The Basics of Safety Through Several Years  Accident Investigation Through many years of accident investigation and research in the field of accident reconstruction, leaders in the field of occupational accident prevention have concluded that there are specific reasons why accidents occur. They found that worker safety is dependent on worker behavior and human factors. They developed ten safety rules and, while some of you may have heard them before, they are worth repeating: STAY ALERT - and stay alive. The more awake a worker is, the less likely he or she is to get hurt. If you are unsure how to...

Safety Rules For People Working Around Forklifts Call them what you like -- forklifts, lift trucks, bulls. They can be a large part of any industrial operation. Most forklift safety training concentrates on the operators, with good cause. They are the ones who are maneuvering the heavy, and sometimes awkward, loads through aisles, around corners and up ramps. A well-known lift truck manufacturer recently stated that 60% of injuries/fatalities involving lift trucks are sustained by co-workers, not operators. Like I said, most of the training concentrates on operator safety, not on the people who work around the lift trucks. The following 7 tips...

Shop Hazards & Typical Incidents Shop hazards incidents can be avoided. An incident is defined as "any observable human activity sufficiently complete in itself to permit references and predictions to be made about the persons performing the act." (Whew!) Therefore, it is safe to say that incidents or accidents do not usually just happen; they happen for a reason and are usually due to unsafe acts or conditions. The following is a list of incidents that have typically led to employee accidents. This list focuses upon shop work, but of course there are many other unsafe acts, conditions, or work activities...

Back Injuries - What Is Your Back IQ? Back injuries are a painful, sometimes debilitating, problem in many industries. Back strains can often be avoided by reducing the size or weight of materials handled by employees, by using mechanical aids such as hoists, conveyors or hydraulic lifts, and by making certain that employees are well trained in lifting techniques. But the key to back care lies with the individual worker. Everyone should be a back care "expert" and be able to answer the following questions: Question: What's the most important lifting rule to remember? Answer:  Keep The Load Close! There are many other...

Cuts And Burns Cuts and burns, nicks, scratches are minor injuries that can occur to any one of us no matter how careful we are. Minor injuries to the skin are often ignored. But it must be remembered that skin is a vital organ; one that should not be ignored. Not only is skin the largest bodily organ, it also keeps the good stuff in and the bad stuff out. So what do you do when you get a minor injury? If you are like many, you realize a doctor's visit is not necessary and try to treat the injury yourself....

Smoke Detectors - A Life Server Smoke detectors save lives every day. These small but effective devices are a vital fire safety early warning system, in both the workplace and the home. While it is critical to have smoke detectors installed both at home and at work, it is three times more important to have smoke detectors operating in the home. Why? Because each year, more than three-quarters of the 4,500 fire-related deaths occur in the home. And tragically, children under five years of age die at twice the rate of all others. The majority of fatal fires in the home take...

Safe Use Of Hand Trucks What's the best way to move something? Ask someone else to do it for you! What's the next best way? Be sure you know the proper way to move materials yourself. If you could transfer the risk of handling heavy, large and awkward items and not get hurt, wouldn't you do it? However, for many people who must move heavy items on a regular basis at work or at home, this is not a reality. One of the best ways to avoid suffering a muscle strain or sprain is to use a hand truck. The use of...

Snow Removal As I opened the front door to go to work, a pile of snow fell back inside and covered my feet. Sound familiar? For many of us who live in a cold climate, snow removal is a reality. How we deal with it may be the difference between a serious injury and an inconvenience. For those who have a snow blower, the job is easier but not without hazard. The first thing to think about is what was left on the driveway before you start the machine. Rocks, toys and other odds and ends are now frozen projectiles capable of...

How Loud Is Loud? Most of us take our sense of hearing for granted-we assume that we hear what everyone else hears. Loss of hearing may not be realized until a friend or spouse screams in frustration, "Why don't you ever listen to me!!" This is because hearing loss is usually gradual. Normally, it doesn't hurt, so we don't know it's happening. It doesn't annoy us like losing our eyesight. In fact, it is sometimes a blessing to tune out all the clatter and noise of the city and workplace. Yet our ability to hear when we want to is precious and...

Computer Room Safe Work Practices Working in a computer room can involve special fire protection issues; electrical, ventilation, security, and work practice issues also apply. Computer rooms (or “data centers”) have an increased risk of fire, because of the electrical energy used to run the machines, the heat generated by computing processes, and the air movement used to dissipate heat (air movement can feed a fire with oxygen, can cause rapid spread of a fire, and can dissipate smoke, making detection more difficult). Also, conventional smoke detectors cannot detect low concentrations of smoke, so some computer rooms have high sensitivity smoke detectors...