The Professional Landcare Network (PLANET) provides Safety Sense tips and encourages contractors to pass them around the workplace. This month’s topic is fatal injuries. Here are some facts and tips to help prevent unnecessary tragedies.
Key Points:
- Employees in our industry continue to die on the job at an unacceptable rate.
- In a new fact sheet, “Fatal Injuries Among Landscape Services Workers” (NIOSH Publication No. 2008-144), the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) notes that while workers in our industry comprise less than 1 percent of the total workforce in the United States, they experience 3.5 percent of all job-related fatalities.
- Electrocutions, drownings, vehicle incidents, falls, and heat-related illnesses are among the many ways employees in our industry are dying on the job.
- It’s critical that green industry company owners and top managers put safety first. The failure to do so can result in serious injuries, deaths, costly workers’ compensation claims, increased insurance premiums, government fines, reduced employee morale, and poor relations with customers.
- PLANET has many excellent resources available to help you build your safety program and reduce the risk of injuries and deaths. Visit the PLANET Bookstore for more information.
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Checklist for Employers on Reducing Injuries and Deaths
- Know that an injury/incident can occur in a split second and can dramatically change (or even end) the life of one of your employees or another person.
- If you’re ever tempted to think that safety isn’t that important, ask yourself how you would feel placing a call to the spouse of one of your employees to tell that person that his or her family member was killed on the job and will never come home again.
- A good first step in reducing the risk of injuries and deaths is to make sure you have a written and implemented company safety program. The PLANET CD, Safety Program for Green Industry Companies, includes a ready-to-use safety program if you need assistance. Talk with your employees about safety every day. Bring it up at every meeting, even if the meeting is on another topic.
- Do regular “walk throughs” of your operation to look for hazards. Visit job sites unannounced. Make sure crew members are using the required personal protective equipment and are working in a safe manner. Also, ask crew members about any safety issues they think need to be addressed.
- Know how and where most of the injuries in your company occur. Take preventive steps to reduce the risk of recurrence. If those steps aren’t working, implement an alternate plan. Note: It’s often helpful to involve someone from outside your company. Two good resources are your insurer and your State OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) Consultation Program. Visit OSHA’s Web site for more information.
- Praise employees who work safely. Post their photos on company bulletin boards.
- Conduct weekly tailgate training. Don’t skip sessions during your busiest season.
Are Your Employees Trained in Hazard Communication?
Key Points:
- OSHA’s Hazard Communication Standard requires green industry employers who may expose their employees to hazardous chemicals to have a written hazard communication program, provide education and training, maintain current material safety data sheets (MSDSs) and properly labeled chemical containers, and keep a current log of all hazardous chemicals that are used.
- This standard not only applies to pesticides and similar chemicals, but also to such hazardous materials as paints, propane, kerosene, cleaning solvents, and welding fumes.
- Among the common reasons employers are cited by OSHA for failing to comply with the Hazard Communication Standard are not having a written program, not having current MSDSs, failing to train employees, or having illegible or missing chemical labels.
- OSHA’s Safety and Health Topics Web site is an excellent resource on the basics of this standard. (Search for “Hazard Communication.”)
Hazard Communication Standard Compliance Checklist for Employers
- Understand what makes a chemical “hazardous.” A chemical is considered hazardous if it is a carcinogen, is corrosive, highly toxic, an irritant, a sensitizer, or has an effect on target organs (such as the lungs, skin, eyes, or mucous membranes).
- Keep your MSDSs updated and ensure that the applicable MSDS is readily accessible to any employee who may be exposed to that hazardous chemical. It’s a good idea to keep a binder with all MSDSs in your main office — but also require crew leaders or other supervisors to have copies of applicable MSDSs in their trucks at job sites.
- Know that your workers must understand how to read an MSDS and a chemical label.
- Train employees in the importance of properly labeled chemical containers. An improperly labeled container can result in the wrong use of the chemical, a fire or explosion, and injuries or deaths.
- When training your employees, discuss the chemical’s potential routes of entry into the body (inhalation, ingestion, absorption, or injection), its physical and health hazards, and how workers can protect themselves against these hazards (including use of the appropriate personal protective equipment). Also discuss how an employee can detect the presence of a hazardous chemical.
- Know that the Hazard Communication Standard requires employers to notify any outside contractors of any chemical hazards to which they may be exposed.
- Train your employees whenever they may be initially exposed to a hazardous chemical and whenever a new hazardous chemical is introduced into their work area.
- Document all training in writing. Have employees sign a log indicating when and where they were trained. Include the name of the trainer. Then keep these logs on file in case you are ever faced with an OSHA investigation.
For more information, contact Barbara Mulhern, Professional Landcare Network
950 Herndon Parkway, Suite 450
Herndon, VA 20170
800/395-2522, fax: 703/736-9668
www.landcarenetwork.org