OSHA Workplace Safety: Safeguard Your Equipment and Protect Your Employees
There are many dangers that employees face on the job each day. Some of these dangers are obvious, such as working with heavy machinery or from great heights.
Many dangers, like exposure to hazardous materials or injuries from repetitive motions, can be less visible but just as dangerous. In order to keep employees safe and healthy, it is critical to understand the risks associated with work environments so that appropriate precautions can be taken.
This includes implementing safety measures on machinery, providing safety training, and establishing rules for behavior in the workplace. In this article, the safety experts at Stronghold Safety Engineering discuss the importance of workplace safety and how to remain compliant with Occupational Safety and Health Administration standards.
OSHA Workplace Safety: The Value of Workplace Protection
Why should you invest in workplace safety? Workplace protection prevents accidents and promotes employee morale and productivity.
Additionally, you maximize your effectiveness at complying with OSHA standards and mitigating risk. Therefore, all businesses — regardless of size or industry — must be aware of common OSHA unsafe working conditions and how to avoid them.
Noncompliance maximizes the likelihood of facing financial consequences or worse, so be sure to budget for safety this year. With this in mind, what conditions are advisable to identify?
OSHA Unsafe Working Conditions
Hazardous work conditions can range from improper use or storage of hazardous materials to inadequate lighting or ventilation on a job site. Other common conditions that can contribute to an unsafe work environment include:
- Failure to supply personal protective equipment (PPE)
- Lack of training on proper equipment handling procedures
- Failure to adhere to established lockout/tagout procedures for equipment maintenance and repairs
- Unsecured or poorly maintained machinery and equipment
- Inadequate housekeeping practices
It is also important to understand the OSHA standards that are applicable to your specific industry. Here is a list of the 10 most frequently violated OSHA standards:
- Fall Protection & Construction
- Respiratory Protection
- Ladders
- Hazard Communication
- Scaffolding
- Fall Protection Training
- Control of Hazardous Energy (Lockout/Tagout)
- Eye and Face Protection
- Powered Industrial Trucks
- Machinery and Machine Guarding
How to Support Machine Safety in the Workplace
It’s very important to support machine safety in your work environment. Mitigating risk to employees and operations by implementing machine guarding initiatives encompasses the following steps:
- Assess your environment.
- Assess your machinery.
- Install safeguards.
Assess your environment.
Collaborate with workplace safety experts to identify hazards in your environment and processes. Professional risk reduction consulting empowers you to be proactive in improving the safety of your operations.
Assess your machinery.
Conduct a machine guarding assessment to identify potential hazards when operating the machinery in your processes. These boost productivity by enabling your operators to feel safer and more confident while conducting their work.
Install safeguards.
Install machine safeguards and implement fall protection procedures. Again, collaborate with third-party professionals to ensure expert implementation.
Optimize for Worker Health and Safety with Stronghold Safety
A hazardous work environment puts your business at risk. To optimize your workplace and operations for safety and productivity, reach out to our team today.