To follow up on the post from yesterday regarding the use of these “lockout devices”, I was reminded by many of you in the same camp as me, that these devices are also highly questionable when we look at their ability to meet the “substantial“ requirement. These safety pros all agreed that the use of…...
LOTO, “Clam Shells”, OSHA, and “substantial” Read More »
UPFRONT DISCLAIMER: I am not suggesting you throw out any of your LOTO devices or change your practices. This is NOT advice, merely an attempt to demonstrate how some companies go above and beyond OSHA minimums. In my days working in the chemical industries, I had the pleasure of working with some of the finest plant managers,…...
Do “clam shells” comply with OSHA’s definition of “Lockout Device” Read More »
The state of NC has its own OSHA Plan (e.g., State Plan), but they use the Federal OSHA standards as their enforcement tools. As like most state plans, their website is a buffet of safety materials that are free for the taking. In fact, I used some of their materials when I was a safety manager in…...
NC-OSHA’s acceptable “Lockout Lock” identification method… would you accept this? Read More »
A 51-year-old female employee was fatally injured when she leaned into a machine and was pinned, resulting in crushing injuries to her head and neck. On the day of the incident, the victim was helping out on windshield #1 line due to low staffing levels resulting from inclement weather. She was to keep the line running and relieve…...
LOTO Fatality (TN-OSHA) Read More »
The standard specifies several information collection requirements. The following sections describe who uses the information collected under each requirement and how they use it. These requirements aim to control the release of hazardous energy while workers service, maintain, or repair machines or equipment when activation, startup, or release of energy from an energy source is…...
What is OSHA’s LOTO documentation requirements? Read More »
The US Chemical Safety Board’s (CSB) most recent Safety Bulletin: Key Lessons from the ExxonMobil Baton Rouge Refinery Isobutane Release and Fire was once again a great piece of work by the agency. But as with most incidents, other underlying issues may have contributed (or not) to the incident. In this bulletin, I could not help but notice…...
Did you see the “tagout” in CSB’s latest Bulletin Read More »
The OSHRC sided with the company that used Appendix A from 1910.147 as their machine-specific LOTO procedure. They did so without any revisions to the content of the Appendix, and the OSHRC found this as an acceptable machine-specific LOTO procedure! … Membership Required You must be a member to access this content.View Membership LevelsAlready a...
A manufacturer of rigid metal, plastic, and hybrid containers faces $503,380 in proposed penalties after OSHA inspectors responded to four (4) separate reports of workers suffering injuries at the facility. As a result of its investigations, OSHA cited the business for five (5) repeated and five (5) serious safety violations of machine safety procedures and placed…...
OSHA issues REPEAT LOTO & Guarding Citations ($503,380) Read More »
I spent this week surrounded by safety pros who wanted to learn the finer details of safety; one day was dedicated to LOTO. I always get some questions about spending a day on LOTO… “what the heck are we going to talk about LOTO for 8 hours?”. I think that if you were to poll…...
LOTO in 2017 has got to be better! Read More »
At 11:57 a.m. on December 27, 2016, an employee, 27 years old, was performing a “salt flush” on line four 2,500 lb. double ribbon mixer. He/she dropped an 80 lb. bag of salt into the mixer. A coworker walked down to close the mixer trap door, and the deceased employee entered the mixer to…...
OSHA issues LOTO citations regarding a ribbon blender fatality Read More »
Recently IN-OSHA issued citations to the nation’s largest grocery store chain when management at one of their retail outlets removed a contractor’s LOTO lock without following their own (or the contractor’s lock removal procedures). We can get some idea as to what happened based on the citations, but bottom line… BEFORE cutting off a LOTO lock, procedures…...
Here’s a LOTO scenario many don’t think about (Lock removal & $17K) Read More »
A 38-year-old welder was fatally injured while doing maintenance on a large chip conveyor at a commercial wood chipping facility. A new conveyor system had been installed to move wood chips from a large chipper to the yard area. The system was operational but not complete. Two workers, including a welder, were working at the…...
