Category: Safety

Shortcuts are a Choice Safety Talk

The decision to take a shortcut can be influenced by many different factors. That being said, at the end of the day, shortcuts are a choice made by an individual. It is important to realize this fact and take steps to avoid taking shortcuts, especially when it comes to safety on the job.

Common Safety Shortcuts

Taking shortcuts when it comes to safety can manifest in many different ways. Some common types of safety shortcuts that occur in many workplaces:

• Not implementing all necessary safeguards. Almost every work task has several safeguards that are to be implemented prior to work beginning. Each safeguard that is implemented is one more way to protect yourself and others from injury.
• Not wearing the necessary PPE. PPE is the last line of defense for workers. You never know when you may need it.
• Rushing during tasks or not taking the necessary time to do certain tasks. Many things can be missed when rushing during a work task. This can lead to incidents occurring.

Ways to Avoid Taking Shortcuts

• Hold yourself to a higher standard. Do not take the easy way out. Take the time and energy to perform tasks correctly. Make it a habit to follow safety policies and procedures.
• Help set the expectation that shortcuts are unacceptable when it comes to safety. If coworkers see you taking shortcuts, they are more likely to do so themselves.
• Realize that shortcuts affect more than just you. They can result in negative impacts on production, property damage, as well as injuries.
• If facing a perceived time pressure, evaluate whether it is a self-imposed time pressure. Many times individuals put pressure on themselves to perform a task faster when there is no real outside pressure to get a work task completed.
• Preplan work tasks well ahead of time so the necessary tools, training, personnel, safety equipment, time, etc., are available. Having all the necessary items for work tasks can help to avoid the urge to take shortcuts.

Summary

To boil it down, taking shortcuts is just an individual choice. Sure there are many factors that affect whether an individual will make the choice to do so, but it is ultimately a choice that is made. It can be difficult never to take a shortcut when it comes to safety, but there are many actions that can be utilized to eliminate the urge to do so.

Discussion point: What are other factors that may lead to a worker taking a shortcut?

Shortcuts are a Choice

Safety Glasses General Safety Talk

Vision loss and severe eye injuries occur all too often in today’s workplaces. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), each day, about 2,000 U.S. workers sustain a job-related eye injury that requires medical treatment. Due to the severity and frequency of these injuries, there is no room for shortcuts or excuses when it comes to protecting your eyes on the job.

There are many ways to protect yourself from an eye injury, but safety glasses are the most common, and, arguably, the simplest safeguard for protecting your eyes from injury.

Protecting Your Eyes with Safety Glasses

• The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) requires that each affected employee uses appropriate eye or face protection when exposed to eye or face hazards.
• OSHA requires that all eye and face protection comply with the ANSI Z87.1 standard and be marked with “Z87.1”. This marking which is commonly located somewhere on the frame of the glasses, notifies the wearer that the glasses meet or exceed the test requirements of The American National Standards Institute (ANSI).
• Your employer will identify what type of eye and face protection for each job task is needed. It is your responsibility to ensure the personal protective equipment is worn when required, maintained in a safe condition, and stored correctly.
• Safety glasses help protect your eyes from objects that can pierce, bruise, scratch, or damage them. They withstand high impacts from work tasks such as drilling, cutting, grinding, using a nail or staple gun, or any other tasks that create flying debris or particles.
• If you wear prescription lenses, you must either wear approved safety glasses containing prescription lenses and frames that meet or exceed the ANSI Z87.1 standard or wear safety goggles over your regular prescription glasses. The safety goggles must also be marked to meet or exceed the Z87.1 standard.
• Safety glasses must have side protectors built into their design when working around flying objects or particles. When not possible, use attachable side shields that comply with the ANSI standard.

Summary

There are countless excuses as to why someone may not wear their safety glasses. Comments such as “they are uncomfortable” or “I am only doing this small task that will take just a minute” are dangerous statements. Take the time to wear all required eye and face protection. If you are unsure if your safety glasses meet the requirements, bring them to your supervisor to inspect them.

Discussion points:

1. Where is the Z87.1 marking on the safety glasses you wear at work?
2. What are some works tasks here that require the use of safety glasses?
3. What are some work tasks here that require more protection, such as goggles or a face shield?

Safety Glasses

The Four Routes of Entry of Hazardous Chemicals (Safety Talk)

Chemicals exist on virtually every single worksite. Many chemicals used on the job are hazardous to humans depending on how an individual comes into contact with them as well as the amount of the chemical they are exposed to. Employees need to understand the chemicals they are exposed to and the possible routes of entry. There are four ways a chemical or substance can enter the human body. These four routes of exposure include inhalation, absorption, ingestion, and injection.

The Four Routes of Entry
(source: www.ehs.unl.edu)

1. Inhalation– Inhalation is the most common route of entry a person comes into contact with a chemical. Once inhaled, chemicals are either exhaled or deposited in the respiratory tract. Upon contact with tissue in the upper respiratory tract or lungs, chemicals may cause health effects ranging from simple irritation to severe tissue destruction. The chemical can also go onto affecting organs that are sensitive to the chemical.

2. Absorption– Getting chemicals onto the skin or eyes can result in redness and irritation all the way to severe destruction of tissue or blindness. The eyes are especially sensitive to chemicals. Some chemicals have the ability to pass through the skin and get into the bloodstream of a victim. This can lead to systemic problems in the organs.

3. Ingestion– Chemicals that inadvertently get into the mouth and are swallowed do not generally harm the gastrointestinal tract itself unless they are irritating or corrosive. Some chemicals can be absorbed through the gastrointestinal tract, where they enter the bloodstream. Once in the bloodstream, they can cause damage to the organs.

4. Injection– Though not common, injection of chemicals into the body can occur. A sharp object can be contaminated with a chemical or substance and penetrate the skin. The chemical is then in the body and can make its way into the bloodstream, where it can damage organs or other tissue.

Safe Work Practices When Working with Chemicals

• Know the chemicals you are working with. Read the SDS to understand the safe handling procedures and what to do if you come into contact with the chemical.
• Eliminate chemical hazards where possible. Do not use extremely hazardous chemicals unless absolutely necessary. Substitute a less hazardous chemical in place of a more hazardous chemical.
• Engineer chemical hazards out of the workplace. Engineering controls include ventilation such as fans, barriers to create distance, or a shield from chemicals, filters, etc.
• Wear the correct PPE to protect yourself from the chemical. PPE such as respirators, goggles, a face shield, chemical gloves, and a lab coat are some examples of creating barriers between your body and a chemical.

Discussion point

Also, think about your family. If you are not practicing good hygiene, you could be bringing chemicals home with you and exposing family members to them. For example, there is lead dust on the floor of a work area you are often in. You walk through the floor all day, and then when you go home, you do not take off your shoes, and you walk around on your carpet. Your baby son crawls on the carpet, inhaling and possibly ingesting the lead dust leading to health problems for him.

Take preventive measures to clean your clothes and other items that you take home with you.

Hazardous Chemicals- Four Routes of Entry

Habits and Safety

We all have habits that we follow on a daily or weekly basis. These habits have a major effect on our life. They also affect the choices we make at work. The choice to follow a safety procedure on any given day could be affected by a habit you have had for years.

Your Daily Habits

Think about the habits you follow every single day. Start with waking up. Did you hit the snooze button once or twice? Do you do this every day? What about breakfast? Did you cook in the house, or did you stop at the same gas station you do every day to grab a quick bite to eat? Most likely, the choices that you have made from the point you woke up, to right now in this safety meeting, are the same choices you make every single day. These daily choices are your habits.

How Habits Work

According to Charles Duhigg, who is the author of the book The Power of Habit, there is a “habit loop.” The habit loop he describes in his book is a three-part process. The first part of the process is the cue or trigger, the second is the routine or behavior itself, and the third is the reward.

Let us take the example of you repeatedly hitting the snooze button and look at it as a bad habit you want to break. We will discuss the habit by looking at Duhigg’s habit loop. The trigger of this habit would be your alarm going off in the morning. While the alarm is blaring, your mind tells you it is okay to hit the snooze button and continue sleeping because, in the past, you have done it. Hitting the snooze button would be the behavior. The reward would be getting more sleep. To break this habit, you would need to change one of the three components.

Looking at the routine first, maybe changing the location of your alarm to a location where you would have to get out of bed would work in breaking the habit. The alarm going off is still the trigger, but you have changed the routine by having to physically get out of bed, making it less likely you will go back to sleep. Another option to help break the habit is experiencing a different reward which would be having more time in the morning. By not hitting the snooze button repeatedly, you will experience a new reward of more time and less rush in the mornings before work. This reward alone over time may lead you to curve the habit of hitting snooze.

Not all habits are easy to break, but you get the point.

Habits and Safety on the Job

Your habits may be leading you to consistently take shortcuts and not follow safety procedures. Are there certain safety procedures you always follow and others that you rarely follow? For example, you are a welder, and every single day you complete your JSA, but many days there are times you choose not to lower your helmet while welding. Why do you choose to follow one safety procedure but not the other? Maybe you complete your JSA every day because you have to turn it in at the end of the day, and you have learned that it gets reviewed.

The reward would be not getting disciplined by a supervisor, so you choose to do the JSA every day. On the other hand, you choose not to lower your welding helmet because it is hard to see through, and you know supervisors rarely enter your work area. The reward is that you feel it is quicker to do the task, you can see better, and you have not been injured yet. In your mind, there is no consequence that will most likely come that is more negative than the reward you receive from not putting the helmet down, so you continue the behavior.

Summary

Pay attention to the habits you hold on to and how they affect you daily. How many of these habits are positive ones, and how many are negative? Look at the choices you make at work, and if they lead to negative behaviors, then look at changing them. By addressing the trigger or experiencing a different reward for your behaviors, you may find a way to change bad habits.

Habits and Safety