The Top 10 Safety Fails of 2012

…and 10 ways to succeed in 2013

By Al Polito

Every October at the National Safety Council's Congress & Expo, OSHA releases its top 10 safety violations based on the preceding fiscal year. Because the same 10 “usual suspects” tend to populate the list every year—albeit in a different order—it’s evident there’s something about these issues that compels many companies to avoid complying. It’s a repeating theme with few variations.

2012			2011
Citation and statute		No. of citations	Citation	No. of citations
1.	Fall protection (1926.501)	7,250	Fall protection	7,139
2.	Hazard communication (1910.1200)	4,696	Scaffolding	7,069
3.	Scaffolding (1926.451)	3,814	Hazard communication	6,358
4.	Respiratory protection (1910.134)	2,371	Respiratory protection	3,944
5.	Ladders (1926.1053)	2,310	Lockout/Tagout	3,639
6.	Machine guarding (1910.212)	2,097	Electrical wiring methods	3,584
7.	Powered industrial trucks (1910.178)	1,993	Powered industrial trucks	3,432
8.	Electrical wiring methods (1910.305)	1,744	Ladders	3,244
9.	Lockout/Tagout (1910.147)	1,572	Electrical system design	2,863
10.	Electrical general requirements (1910.303)	1,332	Machine guarding	2,556

No one sees it coming

…except the OSHA inspector—and that safety-conscious employee who brought it up once, the employee who cut his hand and didn’t mention it and that other employee who had a near miss. In other words, plenty of people see the possibility of a workplace injury happening. But too often, it’s only after a company is cited or someone is seriously hurt that management realizes they’ve put safety on the back burner for too long.

Back on the front burner

Companies that view safety as not only the right thing to do, but also an effective productivity tool, retain their best employees. They also have fewer worker absences and lower workers’ comp premiums than those that treat safety as a burden. Prioritizing safety at your company may seem like a difficult expense, but the price of a serious injury (both psychologically and monetarily) is much higher for all parties—injured workers, their co-workers, family and employer. So if you are ready to put safety on the front burner of your company, here are 10 ways to get started (and avoid these common safety fails). Note that the statutes listed in the table provided above include much more information; following the suggestions below doesn’t ensure full compliance with OSHA’s statutes.  

1. Fall protection: According to OSHA, fall protection should be provided at elevations of four feet in general industry workplaces, five feet in shipyards, six feet in the construction industry and eight feet in longshoring operations. If you have employees working or walking alongside elevated open-sided walkways or platforms, the edge of that walkway/platform must include a guardrail system and toe-board. Avoid having any “unprotected sides and edges” in your work environment. On construction sites a safety net or some kind of personal fall arrest system must be used.

2. Hazard communication: The adoption of the GHS-aligned HazCom 2012 standard means a lot of big changes, so read the rule in its entirety. Provide your employees with information and training on all hazardous chemicals in their work area at the time of their initial assignment, and whenever a new chemical hazard the employees have previously not been trained on is introduced into their work area. Replace MSDS sheets with GHS-compliant Safety Data Sheets (SDSs) and use GHS/HazCom 2012-compliant labels for all containers. Read the article (LINK) in this edition of DuraNews and request our freeHCS/HazCom 2012 Labeling Best Practice Guide to help you make the transition.

3. Scaffolding (construction): The construction scaffolding rule has standards relating to scaffold design, inspection and fall protection, all of which save lives when observed. It’s important to remember that workers must have proper fall protection when they are on raised surfaces; this can mean guardrails, personal fall arrest systems or a combination of both. Note that there are also different requirements for fall protection depending on the type of scaffold.

4. Respiratory protection: Have dust, fog, fumes, mist, gasses, smokes, sprays or vapors? Then according to OSHA you must provide the appropriate respirator to each employee as part of a respiratory protection program administered by a “suitably trained program administrator.” The program must include worksite-specific procedures for required respirator use.

5. Ladders: Make sure your ladders are compliant with this rule, which covers both fixed and portable ladders. Common issues include non-parallel positioning relative to landings, too much or too little space between rungs, inadequate landing size and ladder bases more than 12 inches off the ground. Ladder capacity and conductivity are also addressed in this rule.

6. Machine guarding: Machine guards protect workers’ limbs, skin and eyes from nip points, rotating parts, flying chips and sparks. Guards may include barrier guards, two-hand tripping devices and electronic safety devices. Go through all work areas where there are power tools, stationary machinery with moving parts, etc., and ensure there is an appropriate buffer between the worker and any moving parts and projectile fragments. Be sure to check out the article on machine guarding in this issue of DuraNews.

7. Powered industrial trucks: This rule addresses several potential disasters. If you ensure that your forklifts and other industrial trucks are in top mechanical order, and that your operators are all trained and certified to operate the vehicles safely, you will have satisfied two of the main requirements, but read the whole statute for the big picture.

8. Electrical wiring methods: Grounding of electrical equipment, wiring and insulation and temporary wiring and splicing are all subject to this rule. Violations frequently occur when wiring is sloppy or when temporary wiring is used as if it were permanent. Trusting all your wiring to a licensed, bonded electrician and avoiding the permanent use of extension cords will help you avoid electric shock, fire hazards and other problems.

9. Lockout/tagout: If you have machinery or equipment that can unexpectedly energize, start up or release stored energy, you need to have a lockout/tagout program designed to protect workers from being in the wrong place at the wrong time when the machine starts to move. Use professional-grade lockout and tagout supplies; obtain full participation from authorized employees and educate others who could be affected by the program.

10.  Electrical general requirements: Avoid using consumer-rated appliances in a commercial work environment; most aren’t grounded, nor are they intended for continuous operation. Using indoor-rated electrical receptacles outside as well as having exposed electrical wiring, unguarded receptacles and unguarded fluorescent lighting are all grounds for citation because of the fire and electrocution hazards they pose. To be OSHA-compliant, leave wiring to the pros and leave the consumer-rated appliances at home.

Graphic Products offers several products to help employers promote safety and compliance and avoid many of these common safety fails. Besides HazCom and  GHS labels, Graphic Products offers personal protective equipment; OSHA-compliant danger, warning and caution labels and Lockout/Tagout supplies.

Originally published here: http://www.duralabel.com/duranews/2012/dec/top-10-safety-fails-2012