Tag: Weekly Safety Message 32

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