The Sam Carbis Solutions Group Safety Blog

If your company has taken safety precautions against workplace accidents, it is disconcerting when your workers experience close calls. Employees who fall and injure themselves are likely to miss work for a period of time, or even worse, become disabled. Safety precautions you implemented in the past are not always sufficient when your work environment changes. You need to continually assess, set goals and seek guidance on your workplace safety strategy. The following three best practices help you minimize the risk of dangerous falls at your facility: 1. Assess Your Site’s Current Fall Prevention Capabilities The first step toward building a culture of workplace safety is conducting an honest evaluation of your current fall prevention measures. Ask an impartial expert at your company or an outside advisor to identify the following aspects of your work site: Safety equipment that is currently in place Shortcomings of your equipment, such as a safety cage that makes completing a tas...

Taking a proactive approach to marine safety not only protects your workers from potentially serious accidents, but it also reduces risks for your company, protecting you from costly damages and penalties. Here’s just one example of how a lack of appropriate safety equipment contributed to a tragic accident: A group of four employees was unloading scrap steel from a barge, and needed to release the mooring lines and reposition the vessel to complete the task. One worker climbed up a concrete barricade on the floating dock and attempted to mount the barge. She was halfway across when the barge drifted away from the dock, creating a gap. Her coworkers tried to catch her, but she fell headfirst into the water. The worker was wearing a personal flotation device when she fell into the water. But before she could be rescued, the barge drifted back against the dock, crushing and killing her. According to the OSHA report, the employer was responsible for several factors that contributed to ...

Workplace accidents reduce productivity and can cause injuries that cost more than just missed time. The company's bottom line is impacted by worker's compensation, lawsuits, OSHA violations and fines, and other issues. When appropriate safety procedures aren't implemented, incidents involving flatbed truck loading and unloading hazards continue to occur.  Part of the safety solution might be putting in place a strict set of flatbed tarping practices. Manuals, training, and operating procedures are all excellent resources, but without the right safety gear, a task cannot be completed safely or effectively. If you use flatbeds in your operation, let's quickly review methods to lower the number of accidents that occur on the job site. 1. IDENTIFYING THE ISSUE A truck with an open flatbed without walls or sides on which freight is transported is referred to as a "flatbed truck." These are enormous vehicles with a gross weight of more than 10,000 pounds when fully...

  What Is OSHA's Revised Hazard Communication Standard?   HazCom was revised in 2012 to align with the United Nations Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labeling of Chemicals (GHS), providing consistent labels and 16-section Safety Data Sheets across facilities that manufacture, import, or use hazardous substances. Also, it provides quick and visual information about health and physical hazards posed by chemicals worldwide with pictograms that conform to GHS. Labels The Hazard Communication Standard mandates that workplaces provide workers with information on the identities and hazards of chemicals to provide them with enough knowledge for selecting PPE and handling hazardous chemicals in the workplace, as well as reporting any illnesses associated with chemical exposure to their medical provider. To meet this requirement, labels on chemical containers must display new GHS symbols and an individual hazard statement, consistent with those found on a 16...

  The Top 5 Most Common OSHA Citations in Industrial Plants   OSHA enforces standards designed to safeguard employees against dangerous workplace conditions. OSHA inspections identify any potential hazards, and employers must abate those risks to avoid being issued citations by OSHA. OSHA frequently issues citations against companies for violations that pose risks to workers and impact bottom-lines, with falling hazards, hazard communication issues, confined spaces and other risks being among the top five violations in industrial plants. 1. Scaffolding Construction industry workers rely on scaffolding to complete work at higher levels of a building. Although these structures are integral components, if not designed and constructed properly they pose risks that must be managed to ensure workers can perform safely on them. OSHA's scaffolding standards offer guidelines to employers when using scaffolds as a form of protection at work, from tags and weak spots in struc...

  How to Ensure Proper Truck Spotting at Loading Racks   Loading Racks are platforms and loading arms designed to provide workers with access to the tops of tank trucks and railcars. Equipped with tracking gangways that follow along the platform and align themselves with any hatch on a truck or railcar, loading racks allow workers to gain entry easily. Safety equipment vendors need to understand your vehicles and procedures in order to recommend appropriate equipment for your facility, more than simply complying with compliance standards; their primary goal should be worker safety. 1. Know Your Racks Effective truck spotting can be one of the most valuable safety solutions your facility can implement, regardless of OSHA and MSHA compliance status. Spotting involves positioning pneumatic hoppers, proppant boxes or Isotainers safely on a loading rack so drivers can access them without risk. Pallet racking systems come in various designs, but all share certain common ...

  The Top Five Ways to Prevent Workplace Accidents   Workplace accidents can be costly, particularly if employees require time off for recovery. They may also negatively impact productivity if other employees must pick up the slack from those injured employees. Preventing workplace accidents from occurring is the best way to fight them head on, here are the five key strategies: 1. Prevent Slips and Trips. 1. Know Your Job As part of its efforts to minimize workplace accidents, employers should first ensure that employees understand their jobs sufficiently to complete them safely. This requires providing employees with clear job duties and requirements outlined in writing as well as ongoing training sessions that refresh skills and knowledge. Undertaking tasks beyond an employee's physical capacity may result in injuries. To safeguard employees against this risk, employers can conduct pre-placement physicals and pair new hires with jobs that complement their capabil...

  Budgeting For Safety - Making Every Dollar Count   Now is the time of year when companies close out one fiscal year and begin planning for another one. Just like at home, a t times it can be challenging to distinguish needs from wants and sometimes necessities  like safety seem to be an unreasonable stumbling block to big plans.  The expensive helmet to go with the dreamed of motorcycle, for example. A few important things to consider: Cost-Effectiveness Budgeting or revising budgets, it can be easy to overlook safety costs. But an effective safety plan should help avoid injuries, save on medical costs, and keep employees happy - benefits which in the long run more than compensate for the cost of safety measures. As is true with equipment or marketing budgets, safety budgets should consider that safety expenses are ongoing expenses. Aside from training costs and equipment purchases, safety-related tasks may require labor hours as well. Therefore, it is vi...

  How to Design an Industrial Safety Training Program That Works   An effective safety training program shows your employees they are of paramount importance to you. Engaging them in learning will help ensure they retain all the safety information that will keep them protected. Capturing worker feedback during the process of identifying training needs, designing materials, and choosing delivery methods can provide important insights. You can do this in various ways: Identifying Training Needs To create an effective safety training program, it's vital that employees know exactly what they must learn to perform their jobs safely. For maximum effectiveness, this process should involve both workers and managers so that all aspects of the workplace are covered. If your workplace contains potentially hazardous chemicals like hydrogen sulfide, you may require employees to undergo training on how to recognize and report such substances as well as how best to store and disp...

How to Limit Accidents at Petrochemical Plants   Working in the refining and petrochemical industries can be dangerous work environments, with machinery that can burn or cut workers if not properly maintained. Fires and explosions are among the most frequent accidents in petrochemical plants, which makes complying with safety standards paramount to their operation. To safeguard against them, they must abide by applicable legislation on occupational health and safety. Safety Measures for Elevated Workspaces Many workers in the refining and petrochemical industries must use dangerous chemicals, work in tight spaces, lift heavy loads, inspect equipment for any malfunctions or mishandling that could compromise health and safety and regularly clean it to ensure optimal operation. Petrochemical plants often lie in remote locations where emergency services may take longer to arrive or, in the case of a large accident or fire, may not even exist at all. As such, it is essential t...

The Hierarchy of Fall Protection in Layman's Terms   Working at height can be hazardous and requires special equipment. Many governing bodies such as ANSI and OSHA set guidelines and regulations for these jobs, which may increase safety. Elimination (Stay on the Ground) Working at heights is a necessary aspect of many occupations yet can pose unique safety concerns. Therefore, it's vital that workers familiarize themselves with all available forms of fall protection systems and how they can be used to keep operators safe while performing their duties. Both ANSI and OSHA's Hierarchy of Hazard Controls state the initial step should be eliminating falling hazards from work environments - this means changing working environments, so employees aren't exposed to fall hazards to begin with, such as moving machinery onto the ground instead of the roof. While eliminating falls would always be preferable, sometimes this option simply isn't possible or could increase...