SAFETY BLOG

HEROIC SAFETY NOW OFFERS CPR/FIRST AID/AED TRAININGS

Heroic Safety Solutions, in cooperation with Community and Professional Resuscitation (C.P.R.) Solutions are proud to offer American Heart Association certified CPR/First Aid/AED trainings for the workplace. 

Are your employees prepared for a medical emergency?  When the pressure is on, can you initiate life-saving intervention to save a co-workers life?  If not, then learn from the best!  As in true Heroic fashion, all of our trainers are professional firefighters and paramedics.  Our training team has accumulated years of experience applying these life-saving techniques in our communities.  We want to pass this information on to you.  You will find our trainings engaging, challenging, and entertaining; but best of all, we will come to you.  Contact us for more information by following the CPR/First Aid/AED link.

Training Packages Include:

• CPR/AED for the workplace
• First Aid for the workplace
• CPR/AED/First Aid workplace combo
• CPR/AED for the Healthcare Provider

Heroic Safety in cooperation with Sheakley Health and Safety Services is offering a regional N.E. Ohio OSHA 30 Construction training.

We understand your schedules are very busy.  If you have been wanting to get an OSHA 30 Construction card, but cannot afford to dedicate a whole week of your time, then this training is for you.  Starting on October 5, we will have an OSHA 30 Construction Outreach class one day per week for four weeks.  We only want you for one day per week thus freeing up the rest of your week to take care of business.

The training will take place in Medina, Ohio.  The course dates are as follows:  Oct. 5, 13, 19, and 26.  Each training will take place from 8:00 am to 4:30 pm on the listed dates.  The cost of the training is $329.00 per person and is open to anyone who would like to be certified.  Attendance is mandatory on each of the training dates.

Please click on the following OSHA 30 linkfor more details.  You can call Heroic at 330-794-7931 or Sheakley's Jenny Gossett at 800-877-5055 ext. 1193 to register by phone or obtain more details.

Thank you.  We look forward to seeing you there!

Be Prepared!

Webster defines an emergency as, "a sudden, generally unexpected occurrence demanding immediate attention."  Emergencies can come in many ways, shapes and forms.  From extended power-outages to natural disasters such as tornadoes and hurricanes.  In these times of emergencies, nobody is going to ensure your safety or the safety of the people your care about other than you!  Be prepared by building emergency preparedness kits for your homes, families, and businesses.

Heroic recommends that individuals in the home have a minimum three-day supply of essentials per person such as food, water, and other related necessities.  One-day supplies per individual are recommended in the business setting.  Heroic suggests having emergency kits in the following places:

• Home (3 days supplies per individual with first aid kit)
• Vehicles (1 day per vehicle with first aid and roadside kit)
• College dorm room/apartment (3 days per individual with first aid kit)
• Camper or cabin (3 days per individual, first aid, and roadside kit)
• Business (1 day per individual)
• Cycling, hiking, or outdoor sports (first aid pocket kits)

Heroic Safety Solutions is proud to endorse the services of Safety City, Inc.  Safety City offers completely customizeable emergency and disaster kits for the individual, family, car, or business.  They offer quality affordable products to meet all of our emergency needs.  Emergency and disaster kits can be purchased as is, or can be created to meet the specific needs of the buyer.  Their website even offers a recommendation browser to help make suggestions to the buyer.  They offer a wide range of emergency products including; nonperishable foods, water, long-burning candles, first aid kits, roadside kits, emergency radios, and many more.

Clink on the Safety City link below to explore their emergency products store and you will be on your way to preparing for the worst.  

The state of Nevada has been developing a bill that would set a potential precedent for construction workers and workplace safety in the United States.  Nevada has reported a rash of construction fatalities and injuries in recent months.  The Las Vegas Strip alone has had twelve construction worker fatalities in the last eighteen months, and the entire state is reporting more deaths in the last two years than in the previous ten.  State legislators are quickly trying to alter the current trends.

Assembly Bill 148 would require all private and public construction workers in the state of Nevada to show proof of safety training to their employers.  Baseline construction workers would have to prove that they have successfully completed training in areas such as fall protection, electrical safety, walking and working surfaces, etc.  The level of training reflected in the Bill appears to be similar to topics covered in an OSHA Construction 10-Hour training.  Construction supervisors in Nevada would be required to prove that they have completed a 30-hour safety training.  Workers would have fifteen days from date of hire to show proof of training to their employers or otherwise be subject to dismissal.  The bill met no opposition from the Assembly Ways and Means Committee and was sent to the floor of the House for a vote next week.

Currently there are no states that require construction workers to have safety trainings.  There are however, states that do require safety certificates for construction employees on public projects.  Assembly Bill 148 would require proof of training on all public and private projects for any and all construction workers.  The only exception to the Bill would be state Department of Transportation employees.

In a nation plagued by liabilities and lawsuits, all eyes of the states will be on the reported results of this law.  If the fatality and injury rates for Nevada decrease, which they most certainly will, do not be surprised if other states begin to develop similar proposals.

It looks as though we are not the only ones who take heat emergencies seriously in this time of year.  California's state run OSHA, also known as Cal-OSHA, on Wednesday, May 13, shut down two west coast farm contractors for failure to comply with the state's heat illness prevention program. 

California is a state that has a large agriculture-based workforce and is subject to extreme temperatures throughout the late spring and summer months.  California runs its own occupational safety and health program under what is known as a state plan program.  The safety and health of the workforce in this state is not regulated by Federal OSHA, but rather, Cal-OSHA who has their own set of occupational safety and health regulations.  States can regulate themselves under a state plan as long as their regulations are as strict or more so than Federal OSHA's standards.

Two farm labor contractors were recently shut down for failing to comply with Cal-OSHA's regulations that protect workers from heat-related illnesses.  The Jose Alfaro Labor Contractor and Estrada Farm Labor Services were both halted from doing business because they failed to provide adequate shade and water for their employees.  Also, neither of the two contractors could prove that they provided adequate training or emergency response procedures to their employees as it relates to heat emergencies.

In regards to heat illness prevention, California employers must take the following four steps to be compliant with the program:

1. They must train all employees and managers on the subject of preventing heat illness.
2. They must provide and encourage each employee to consume at least 1 quart of fresh water per hour.
3. Access to shade must be provided to employees who believes that they are in need of a rest period due to heat exposure.  Adequate shaded areas must be provided to ensure 5 minute rest periods in the shade.
4. All employers must develop and implement written policies and procedures for complying with the Cal-OSHA Heat Illness Prevention Standard.

 For more information regarding heat emergencies and heat illnesses, please read Heroic Safety's Safety Huddle on Heat Emergencies located in our safety blog archives.  Access the Safety Huddle tag.

Be safe out there.

President Obama's Labor Department unveiled additional funding for OSHA.  The stimulus will give OSHA an additional $51 million and will include the hiring of 160 new safety inspectors nation wide.  The increase in funding is meant to motivate OSHA to tackle issues that according to the current administration, were stalled under the previous administration.  American firms and industries should prepare themselves for a more "hands-on" regulating agency.  More money means more resources and more inspections.

On May 11, 2009, OSHA published its agenda for issues and regulations that are going to be developed and reviewed over the next year.  Some of the regulations and issues being reveiwed and developed are as follows:

Pre-Rule Stage

• Protection of workers exposed to crystalline silica and the economic impact of implementing protection standards for employers.
• Proposed rule for workers exposed to beryllium (a light metal that can cause lung damage).
• Occupational exposure to diacetyl (a butter-flavoring additive linked to "popcorn lung").

Proposed Rule Stage

• Closing of the proposed rule for cranes and derricks in construction.
• Adding additional information on minimum approach distances for its electrical protective equipment.
• New rules associated with working in confined spaces in construction, shipyards, and other industries.

 Long-Term Actions

• Review of the current bloodborne pathogen standard as to how it relates to other standards and current technologies.

In January, the Obama Administration announced the withdrawal of the advance notice practice for rule-making.  This practice, which was set in place by President Bush at the end of his presidency, has been criticized by opponents who say that it delays the rule-making process by as much as two years.  The current president wants to make a statement in the workplace.  All American companies need to stay up-to-date on OSHA standards, and ensure their company safety programs are developed and in compliance.

The word "pandemic" seems to be terrifying everyone at the moment.  We would like to remind everyone to not panic in the wake of the media coverage.  About 36,000 Americans die of typical influenza strains each year.  We currently have less than 60 confirmed cases in the U.S., and only one reported fatality.  Nevertheless, that does not mean that we do not need to think workplace safety.  Heroic Safety would like to stress personal hygiene, personal protective equipment, and thinking safety in the workplace.  The following link is the government information site for swine flu information.  Take every precaution to protect yourselves, but conduct business as usual.  Stay safe out there!

Pandemic Flu Information

OSHA has recently sent out letters to 13,500 specific employers in the United States in order to remind them that their reported illnesses and injuries in the workplace are higher than the national average.  Like they didn't know this already.  This is a prelude of things to come from government control over large companies.  It would seem logical that the fines, increased inspections, and increased medical and worker's compensation costs would remind them on a regular basis.  The Washington Post reported that OSHA is discussing the creation of a Severe Violators Inspection Program.  According to the article, OSHA plans to eventually turn up the heat on what they call "negligent companies" or companies that do not take worker safety seriously.  A similar version of this program was created in 2003, but has proved to be an OSHA failure.

On April 30, 2009, the Workforce Protection Subcommittee of the House Education and Labor Committee met in order to improve OSHA's Enhanced Enforcement Program (EEP).  The EEP was implemented in 2003 and has since proved to be a huge failure.  This program was designed to target companies that reported above average injuries and illnesses with increased inspections and stricter delegation of discipline.  OSHA has been analyzing the performance level of the EEP program and has found that since its inception, OSHA has failed to comply with program requirements in 97% of the EEP cases.  The Severe Violators Inspection Program will be a rebuild of the EEP.  They plan to re-engineer this program from the ground up, and make no mistake, they plan to enforce it.  Their plan is to concentrate attention on large companies and less targeting of smaller companies.

Proponents of the program state that there are too many large companies in the United States that do not take safety seriously and endanger their employees on a regular basis, therefore, violating the General Duty Clause to provide hazard-free work environments.  They blame the Bush Administration for the EEP's failure.  They state that the former administration was overlooking safety enforcement to protect big-business.  Skeptics state that this program will inadvertently target compliant companies that have more reportings because they report all incidents including minor injuries and illnesses.  They also state that this program will deter larger companies from reporting in order to stay clear of OSHA's radar.  It would appear that bipartisan debates have spilled over into workplace safety.

Either way we slice it, we will most certainly see increased regulation of workplace safety in the near future.  Our current administration appears to have declared war on big-business and large corporations.  Now is an excellent time to evaluate your company's safety policies, procedures, training programs, and commitment to workplace safety.  Become proactive rather than reactive. Make the changes now that will not cost you later. 

Hazard assessment cannot be stressed enough.  Every time we set foot into the workplace we must evaluate our surroundings and work operations for threats to our safety.

On Thursday April 23, two painters in Akron, Ohio were dropped off at a vacant house under renovation at 10 p.m.  The painting job was fairly straight forward, they were to paint all of the floors on the inside of the house.  The house had no electric service, and since they were going to work throughout the night, they decided to use a generator to provide electric to their portable lights.  The two men placed a gas generator in the fruit-cellar of the basement of the house.  The room that housed the generator had a small open window which the two men obviously thought would be enough ventilation for the exhaust fumes.  There were no other open windows in the entire house.  On Friday morning, the contractor arrived at the residence to check on the painters' progress and found the two men lying on the floor inside of the house.  The man immediately called 911.  When police, fire, and EMS arrived, one of the painters was declared dead on the scene and the other was barely breathing.  Carbon dioxide levels are considered hazardous at 35ppm (parts per million).  The initial levels detected by responders was over 700ppm.

This is just another tragic example of a deadly workplace accident that most certainly could have been avoided with a little fore-thought and safety planning.  Again, we must make safety in the workplace our first priority.  The following is a link to the reported story.

Fumes Suspected in Death

Based on growing demand, Heroic Safety Solutions is now going to be publishing a weekly safety article that can be used for Monday morning safety huddles.  The article will be published on Thursday and will pertain to the following week.

The Safety Huddle article will be written on different safety topics covering a wide range of industries.  The articles will be brief overviews of major OSHA standards.  The Safety Huddle article will provide employers with a way to conduct trainings on OSHA regulated topics on a weekly basis.

Heroic recommends that employers should print off the article and distribute it to all managers who can then review the topic with the employees that they manage.  Provide a sign-in sheet so that these training sessions can be filed and attendance can be recorded.

If you would like to receive the Safety Huddle articles on a weekly basis, please subscribe to the Heroic Safety Blog.  Heroic makes every effort to promote safety in all forms of industry and construction.  However, if there are topics that you think we may have overlooked, or there is a topic you would like to train on, please email us at contactus@heroicsafety.com and give us your thoughts.  Many safety consulting firms provide safety training articles for a price.  Heroic Safety Solutions believes that it is our duty to promote workplace safety, so we are proud to offer this service for free.

Please remember, safety in the workplace is everyone's responsibility.  The Heroic Safety Huddle is not intended to replace workplace safety programs, protocols, certified trainings, etc.  The Safety Huddle is designed to provide a basis of safety topics that should be expanded upon by each employer.

We look forward to providing this service and hearing your comments.  Be safe out there!  Thank you.