situations. Safety Training Resources will help to ensure that policies and people are ready for an emergency situation.  Your employees will be confident that they know what to do in a timely and accurate manner.

The comprehensive training will cover:

Emergency Management: HR Policies and Preparedness

  • The HR policies you should review and revise now, before a workplace crisis arises
  • How to design and communicate effective emergency management procedures
  • Strategies to manage workplace disruption on a short- or long-term basis
  • Your obligations regarding employees’ pay during a business disruption

Designing an Effective Emergency Plan: The People and Resources That Must Be Included

  • How to establish a planning team and assign emergency responsibilities
  • The best method for identifying potential emergencies and assessing risk
  • Strategies to assess your organization’s emergency response capabilities
  • The components of an effective emergency response plan, and who should be included in your emergency response team

Getting Prepared: Exercises and Drills

  • The exercises you should consider at your organization, and who the major players are
  • Dos and don’ts for smart drills
  • How to improve your employees’ performance for “the real thing” after a practice exercise or drill
  • Special considerations for evacuating disabled employees

How To Keep Your Employees Informed and Calm In the Event of Crisis

  • The emergency response policies you need in your employee handbook

    • 

  • How to make sure employees know what they need to do in the event of an emergency
  • Practical tips for tracking employees’ whereabouts and maintaining communications in the event of a crisis
  • What your employees should be instructed to say in response to media inquiries
  • How Employee Assistance Programs and other resources can help employees pick up the pieces after a crisis, and why these are so crucial

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Safety Training Resources Stands Up For Safety Preparedness

April 30th, 2011

On Wednesday, April 27, Jeff Viehmann, President of Safety Training Resources, spoke at the Missouri Concrete Conference held in Rolla, Missouri. Approximately 200 people attended the conference at the University Of Missouri Science & Technology’s Havener Center. The presentation was on OSHA Preparedness – Preventing Citations.

Mr. Viehmann’s conversation with officials from MoDOT, Ready Mix/Materials contractors, and concrete industry consultants highlighted OSHA’s current focus, how to prepare for an OSHA inspection, and how to prevent OSHA citations. His message to the conference attendees – “Citations, like accidents, are preventable!”.


Mr. Viehmann explained how and why OSHA has a greater emphasis on safety regulatory enforcement. He earmarked the methodology behind OSHA’s enforcement inspections. He also exposed the conference to OSHA’s Top 10 “Cited Violations” for General Industry and Construction.

With passion and conviction, Mr. Viehmann shared his “principles and beliefs” on how to prevent OSHA citations. His preparedness plan included performing periodic safety audits, enforcing safety policy, and involving the entire workforce in the process of improving the safety culture. He emphasized the importance and meaning behind “listening to your employees”.

In concluding his presentation, Mr. Viehmann proposed that safety become a corporate value, not a periodic priority. He emphasized that the value of an ever-improving safety program is greater than the importance of production, profitability, and escaping liability.

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Safety Training Resources Offers Missouri Residential Contractors Training and Guidance On OSHA’s New Fall Protection Standard

April 14th, 2011

Falls are the leading cause of work-related deaths among residential construction workers.

Safety Training Resources is helping Missouri contractors prepare for OSHA’s June 16th deadline for implementing the new fall protection standard.  Safety Training Resources is providing training and guidance to better protect workers from the hazards of working at heights.  

On December 16, 2010, OSHA issued STD 03-11-002, Compliance Guidance for Residential Construction, which rescinds STD 03-00-001, Interim Fall Protection Compliance Guidelines for Residential Construction, and provides that OSHA will be enforcing 29 CFR 1926.501(b)(13) for all residential construction work.  Under 29 CFR 1926.501(b)(13), workers engaged in residential construction six (6) feet or more above lower levels must be protected by conventional fall protection (in other words, guardrail systems, safety net systems, or personal fall arrest systems) or other fall protection measures allowed elsewhere in 1926.501(b). (Although the standard does not mention personal fall restraint systems, OSHA will accept a properly utilized fall restraint system in lieu of a personal fall arrest system when the restraint system is rigged in such a way that the worker cannot get to the fall hazard.) If an employer can demonstrate that the fall protection required under 1926.501(b)(13) is infeasible or presents a greater hazard, it must instead implement a written fall protection plan meeting the requirements of 1926.502(k).

Numerous methods can be used to prevent fall-related injuries and fatalities.  The following examples of fall protection represent options for residential contruction workers.  These various methods may be able to prevent fall-related injuries and fatalities throughout various stages in the residential construction process.

Installing Roof Trusses

  • Bracket Scaffolds
  • Ladders 

Installing Ridge Poles and Rafters

  • Anchors

Installing Roof Sheathing

  • Safety Net System
  • Bracket Scaffold
  • Anchors

Roofing – Weatherproofing 

  • Bracket Scaffolds

Foundation Walls and Formwork

  • Anchors
  • Scaffolds

Installing Floor Joists and Floor Trusses

  • Anchors
  • Scaffolds

Installing Subfloors

  • Anchors
  • Guardrails

Installing Walls

  • Aerial Lifts
  • Ladders
  • Scaffolds

Interior Finishing

  • Guardrails

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Safety Training Resources Claims That Near Misses Are “Accidents Waiting to Happen”

April 12th, 2011

Investigating Near Misses

A near miss is sometimes defined as an unplanned event that did not result in injury, illness or damage, but had the potential to do so. Only a fortunate break in the chain of events prevented an injury, fatality or damage. It’s easy to shrug off a near miss and not report it or make a big deal out of it, but in reality, it should immediately send up a warning flag that something was wrong, unplanned or unexpected. What’s more, it could happen again.

For every near miss or accident, there are usually several contributing factors, most of which can be controlled. The best way to prevent the reoccurrence of an accident is by looking at those close calls. If you investigate the causes of a near miss, you can take steps to eliminate the hazard.

All close calls or near-miss incidents should be reported to your supervisor so solutions can be sought to prevent an accident or injury from occurring. Solutions may involve engineering controls, administrative controls, additional training or increased communication between management and workers.

Finally, a near miss is a cheaper learning tool than learning from an actual injury or property loss accident. In fact, it represents almost zero cost.

So remember – the next time you barely avoid an accident, don’t simply pass it off as a lucky break. Examine what happened and how that same close call can be prevented from endangering you or someone else in the future.

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Safety Training Resources Trains Respiratory Protection

April 8th, 2011

OSHA‘s general industry respiratory protection standard (29 CFR 1910.134) applies to virtually any situation that requires respirator use in any industry except agriculture. The standard requires:

  • A written respiratory protection plan with worksite-specific procedures
  • Appropriate respirators, certified by NIOSH and matched to the identified respiratory hazards in that workplace, provided at no cost to the employee
  • Medical evaluation of each employee before being assigned to wear a respirator
  • Respirator fit testing for each employee assigned to wear a respirator with a negative- or positive-pressure tight-fitting face piece
  • Training for employees on why and how to select, use, fit, maintain, and store respirators
  • Periodic evaluation of the respiratory protection program to be sure it is adequately protecting employees

The standard for general respiratory protection in construction industry (29 CFR 1926.103) adopts the general industry rule by reference. But note that there are additional construction-related respiratory protection requirements for certain air contaminants, such as asbestos, cadmium, hexavalent chromium (chromium VI), methylenedianiline, and lead.

Respiratory Protection Plan

Safety Training Resources will ensure your respiratory protection program will:

  • Provide respirators to all employees who need protection in the workplace.
  • All respirators used are appropriate for the individual hazards to which an employee is exposed.
  • Train in the use of the respiratory equipment is provided.
  • Each employee understands how to use and uses the applicable respiratory protection.
  • Medical evaluations of employees required to use respirators are conducted.
  • Proper qualitative and quantitative fit-testing procedures are used.
  • Respirators are cleaned, inspected, and disinfected in the proper manner. (If respiratory equipment is shared by more than one employee, the equipment is disinfected before each use.)
  • Respiratory equipment complies with the requirements of NIOSH (42 CFR Part 84) and the “ANSI/Compressed Gas Association Commodity Specification for Air, G-7.1-1989″ for compressed breathing air.

Safety Training Resources will act as your program administrator.  

Cartridge/Canister Change Schedules

If there is no end-of-service life indicator (ESLI) appropriate for conditions in the your workplace, you must implement a change schedule for canisters and cartridges, based on objective information or data that will ensure canisters and cartridges are changed before the end of their service life.

You must describe in your respiratory protection program:

  • The information and data relied on
  • The basis for the canister and cartridge change schedule
  • The basis for reliance on the data

Note: 

According to OSHA’s respiratory protection medical evaluation requirements (29 CFR 1910.134[e] and Appendix C), you must provide a medical evaluation to determine each employee’s ability to use a respirator before the employee is fit tested or required to use the respirator in the workplace.

A physician or other licensed healthcare provider either has to administer OSHA’s Respirator Medical Evaluation Questionnaire (provided at 29 CFR 1910.134, Appendix C) or give the employee an exam that covers the same material in the questionnaire.

The medical evaluation is not a full physical. Rather it covers only health issues that could affect the employee’s ability to work safely while wearing a respirator.

The evaluation is designed to identify:

  • Asthma, pneumonia, silicosis, chronic bronchitis, or other present or past lung or pulmonary problems
  • Shortness of breath, coughing, wheezing, chest pain, or other possible current symptoms of lung problems
  • Heart attack, high blood pressure, angina, or other present or past heart or cardiovascular problems
  • Chest pain or tightness or other current or past heart problems or symptoms
  • Claustrophobia
  • Trouble smelling odors
  • Current or recent tobacco smoking
  • Current or recent medication for breathing, lung, heart, blood pressure, or seizures
  • Past problems using a respirator

 Written Recommendation

You have to get a written recommendation regarding the employee’s ability to use the respirator from the healthcare provider. The recommendation must provide the following information:

  • Any limitations on respirator use related to the medical condition of the employee, or relating to the workplace conditions in which the respirator will be used, including whether or not the employee is medically able to use the respirator
  • The need, if any, for follow-up medical evaluations
  • A statement that the healthcare provider has given the employee a copy of the written recommendation

 Follow-up Evaluations

Follow-up evaluations must be conducted if the employee, employee’s supervisor, healthcare provider, or the respiratory protection program administrator detect any problems that could indicate a need for reevaluation.

Employees may also be reevaluated if changes in physical work effort, temperature, or other working conditions could substantially increase the physical burden to an employee while wearing a respirator.

Safety Training Resources is qualified to conduct the appropriate training, to administer or oversee the respiratory protection program and conduct the required evaluations of program effectiveness.

Act Now!

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