Might as well toss the money into the sewer…

Sleepy workers?

Might as well toss money spent on training and materials into the sewer.

One in three workers said they’d fallen asleep or had been very sleepy at work within the past month. This is the result of a survey of 1,000 people by the National Sleep Foundation.

Researchers have found that sleep-deprivation costs U.S. businesses more than $136 billion every year. A study in Japan three years ago indicated a loss of $30.7 billion a year due to weary or sleepy workers in that country.

In the U.S., sleepy workers are twice as likely as rested ones to be involved in a job-related injury.

The average wake-up time in the U.S. is 5:35 a.m., and average bedtime is 10:53 p.m. Another hour would result in far more productive workers.

Of course, businesses do not have the authority to control the amount of sleep a worker has had before showing up for the shift. They can take steps to make it easier for workers to remain rested throughout the work day. Eliminating 12-hour shifts, providing nap time on the job, and educating employees about the risk of showing up for work dead tired are examples of measures that a business can take to reduce the number of sleep-hungry workers who show up for work.

Note: If you are a health and safety director, manager, or business owner, you have permission to use any HealthWorks blog to promote health and safety among your workers. For consultants or producers of health and safety materials, please call Griffith Publishing at 800 359-9503 to request the use of these copyrighted items.

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How close to an unguarded edge is safe?

Is this worker safe?

Here’s a question for the safety director:

Is it true that as long as your workers are at least six feet from an unguarded edge, you’ve met the OSHA requirement and don’t need additional fall protection measures?

This convenient rule of thumb happens to be a myth. Patrick Nies, writing for the latest edition of OSHA’s Region X newsletter, says that the belief in a six-foot margin apparently stems from an OSHA rule requiring fall protection when the worker is six feet or more above a lower level.

However, Nies points out, just having a six-foot distance from the edge doesn’t adequately protect employees from falls that can result in OSHA citations and penalties.
According to Nies, “OSHA’s Subpart M Fall Protection standard (29 CFR 1926.500, 501, 502 & 503) does not establish a safe distance from, or an acceptable proximity to, an edge.”

In some cases such as with nearly flat roofs, warning lines and monitors can take the place of guardrails or personal fall protection equipment even when the lower level is more than six feet below the worker.

As with other OSHA guidelines, common sense is expected of the supervisor and worker in such situations. An unprotected edge, even if the edge is more than six feet away can be dangerous if, for example, the surface is wet or if the slope is steep. Exact dimensions for requiring edge protection are not given by OSHA, but penalties are likely if the danger of falling or sliding off the edge of a surface are obvious.

Falls at work accounted for 14 percent of all work-related fatalities in 2006, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Checklist center coming up

OSHA is part of the Department of Labor. The DOL’s logo is shown above.

A whole industry of businesses publish and post lists and rules and explanations from OSHA.

Our contribution is to develop a library of OSHA’s best checklists. These will be genuine OSHA checklists, not derivatives or rewrites.

Today we introduce a comprehensive and well designed set of checklists under the heading, “computer workstations.”

More to come.

–brought to you by Griffith Publishing

Incremental improvements can go a long ways…eventually!

Incremental.

Maybe it’s just a buzz word, but measuring your company’s progress in health and safety on an incremental basis may be worth considering.

Put in simple terms, incremental management for health and safety means identifying key areas most likely to be the site of injuries or mishaps at your work place and setting up procedures to reduce the risk and measure progress in achieving the goal.

One trucking business, for example, was able to use this method to determine that a corporate-wide emphasis on wellness was able to reduce its costs of workers’ comp, disability pay, healthcare and absenteeism. Regular reporting by each department helped the company’s manager to focus on small but consistent improvements in these areas.

Brought to you by Griffith Publishing

Note: If you are a health and safety director, manager, or business owner, you have permission to use any HealthWorks blog to promote health and safety among your workers. For consultants or producers of health and safety materials, please call Griffith Publishing at 800 359-9503 to request the use of these copyrighted items.

You’re teaching, but who’s listening?

They’re on time, notebooks and pencils ready, looking alert. But how long will your workers actually pay close attention to what you’re telling them about health and safety?

For decades we have known that adults can listen for up to twenty minutes, but in today’s fast-paced world, even that short time period is shrinking. Your youngest workers, probably veterans at texting and skype,* may have impaired capacity for
instructions that take longer than a few minutes.

How can you be sure that vital points are getting across to your workers? Here are some tips for making your health and safety information register with your workers.

• Use short sessions and even shorter teaching modules for each topic.
• Let your workers demonstrate procedures such as lock-out tag-out, or treating a severe nosebleed.
• Give short quizzes.
• Divide into small groups to discuss problems
• Show short videos (five to ten minutes) on the topic you are presenting.
• Pause for questions and provide brief answers.
• Include problem-solving exercises, not just questions with definite answers.

Whatever techniques you use, be sure to watch your audience. You can see when a change in pace is needed by maintaining eye contact with the people listening to you,

*Skype is software for calling other people on their computers or telephones.

Brought to you by Griffith Publishing

Note: If you are a health and safety director, manager, or business owner, you have permission to use any HealthWorks blog to promote health and safety among your workers. For consultants or producers of health and safety materials, please call Griffith Publishing at 800 359-9503 to request the use of these copyrighted items.

Standing for hours is hard on workers

Even standing perfectly motionless requires considerable muscle activity and prolonged standing can lead to serious medical problems.

Standing for hours in one position reduces blood flow to the muscles of the legs, back, and neck. A diminished supply of blood, in turn, causes general fatigue and pain in affected muscles. Swelling of the legs leading to the development of varicose veins is common among workers who spend hours standing on the job. The joints of the spine, hips, knees, and feet “lock” into position when a person is standing still for longer than a few minutes. This immobility can lead to degeneration of the tendons and ligaments and produce
rheumatic disease.

Employees with work that requires extensive standing are often at the lowest end of the pay scale where their plight is easy to ignore. Low-income employees are also less likely to complain about work conditions because they’re glad to have a job.

The most important way to prevent injuries from too much standing is to create a work environment where all workers feel it’s okay for them to report uncomfortable work positions. Many alternatives exist to a standing-only job, and most cost little or nothing to implement. Here are some suggestions:

1. Give the worker a choice. Set up work so that the person can do the job in a variety of positions, including sitting or standing.

2. Provide adjustable work stations. Workspace such as tables that can be elevated for standing and lowered for sitting give workers a break from standing in one position.

3. Give every worker a seat. Even if work cannot be done from a sitting position, a seat should be provided nearby to take the pressure off continual standing.

4. Flexible foot support. Foot rails or foot rests give the worker an opportunity to shift weight from one foot to the other.

5. Educate the worker. Let your workers know the importance of work breaks and changing positions while working as well as the health hazards of too much standing in one position.

Any restructuring of the pattern of work so that individual muscles and joints are not strained to the point of discomfort will lower the risk of painful injuries caused by standing too long at work. Keys, controls, and displays as well as items needed for the job itself need to be placed so that twisting and straining are minimized.

When standing on a concrete floor can’t be avoided, wearing cushioned, well-fitting shoes and placing a rubber mat under the feet can prevent injury.

Workers most likely to suffer injury from too much standing at work include assembly line workers, teachers, library staff, school supervisors, printers, and sales or counter workers.

Brought to you by Griffith Publishing

Note: If you are a health and safety director, manager, or business owner, you have permission to use any HealthWorks blog to promote health and safety among your workers. For consultants or producers of health and safety materials, please call Griffith Publishing at 800 359-9503 to request the use of these copyrighted items.

“Your perfume is making me sick…”

"de parfum"

From air fresheners to perfumes, we use fragrances in a variety of ways at home and at work. According to The National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, about 900 of the 3,000 ingredients used by the fragrance industry are toxic.

Many of these toxic chemicals are capable of causing cancer, birth defects, central nervous system disorders, reproductive disorders and skin irritation.

Although the fragrance industry has been self-regulating since 1938, the Federal Drug Administration does ban some chemicals from being used in fragrances and other products.

Mercury, for example, is a banned substance that is used in some mascara products. Lead is an ingredient in many lip colorings.

You may find parabens, such as methylparaben, propylparaben, and butylparaben in cosmetics, sunscreens, lotions, shaving cream, and other personal care products.
Parabens have been found in breast cancer tumors, but no cause-effect relationship has been established.

Other fragrances are allergenic to some individuals even though they contain no substances that are dangerous in themselves. Steps are being taken by the International Fragrance Association to assist dermatologists in identifying chemicals used in fragrances that may cause severe allergic problems.

Brought to you by Griffith Publishing

Swine flu threatens unprepared businesses

A close-up look at the swine flu virus

Some call it swine flu. Others prefer the technical term, H1N1 virus.

By whatever name, the World Health Organization has declared that the scope of this troubling new disease warrants the label, “pandemic.”

Swine flu crossed the definition border and became a pandemic when officials at the World Health Organization determined that the disease is “unstoppable.” However, the
number of new cases seems to be declining, and for most victims of this virus, it is nothing more than a brief bout with the familiar flu viruses we encounter every winter.
Ironically, younger members of the population are more likely to become ill with the swine flu. Experts say this is probably because older adults were protected by earlier flu vaccines. Or, perhaps they were sick with a milder version of the disease and acquired an immunity that way.

Most businesses are unprepared for dealing with a flu epidemic, according to studies by Mercer, a global consulting firm. Their research shows that 41 percent—two in five—of all employers do not have plans in place to assure continuity of operations if the pandemic strikes their business.

“Organizations need to be taking a look at their policies—especially about how to manage their workforce if a large number of people are going to be gone for an extended period,” warned Danielle Dorling, a consultant for Mercer.

She said “business continuity plans should be standardized and employers must be able to communicate in a streamlined, swift and decisive fashion. Ad-hoc reaction can lead to confusion, unnecessary panic and expensive global inconsistencies that can expose
the organization to significant financial risk.”

Measures recommended to cope with a dangerous flu outbreak in businesses include back-up plans, cuts in business travel, more employees working at home, quarantines for
at-risk employees, and medical checkups for employees.

So far, the impact in Idaho of the latest threat to the health of millions has been minimal. As of June 26, only 221 Idaho residents had been diagnosed with the disease, although an outbreak at a privately operated prison south of Boise resulted in a quarantine, with 13 inmates afflicted by swine flu. (Ref: Idaho Statesman)

The CDC (Centers for Disease Control) maintains a weekly update on the H1N1 virus.

Brought to you by Griffith Publishing