EMERGENCY EVACUATIONS: BE PREPARED!

OSHA strongly recommends that all businesses have an emergency action plan in place that covers procedures for evacuations and sheltering.

You and your employees need to know exactly what to do in any emergency, from fires and natural disasters to chemical spills.

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Your plan should include these elements:

1. A clear chain of command and designation of a person authorized to order an evacuation or shutdown.
2. Specific evacuation procedures, including routes and exits (note that high-rise buildings require special procedures).
3. Procedures for helping visitors and employees evacuate, particularly those with disabilities or who don’t speak English.
4. Designation of evacuation wardens and monitors.
5. Designation of employees who will remain after the alarm to shut down critical operations or perform other duties before evacuating.
6. A means of accounting for employees after evacuation.
7. Appropriate respirators, especially for employees with emergency response duties.
8. Clear, detailed, and prominently placed escape route maps or diagrams.
9. Co-ordination of your plan with other businesses, if any, in the same building or industrial complex.
10. A schedule of evacuation drills at regular intervals (or on short notice).
11. Compliance with both federal (OSHA, 29 CFR 1910.38) and state emergency action standards. Note that some states have stricter requirements than does OSHA.

Tailor evacuation plans to the nature of each emergency. Your plan should identify different emergency scenarios and describe employee responses to them. For example, if a tornado or chemical spill on a nearby highway threatens your workers, you might want them to assemble in one area inside the workplace On the other hand, if you’re facing a fire or chemical spill in the workplace, make immediate evacuation your top priority.

To help you determine what will be required, ask “what if” questions and brainstorm worst-case scenarios. What would happen if a storage area caught fire, your property was flooded, or a dangerous chemical was released? You and your employees need to know the answer to these questions and the appropriate response to take in each case.

For professional advice on developing and implementing your emergency action plan, please feel free to get in touch with us – that’s our job!

DRIVE HOME THESE DEFENSIVE DRIVING TIPS

Motor vehicle accidents are the most common cause of accidental death — and of workplace deaths — representing about one in four fatal work injuries. Whether your employees drive on the job or commute to work by car, they need defensive driving training. An effective plan should include these basic rules:

• Buckle up for safety.
• Follow traffic rules, signs, and signals.
• Don’t speed.
• Maintain a two to four second gap behind the vehicle in front of you, but don’t fixate on it. Scan ahead as far as possible to watch and plan for emerging traffic situations.
• Keep your eyes on the road, your hands on the wheel, and your attention on traffic.
• Check your rearview and side mirrors frequently.
• Adjust your speed and driving to changing weather and traffic conditions.
• Expect the unexpected and be especially alert in heavy traffic for sudden stops, vehicles passing or moving in and out of lanes, road debris, and work zones.
• Keep cool, yield right of way, and avoid disputes with other drivers.
• Pull over to make or receive phone calls.
• Don’t drink or take drugs and drive.

Be sure to stress vehicle maintenance. A safe, roadworthy vehicle is an indispensable part of driving safely. If the vehicle is unsafe, the driver — and others on the road — are at risk. Teach your employees to keep their vehicles maintained properly and follow the manufacturer’s recommendations for oil changes, tune-ups, and so on. Also, remind them to inspect their vehicles frequently between service checkups.

Our risk management professionals would be happy to help you implement a comprehensive safe driving program for your employees. Just call or send us an e-mail.

HEAR YE! HEAR YE! FIVE STEPS TO A SUCCESSFUL HEARING CONSERVATION PROGRAM

Noise isn’t a new hazard in the workplace, but it sometimes doesn’t get the attention it deserves. Repeated, unprotected exposure of your employees to loud noise can lead to permanent hearing loss. When information (such as noise monitoring) indicates that any employee’s exposure might equal or exceed an eight-hour average of 85 decibels (dB), OSHA requires you to implement a “hearing conservation program.”

An effective program should concentrate on five key areas:

1. A noise-monitoring program. Monitor noise in work areas to identify employees subjected to noise at or above 85. Make sure to have the instruments used for this checked and calibrated carefully before each survey. Keep records of noise monitoring for two years.
2. Engineering and administrative controls. If monitoring identifies work areas with exposure levels of 100 dB, determine the engineering or environmental changes needed to reduce noise levels. Consult with your safety committee to set up appropriate administrative controls, such as rotating employees in and out of high-noise areas.
3. Personal protective equipment (PPE). Provide employees exposed to noise levels of 85dB or more with appropriate hearing protectors, free of charge. Use a PPE hazard assessment to select the type of PPE that provides the best protection.
4. Audiometric testing. All employees exposed to noise levels of 85 dB or greater must have a baseline audiogram within six months of the first exposure, and every year thereafter. If an audiogram shows hearing loss has occurred compared with the baseline, inform the employee, reevaluate hearing protection, retrain the employee if necessary, and refer them for clinical audiological evaluation. Record any threshold shift (hearing loss) of 10 dB or more that results in an overall hearing level of 25 dB on the OSHA Form 300 under “Hearing Loss.”
5. Employee training. Supervisors must conduct annual training sessions for affected employees on the elements of your hearing conservation program. These sessions should include the effects of noise on hearing; the purpose of hearing protectors and how to use and maintain them, and the reasons for audiometric testing and an explanation of test procedures. Be sure to document this training.