Prevent Golf Cart Accidents

 

placer-320x205About 13,000 golf cart-related accidents require emergency room visits each year, according to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. Types of injuries include concussions, internal injuries,bleeding in the brain, spinal cord injury, or acute respiratory compromise. Some of these injures result in death.

The following golf cart safety tips are from the American Journal of Preventive Medicine:

  • Drive at a reasonable speed, considering the weather and terrain.
  • Brake slowly, especially on downhill slopes.
  • Avoid sharp turns at high speeds.
  • Passengers should put both feet firmly on the golf cart’s floor, keeping their arms and legs inside the cart at all times.
  • Sit back in the seat so the hip restraints can help.
  • Be prepared to use the handgrip to prevent a fall.
  • Use seatbelts, if they’re available.
  • Consider not letting let kids younger than 6 ride in golf carts and not letting kids younger than 16 drive golf carts.

 

 

 

What is the application of HAZCOM to an office environment?

23Office workers who encounter hazardous chemicals only in isolated instances are not covered by the rule. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) considers most office products (such as pens, pencils, adhesive tape) to be exempt under the provisions of the rule, either as articles or as consumer products. For example with copy toner OSHA has previously stated that intermittent or occasional use of a copying machine does not result in coverage under the rule. However, if an employee handles the chemicals to service the machine, or operates it for long periods of time, then the program would have to be applied.

via Frequently Asked Questions: HAZCOM.

Motor Vehicle Injuries

car-crashingMotor vehicle-related injuries are a leading cause of death for people in the United States. Worldwide, road traffic crashes are the leading cause of death for people between the ages of 15 and 29. CDC is using science to better understand this problem and develop programs and policies that will change behavior to keep drivers, passengers, bicyclists, and pedestrians safe on the road every day.

via CDC – Winnable Battles – Motor Vehicle Injuries.

The Risk of An Insufficient Culture of Safety at CDC

anthrax200-4fb7972d257056ed1fd6aee68b38e0249028755f-s6-c30Government watchdogs have warned for years about weaknesses in federal labs dealing with dangerous bugs. The CDC’s own report on the June incident details four other times that pathogens inappropriately left high-security labs since 2006, including an earlier case involving anthrax. While investigating the latest mishap, CDC Director Tom Frieden also discovered that a contagious strain of avian flu was unintentionally shipped to a lower security Department of Agriculture lab in March.

“What we’re seeing is a pattern that we missed, and the pattern is an insufficient culture of safety,”

via CDC’s Tom Frieden Says Agency Culture Contributed to Anthrax Lapse – Businessweek.

One Reason Businesses Fail – NO MARGIN FOR ERROR

sailover

One  reason businesses fail is simply that they sail too close to the wind. All they need is a little bit of bad luck – a tough six months, a key client who pulls their account, a senior staff member who leaves for a rival firm, and they find that they simply don’t have enough cash to survive.

Too often businesses have fabulous sales, but just didn’t have enough cash in reserve. The result? They go under.

Warren Buffett likes to call this ‘Margin Of Safety’. When he invests in a business he makes sure the deal makes sense even if the company performs well below expectations. he doesn’t just depend on things going right, he builds in the chance that things will go very wrong.

We all need to do the same.

via Why Businesses Fail..

Many Unintentional Injury Deaths are Preventable

health-041712-005-617x416Approximately 39 percent of the premature deaths caused by unintentional injuries in the United States every year could be prevented, according to a new study from the Centers from Disease Control and Prevention.

The study lists unintentional injuries as the fifth leading cause of premature death (defined as death before age 80). The top four causes are heart disease, cancer, chronic lower respiratory diseases and stroke.

Unintentional injury risk factors include drug and alcohol use (including prescription drug misuse), lack of safety belt and motorcycle helmet use, exposure to occupational hazards, and unsafe homes and communities. The study suggests that if all states had the lowest observed unintentional injury death rate, 37,000 lives could be prolonged every year.

via CDC: Almost 40% of unintentional injury deaths are preventable | 2014-05-06 | Safety+Health Magazine.

 

Benefits of Lean Safety Accident Investigations

For centuries, the Japanese have promoted a philosophy of continuous improvement to all aspects of life, known as “kaizen.” In recent decades, American business leaders have started to recognize the impact kaizen has had on Japanese business competitiveness, and countless managers have adopted aspects of these techniques to improve their business processes. Now these principles can be used in workplace accident investigation asking five questions to get to the root cause instead of the traditional one question.

Here’s an example of how this works:

An individual was using a tape machine that automatically tapes around corners of boxes and the mechanism was
stuck in the up position. The worker pushed it down and the blade that cuts the tape came up and just barely cut the end of the worker’s finger.

The individual’s supervisor wrote up the incident report and said the root cause was the employee failed to follow lockout-tagout procedures. A lot of people would stop there because the individual agreed that he failed to follow the lockout-tagout procedure.

However, as a lean thinker, you might think that’s the root cause, but why did the worker push down that mechanism? Because it hung up. Well, why did the machine get stuck? Because either the air pressure wasn’t set right or it malfunctioned. Well, why was the air pressure not set right? Because we’re not sure what it was supposed to be set at. Some think it’s supposed to be 50 psi and others say 100 psi.

So the root cause is really that the machine hung up and people didn’t understand how to set it correctly. Because of that, we were able to assign the individual to work with maintenance to look into the manual to determine what the setting was supposed to be. Then they tested equipment to make sure that it worked correctly when it was set at the correct setting. That individual was asked to talk to their team and others in the plant that had the same equipment to ensure they understood the correct setting.

Those opportunities to improve safety would have been missed if you stopped at “The individual didn’t follow the lockout-tagout procedure.” By asking why five times — which is a lean tool — you’ll get to the real root cause so that you can improve the process rather than just focus on the person. The process is generally the problem, not the person. I fully understand that they didn’t follow lockout-tagout procedure, and I accept that, but when using lean, you have to go beyond that to get to the things you can improve.

Preventing Chain Saw Injuries During Tree Removal

chainsaw_smEach year, approximately 36,000 people are treated in hospital emergency departments for injuries from using chain saws. The potential risk of injury increases after hurricanes and other natural disasters, when chain saws are widely used to remove fallen or partially fallen trees and tree branches.

Safeguards against injury while using a chain saw

  • Operate, adjust, and maintain the saw according to manufacturer’s instructions provided in the manual accompanying the chain saw.
  • Properly  sharpen chain saw blades and properly lubricate the blade with bar and chain oil. Additionally, the operator should periodically check and adjust the tension of the chain saw blade to ensure good cutting action.
  • Choose the proper size of chain saw to match the job, and include safety features such as a chain brake, front and rear hand guards, stop switch, chain catcher and a spark arrester.
  • Wear the appropriate protective equipment, including hard hat, safety glasses, hearing protection, heavy work gloves, cut-resistant legwear (chain saw chaps) that extend from the waist to the top of the foot, and boots which cover the ankle.
  • Avoid contact with power lines until the lines are verified as being de-energized.
  • Always cut at waist level or below to ensure that you maintain secure control over the chain saw.
  • Bystanders or coworkers should remain at least 2 tree lengths (at least 150 feet) away from anyone felling a tree and at least 30 feet from anyone operating a chain saw to remove limbs or cut a fallen tree
  • If injury occurs, apply direct pressure over site(s) of heavy bleeding; this act may save lives.

via Preventing Chain Saw Injuries During Tree Removal|Natural Disasters and Severe Weather.

Machine Safety

machine-guard-warning--signMachines can assist in improving production efficiency in the workplace. However these machines have moving parts, sharp edges, and hot surfaces with the potential to cause severe workplace injuries such as crushed fingers or hands, amputations, burns, or blindness. Safeguards are essential for protecting workers from these preventable injuries. Any machine part, function, or process that might cause injury must be safeguarded. When the operation of a machine may result in a contact injury to the operator or others in the vicinity, the hazards must be eliminated or controlled.

via CDC – Machine Safety – NIOSH Workplace Safety and Health Topic.