Category: News

Seven Basic General Industry Safety Rules Toolbox Talk

1. Keep work areas clean. Proper housekeeping alone can go a long way in preventing workplace injury. Injuries such as slips, trips, falls, lacerations, sprains, strains, etc. can be reduced by keeping work areas organized and clean. Basic safety rule: A clean workspace makes it a safe working environment.

2. Use the proper tool for the job. Avoid the first impulse to use whatever tool (or object) is around you to get a work task done. Using the wrong tool for the job can result in an injury or damage to the tool, which can lead to an injury in the future.

3. Always wear the proper PPE for the work task. The lack of PPE, or the use of improper PPE, leads to many injuries in the workplace. PPE is the last line of defense when protecting yourself from the hazards of your work. If you come into contact with hazardous materials while not wearing the correct PPE, the injury will be more severe than if you were wearing it.

4. Never work on live equipment. Working on energized equipment is an unsafe act that can result in serious injuries or fatalities. For your personal safety, always follow proper lock-out/tag-out procedures prior to performing any maintenance or repair work on equipment.

5. Make sure chemicals are properly labeled and stored. OSHA issues many citations regarding hazard communication every year. Improper labeling and storage can lead to injuries or property loss due to fires, corrosion, etc.

6. Communicate hazards to other personnel. Never assume that a coworker understands the hazards of a task, especially if they are new or new to the task. When work plans or conditions change, take the necessary time to inform others of the impacts the changes have on safety.

7. Stop work when needed to address hazards. Always stop work to take the time to get hazards and unsafe conditions addressed to make it safe to continue the task. Whether you need to involve other staff, such as a supervisor, or you need to take time to get the right tool for the job, always take the time to do so.

Discussion points on workplace safety rules:

1. What is the most important rule listed in this talk? Why?
2. What are other basic safety rules that need to be followed here at our worksite?

Seven Basic General Industry Safety Rules

Carbon Monoxide Safety Talk

Carbon monoxide (CO) poses a serious threat to individuals both at home and on the job. According to the CDC, each year, more than 400 Americans die from unintentional CO poisoning not linked to fires, more than 20,000 people visit the emergency room, and more than 4,000 people are hospitalized. CO poisoning is the leading cause of poisoning deaths in the US. Carbon monoxide is an invisible, odorless, colorless gas created when fuels (such as gasoline, wood, coal, natural gas, propane, oil, and methane) burn incompletely.

Symptoms of Carbon Monoxide Poisoning

• Weakness
• Dizziness
• Nausea or vomiting
• Shortness of breath
• Confusion
• Blurred vision
• Loss of consciousness

If you or people around you are experiencing these symptoms, it is important to get them and yourself out of the area. Being exposed to CO for an extended amount of time can cause irreversible brain damage and eventually death.

General Safety Tips

• Never burn charcoal indoors
• Never leave your car running in a garage or any poorly ventilated area
• Never heat your house with your stove- this can lead to a buildup of CO in your house
• Never use a generator inside your house.

Illness Prevention

Avoid the situations mentioned above. Have gas-burning appliances and heaters regularly inspected by a professional to ensure there are no issues with using them in the home. Install carbon monoxide alarms on each floor of a building or home. Test the alarms at least once a month and replace them according to the manufacturer’s guidelines. People who are asleep or intoxicated are very susceptible to CO poisoning, and alarms are the only chance to alert them to danger before it is too late.

Discussion point:

-Has anyone experienced a problem with a carbon monoxide leak?

Carbon Monoxide Safety

Safety Can Be Redundant Safety Talk

Some individuals like to reflect back on the “old days” when it was all about production to protest the ever-increasing emphasis on workplace safety. Over the last few decades, many changes have come into play regarding workplace safety. Whether it is through new technologies, new laws, new rules, or just more focus given to safety, those in the same job for years have experienced a major shift towards more of an emphasis on safety than the years before.

Why Safety Can Be Redundant

Often times the same work tasks are completed every single day. Because of this, the safety issues and focuses are often the same- day in and day out. The discussions on safety will often focus on a handful of hazards for the work going on that day. The reason for this is that the same hazards often are the ones that cause the majority of incidents and injuries. While discussing and focusing on the same old hazards can get redundant, it is important never to become complacent toward them.

Battling Complacency

We do many of our work tasks in the same exact way every single day. Yet paperwork is still filled out, and discussions are still had regarding safety for these tasks. One of the most difficult things to avoid at work is complacency with hazards as well as going through the motions with safety procedures. As time goes on, individuals become more confident in their abilities and knowledge at work, and some people are willing to take more risks. This is one reason why safety issues need to be constantly reinforced, even if it has become redundant to talk about them.

Summary

It is understood that safety can be redundant at times, but it needs to be understood by employees that we all need to be reminded to stay focused on working safely. The same old hazards are often the ones that get people injured. OSHA’s Fatal Four construction hazards are an example of this. It is known that falls, electrocutions, struck-by, and caught-in or between incidents are the main causes for the overwhelming majority of fatalities in the construction industry yet it reoccurs year after year.

Do not get complacent with the hazards of your work, and do not view some redundancy in a safety program as a negative.

Safety Can Be Redundant