Have you identified the hazards in your workplace and do you know how to control them so that they won’t cause an accident?
Conduct a baseline workplace hazard survey. A baseline survey is a thorough evaluation of your workplace — including work processes, equipment, and facilities — that identifies safety or health hazards. A complete survey will tell you where the hazards are, what they are, and how severe they could be. Have an experienced safety and health professional survey your workplace with you.
Perform regular workplace inspections. Baseline surveys are snapshots. They tell you where hazards were when you surveyed. Regular workplace inspections tell you whether you’ve eliminated or controlled the hazards and help you identify new hazards. Quarterly inspections by safety committee representatives trained in hazard recognition are a good way to get the job done.
Watch for hazards. Watching for hazards is something that everyone can do on the job. Examples of what to watch for: unsafe work practices, missing equipment guards, and poorly maintained or defective equipment. Require employees to report hazards immediately to someone who has authority to act on the report. Employees who report hazards need to be kept informed when and how the hazards will be controlled.
Document workplace injuries and illnesses. Keep a log of all workplace injuries, illnesses, and near misses to help you evaluate injury and illness trends. If your business has more than 10 employees, you must use the Log of Work-Related Injuries and Illnesses (OSHA Form 300) and the Injury and Illness Incident Report (DCBS Form 801). You may not need to keep an OSHA Form 300 if your business has 10 or fewer employees, but you do need to record injuries and illnesses on the 801.
Develop job-hazard analyses. Job-hazard analysis (JHA) is a method of identifying, assessing, and controlling hazards associated with a specific job. A JHA breaks a job down into tasks; each task is evaluated to determine if there is a better, safer way to do it. A job-hazard analysis works well for jobs with difficult-to-control hazards and those with histories of accidents or near misses. JHAs for complex jobs can take a considerable amount of time and expertise to develop. You may want to enlist the help of a safety and health professional for such tasks.
Use material safety data sheets to identify chemical hazards. If your employees handle hazardous chemicals or chemical products, you’ll need to develop a written hazard-communication plan that identifies the chemicals and describes how employees are informed about chemical hazards. Employees must know how to use material safety data sheets (MSDS). An MSDS has detailed information about a hazardous chemical’s health effects, physical and chemical characteristics, and safe practices for handling. You must prepare a current hazardous chemical inventory list and have a current MSDS for each hazardous chemical used at your workplace.
Look for new hazards whenever you change equipment, materials, or work processes. Assess the hazards that could result from changes and determine how to control them. If your business works at multiple sites — construction contracting, for example — you may need to do a hazard assessment at each site.
Periodically invite safety and health professionals to evaluate your workplace. If you need help evaluating workplace hazards, contact Oregon OSHA Consultative Services or your workers’ compensation insurance carrier. Both provide free, confidential safety and health evaluations and can help with difficult hazard assessments such as air-contaminant monitoring, ergonomic evaluations, and job hazard analyses.
Attend an Oregon OSHA Hazard Identification and Control workshop. Have safety committee members and others responsible for identifying and controlling hazards attend these workshops, offered at various locations throughout the state by Oregon OSHA’s Public Education and Conferences Section. The Public Education and Conferences Section offers many other excellent safety and health classes at no cost. For more information, call the registration coordinator, (503) 947-7443, tollfree in Oregon, (888) 292-5247, option 2; or visit www.orosha.org.
Use engineering controls and consider administrative controls. An engineering control is any change in a facility, equipment, tool, or work process that eliminates or reduces exposure to a hazard. For example, if you replace a noisy machine with a quiet one, modify a machine’s parts to make it quieter, or change the sound path of a machine so that the noise never reaches the worker, you’re using an engineering control. Engineering controls that are effective, practical, and affordable are the best way to control hazards. Administrative controls are another way to control hazards, but, unlike engineering controls, they don’t eliminate hazards. Administrative controls change work practices to temporarily reduce employee exposure. Rotating employees among jobs, changing their work schedules, and requiring them to take periodic rest breaks are examples.
Enforce workplace safety and health rules and work practices. These include any Oregon OSHA requirements that apply to your workplace and your own business’ requirements for working safely. To make them effective, document them, ensure that employees know and understand them, and enforce them.
Ensure that employees know when and how to use personal protective equipment. Personal protective equipment is another way to control a hazard; but it’s only a barrier between the hazard and the user. If PPE fails, the user risks exposure. Today’s PPE can protect workers from head to toe, shield their lungs from air contaminants, and spare their hearing from harmful noise. But PPE is not always easy to use and can do more harm than good when used incorrectly. Before you purchase PPE, know the hazards it protects against and be sure that it fits the user. When you’re unsure, have experienced safety professionals help you — especially when you’re selecting chemical-protective clothing or respirators. And always train employees how to wear, use, and maintain their equipment before they use it for the first time.
Practice good housekeeping. Keep passageways, storerooms, and work areas clean and sanitary. Keep electrical cords away from areas where people could trip over them. Keep floors clean and dry; use drains, false floors, platforms, or mats in wet areas. Keep floors and passageways free from protruding nails, electrical cords, splinters, holes, or loose boards.
Plan for emergencies. Any workplace could have an emergency such as a heart attack, fire, natural disaster, a threat of violence, or a hazardous substance release. A well-rehearsed emergency plan can protect lives, equipment, and property.
Oregon OSHA requires most businesses to have emergency plans; businesses with more than 10 employees must put their plans in writing. You should have well-stocked first-aid kits and a procedure for summoning ambulance or paramedic services. If your business has 10 or fewer employees, the emergency plan doesn’t have to be in writing; however, you must ensure that your employees understand the plan so they can respond promptly and appropriately to an emergency.
Maintain equipment on schedule. Preventive maintenance keeps equipment running properly, reduces downtime, and prevents accidents. Keep maintenance logs that show when the work was done, what was done, and the next scheduled maintenance date. And always follow equipment manufacturers’ maintenance requirements.
Document how you control hazards. Keep records that show what you’ve done to eliminate or control hazards. Identify the hazard; describe what you did to correct it, and record the date it was corrected.
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