This week, I shared some pictures of a setup I encountered last year in an audit I conducted at a manufacturing facility. This sole department was using metal trash cans as ” safety cans,” while the rest of the facility was using FM/UL “approved safety cans” for their “dirty rags” storage. The sight of this setup immediately caught my attention and the attention of the site safety leader as it was pretty ingenious, albeit not very safe. I did end up writing a finding against the setup and this is my explanation of what we found and what issues we took with the practice.
It was corrected by the end of the week and was a great LEARNING opportunity for the facility, as there was zero written guidance or training on the acceptable means of storing “dirty rags.” This was after a fire several years earlier involving “solvent-soaked” rags not being stored safely. Out of that incident, the facility failed to DEFINE and QUANTIFY “safe storage” of “dirty rags.”
Here are the pics of the setup…