Lockout Tagout

CAL-OSHA has published a very nice LOTO manual with many great tips for everyone, inside and outside of the state of CA!  Failure to develop and follow lockout and blockout procedures before working on machinery is one of the major causes of serious injury and death in the USA. Workers can become electrocuted – or…...

It is widely known that OSHA permits a worker who is in EXCLUSIVE CONTROL of an electrical plug when electrical is the ONLY energy source to perform their servicing and maintenance without applying a lockout device on the plug.  This is permitted by 1910.147(a)(2)(iii)(A) Work on cord and plug connected electric equipment for which exposure…...

OSHA believes that because of the need to follow the steps in the energy control procedure carefully and specifically, and the number of variables involved in controlling hazardous energy, a documented procedure is necessary for most energy control situations. However, the Agency has determined that in certain limited situations, documentation of the procedure will not…...

A male food production worker, 54, who a pizza dough manufacturing facility employed, sustained fatal injuries due to deep neck lacerations made by a steel blade on a dough machine. On the day of the incident, the victim and a co-worker were assigned to clean two dough machines, an “elevator” and a “divider”. The “elevator”…...

Whenever I do LOTO training I always mention some of the more “interesting” methods used to control hazardous energy and in each class I always get accused of fudging the truth, as “no one can be that stupid”.  Well here is a 2013 LOTO citation from OSHA that is proof positive that we still have…...

A 51-year-old sanitation worker at a frozen-food packaging facility died after he collapsed while cleaning one of the conveyor lines.  He was assigned to clean the North Pea Line.  He opened the access doors on both sides of the cleaning pan blower housing in preparation for the cleaning.  The equipment was not shut down nor…...

Over the last several years the SAFTENG team has been seeing some interesting concepts when it comes to Lockout/Tagout applications and methods.  I want to air these out and get some dialogue started so that everyone can understand the errors of these myths…… Membership Required You must be a member to access this content.View Membership...

OSHA has cited a bottling business with 12 alleged safety violations following the death of a 21-year-old temporary worker on his first day on the job. He was crushed to death by a palletizer machine at the Jacksonville facility in August 2012. The company uses a temporary staffing service to provide laborers for certain jobs…....

This week OSHA issued citations to a steel mill involving Lockout/Tagout (LOTO) and the one citation that caught my eye revolved around a “group lockbox” situation.  The citation reads “On and before 6/18/2012, the employer did not ensure that authorized employees used a personal lockout device to lock the group lockout box. Each authorized employee had…...

Recently, I spent some time with a new (and unlisted) client who experienced a severe LOTO accident, resulting in a severe injury to an employee.  I was asked to review their programs and practices related to the control of hazardous energy (e.g., LOTO).  Everything looked good until we got to the “periodic inspection” requirement.  As…...