EVERYONE IS RESPONSIBLE FOR SAFETY Safety is everyone’s responsibility! As an employee, you should: a. Learn to work safely and take all rules seriously. b. Recognize hazards and avoid them. c. Report all accidents, injuries and illness to your supervisor immediately. d. Inspect tools before use to avoid injury. e. Wear all assigned personal protective equipment.   On the other hand, it...

Cylinder Colors While the cylinder label is the primary means of identifying the properties of the gas in a cylinder, the colour coding of the cylinder itself, can often time provide a further guide. Cylinder Shoulder – European Standard Color CodingThe color applied to the shoulder, or curved part, at the top of the cylinder, signifies the European standard color coding that has recently emerged....

ACOEM Guideline – The Use of Contact Lenses in an Industrial Environment May 4, 2003 More than 34 million Americans wear some type of contact lenses. Of this number, many are employed as part of the industrial workforce. As the health professional most familiar with the hazards encountered in the industrial setting, the occupational and environmental medicine (OEM) physician must...

This information was put together by George G. Maher, Ag Safety Specialist @ North Dakota State University in 1995!!!! … HomeRead More »

And That’s How It Happens… Start with a cage containing five apes. In the cage, hang a banana on a string and put stairs under it.  Before long, an ape will go to the stairs and start to climb towards the banana. As soon as he touches the stairs, spray all of the apes with cold water. After a while, another ape makes an attempt with the same result – all the apes are sprayed...

Lenses and Frames The many changes incorporated in the new ANSI Z87.1-2003 will affect the manufacture and testing of both safety frames and safety lenses. Because your industrial business is a valuable asset to your overall operation, you should be familiar with and adopt the practices of the new procedure to ensure compliance and to prevent potential liability issues related to eye injuries....

Applications and Attributes (Informative: the safeguarding and complementary equipment contained in the chart below, as well as their applications and attributes, are NOT intended as an all-inclusive list, but merely as additional information or guidance on some potential uses and capabilities of the listed safeguarding and complementary equipment)   Safeguarding Application(s) (for safeguarding...

AFTERTHOUGHTS AND REGRETS…. How often have you said or done something and then later, reflecting on your action, thought to yourself, “How could I have done that?” Here are some afterthoughts which, unfortunately, too many of us have experienced: “That’s how we’ve always done it before.” (…before the accident occurred anyway.) “I never thought that a little...

A SINGLE SECOND By Charlie Kittleson It takes a minute to write a safety rule. It takes an hour to hold a safety meeting. It takes a week to plan a good safety program. It takes a month to put that program into operation. It takes a year to win a safety award. It takes a lifetime to make a safe worker. But it takes only a second to destroy it all – with one accident.   Take the time now...

It’s the week before Christmas, And in the plant everywhere, Is a spirit of the approaching holiday and the resulting good cheer This focus can take us – if we are not careful As inattention leads to injuries that can really – be painful Never take for granted that machines can hurt us, Forgetting to Lock Out Tag Out is completely senseless, Chestnuts roasting on a fire is a common Christmas...

When lives are at risk, being one percent wrong is all wrong! Every safety, health, or environmental professional deals with situations, which illustrate a broader point. One project recently drove home for me a reminder of how little room there is for error in a field where lives are at risk. This particular project was a complicated asbestos abatement. The renovation work was well underway before...

By the way folks –  this is NOT a real congressman and this is NOT a real interview.  These guys are comedians trying to make a point of how ridiculous company spokespeople and politicians sound when doing damage control.  Yes, it is a bit over the top, but anyone over the age of 20 has heard this type of rhetoric before!!!!  This is an attempt at humor – not a slam...