Safety
Why is Workplace Safety Important?
Workplace safety is about preventing injury and illness to employees in the workplace. Therefore, it’s about protecting the company’s most valuable asset: its employees. By protecting the employees’ well-being, the company shall reduce the amount of money paid out in health insurance benefits, workers’ compensation benefits and the cost of wages for temporary help.
Addressing Safety and Health Hazards in the Workplace
To make the workplace safer, the company has to acknowledge which potential health and safety hazards are present. Or determine where and what and how a worker is likely to become injured or ill. It starts with analyzing individual workstations and program areas for hazards — the potential for harm — be it a frayed electrical cord, repetitive motion, toxic chemicals, mold, lead paint or lifting heavy objects.
Job Hazard Analysis
OSHA describes a job hazard analysis as a technique that focuses on job tasks to identify hazards before they occur. The Simulated Workplace describes this analysis as ways to strengthen the entire Simulated Workplace experience. From either view, the analysis examines the relationship between the employee the task, the tools and the work environment. Most of the hazards are human, and can easily be prevented if a worker has any sense about him.
Depending on the nature of the program’s projects, supervisors may have to assist safety team members with the management of specific hazards associated with their tasks:
● chemical (toxic, flammable, corrosive, explosive)
● electrical (shock/short circuit, fire, static, loss of power)
● ergonomics (strain, human error)
● excavation (collapse)
● explosion (chemical reaction, over pressurization)
● fall (condition results in slip/trip from heights or on walking surfaces — poor housekeeping, uneven surfaces, exposed ledges)
● fire/heat (burns to skin and other organs)
● mechanical (vibration, chaffing, material fatigue, failure, body part exposed to damage)
● noise (hearing damage, inability to communicate, stress)
● radiation (X-rays, microwave ovens, microwave towers for radio or TV stations or wireless technology)
● struck by (falling objects and projectiles injure body)
● struck against (injury to body part when action causes contact with a surface, as when screwdriver slips)
● temperature extreme (heat stress, exhaustion, hypothermia)
● visibility (lack of lighting or obstructed vision that results in error or injury)
● weather phenomena (snow, rain, wind, ice that increases or creates a hazard)
Aegis Industrial Safety Program
Any policy, procedure or training used by the company to further the safety of employees while working within the Simulated Workplace environment is considered part of a workplace safety program. Workplace safety programs to reduce work-related injury and illness are concerned with:
● promoting and rewarding safe practices at work
● reducing injuries and illnesses at work
● eliminating fatalities at work
Aegis Industrial Injury and Illness Prevention
According to OSHA, work-related injury and illness prevention falls into three categories in order of priority: engineering controls, administrative controls, and personal protective equipment controls. The Simulated Workplace has adapted this list to make it more applicable to career CTE programs:
● administrative controls
● written procedures and safe work practices
● exposure time limitations (temperature and ergonomic hazards)
● monitor use of hazardous materials
● alarms, signs and warnings
● buddy system
● demonstration of proper safety protocol
Aegis Industrial safety initiatives can be as simple as closing and locking the front door; replacing burned out lights inside and out; closing drawers before walking away from the desk or file cabinet; knowing and using proper lifting techniques; providing adjustable workstations to accommodate differences in people’s stature and weight to eliminate repetitive motion, back, neck and shoulder injury; and using the proper tool for the job in an appropriate fashion. These and other basics should be universally adopted safety procedures in any workplace.
Workplace safety is about preventing injury and illness to employees in the workplace. Therefore, it’s about protecting the company’s most valuable asset: its employees. By protecting the employees’ well-being, the company shall reduce the amount of money paid out in health insurance benefits, workers’ compensation benefits and the cost of wages for temporary help.
Addressing Safety and Health Hazards in the Workplace
To make the workplace safer, the company has to acknowledge which potential health and safety hazards are present. Or determine where and what and how a worker is likely to become injured or ill. It starts with analyzing individual workstations and program areas for hazards — the potential for harm — be it a frayed electrical cord, repetitive motion, toxic chemicals, mold, lead paint or lifting heavy objects.
Job Hazard Analysis
OSHA describes a job hazard analysis as a technique that focuses on job tasks to identify hazards before they occur. The Simulated Workplace describes this analysis as ways to strengthen the entire Simulated Workplace experience. From either view, the analysis examines the relationship between the employee the task, the tools and the work environment. Most of the hazards are human, and can easily be prevented if a worker has any sense about him.
Depending on the nature of the program’s projects, supervisors may have to assist safety team members with the management of specific hazards associated with their tasks:
● chemical (toxic, flammable, corrosive, explosive)
● electrical (shock/short circuit, fire, static, loss of power)
● ergonomics (strain, human error)
● excavation (collapse)
● explosion (chemical reaction, over pressurization)
● fall (condition results in slip/trip from heights or on walking surfaces — poor housekeeping, uneven surfaces, exposed ledges)
● fire/heat (burns to skin and other organs)
● mechanical (vibration, chaffing, material fatigue, failure, body part exposed to damage)
● noise (hearing damage, inability to communicate, stress)
● radiation (X-rays, microwave ovens, microwave towers for radio or TV stations or wireless technology)
● struck by (falling objects and projectiles injure body)
● struck against (injury to body part when action causes contact with a surface, as when screwdriver slips)
● temperature extreme (heat stress, exhaustion, hypothermia)
● visibility (lack of lighting or obstructed vision that results in error or injury)
● weather phenomena (snow, rain, wind, ice that increases or creates a hazard)
Aegis Industrial Safety Program
Any policy, procedure or training used by the company to further the safety of employees while working within the Simulated Workplace environment is considered part of a workplace safety program. Workplace safety programs to reduce work-related injury and illness are concerned with:
● promoting and rewarding safe practices at work
● reducing injuries and illnesses at work
● eliminating fatalities at work
Aegis Industrial Injury and Illness Prevention
According to OSHA, work-related injury and illness prevention falls into three categories in order of priority: engineering controls, administrative controls, and personal protective equipment controls. The Simulated Workplace has adapted this list to make it more applicable to career CTE programs:
● administrative controls
● written procedures and safe work practices
● exposure time limitations (temperature and ergonomic hazards)
● monitor use of hazardous materials
● alarms, signs and warnings
● buddy system
● demonstration of proper safety protocol
Aegis Industrial safety initiatives can be as simple as closing and locking the front door; replacing burned out lights inside and out; closing drawers before walking away from the desk or file cabinet; knowing and using proper lifting techniques; providing adjustable workstations to accommodate differences in people’s stature and weight to eliminate repetitive motion, back, neck and shoulder injury; and using the proper tool for the job in an appropriate fashion. These and other basics should be universally adopted safety procedures in any workplace.