A 30 Second Safety Check-up: Hazardous energy may be your next injury.

Here is your Safety 30 Second Check-up!

Whatever your business, assessing and mitigating risks are important to any company’s success.

Safety hazards not identified are threats to sustainability and may put a quick stop to winning work.

Do you know where the next injury is? The Ministry of Labour’s website reports that nearly 2,000 workers have lost time from work as a result of being caught in, rubbed, scraped or compressed by equipment. Look around your facility or site? What is your risk? Do you know what to look for?

Have you reviewed your statistical trending of incidents and near misses? Determine if there are any injuries from working around machines or tools without safeguarding, contact with live exposed wires, or injuries caused by a pinch point. 

Have you implemented Job Safety Analysis or Last-Minute Risk Assessments? Identifying the risks is the first step.  Adding controls to remove or lessen the hazard is the next step. Ensure proper lockout & tagout processes are implemented during repair and maintenance. Also, electrical contact hazards could occur when an employee works on live energized equipment or tool. A formal lockout & tagout procedure for hazardous energy can ensure safety to employees doing maintenance or repair activities.

Have you trained your supervisors and employees on the work hazards and their role in eliminating them? In addition to training, it would be prudent that safety inspections focus on work around equipment and identify potential hazards of missing guards, pinch points and the location of employees that work in close proximity to live equipment.

And that’s your 30 Second Safety Check-up.

Contact me to learn more about hazardous energy risks: roger.belair@onsitehse.com

Presented by Roger Belair, CRSP and Trace Lane, CRSP.