Safety Letter

This months' safety article is a little broader than those of recent months. The topic for this month is compliance with Personal Protective Equipment as set forth in CFR 29. A good place to start is by reading two guidebooks produced by OSHA. You can get these directly from their web site at www.osha.gov . This entire web site is very informative and makes for good reading for the person in charge of your safety program, if they have not already done so. To access these go to "News Room" section, where you then select publications . It will then ask you for publication numbers enter 2209 for the Small business Handbook and 3151 for publication on Personal Protective Equipment. The Small Business Handbook gives a very though and broad view of general safety compliance and the publication on PPE the details on complying with this part in detail. The complete regulations are also found on this web site and are covered in CFR 29 part 1910 and 1915. If you do not have access to the Internet, feel free to contact our office and we can email you copies of this information.

To highlight a few points that are covered

	Employers are required to do a hazard assessment and document in writing that one was performed. If you find any hazards that require the use of Personal Protective Equipment you need to select the equipment to be used for those hazards.
	Train on the proper use of the selected equipment and document the training.

Some tips to help you get started if you have not already done so

	Select at least two people to do the assessment - one should be the person responsible for your safety operation, the other a person knowledgeable about your plant operations.
	Next, re-read page 20 in Small Business Handbook and page 6 and 7 in Personal Protective Equipment.
	Start at one end of the operation and finish at the other, assessing the workplace for hazards that require the use of head, face, hand or foot protection that are present or likely to be present. Use your plant floor map to document the areas that have the different hazards.
	Make a list of hazards that are present and the employees that would be affected. Select the equipment that should be used to protect against these hazards.
	Write Up - gather the information needed to train the employees on the selected Personal Protective Equipment.
	Train the list of employees on the equipment - document the training.
	Make sure this training is part of a new employee's indoctrination.

Some common hazards that a plant that welds would find

	Ultraviolet rays and spatter from a welding arc. Ultraviolet rays and sparks from a cutting torch.
	Flying particles from the grinding operation.
	Dropping of small pieces of steel that are set up for welding.

Depending on your individual operation, you may find more or less. From this list of hazards you have produced a list of needed PPE and who needs what equipment. This list might look something like this: safety glasses, welding helmets, cutting goggles, grinding shields, leathers, welding gloves and steel toed shoes. Some of the equipment used to protect against these hazards seems pretty straightforward and we take for granted that everyone knows how to use them properly. Also, there is not a lot of published training material on many of these, but the requirement is that all employees are trained and this training is documented.

To help with training on some of these common items, I have listed below some safety points that could be used in your PPE training program.

Welding Helmets / Goggles:

	Make sure the correct shade of lens is being used for the process and thickness (see chart below).
	Replace the cover lens as soon as they become pitted.
	Replace the shaded lens as soon as scratched, cracked or pitted.
	Check the light seal gasket to make sure it is in good condition - replace if needed.
	Check the helmet itself to make sure there are no cracks - these will allow the ultraviolet light inside and the helmet needs to be replaced.
	On the flip up helmets make sure the flip front seals properly and does not allow any light inside.

Leathers:

	Make sure they are correctly sized and buttoned to cover all the needed area.
	Keep clean of oil, grease, flammable materials replace if needed.

Gloves:

	Material and thickness are sufficient for needed heat protection and spark shedding ability,
	Glove is sized so it can be shaken off if needed because of slag entrapment.

Safety Glasses:

	Clearly understood where they are required
	Safety glasses are primary eye protection and are worn in conjunction with other secondary eye protection.
	Replace when become scratched or nicked.

Grinding Visor:

Replace when become scratched or nicked.