SAFETY BLOG

Fire hazards are not just limited to the workplace.  Fires in the home can be both devastating and tragic.  Americans must not only conduct fire safety trainings in the workplace, but at home with their children as well.

Workplace Fire Safety

Emergency planning is one of the most basic safety trainings conducted in the workplace.  Employers should consider establishing written emergency protocols and practicing emergency scenario drills twice a year.  Workplace emergency protocols and trainings should include the following:

• Define evacuation procedures
• Exits should be located on site maps throughout workplace
• All exit signs to be illuminated for easy recognition
• Locations, maintenance, and use of fire extinguishers should be trained on annually
• When to fight fire vs. when to flee
• Employee responsibilities during evacuation
• Processes or machines that need to be turned off
• Other employees with disabilities that may need assistance
• Emergency contact numbers
• Outdoor employee meeting and check-in location
• Practice emergency evacuation drills bi-annually
• Shelter-in-place procedures
• Identify the most structurally sound area of the complex
• Post signs identifying emergency shelter
• Store an emergency band radio with extra batteries
• Practice shelter-in-place drills bi-annually
• Identification of special hazards
• Invite local emergency service personnel to tour facility annually
• Review emergency protocols, procedures, and special hazards

 The best way to protect our families from fire hazards at home is by developing a safety plan and practicing bi-annually.

Fire Safety At Home

• Educate family members and practice fire safety tips
• Stop, drop and roll
• Feeling and closing doors during fire emergencies
• Staying low to ground in smoke filled environments
• Teach children to go to windows and await help if they cannot self extricate
• Children should not hide or run from firefighters
• Never play with matches, lighters, outlets, or electrical appliances
• Change batteries in smoke detectors every time the clocks are changed (bi-annually)
• Every floor should have a carbon monoxide detector
• At minimum, keep a dry-chemical fire extinguisher in the kitchen
• Optimally, every floor should have an extinguisher
• Laundry room as well
• Draw a floor plan of your house with your children and map out two escape routes from each floor of house
• Outdoor meeting location should be identified
• Outdoor meeting location should be at a neighbors front lawn or porch so neighbors can watch over children until you or help arrives
• Discuss escape plan and bedroom layout of your house with neighbors
• Practice escape with children twice a year
• Fire and barbecue pits should be a minimum of twenty five feet away from structures
• Never store flammable liquids or oily rags in house
• Create preparations for natural disasters and other emergencies
• Store plenty of drinking water
• Emergency-band radio with extra batteries
• Non-perishable foods
• Extra blankets and first aid supplies
• Visit the Department of Homeland Security for a detailed emergency preparation checklist

The Department of Labor has tagged April as the Drug-Free month in the United States.  Does drug testing really increase safety in the workplace?  This is a very controversial issue in workplaces across America.  Instead of just dropping a biased opinion on my readers, I want to create a debate on this subject.  In the spirit of a good debate, I welcome any and all comments on this issue.  Tell me what you think and why you think that way.  What are your personal experiences with drug-free workplace programs and testing.

As the author of this blog post, this is where I get to give my answer to the question.  I have been teaching drug-free trainings in Ohio for years, and my answer to the question is yes, drug testing in the workplace greatly increases safety.  Here is some data to help support my position.  All of the following data is provided by the Ohio Bureau of Workman's Compensation.

• Over 40% of workplace accidents in the state of Ohio are substance abuse related.
• Substance abusers are 33-50% less productive than normal employees.
• Abusers miss an average of 3 weeks more from work a year.
• Users are 3-4 times more likely to have accidents at work and their accidents are 150% more severe than normal employees.
• There are 5 times more worker's comp claims filed by abusers than non-abusers.
• Substance abusers use 300-400% more of their employee medical benefits.
• 50-80% of theft in Ohio workplaces are related to employees abusing substances.

The statistics speak for themselves.  Substance abuse is dangerous and expensive in the workplace.  I can tell you that the initial idea of drug free workplace programs was never intended to go into workplaces, round up abusers, and fire them.  The idea has always been to identify employees who need help overcoming addiction.  Once identified by the employer, support then can be offered to that individual that will help them regain control over their lives and then become a productive, valuable, and healthy employee.

I know you are asking me, "what do you know about addiction?"  I have interacted with a lot of substance abusers over the years.  Not only am I a safety consultant, but I have been a professional firefighter and paramedic for a city fire department for 9 years.  Addiction is a physical, emotional, and sociological prison for the user.  They can no longer set and meet their own personal priorities.  The addiction becomes the priority.  All cause and effect thinking has gone by the wayside.  They no longer think about how their actions will affect themselves or their coworkers.  This creates a huge safety risk.

What about personal rights?  I hear many employees say, "what I do in my personal time is my business."  They are right, it is their business, but when it effects me on our time then it becomes my business as well.  Some substances can affect the user hours and even days after using.  I can point to tests that have been done to prove that one-time users of marijuana have failed fine motor coordination tests up to 24 hours after smoking.  When these effects are being brought into the workplace, then they are open to regulation.  I have personal rights too, and one of them is to be safe while at work.

As a firefighter, I am subjected to drug testing.  There have been years when I have been random drug tested as many as 4 or 5 times a year.  Do I have a problem with this?  Not at all.  I understand why the city is testing me.  Ask yourself if you would want your city's safety forces to be potential substance abusers?  Could you or would you rely on their abilities?  I think not.

Substance abusers are extremely dangerous in the workplace.  I believe I have laid the foundation for an excellent debate.  Lets hear what you have to say on the subject.  For more information on drug-free workplace programs visit www.dol.gov/workingpartners.  Be safe out there!

A progressive safety firm has found a new breed of safety consultants.  Heroic Safety Soltuions has added safety forces personnel such as firemen, paramedics, and police officers to its arsenal of safety trainers.  These are people who deal with workplace accidents and injuries everyday.  They are hard working Americans that have won the hearts of our communities.  Who better to relate to and train our workforce.  Every city in the United States is stocked with these professionals, and everyone of them has expertise and certifications in different areas of safety.  The trial run has been extremely successful.  Employees trust and rely on the reputations of these professionals.  They keep the attention of their audiences by using real life stories of accidents and tragedies in their trainings, which employees seem to love.  The days of boring safety trainings led by "the snot-nosed college kid" are gone.  Enter Heroic Safety Trainers.

Heroic Safety Solutions