The state of Minnesota is implementing a new set of standards to reduce on job risk for window washers.

The standard requires employers whose workers are suspended more than 14-feet above grade to have a comprehensive written safety plan and provide employee training for window-washing and building-maintenance activities. It also addresses and outlines worker safety requirements in the areas of:

• Anchors and anchor points;
• Appropriate recordkeeping regarding employee training and retraining;
• Fall protection;
• Proper care, use and inspection of equipment;
• Rope descent systems; and
• Visual inspections of building exteriors before work begins.

“This new standard ensures a plan is in place to reduce risks to workers and that systems are in place to identify and control workplace hazards,” said Commissioner Ken Peterson, Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry (DLI). “The goal is to prevent accidents.”

The new set of rules come on the heels of three window washing deaths in the past three years that MNOSHA said all could have been prevented through the proper use of safety equipment and procedures.

Since MNOSHA began a local emphasis inspection program for the window-washing and building-maintenance industry in October 2010 the organization has inspected 34 window washing companies.

During these inspections, MNOSHA investigators found worksites lacking proper safety equipment for employees and improper usage of suspension scaffolds and lifelines.

The new safety standard for window-washers takes effect March 1, 2012.

For help complying with this new standard call 877-201-8923.

OSHA has rescinded a January 2009 letter of interpretation regarding the use of a particular shock-absorbing lanyard in aerial work platforms.

The original letter of interpretation stated because of the requirement of certain lanyards to have an anchor point at a height of 18.5 feet, their usage would likely not comply with OSHA standards when working at lower heights.

According to OSHA the original letter created confusion and mass inquiries about the use of body harnesses, typically married with appropriate lanyards, for fall protection in aerial lifts.

To avoid the confusion OSHA rescinded the interpretation.

“In rescinding this letter, OSHA is not concluding that the application described above is acceptable, rather it is clarifying that fall protection systems should not be based solely on information provided by the manufacturer, but should also take into account OSHA regulations and results of the job-specific risk assessment,” said Tony Groat of the International Powered Access Federation (IPAF) USA.

Early July WorkSafeBC launched www.HiddenKiller.ca, a comprehensive website on asbestos-exposure prevention.

The site reflects WorkSafeBC’s efforts to raise awareness about the potential deadly effects of asbestos exposure in the workplace.

Asbestos ranks as a leading cause of worker disease and death in British Columbia. The term “hidden killer” refers to the fact that asbestos fibres — which may be released during demolition or renovation — can’t be seen or smelled when inhaled into the lungs. And yet the damage they cause is irreparable.

“Too many workers in British Columbia are affected by asbestos exposures each year,” said Minister of Labour, Citizens’ Services and Open Government Stephanie Cadieux. “This new website is a significant step forward in our efforts to educate and help protect B.C. workers from the dangers of this harmful substance, and hopefully one day, we can eliminate asbestos exposures altogether.”

When asbestos fibres lodge in the lungs, the results can appear decades later and potentially lead to debilitating chronic diseases, such as asbestosis, or a form of lung cancer known as mesothelioma. Asbestos exposure is B.C.’s number one occupational disease.

Of the 143 accepted fatality claims last year, 75 were the result of occupational disease, and the majority of these can be attributed to exposure to asbestos. This trend is expected to continue for some years.

“We are committed to educating workers, employers, and the general public about the dangers of asbestos,” said Diana Miles, Senior Vice-President, Worker and Employer Services Operations, WorkSafeBC. “This site will present one comprehensive source providing key information and resources on asbestos to help in our exposure prevention initiative.”

The HiddenKiller.ca website includes information on what asbestos is, where it can be found, and how it should be handled, along with real-life stories about workers and families dealing with the consequences of asbestos exposure, and information about how to file a work-related exposure claim.

Petzl America Inc. of Clearfield, Utah, is voluntarily recalling about 375,000 Scorpio and Absorbica shock-absorbing lanyards sold between 2002 and 2011.

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission announced the recall July 12. Some of the lanyards are missing a safety stitch on the attachment loop, which could cause the lanyard to separate from the climbing harness, the posted announcement states.

Only one injury involving the lanyards has been reported to date, according to the commission.

Consumers are advised to stop using them immediately; CPSC adds it is illegal to resell or attempt to resell a recalled consumer product.

The recalled lanyards were made in France. Here are details for both recalled units.

Scorpio:  Affected Scorpio lanyards manufactured between 2002 and 2005 are model numbers L60 and L60 CK. Affected Scorpio lanyards manufactured between 2005 and 2011 are model numbers L60 2, L60 2CK, L60 H, L60 WL.

Absorbica: Affected model numbers are L70150 I, L70150 IM, L70150 Y, L70150 YM, L57, L58, L58 MGO, L59, and L59 MGO.

For a free inspection and replacement of any nonconforming product, contact Petzl America Inc. at 877-740-3826 between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. Mountain Time weekdays or visit www.petzl.com

Roughly 520,000 employees each year suffer a job-related eye injury requiring medical treatment.

The U.S. Department of Labor estimates these injuries cost employers more than $300 mil­lion in lost production time, medical expens­es, and worker compensation.

While educating employees on the proper use of eye and face wear protection is impor­tant, just as important is the implementation of a maintenance program.

To craft your maintenance program first you need to create a log book for your PPE.

The easiest way to complete this task is to number each piece of PPE with a permanent marker and place the corresponding number in the vertical rows of an excel file or log book. The horizontal rows will represent dates.

After creating the log book train your employ­ees on upkeep so they can properly check their equipment each day and sign off on its condition in the log book.

Here are some basic guidelines you can impart to your employees.

• Clean safety glasses and goggles regu­larly with mild soap and water.

• When lens are dirtied on the job rinse with water before wiping to prevent scratching.

• Store eye protection preferably in a clean dust-proof case or in a safe place such as the top shelf of a locker where it won’t get scratched or otherwise damaged.

• Replace safety glasses if frames are bent, and replace goggles if headbands are loose, twisted, knotted, or worn. Replace any kind of eye protection if lenses are scratched or pitted and impair vision.

• Replace headbands that no longer con­tain elasticity, are sweat-soaked, broken or twisted.

• Repair or throw away protection that that does not properly hold face guards in place.

Have the employees check the condition of their PPE before the beginning of each shift and check initial in the log book showing they performed the required inspections.

By having this program in place you will not only reinforce the proper maintenance of PPE, but create a helpful reminder for your employees to properly use their PPE.

The National Hearing Conservation Association is urging the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to reconsider the defining of “feasible” engineering and administrative controls to mitigate occupational noise.

“The United States currently lags behind many industrialized nations in the implementation of effective noise controls.  There appears to be a misconception that 29 CFR 1910.95 (current regulation) provides reasonable intervention to adequately protect noise exposed workers.  In fact, these very interventions are based upon dated and often discredited methods for assessing the risk of permanent hearing damage from exposure to noxious levels of noise on the job,” said NHCA President Timothy Rink in a letter to OSHA.

Currently, OSHA noise regulations state employers must institute feasible administrative or engineering controls to reduce occupational noise to acceptable levels. The code also states that personal protection equipment may be used in conjunction with these controls when administrative and engineering controls are not 100 percent effective.

Despite the code stating the agency’s preference to administrative and engineering controls, OSHA’s enforcement policy on the requirements it to only issue citations for a lack of administrative or administrative controls when they would cost less to have in place than proper PPE and a hearing loss prevention program.

To change the enforcement of policy, OSHA introduced a docket last year calling for feasible in the code to be defined as “capable of being implemented” and to create an enforcement policy stressing the importance of hearing protection measures.

The proposal tabled by OSHA in January amid concerns of its cost implications to employers

“Hearing loss caused by excessive noise levels remains a serious occupational health problem in this country.” proposal OSHA Administrator Dr. David Michaels said.  “However, it is clear from the concerns raised about this proposal that addressing this problem requires much more public outreach and many more resources than we had originally anticipated. We are sensitive to the possible costs associated with improving worker protection and have decided to suspend work on this proposed modification while we study other approaches to abating workplace noise hazards.”

NHCA thinks the tabling of the measure is a mistake.

“The apparent reason for not enforcing the noise control requirements as specified in the original standard was the argument that a hearing conservation program could as effectively protect noise exposed workers at a much lower cost than designing and implementing noise control measures,” Rink said. “While an effective hearing conservation program may achieve this objective for some workers, a program designed to comply with the minimal requirements of the hearing conservation amendment to the noise standard may not.”

Rink continued stating that while concerns regarding economic feasibility are valid, recent assessments of the cost of hearing conservation programs versus noise controls indicate that noise controls may provide return on investment (ROI) within a matter of years.

Rinks statements came in a four-page letter he crafted to OSHA outlying the need for mandatory administrative and engineering controls to mitigate occupational noise.

Click here to view the entire letter.

 

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Manufacturing worker wearing ear muffs

Back in November it looked like OSHA was going to change its definition of the term “feasible” in its occupational noise exposure controls to emphasize using administrative and engineering controls over PPE such as ear muffs and earplugs.

But on January 20, 2011 OSHA withdrew its proposed reinterpretation because of concerns the proposal needed more public outreach. And while the proposed modification is suspended, OSHA will study other approaches to abating workplace noise.

In the December newsletter we published to our Safety Meeting subscribers I wrote “Hearing protection alone may no longer be enough”. In that I wrote the following paragraph.

In terms of occupational exposure “feasible” might no longer take into consideration a cost-benefit analysis that promoted using Personal Protective Equipment like ear plugs or ear muffs because they were cheaper to provide than first instituting administrative or engineering controls. The new interpretation could mean OSHA would consider administrative or engineering controls economically feasible as long as it doesn’t threaten the employer’s ability to remain viable and in business.

But in January, David Michaels, assistant secretary of labor for occupational safety and health, met with the offices of Senators Olympia Snowe and Joseph Lieberman in response to a letter of their concerns on the proposed definition change. The senators are members of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship and co-chairs of the Senate Task Force on Manufacturing.

“Hearing loss caused by excessive noise levels remains a serious occupational health problem in this country,” said Michaels. “However, it is clear from the concerns raised about this proposal that addressing this problem requires much more public outreach and many more resources than we had originally anticipated. We are sensitive to the possible costs associated with improving worker protection and have decided to suspend work on this proposed modification while we study other approaches to abating workplace noise hazards.”

OSHA points out thousands of workers every year experience preventable hearing loss due to high workplace noise levels. Since 2004, the Bureau of Labor Statistics has reported that nearly 125,000 workers have suffered significant, permanent hearing loss. In 2008, BLS reported more than 22,000 hearing loss cases.

Because of this, OSHA will:

1. Conduct a thorough review of comments that have been submitted in response to the Federal Register notice and of any other information it receives on this issue.
2. Hold a stakeholder meeting on preventing occupational hearing loss to elicit the views of employers, workers, and noise control and public health professionals.
3. Consult with experts from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, and the National Academy of Engineering.
4. Initiate a robust outreach and compliance assistance effort to provide enhanced technical information and guidance on the many inexpensive, effective engineering controls for dangerous noise levels.

You can now watch two new videos on respirators and facemasks on the US Department of Labor’s YouTube site.  Respirator Safety which runs around nine minutes contains general instructions on how to properly put on and take off certain types of respirators.  It advises that specific instructions must be consulted from the manufacturer’s manual.  The video also differentiates a user seal check and a fit test.  It says that a user fit test is done every time one wears a respirator while a fit test is done when one uses a respirator for the first time and at least annually thereafter.  It warns users not to enter a hazardous area and instead consult the supervisor when a proper seal cannot be achieved.

On the other hand, The Difference between Respirators and Surgical Masks, the other video that runs around five and half minutes, makes it clear that a surgical mask is not a respirator.  It says that a respirator reduces exposure to airborne infectious diseases contaminants while facemasks are not designed to prevent the inhalation of airborne contaminants.  They may have differences but both need to be worn correctly and consistently while in use.  Respirators must be NIOSH-certified while facemasks must be FDA-approved.

Both videos show that respirators must be used in the context of a comprehensive respiratory program.

In related news, the California Department of Public Health or CDPH has ordered a recall of 3M 8000, a type of N95 respirator, because of its “low success rate in fit-testing.”  Millions of respirators have been released in October of last year to protect workers of health-care facilities from being exposed to the H1N1 influenza virus.  However, DOSH and CDPH urge employers to use other respirators.  DOSH is not actually preventing the use of these respirators but it “strongly recommends against using this model for prevention of aerosol-transmitted disease.”  It asks employers who still decide to use these respirators to make sure that the respirators fit the workers.

CDPH says it will provide other brands and models of respirators to local health departments upon request.  To protect the supply, DOSH reminds employers to conserve respirators.  Employers are encouraged to limit exposure to disease “by appropriate patient identification and placement, source control measures, and using engineering and work practice controls to minimize respirator use.”

Respiratory protection items such as respirators and facemasks are very important personal protective equipment in the workplace especially in health care units.  The proper use, disposal, cleaning and storage of such equipment must not be taken for granted.  Remember to always check the PPE you are going to use if it is compatible with the specific work you are going to perform and always inspect them first and use them according to the manufacturer’s instructions.  Safety first!

Five days ago, in a non-contested decision in San Diego, the Cal/OSHA Standards Board adopted two new regulations on communicable disease – the General Industry Safety Orders §§ 5199 and 5199.1 or the aerosol transmissible and zoonotic disease standards.

These are the first-ever standards in the country that protect workers in the health care industry and other workplaces from diseases that are spread by coughing and sneezing as well as by animals.

Whether it’s tuberculosis, novel influenza virus, bird flu, or H1N1 flu, do not panic. Pandemic flu may be widespread but you can fight against it. As the standards are in place, you only need to cooperate and do your part to prevent you and the people you work with from being infected by any pandemic flu.

The initial step is not to get the flu. Yes, you can run away from it. You can prevent it from getting inside you. You can NOT allow it from infecting you. Here are random ways on how you can.

• Plan and prepare. Know what pandemic flu is and how to face it. Encourage your workplace to conduct seminars about the flu.
• Always be alert. Know what’s happening around you.
• Be well-informed. You’re not a hermit, are you? Be a discerning news watcher.
• Stay healthy, whether there is or there is no pandemic flu. If you want to be prepared for anything, strengthen your body’s defenses. Eat a balanced diet. Drink lots of water and fluids. Exercise regularly. Get enough rest.
• Observe cleanliness. Always wash your hands especially before eating and drinking. Wash your hands too after using the bathroom, working with chemicals and sneezing or coughing. Use a sanitizer or hand gel if water and soap are not readily available. Take a bath once or twice daily. Keep your environment clean too. Sanitize the things that you use regularly.
• Practice good hygiene. Don’t sneeze in front of people or food. Use tissue to cover your nose and mouth. Throw used tissues in the trash bag. If you do not have immediate access to tissue, use the upper sleeve of your top.
• Avoid touching or kissing your co-workers especially if you have cough and colds. Keep some distance. Better yet, stay at home and get some rest.
• Don’t share or borrow personal things like toothbrush, handkerchief and spoon and fork.
• Get the necessary vaccine shots. These will not exempt you from having the flu but this will prepare your immune system to fight it in case it gets inside you.
• Wear a good mask or respirator to protect yourself especially if you are in a highly populated area. If you can, avoid these areas. If you need to cancel large events or projects, do so.
• Be observant of your own self. Go and see a doctor immediately if you’re having fevers, coughs and colds, and muscle aches.
• If you’re sick, stay at home. Don’t force yourself to go to work. Be concerned of yourself, your co-workers and your clients as well.
• If you have an assignment in a different country, do your research first. Consult the travel advisor. If you do travel, monitor your health for the first weeks after you’ve returned. If you feel that something is wrong, inform your doctor and your workplace’s health officer about the details of your travel.
• Wherever you are, check the food that you eat. If you prepare your own food, buy raw products from trusted and approved sellers. You may also opt to avoid poultry and other animal products. If not, remember to thoroughly cook all your food.
• When you’re being down and feel that the flu is eating you away, do not lose hope. Pray and have faith. They can do wonders. They can even wipe out the worldwide pandemic flu.

Pandemic flu must neither be taken for granted nor be a cause for panic. Having the proper information, following the authority’s standards and doing your own preventive measures will all help you and your workplace from being infected. Always be conscious and discerning of your actions. Remember to stay safe at all times!

Falls are among the most common hazard in construction sites. Every year, hundreds of workers get injured or killed after falling from scaffolds, windows, roofs and ladders.

But even with the right kind of fall protection system, workers are under threat by another kind of fall: falling or flying objects. By wearing hard hats or helmets and following these work practices, construction workers can be saved from this fatal risk:

• Wear a hard hat or helmet appropriate to the kind of hazards present at the workplace.

• Never work too near or beneath scaffolds, cranes and other equipment, structures and tools that could likely fall on you.

• Don appropriate safety goggles or glasses, face shields, etc. in areas where tools or machines may cause particles or debris to fly.

• Stack materials to prevent falling, sliding or collapse.

• Install toeboards, debris nets, guardrails, screens, canopies or catch platforms to catch or deflect flying objects.

• Prior to use, inspect all tools like lathes and saws to ensure that their protective guards are securely in place.

• Check all cranes and hoists to ensure that their hooks, chains and other components are in good condition.

• Never move under loads that are being transported or moved.

• Never exceed the load ratings of equipment like cranes and hoists.

• Place barricades on hazard areas and post warning signs.

Related Links:

5 Distractions that Cause Workplace  Hazards

PPE and How It Can Save Your Life – Part 1

Top 10 OSHA Fines for Small Companies