How To Improve Your Hazard Communication
May 23rd, 2011A new research study from Belgium has made some very important findings about Chemical Safety in the workplace.
The study, entitled “Workers’ Perception of Chemical Risks: A Focus Group Study,” was published in a recent issue of Risk Analysis, the journal of the Society for Risk Analysis.
These are the key findings of this study:
Training Analysis Can Influence Incident Rates
April 13th, 2011If you want to use training to help employees work more safely and avoid incidents, you need to analyze your training from the start to ensure that it is an appropriate and effective tool. It must be appropriate to the hazards and risks and the people that need the training.
To test whether your training has been effective, you need to conduct informative post-training analysis.
Employee–driven Safety = A Safer Workplace
February 8th, 2011The more workers participate in the Occupational Health and Safety program, the safer the workplace.
Using policies and procedures to address Health and Safety in the workplace has its advantages, but behaviour-based Safety will prove to be a growing component in successful Health & Safety management systems in years to come.
Here are some easy to implement suggestions on your road towards an employee-driven Health and Safety program.
SAQA Cracks Whip in Registration Circus
October 15th, 2010SAQA’s draft policy for professional bodies and designations, is out for comment before 15 October 2010.
The policy aims to bring order to the current circus of self regulation, and would present major hurdles, perhaps even a dead end to self-appointed ‘registrars’ like OHSAP.
Some professional membership bodies and registrars have made a playground of registration, professing ‘standards and ethics’, while sliding towards unaccountable, clique based, and expensive quality assurance practice.
SAQA is duly sanctioned and empowered to introduce quality assurance mechanisms to the conferring and revocation (in theory, perhaps soon in practice) of titles like doctor, engineer, advocate, chartered accountant, member of the motor industries federation or member of the security institute, etc.
Construction Regulations ammendment
As you may know, some people, supposedly not the IoSM /OHSAP clique, managed to convince the legislator, via the DOL ACOHS, to slip the words “and registered with a body, which is registered with SANAS” into a tagged-on …
The Day After OHSAP
July 15th, 2010I received an IoSM letter titled “Registration for Occupational Safety Professionals: Why and How?” promoting OHSAP and written by the chairman of the Occupational Safety Professional Council (OSPC).
Reading through the letter, it made me think of the time the Israelites wanted a king, and despite the prophet’s best efforts to talk some sense into them, the Israelites continued to insist that a king is what will make all the difference.
Boy, was the Israelites wrong about that one!
Just ask Uriah who was sent off to war by King David to get killed so that his majesty could marry Bathsheba, Uriah’s beautiful wife. Uriah is probably still trying to get that knife out of his back.
Well, I’m getting that “here we go again” feeling.
The Case for Registration – Not!
In this letter, under the heading “The Case for Registration”, the writer mentions that “Registration or accreditation of an organization or individual is a …
Health and Safety training has to be engaging
October 13th, 2009When health and safety training is not engaging, it is not effective. Training facilitators should base their methods on a simple principle: If you can not make training interesting, it would not be heard, the lessons would not stick, and you would waste time and resources.
There is always more that trainers could do to make health and safety training more engaging. Centre training around the learners. No matter how important the Sheq information is, learners have to come to the subject from their personal circle of relevance. They want to know what it means to them.
One of the ways to do this is to involve potential trainees in planning the training session. Conduct a formal training needs assessment of the trainees, workers and organisational priorities. Even an informal chat with learners before the sessions could be effective.
Encourage participation in the curriculum and structure of the learning process. Do not be …
5 Keys to Preventing Hand Injuries
August 13th, 2009Hand injuries can be especially traumatic. It strips away one’s ability to work and also the ability to perform activities of daily living.
The two primary types of workplace hand injuries are traumatic events and overuse or repetitive-motion injuries.
Amputations and other serious injuries typically occur because of a lack of experience or training. Current economic conditions may worsen this risk.
Employers may hire less experienced people to fill positions once held by more seasoned workers, or workers who are retained may be assigned to tasks with which they are less familiar, thus increasing the chance for injury.
There are a number of steps employers can take to help reduce the risk of hand injuries and to minimize the impact of those that do occur:
1. Recognize the value of experienced workers, especially on high-risk equipment.
2. Invest in workplace Safety training.
3. Identify opportunities to increase the comfort and ergonomics of tools. Find ways to decrease …
An Emergency Action Plan’s 10 Key Elements
July 14th, 2009We all know that having an Emergency Action Plan (EAP) is an important part of emergency preparedness. It is even more important that the plan is one that will work when it is required.
Below you will find the 10 key-points you should consider when developing or when reviewing an Emergency Action Plan:
1. THE PROBLEM WITH ELECTRICITY
One must be prepared that in the event of an emergency, electricity might not be available. If you consider this to be a likely case then you must not store your action plan in electronic form only. Print several copies of your EAP and make sure that they stay readily available.
Make sure phone lists associated with your EAP are available in hard copy and not only available in electronic format, on a central database or on speed-dial lists.
2. WHERE TO TURN OFF THE WATER AND LIGHTS
Your EAP should list the location of important utility shutoffs. It is …
10 Issues Health & Safety Induction Must Cover
June 10th, 2009Successful Health and Safety induction programs are designed to cover all the bases. All the Safety and Health basics new workers and visitors need to know are included, and the management system ensures that every-one goes through induction – from the CEO to the new worker.
Every organisation’s Safety induction programs will be different, but all successful programs are formal, required, and include and cover the following these 10 “must-haves”:
1. Basic Safety policies and rules/procedures
2. Emergency procedures and equipment (evacuation routes, fire alarms, etc)
3. Job/work area hazards
4. Required PPE
5. Hazard reporting
6. Where to go with questions, problems
7. Safety responsibilities
8. Required Safety training
9. Standard Health & Safety information (safety signs, MSDSs, etc)
10. Housekeeping duties and rules
The order and the extent to which you present this information will probably depend on who you must provide the induction training to. In the case of new employees one should consider their job description as well …
Better Safety Talks
April 8th, 2009Planning is essential for effective Safety meetings.
In order to get the most from a Safety meeting, you need to think about five key issues:
1. content,
2. method,
3. location,
4. reinforcement,
5. follow-up.
The best way is to think of each issue as a step in the process of producing successful Safety meetings.
You will find that you get the best results when you schedule Safety meetings early in a shift when employees are more alert and less likely to be in the middle of a crucial task. It would be best to avoid Mondays and Fridays if employees have the weekend off. Better yet, set a regular schedule, such as the first Tuesday of the month or every other Wednesday.
Inform everybody who needs to know. Send out reminders the day before, and confirm with all the employees you have contact with during the previous day.
Safety Meeting Content
For the best results, choose timely and pertinent …
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