In
the ideal safety and health scenario
the employer knows precisely the
hazards and potential hazards to
which employees could be exposed
and has designed a perfect system
of prevention and control. In real
life some hazards may escape detection
during the inventory process. Others
have a way of slipping out of the
controls set up to protect workers.
You need ways to catch these hazards
and get them controlled, or better
controlled, before anyone gets hurt.
OSHA's
Safety and Health Program Management
Guidelines recommend a complete
worksite analysis to provide the
basis for hazard prevention and
control. This analysis includes
identifying all hazards and potential
hazards through comprehensive surveys,
change analysis and routine hazard
analysis; regular site inspections;
employee reports of hazards; accident
and near miss investigations; and
analysis of injury and illness trends
over time.
We
addressed comprehensive surveys,
change analysis and routine hazard
analysis in Chapter 7. In this chapter
we will cover:
Regular site inspections,
Employee reports of hazards,
Accident and near miss investigations
and
Analysis of trends of illnesses
and injury.
These
four tools help fill in any possible
gaps left by the measures described
in Chapter 7. At the same time, they
help in the rapid discovery and correction
of hazards for which controls have
failed at least temporarily. These
tools also contribute to the "foolproofing"
that attempts to keep human error
from causing or allowing controls
to fail.
REGULAR
SITE INSPECTIONS
Inspections
are the best understood and most
frequently used tool of worksite
analysis. Much has been written
about them and many inspection checklists
are available in other publications.
For a general checklist for small
businesses or a starting point for
larger businesses, use the checklist
found in OSHA Publication 2209,
"OSHA Handbook for Small Businesses."
In
this chapter, we will consider some
aspects of inspections that are
frequently not covered in other
publications.
What
Do We Mean By Regular Site Inspections?
The term inspection refers to looking
closely at something to see if it
meets requirements. At your worksite,
several kinds of inspections probably
are done, some of them at fixed
intervals. In the OSHA Guidelines
for Safety and Health Program Management,
the term "regular site inspections"
means a general inspection of every
part of the worksite to locate any
hazards that need correction. This
includes routine industrial hygiene
monitoring and sampling.
Inspection
Frequency. The regular site
inspection is done at specified
intervals. We recommend that medium
and large fixed worksites be inspected
completely at least every quarter,
with some part of the inspection
occurring each month. Site inspections
should be done at least weekly for
construction sites because of the
rapidly changing nature of the site
and its hazards.
At
small fixed worksites the entire
site should be inspected at one
time. And even for the smallest
worksite, inspections should be
done at least quarterly. Inspections
should be done more often if the
small worksite uses hazardous materials
or involves hazardous procedures
or conditions that change frequently.
What
Should Be Inspected? A methodical
inspection will follow a checklist
based on the inventory of hazards
and the preventive actions and controls
designed to reduce or eliminate
worker exposure. Regular site inspections
should be designed to check each
one of those controls to make sure
that hazards are contained. Some
suggested broad areas for inspection
are listed in Appendix 9-1.
Hazards
may be controlled by engineering.
Examples of engineering controls
are the guards placed on equipment
to prevent hand or body contact
with tools or machinery that can
cut or pinch body parts or catch
clothing, hair or body parts and
pull them into the machinery. These
guards should be checked during
inspections to make sure they are
in good working order and remain
in place during operations. Another
example of an engineering control
of hazards is the ventilation system
that carries away air contaminants.
The velocity of the ventilation
system should be checked periodically.
Depending on the risk of the contaminant
controlled, periodic air sampling
may also be needed.
You
also can control hazards with specifically
designed work practices and procedures.
An example is the precautions taken
by a production equipment operator
when restarting after a jam. The
inspector should keep an eye out
for any unauthorized modifications
of these work practices.
Still
another way to control hazards is
through personal protective equipment
(PPE). Meat cutters, for example,
should wear protective mesh gloves.
Many varied types of worksites require
safety glasses or hearing protection
devices in designated areas. The
inspector will want to examine the
equipment to ensure its good condition.
Just as important, the inspector
should see whether employees are
wearing required PPE and whether
the equipment is being worn appropriately.
This includes, for example, stopping
workers who have placed disposable
hearing protection only part way
into their ears and have left most
of the plug protruding. The inspector
will insist that the PPE be worn
as intended.
Do
not overlook areas outside of the
production mainstream. Your search
for common hazards and OSHA standards
violations should cover the entire
worksite. In addition to the checklist
in the "OSHA Handbook for Small
Businesses," you may find useful
the inventory list at the back of
this chapter.
Who
Should Inspect? Ideally,
medium and large worksites will
have more than one type of regular
site inspections.
Supervisors.
Many employers make it the supervisor's
responsibility to inspect the work
area at the beginning of every shift
to ensure that equipment and personnel
are ready to work safely. This can
be particularly helpful when other
shifts use the same area and equipment
or when after-hours maintenance
and cleaning are routinely done.
Supervisors' inspections of their
own areas should not substitute,
however, for the broad general inspection
recommended in the OSHA Guidelines.
There are two reasons for this:
Those who work in an area can
start "not seeing" things that
they get used to. It is always
good to have cross-inspections
where supervisors or employees
from one area look at another
area.
A general site inspection will
encompass areas not assigned to
individual supervisors, for example,
outdoor and other common areas.
Employees.
Involve employees in the safety and
health program, in both identification
and resolution. (See Chapter 4). One
way to do this is to have the employee
committee or the joint employee-management
committee conduct routine inspections.
By employing this method, you:
Expand the number of people doing
inspections, and therefore, improve
the odds of finding hazards; and
Increase employee awareness of
the safety and health program.
Safety
and Health Staff. It is most common
and most logical for the staff personnel
who specialize in safety and health
to conduct the inspections. Even when
other employees conduct inspections
it is also wise also to involve the
specialists. In a small business,
the specialist may be the Human Resources
Director or another member of management
with many important duties in addition
to safety and health. By having the
safety and health staffer conduct
inspections you:
Keep the person responsible for
safety and health in touch with
the successes and/or problems
in the hazard prevention and control
program and
Use your greatest in-house source
of expertise.
What
Training Should Inspectors Have?
Employees.
All employees should understand
the potential hazards to which they
might be exposed and the ways they
can protect themselves and their
fellow workers. (See Chapter 11.)
Those who are involved in inspections
need training in recognizing and
controlling all the potential hazards
of the worksite. They will also
need written guidance, tips for
inspecting and some on-the-job training
by safety and health staff or other
specialists.
Supervisors.
All supervisors should have training
in the hazards that workers under
their supervision are likely to
encounter plus training in how to
control these hazards. (See Chapter
11.) When they are responsible for
area inspections, supervisors also
should have specific training in
how to inspect. Formal coursework
may not be necessary, but the training
should be provided by someone who
is knowledgeable.
Safety
and Health Staff. Personnel
responsible for developing the safety
and health program should have,
at a minimum, the equivalent of
the OSHA Training Institute Course
#501, "A Guide to Voluntary Compliance
in Safety and Health." Additional
training is needed for large worksites
and small worksites with hazardous
operations or materials.
For
advice about training and specific
information about the training that
OSHA
offers, write or call: The OSHA
Training Institute, 1555 Times Drive,
DesPlaines, Illinois, 60018, 708-297-4913.
Cost
for private-sector course participants
is minimal and is based on the number
of days of training.
WRITTEN
INSPECTION REPORTS
In
all but the smallest and least dangerous
of workplaces, written inspection
reports are necessary to record
the hazards discovered, responsibility
assigned for correction and tracking
of correction to completion. Having
a written record will help ensure:
Assignment of responsibility for
hazard correction,
Tracking of correction to completion,
Identification of problems in
the controls system when the same
type of hazards keep appearing
even after correction is verified,
Identification of problems in
the accountability system and
Identification of hazards for
which no prevention or control
has been planned.
Of
course, having such written records
will be most helpful if they are read
by someone knowledgeable in the safety
and health program. This person then
can provide top managers with summaries
of problems.
TRACKING
CORRECTIONS OF HAZARDS
Tracking
of hazard correction is covered
in more detail in Chapter 8. What
we wish to emphasize here is that
the success or failure of inspections
will be determined by the quality
of follow-up. If correction cannot
be accomplished immediately after
the discovery of a hazard, the inspection
report should include whatever interim
protective measures have been taken
and should not be considered closed
until the final correction has been
made. A written tracking system
will improve your inspection program.
The best tracking system is written
right into your inspection report
form. For examples of integrating
correction tracking into hazard
report forms, see Appendix 9-3.
Important
things to remember about regular
site inspections and follow-up:
These inspections should cover
every part of the worksite;
They should be done at regular
intervals, with frequency depending
upon the size of the worksite
and the nature of the hazards;
In-house inspectors should be
trained to recognize hazards and
to bring fresh vision to work
areas being examined;
Found hazards must be tracked
to correction; and
Information from inspections should
be used to expand the inventory
of hazards and/or improve the
hazard prevention and control
program.
EMPLOYEE
REPORTS OF HAZARDS
Employees
play a key role in helping you discover
and control the hazards that may
develop -- or that already exist
-- in your workplace. They have
a unique and valuable perspective
on procedures and conditions.
A
reliable system for employee reporting
is an important element of an effective
safety and health program. Such
a system is characterized by:
A genuine company or worksite
policy that is consistent with
other policies and that encourages
employees to report their concerns
about safety and health conditions
or possible hazards in work practices,
Timely and appropriate responses
to the reporting employee,
Timely and appropriate action
where valid concern exists,
Tracking of any required hazard
correction and
Protection of reporting employees
from official and unofficial harassment.
COMPANY
POLICY
You
have decided what your policy will
be concerning employee reporting.
The next step is to ensure that
all employees understand the policy.
Further, they need to be made aware
that the policy is genuine. In larger
worksites the policy should be typed
and placed on bulletin boards, distributed
to all employees and discussed in
weekly or monthly safety meetings.
In the smallest worksites it may
be sufficient to gather every one
together, go over the policy and
then invite discussion or questions.
You will know that you have done
enough when every employee, when
asked, can tell you what the policy
is.
The
written policy is a good place to
affirm your attention to protect
employees from harassment or reprisal
or any kind. See the discussion
below and the policy example in
Appendix 9-2.
TIMELY
AND APPROPRIATE RESPONSE AND ACTION
Having
employees report hazards will not
work if they cannot see reasonable
results in a reasonable amount of
time. You can give your employee
a preliminary response when extra
time is needed to analyze a reported
hazard. Many larger workplaces assign
special maintenance codes to work
orders that involve safety or health.
The code requires the maintenance
supervisor to give that work a higher
priority. When complete correction
of a hazard requires ordering parts
or materials and a wait of several
months, give your employee a status
update from time to time. You will
be sending a message that the concern
has not been forgotten.
Important:
When the preferred corrective measures
cannot be accomplished immediately
it is your responsibility to provide
interim protection to your workers.
You must take whatever steps may
be feasible to temporarily eliminate
or control the hazards.
Results
must not only be timely but must
also alleviate the employee's concern.
If management decides that no hazard
exists the reason behind that judgment
should be thoroughly explained to
the reporting employee. Care should
be taken to express gratitude for
the employee's erring on the side
of safety and health. It is better
to have some non-hazards reported
than to overlook even one real hazard
because a worker believed that management
would not respond.
If
you are uncertain whether the reported
practice or condition is hazardous,
further checking needs to be done.
If a good description can be given
over the phone, or photographs or
drawings made that reveal the situation,
you can contact the OSHA funded,
state-run consultation service.
If your employee has discovered
a real hazard the action that you
take to correct it should be appropriate
and swift.
TRACKING
HAZARD CORRECTIONS
Each
valid hazard identified through
employee reports of hazards should
be tracked to complete correction.
Hazards that are quickly corrected
may not present a problem for long-term
tracking, but a record of the correction
will help in determining where management
systems have broken down should
the same hazard reappear. Different
management measures may be needed
for hazards that do not stay corrected,
as contrasted with those that do
not get corrected. For hazards that
require complicated or time-consuming
corrections, a system of tracking
is needed to make sure that the
final correction is not forgotten
in the press of other matters. Additionally,
tracking long-term hazard correction
enables management to keep the reporting
employee better informed.
PROTECTION
FROM HARASSMENT
It
is important that employees know
that reporting a hazard will not
result in any official or unofficial
harassment or reprisal from management,
individual supervisors or co-workers.
The policy on employee reporting
hazards should make this clear.
In addition, there are several steps
you can take to help ensure that
harassment is never considered:
Avoid performance evaluations
that rate supervisors negatively
for submitting reports of hazards
by employees in their areas as
long as they are responding appropriately
to the reports.
Separate employee reports of hazards
from the disciplinary system.
For example, avoid placing policy
statements dealing with these
two subjects close together on
a bulletin board or in sequence
in an employee handbook. Such
physical proximity can give the
impression that one employee can
get another in trouble by reporting
him or her for hazardous practices.
Approach all discussion and written
descriptions of employee reporting
of hazards as a group effort to
keep the worksite safe and healthful.
Emphasize the positive.
Emphasize the responsibility that
employees have for co-workers'
safety and health as well as for
their own. The safety and health
of individual employees is everyone's
business.
If you discover a case of harassment
for reporting a hazard, enforce
your policy clearly and emphatically.
REPORTING
SYSTEMS
There
are several ways that employees
can report hazards. The most common
are verbal reports to supervisors,
suggestion programs, a hazard card
program, maintenance work orders
and written forms that provide for
anonymity. Many larger worksites
will use a combination of some or
all of these systems.
Verbal
Reports. At every worksite
employees should be able to report
hazards to their supervisors. When
the supervisor is properly trained
and accepts responsibility for the
safety and health of the workers
under supervision, informal oral
reporting can occur naturally. When
an employee's concerns appear valid
the supervisor has the responsibility
to either correct the hazard, request
correction by maintenance or ask
for assistance from the safety department.
Most
worksites encourage this type of
reporting. Used alone, however,
it does not provide for hazard correction
tracking. Nor does it enable you
to look for trends and patterns.
And it provides little protection
from supervisors who may not be
sufficiently concerned about health
and safety.
At
very small worksites, where "everybody
knows everything," this verbal system
may be all that is needed.We recommend,
however, that you at least adopt
a simple written system where the
supervisor makes a short report
of each hazard reported and the
action taken. See Appendix 9-3 for
suggested reporting forms.
Suggestion
Programs. The most frequently
used type of written system is a
program where employees are encouraged
to make safety and health suggestions.
This is a very positive approach.
Not only does it provide for reporting
unsafe conditions and acts but it
also encourages employees to come
up with imaginative new ways of
doing things safely and healthfully.
If a suggestion program is used
for hazard reporting, however, management
must be sure that collection points
are checked several times a day
and that suggestions are read at
the time of collection. This will
ensure that identified hazards get
corrected in a timely manner.
If
the suggestion program is the sole
means of reporting hazards or the
only written system, management
must encourage employees to use
the system for all types of hazards
reporting and not just for ideas
in the " would be nicer if" category.
A
hazard card program. Many
medium and large worksites develop
or purchase a program for employee
hazard reporting. One such program
includes a format for training employees
in basic hazard recognition. It
uses cards on which employees jot
down unsafe conditions and practices.
These cards usually are turned in
to the safety department for checking
and tracking of any valid hazard
correction.
Some
workplaces give awards for the highest
number of cards with valid concerns
turned in over a specific period
of time. Others have set quotas
for number of cards turned in. The
success of these special uses seems
to depend upon the "cultural" of
the worksite.
Maintenance
work orders.Maintenance
usually will have to be called to
make the correction of unsafe conditions.
Some companies give every employee
the right to fill out a maintenance
work order. Others allow employees
to fill them out but require supervisory
sign-off before orders are sent
to the maintenance department.
This
system for employee hazard reporting
should be used only if there is
a special high priority safety and
health code for maintenance work
orders. With such a code the maintenance
supervisor is required to give hazard
correction work orders higher priority
than maintenance for production
improvement only. Copies of coded
work orders should be carried immediately
to the Safety Department (or person
responsible for safety and/or health)
so that corrections tracking can
begin.
This
special code also helps your safety
and health staff look for patterns
that may become apparent over time
and that call for closer scrutiny
of conditions or practices.
The
work order system for employee reporting
of hazards is not sufficient if
used alone. While it can lead to
correction of hazardous conditions,
it cannot correct hazardous practices.
And this system is not useful for
encouraging imaginative new approaches
to improving conditions and procedures.
Written
Forms. Some of the systems
described above involve the use
of forms. The best written system
for your worksite may be one that
you devise especially for employee
reports of hazards. You can allow
for anonymity, when desired, by
not requiring the reporting employee
to either sign the form or give
the completed form to the supervisor.
You can post your response to an
anonymous report on a bulletin board
in the area mentioned in the report.
For worksheets useful in developing
this form, see Appendix 9-3. You
can use Example #1 as a two-part
form, or you can use just the bottom
half as the supervisor's form to
document verbal reports of hazards.
For
all the reporting systems discussed
above, some variations will work
better for your site than others.
The important points to remember
are:
Have a policy that encourages
employee reports of hazards,
Make this policy well known and
understood,
Protect reporting employees from
harassment,
Respond in an appropriate and
timely manner,
Track all hazards to correction
and
Use the information you obtain
about hazards to revise your hazard
inventory and/or to improve your
hazard prevention program.
ACCIDENT/INCIDENT
INVESTIGATION
Much
has been written about investigating
accidents and many elaborate charts
have been devised to assist the
investigator. In this chapter we
will not attempt to duplicate all
the information readily available
elsewhere. A good, comprehensive
publication available from the National
Safety Council is "Accident Investigation
. . . A New Approach," published
in 1983.
Accident/incident
investigation is another tool for
uncovering hazards that either were
missed earlier or have managed to
slip out of the controls planned
for them. It is useful only when
done with the aim of discovering
every contributing factor to the
accident/incident in order to "foolproof"
the condition and/or activity and
prevent future occurrences. In other
words, your objective is to identify
root causes.
Definitions.
The National Safety Council
defines "accident" as "an unplanned,
undesired event that results in
personal injury or property damage."
It defines "incident" as "an unplanned,
undesired event that adversely affects
completion of a task." An illness
that results from a single occurrence
comes within the term "personal
injury." This term does not refer
to occupational illness resulting
from long-term exposure to health
hazards.
What
Should Be Investigated?Since
all accidents result in property
damage or personal injury, they
should be investigated to determine
the contributing causes and actions
needed to prevent future occurrences.
Since incidents could result in
property damage or personal injury,
these also should be investigated.
"Near misses" fall into this latter
category. This term describes incidents
where no property was damaged and
no personal injury sustained, but
where given a slight shift in time
or position, damage and/or injury
easily could have occurred.
Who
Should Investigate?The
usual investigator for all incidents
is the supervisor in charge of the
involved area and/or activity. At
a minimum, the safety department
or the person in charge of safety
and health should review these investigations
and provide for another level of
investigation when:
The incident had very serious
results,
The nature of the incident is
very complex,
The incident involved more than
one supervisor's responsibilities
and/or
The initial investigation did
not clearly establish a full range
of contributing factors and/or
preventive actions.
Many
companies use a team or a subcommittee
of the joint employee-management committee
to investigate incidents involving
serious injury or extensive property
damage. This may supplant the supervisor's
investigation or may serve as a second-level
investigation. When a team or committee
investigates, the team leader or chairperson
must have enough authority and status
in the organization to do whatever
is needed.
Training
for Incident Investigation.
No one should investigate incidents
without appropriate accident investigation
training. Many safety and health
consultants and professional organizations
provide this type of training. Before
you commit resources to training,
you might want to check the course
contents against the information
found in the National Safety Council's
pamphlet, "Accident Investigation
. . . A New Approach." After your
investigators have received training,
you should follow up by checking
investigative reports to see if
the training is being put to good
use.
Results
Desired. The investigation
report, regardless of length or
style of presentation, should document
the full range of facts. The report
should include thorough interviews
of everyone with any knowledge of
the incident. Six key questions
should be answered: WHO, WHAT, WHEN,
WHERE, WHY and HOW. Fact should
be distinguished from opinion and
both should be presented carefully
and clearly. A good investigation
is likely to reveal several contributing
factors and it probably will recommend
several preventive actions.
You
will want to avoid the trap of laying
sole blame on the injured employee.
Even if the injured worker accepts
blame for making a mistake or not
following prescribed procedures
the accident investigator must not
be satisfied that all contributing
causes have been identified. The
error made by the employee may not
be even the most important contributing
cause. The employee who has not
followed prescribed procedures may
have been encouraged directly or
indirectly by a supervisor to "cut
corners." The prescribed procedures
may not be practical, or even safe,
in the eyes of the employee. When
engineering redesign might be a
better answer elaborate and difficult
procedures sometimes are required.
In such cases, management errors
-- not employee error -- may be
the most important contributing
causes.
All
supervisors and others who investigate
incidents should be held accountable
for describing causes carefully
and clearly. When reviewing accident
investigation reports, the safety
department or in-house safety expert
should be on the lookout for catch-phrases,
for example, "Employee did not plan
job properly." While such a statement
may suggest an underlying problem
with this worker, it is not conducive
to identifying all possible causes,
preventions and controls. Certainly,
it is too late to plan a job when
the employee is about to do it.
Further, it is unlikely that safe
work will always result when each
employee is expected to plan procedures
alone.
Recommended
preventive actions should make it
very difficult, if not impossible,
for the incident to recur. The investigative
report should list all the ways
to "foolproof" the condition or
activity. Considerations of cost
or engineering should not enter
at this stage. Top management should
have the benefit of the investigator's
complete thinking before making
decisions about prevention. Some
recommended actions will be accomplished
immediately. Others may take time,
planning and capital expenditure.
Use
of Accident Investigations.
The primary purpose of accident
investigations is to prevent future
occurrences. Beyond this immediate
use, the information obtained through
the investigation should be used
to update and revise the inventory
of hazards and/or the program for
hazard prevention and control.
ANALYSIS
OF PATTERNS
OSHA's
Safety and Health Program Management
Guidelines list the analysis of
"injury and illness trends over
time so that patterns with common
causes can be identified and prevented,"
as the last action under Worksite
Analysis. A review of OSHA illness
and injury logs is the most common
form of pattern analysis. These
logs are not, however, the only
useful source of such information.
Any records of hazards can be analyzed
for patterns. Examples are inspection
records and employee hazard report
records.
Pattern
Analysis of the OSHA Log of Injury
and Illness
Period
of time covered. A record being
analyzed for patterns must contain
enough entries to allow patterns
to emerge. A worksite with few employees
or very little hazardous work may
require a review of 3 to 5 years
of records. Because a site is small
or does little hazardous work does
not mean, however, that pattern
analysis is useless. Even if an
office operation has only one or
two injuries each year, a 5-year
review may indicate uncontrolled
cumulative trauma hazards or lack
of attention to tripping hazards.
Larger sites will find useful information
in yearly, quarterly or monthly
reviews.
What
to look for. Similar injuries
or illnesses indicate a hazard or
type of hazard that has not been
controlled yet. Diagnostic clues
can be traced by noting where the
injuries or illnesses occurred,
what type of work was being done,
the time of day, any similarities
or equipment, etc. Injuries need
not be identical. They can be, for
example, to the same part of the
body. Obviously, repetitions of
the same type of injury or illness
indicate that hazard controls are
not working adequately.
Any
clues that suggest a previously
unnoticed connection between several
injuries of illnesses is worth further
investigation.
Pattern
Analysis of Inspection Records and
Employee Hazard Reports. Hazard
identification should be occurring
more frequently than incidents/accidents.
It should be possible, therefore,
to uncover patterns in hazard identification
records over shorter periods of
time than may be needed to analyze
patterns in incidents. Repeat hazards,
just like repeat injuries, mean
that controls are not working. Upgrading
a control may be as simple as improving
accountability. (Of course, what
is simple is not always easy.)
The
causes of hazards can be investigated
using techniques similar to those
developed to find the causes of
accidents. The three flow charts
in Appendix 9-4 contain the questions
to ask and the paths to trace in
searching for the causes of hazards.
SUMMARY
Even
after you conducted comprehensive
hazard surveys, analyzed each workplace
change for hazards, routinely analyzed
jobs and/or processes for hazards
and developed a program of hazard
prevention and control there still
will be some hazards in your worksite.
These hazards may have been missed,
or measures taken may not have been
adequate to maintain prevention
or control over time.
This
chapter has examined additional
techniques for learning more about
these persistent hazards, their
correction and effective and continuing
control. Regular site inspections;
employee reports of hazards; accident/incident
investigations; and analyses of
patterns of illness and injury,
incidents and hazards will help
complete your safety and health
program.
APPENDIX
9-1
SUGGESTED
INSPECTION INVENTORY
FOR
USE IN DEVELOPING
INSPECTION
GUIDELINES OR CHECKLISTS 1
1.
Environmental factors (such as illumination,
dusts, gases, sprays, vapors, fumes,
noise, air temperature);
2.
Hazardous supplies and materials
(such as explosives, flammables,
acids, caustics, toxic materials
or by-products);
3.
Production and related equipment
(such as mills, shapers, presses,
borers, lathes, grinders, saws);
4.
Power source equipment (such as
steam and gas engines, electrical
motors);
5.
Electrical equipment (such as switches,
fuses, breakers, outlets, cables,
extension and fixture cords, ground
connectors, connections);
6.
Hand tools (such as wrenches, screwdrivers,
hammers, chisels, files, power tools);
7.
Personal protective equipment (such
as hard hats, safety glasses, safety
shoes, respirators);
8.
Personal service and first aid facilities
(such as drinking fountains, wash
basins, soap dispensers, safety
showers, eyewash fountains, first
aid supplies, stretchers);
9.
Fire protection and extinguishing
equipment (such as alarms, water
tanks, sprinklers, standpipes, extinguishers,
hydrants, hoses);
10.
Walkways and roadways (such as ramps,
docks, sidewalks, aisles, vehicle
ways);
11.
Elevators, escalators and manlifts;
12.
Working surfaces (such as ladders,
scaffolds, catwalks, platforms,
sling chairs, desk heights)
19.
Buildings and structures (such as
floors, roofs, walls, fencing);
and
20.
Miscellaneous.
1Source:
National Safety Council
APPENDIX
9-2
SAMPLE
POLICY FOR EMPLOYEE REPORTING
OF HAZARDS
Every
employee is expected to watch for
and to report any possible hazards
to employee safety and health. You
may make your reports by speaking
to your supervisor or by submitting
a written report through the __________
(use your company's name for the
written hazard reporting system).
Make your report immediately or
as soon as possible.
No
employee, at any level, shall discipline
or harass any other employee because
of reports made of hazards. Any
employee found to have discriminated
against another employee for this
reason shall be disciplined.
Remember,
YOU are needed to help keep this
worksite safe and healthful!
______________________________________
(Signature
of top manager at worksite)
APPENDIX
9-3
SUGGESTED
FORMS FOR EMPLOYEE REPORTING OF
HAZARDS
EXAMPLE
#1 - EMPLOYEE REPORT OF HAZARD
EMPLOYEE
REPORT OF HAZARD
Hazard
or problem
Suggested
action
Department :
Date:
Hour:
EMPLOYEE: COMPLETE THE
ABOVE AND GIVE TO SUPERVISOR
Action
taken:
Department:
Date:
Supervisor's Signature
__________
SUPERVISOR:
COMPLETE AND GIVE TO MANAGER
Review/Comments
Manager's
Signature _______________________
Date _____________
FOLLOW-UP
DOCUMENTATION
(Can
be used as part of the preceding
form or separately in companies
whose employees are not required
to put in writing the report of
hazard.)
Hazard
Possible
injury or illness
Exposure
Frequency
Duration
Interim
protection provided
Corrective
action taken :
Follow-up
check made on
.
Any additional action taken?
Signature
of Manager or Supervisor ________________________
DESCRIPTION
OF PROBLEM (INCLUDE EXACT LOCATION,
IF POSSIBLE)
NOTE
ANY PREVIOUS ATTEMPT TO NOTIFY
MANAGEMENT OF THIS PROBLEM
AND THE PERSON NOTIFIED
DATE:
OPTIONAL: SUBMITTED BY __________________
SAFETY
DEPARTMENT FINDINGS
ACTIONS
TAKEN
SAFETY
COMMITTEE REVIEW COMMENTS
ALL
ACTIONS COMPLETED BY ______________________________________
EXAMPLE
#3 - EMPLOYEE REPORT OF HAZARD
I
believe that a condition or practice
at the following location is a job
safety or health hazard.
Is
there an immediate threat of death
or serious physical harm? Yes
No
Provide
information that will help locate
the hazard, such as building or
area of building or the supervisor's
name.
Describe
briefly the hazard you believe exists
and the approximate number of employees
exposed to it.
If
this hazard has been called to anyone's
attention, as far as you know, please
provide the name of the person or
committee notified and the approximate
date.
Management
evaluation of reported hazard :
Final
action taken:
All
actions completed by ____________
Initials ___________________
