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Two St Paul businesses were damaged this week by fires.  Electrical fires are a leading cause of property loss in industry; cooking and heating are the leading causes in homes.  Electrical issues seem worse during the holiday season–heaters are left plugged in to ward off cold, and more extension cords are in use for holiday lights.

Live Christmas trees are another issue.  They need to be kept well watered.  The effects of fire on a dry tree versus a well watered live tree can be seen in this YouTube video.

Stay safe this holiday:

• Unplug space heaters.
• Have a working carbon monoxide detector at home.  Having one at the office is a good idea, also.
• Check cords before using them.
• Don’t leave candles burning unattended.
• Clean up spills, even if you didn’t cause them.

Someone recently sent me these tips for your car and I thought I would pass them along.  The body shops and mechanical shops we work with might be wincing, but…

Keep your headlights clear with car wax! Just wipe ordinary car wax on your headlights. It contains special water repellents that will prevent that messy mixture from accumulating on your lights – lasts 6 weeks.

Squeak-proof your wipers with rubbing alcohol! Wipe the wipers with a cloth saturated with rubbing alcohol or ammonia. This one trick can make badly streaking & squeaking wipers change to near perfect silence & clarity.

Ice-proof your windows with vinegar! Frost on its way? Just fill a spray bottle with three parts vinegar to one part water & spritz it on all your windows at night. In the morning, they’ll be clear of icy mess. Vinegar contains acetic acid, which raises the melting point of water—preventing water from freezing!

If you try any of these with success, let me know.

We don’t usually think about how loud sounds are unless they are irritating.  Sound can have a profound impact on the body, with hearing loss the most obvious.  But noise can also increase blood pressure, cause headaches, lead to hypertension and cause sleep disturbance.

To get an idea of how loud different sounds are, play around with the NIOSH noise meter.

Shoveling snow in winter isn’t likely to damage your hearing, but using a snow blower may.  Don’t forget to wear hearing protection at home as well as at work, and keep the volume on the stereo or MP3 player turned down.

Off the job injuries can cost an employer more than on the job injuries, in terms of lost production, distractions and replacing employees.  Fires are the leading cause of off-the-job incidents.  We want you to stay safe this holiday season.   The Consumer Product Safety Commission has tips on staying safe with holiday decorating.  Some of these tips apply to workplace decorating as well.

Every year we read about someone, or a whole family, dying from carbon monoxide poisoning.  Carbon monoxide is an odorless, colorless, tasteless gas that basically pushes oxygen out of the bloodstream.  Initial symptoms are often headache, sleepiness and flu-like symptoms, which often leads people to go to sleep.  And, possibly never wake up.

Carbon monoxide is given off by internal combustion engines such as kerosene heaters, furnaces, forklifts and automobiles.

As of 2008, Minnesota requires carbon monoxide detectors be located within 10 feet of every bedroom.  They should be located on every floor, as well, especially near the furnace.  Home use carbon monoxide detectors are only good for about seven years.  Write the date of installation on the monitor, so you know when to buy a new one.

Minnesota OSHA requires that businesses that operate internal combustion forklifts indoors must do carbon monoxide monitoring on a quarterly basis.

Proper monitoring for carbon monoxide is very cheap investment in saving a life.

As written in a recent OSHA Update: OSHA will require safety training to be offered in a language workers understand

“OSHA issued an enforcement memorandum directed at protecting Latino and other non-English speaking workers from workplace hazards. It directs compliance officers to ensure they check and verify that workers are receiving OSHA required training in a language they understand.”

This is an issue for any company that hires people without a good command of English.  Employers have two choices:  find someone who can provide the training in the alternative language, or hire an interpreter.  There are very few safety consultants who are bilingual in Spanish (unfortunately, we’re not one of them).  We know of none who speaks Hmong or Somali.   Using a lot of demonstration and practice and a trainer who can stick to simple language helps the translator, but companies can’t assume that employees who sit in on a safety training session comprehend the information if it is given in a language they don’t understand.

This will likely be a challenge going forward.  CHESS is committed to working with our clients to make sure employees understand safety hazards.  For assistance with your safety training, contact CHESS.

We’ve had several calls lately from clients for whom we do Right to Know training, but who do not have maintenance contracts with us. “OSHA’s here, and I can’t find the roster from the training you did, or my written Right to Know program.” Fortunately, we nearly always keep a copy of rosters and outlines, as well as of the original slide presentation used. And we keep copies of the programs we develop for clients.

But wouldn’t it be better to have the records at hand? For our maintenance clients, we set aside a file drawer specifically for safety. We have color-coded files in there: blue for safety training, green for programs, etc. That way, it’s easy to find the training records for a given year right away.

For those who prefer electronic records, do the same thing: set up a file folder on your computer specifically for those safety records and programs. Then scan in the important paper records, such as training rosters.

One final thing: remember to review and update your programs periodically. If you haven’t looked at your written Right to Know program in ten years, take a few minutes to do so. Does it mention people who left the company nine years ago? Time for an update. Have processes changed? Update the program. Updating it is a good chance to remember where it is and what it contains.

If you followed last week’s tip and found your fire extinguishers, did you look at them? Do you know what kind of condition they are in?

On a monthly basis, check that the seal is still intact, the pin is in place, the inspection tag is up to date, the charge is in the green and the extinguisher is accessible.

We are toying around with calling this 5 part inspection the A-PIGS test as a mnemonic (memory aid):

• Accessible Allways
• Pin in Place
• Inspection tag Intact
• Green Gauge
• Seal Set

What do you think?

As another birthday came and went, I realize that I am one of the aging workforce. Well, actually, anyone who is working is becoming an older worker. But, as people are working longer, employers must accommodate some of the changes that an aging workforce requires. Here are a couple of things to keep in mind, for all workers:

Older workers generally need more light, wherever they work (desks, hallways, stairs…).

Adjust work stations to fit the employees. Take into considerations older workers’ limited range of motion and their need for adjustable volume control on computer speakers and telephones.

Reduce trip hazards: watch for rugs that are not secured to the floor, cords and other items across the floor, liquid from spills or weather.

Consider flexibility: in work hours, part time options, work from home, schedules that accommodate outside appointments.

Offer different training methods, so you take into consideration the multi-tasking, multi-wired Gen X and Gen Y as well as older workers who tend to prefer in-person contact.

Tap your employees’ experience.

Consider providing wellness programs, addressing not just an aging work force, but poor eating habits and growing prevalence of diabetes of younger workers.

This article is partially based on the August Health & Safety Report from the Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety

In OSHA Region 5’s August newsletter, John Newquist, the Assistant Regional Administrator, included a reminder about forklifts and workers under 18. Simply put: keep them away. While we heartily endorse giving teenagers worthwhile jobs, there are some jobs that are simply too dangerous for them (remember: with age comes wisdom). The Fair Labor Standards Act specifically prohibits those under 18 from:

• Operating forklifts, scissors lifts, skid steers, cherry pickers, boom trucks, backhoes, cranes – equipment with a “power driven hoisting apparatus”
• Driving motor vehicles for work (17 year olds are allowed under some circumstances)
• Doing logging work, including chain saw use
• Operating powered woodworking machines (sanders, nailers…)
• Using power-driven metal-forming, punching, or shearing machines (no punch presses)
• Using most power-driven meat processing or bakery machines.
• Operating or loading balers or compactors
• Operating or helping with powered circular saws, band saws, guillotine shears, wood chippers, and abrasive cutting discs.
• Roofing work
• Trenching/excavation work

See the US Department of Labor Fact Sheet #43 for more details. The DoL list isn’t complete enough to include all hazardous occupations. Go ahead and employ your children – but keep them away from the dangerous equipment and exposures until they’re old enough to understand the risks.

In Minnesota, Gopher State One call makes it easy to get utility locates before any digging is done. Whether you are an excavator or just doing a project at home, Gopher State One Call should be contacted at least two working days before you dig. They will send someone out to locate the utilities. You can log onto the website or call them (651-454-0002 in the Twin Cities; 800-252-1166 MN toll free).

I was reminded about this when reading comments about a fatality that occurred in Georgia. A crew was replacing telephone lines. One worker was in a cherry picker/bucket truck while other workers were digging below. They hit a gas line, causing a fire that enveloped the bucket truck. The local news channel covered the story here. The employee subsequently died from burns.

It is worth taking a little extra time to plan. Remember, it is your life on the line.

The Chemical Safety Board, “an independent agency investigating chemical accidents to protect workers, the public and the the environment” recently released a new video on the dangers of hot work .  Along with being a good reminder about general safety issues, the video demonstrates potentially hazardous, and deadly, situations that can easily be missed.

The CSB website has a lot of other useful, and interesting, videos, news releases and accident information.

If you have safety related questions, concerns about employee health or hazardous situations, please contact our staff at 651-481-9787.

CHESS and the Minnesota Chapter of the Association of Automotive Service Providers (AASP-MN) are please to present a seminar entitled Hazardous Materials Security. This seminar is part of AASP-MN’s World Series of Seminars, and will take place in early October, with a choice of 3 sessions.

Every employee who has any responsibility for the transportation of hazardous materials (shipping or receiving) must be trained on safe transport and security, per Federal transportation regulations.   Violations of this requirement may result in fines ranging form $250 to $100,000 and/or criminal penalties.  These regulations apply regardless of the size of company or how much waste your company generates.

Hazardous materials include: paint related materials, thinners, paint related waste, compressed gases (including acetylene, argon and oxygen), solvents (such as carb cleaner and parts washing fluid), and fuels like gasoline and diesel.

WHEN:
October 5: Tuesday.  7:30 am-9:30 am.
Master Collision Center, Plymouth
October 6: Wednesday, 11 am-1 pm
PPG Training Center, Edina
October 7: Thursday  4 pm – 6 pm
LaMettry’s Collision, Maplewood

COST:
$95 AASP_MN member/$120 non-member (first person from a company)
Each additional person: $75/$100

REGISTRATION:

Company name, registrant name(s), session or each attendee with check or credit card to:  AASP of Minnesota, 2520 Broadway St NE, Suite 202, Minneapolis, MN 55413.  Phone: 612-623-1110.

Download a brochure here.  

OSHA has posted the following information on Spanish language documents :

Spanish translations of respiratory protection documents now easier to find online
Direct links to Spanish translations of two documents on respirator use are now on OSHA’s Respiratory Protection Safety and Health Topics page. The “Medical Evaluation Questionnaire” and “Information for Employees Using Respirators When Not Required Under Standard” are included in Appendices C and D of OSHA’s respiratory protection standard. The new links make it easier to find the Spanish-language versions of these documents, “Cuestionario de Evaluacion Medico obligado por la OSHA” and “Informacion Para los Empleados Que Usan los Respiradores Cuando No lo Exige el Reglamento o Norma,” enhancing their usefulness in protecting the health of workers.

For more infomation, contact us at CHESS.

According to a recent news release from OSHA, OSHA is making data on toxic chemical exposure available.

“In keeping with the President’s memorandum on open government, OSHA has released 15 years of data detailing workplace exposures to toxic chemicals. The data, available on OSHA’s Web site, is comprised of measurements taken during the course of inspections, including exposure levels to the hazardous chemicals asbestos, benzene, beryllium, cadmium, lead, nickel, silica, and others. It can offer insights into the levels of toxic chemicals commonly found in workplaces, as well as how exposures to specific chemicals are distributed across industries, geographical areas and time.”

A massive amount of monitoring data exists, but it is rarely, if ever shared.  That (in our opinion) ends up requiring a lot of reinventing the wheel – employers needing to monitor for tasks that are already pretty well characterized.  While various groups (AIHA members, NIOSH, university researchers) have tried to compile databases of monitoring results, it’s been a difficult chore.  Companies are reluctant to share data and there is little incentive to do so.  But OSHA has a massive database.  This information won’t remove the need to monitor, but it will provide industrial hygienists with a better guide on what to expect.

If you need help with a monitoring issue, or any other safety concern, please contact us.

The recent edition of Minnesota Safety Lines relates a fatality report: an employee drank what he thought was a sports drink–the label and bottle were that of a sports drink (Gatorade), the contents were a light blue liquid and it was near the cooler with employee lunches.  Unfortunately, it was an acid, according to the OSHA fatality report .  The employee was brought to a hospital, but died two days later.

Unfortunately, this method of storing liquids is fairly common. It’s easy to take the nearest container to hand – and how many empty beverage containers do you have in your workplace? We ran across one just recently on a walkthrough. Can you tell in this picture if there is that Gatoraid or antifreeze in that bottle?

We do not recommend using food containers for chemicals–they can often be confused.  If you re-use any containers, make sure you take off or cover the original label and relabel the container with the correct contents.  What may seem obvious to one person, often is not obvious to the next.  Fatalities happen in a split second, but you can help prevent them.

If you have questions on labeling, RIght to Know, hazard communication, material safety data sheets or other safety issues, please contact CHESS.

We sometimes hear the claim that a product is “OSHA certified” or “OSHA approved.”  These are always false claims, as OSHA does not certify or approve any products.  OSHA has set up an approval process, using third party testing facilities, called Nationally Recognized Testing Laboratories (NRTL).  Probably the most common NRTL are UL (Underwriters Laboratories) and CSA (Canadian Standards Association).

When purchasing certain products, especially electrical, look for the approval stamp from one of the NRTL.  Here is a list of NRTLs,. From there you can see a list of all of the product standards for which that lab tests.

Look for the stamp on products and make sure it looks correct.  Counterfeit stamps and markings do exist.  OSHA explains this all further in a recent Safety and Health Information Bulletin.

For more information on this or other safety and health issues, please contact us.

Janet Keyes, CIH, recently attended the American Industrial Hygiene Conference and Exposition (AIHCe) in Denver.  Over the next couple weeks we will be featuring some of the highlights from that conference.

Control banding is developing as a way to control risks when no exposure limits exist or where exposure monitoring isn’t feasible or practical. While it is not a replacement for monitoring, it can be a useful tool, especially for small businesses. You instinctively know that it is preferable to substitute a less hazardous chemical for a more hazardous one (for example, using a less toxic, “green” cleaner for a corrosive cleaner). Control banding gives us a tool to assess how beneficial, in terms of the protective measures needed, that substitution would be.

Control banding reviews a chemical’s toxicity and behavior, and assigns it to the level of control needed based on its apparent hazard. For instance, a low toxicity, non-volatile chemical may be assigned to a control band requiring gloves, while a more toxic substance may be assigned to the local ventilation required/gloves mandatory band. (See NIOSH’s information page on control banding.)

Control banding grew out of the pharmaceutical industry’s need to determine the risks of new pharmaceuticals, and is based on the biosafety levels established for handling infectious agents (the more dangerous the pathogen, the higher the level of control). Given that only about 700 chemicals have OSHA-established Permissible Exposure Limits (established anticipated safe limits of exposure), control banding may become essential for determining and controlling the hazards of all the other substances in use.

For more information on this, chemical monitoring or assistance with safety, please contact CHESS at 651-481-9787 or carkey[at]chess-safety.com.

Janet Keyes, CIH, recently attended the American Industrial Hygiene Conference and Exposition (AIHce) in Denver. Over the next couple weeks we will be featuring some of the highlights from that conference.

We all have skin. What many don’t realize is how important of an organ it is. Our skin protects us from a lot of things–chemicals, sun, etc. Skin protection is in important consideration in safety.

We are becoming more aware of the need to account for skin absorption and the effects of chemicals on our skin. We are all aware that working with oils and greases can cause acne and that some soaps can really dry out the skin. But the systemic effects from skin exposure have been neglected. We can measure employees’ exposure to chemicals in the air, and estimate how that correlates to toxic levels. We don’t have good ways to measure employee exposure to chemicals on the skin. But several researchers are developing models to account for skin absorption. None are in practical use yet.

NIOSH (National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health) is revising its Pocket Guide to Hazardous Chemicals , replacing the notation “skin” (where skin absorption or skin contact is important) with more specific guides to what happens with skin contact (e.g., corrosive, sensitizer, systemic toxicity via skin absorption…).

Assessing exposures of skin hazards in the real world includes these considerations:

• If it’s there, it’ll get onto the skin.
• The sloppier the workplace, the greater the exposure (another argument for good housekeeping).
• There are a number of ways to assess exposure (wipe samples, patches, tape strips, hand wash or wipes, biological monitoring, etc.). Keep it simple and consistent, so it’s possible to compare exposure before and after controls are put in place.
• The wrong glove can be worse than none, as occluded (covered) skin can have higher absorption rates than skin exposed to air. (Think of times you have worn gloves that make your hands sweat).
• Use engineering controls, with PPE (gloves) as a backup. Engineering controls may include shields to control splashes or spatters, limiting the use of sprays, using containment, and not letting workers put their hands in or on contaminated surfaces.

For more information on skin exposures, personal protective equipment or other safety needs, please contact CHESS at 651-481-9787.