All businesses store something at their facilities. Whether it’s spare parts or office supplies, they need a place to keep items that are either not needed at the moment, or are the products that they are selling to the general public. Knowing the safe way to store material is important because it can protect your staff and your customers. Stocking shelves safely, therefore, needs to be a practice and procedure for many companies.
We can be exposed to fumes in many locations and from different jobs. This is because there are many products that we use that can create fumes. From paint and bleach to welding rods and gasoline, you need to be aware of the hazards that exist from fumes, the symptoms to watch for exposure and how to limit that exposure. Fume hazards, like any hazard, need to be controlled. For the purpose of this blog, I am including vapor and mists under the general heading of fumes.
Organizations rely a lot on policies in order to provide direction for workers. Whether these are for safety, purchasing, human resources or another department, they exist for a reason. No matter how well written, researched and thought out a policy is, however, if it is not enforced, a lot of the time and effort goes to waste. Organizations must ensure that all managers and supervisors are doing their job by enforcing policies consistently.
Nobody deserves to be harassed, but to many people when they go to work each day, this is part of their reality. In many jobs, harassment and violence are common. Nurses, teachers, social workers and retail employees are at the greatest risk from violence, but it also occurs in other jobs as well. Companies need to determine the risk factors that exist in their workplaces and eliminate the chance of harassment, bullying and other forms of workplace violence from occurring.
Head injuries can severely affect your life. Brain damage, such as anything from a violent impact caused by car accidents, blows or falls, or a violent shaking or whiplash can be permanent. When a blow, fall or whiplash occurs, the brain tissue is ripped, torn, stretched, battered and bruised; this is then followed by bleeding and swelling. Brain damage can then lead to functional impairments, which will make it difficult to return to a normal lifestyle. Examples of functional impairments include: loss of memory, mood swings, fatigue. With this in mind, protective headwear provided by hard hats and other helmets becomes more important in order to maintain your health and quality of life.
A clean workplace is a safe workplace. This is why housekeeping is such an important part of safety. Most people think that housekeeping simply involves picking scrap material off the floor to prevent slips, trips and falls. While this is part of the process, a good workplace housekeeping policy will have more parts, and will help in the elimination of injuries at the workplace.
Safety professionals try to prevent injuries from occurring as much as possible. Sometimes, though, an incident will still occur that causes a worker to be injured or an illness can affect a worker. When this happens, the recovery process may take some time. At this point an employer must be able to accommodate the worker. A return to work program allows the employer, the employee and the employee’s doctor to determine what duties an employee can perform and how long they need to be on modified duties.
Every day, people damage their hearing. Whether listening to music that is turned up too loud, the noises from a job site, or damage caused by head trauma or medical conditions such ear infections, the ears are subject many kinds injury. Working in loud noises is the most common cause of hearing loss. It is for this reason that we need to look at the causes of hearing loss and what is needed for hearing protection.
Many hazardous environments and jobs require employees to wear safety boots or shoes. The footwear is meant to protect typically the toes from either be struck by a hard object or having a heavy object land on them. There are different categories that are listed for safety footwear by CSA and there are as many styles of these as there are for regular footwear. Being able to select the right footwear for the job is important, so this week we will look at what the different markings and criteria are.
Can you put a dollar value on your eyesight? How important is it that you can see? To be able to see a sunset, or watch your children grow up? We sometimes take for granted what our eyes allow us to do, but CNIB reports that every day, 700 Canadian workers will sustain an eye injury. With numbers like that, eye protection should become more of a priority for companies. This article will help show the types of eye injuries that can occur and the types of eye protection covered under CSA Z94.3-07.