OSHA’s 7 Basic Accident Prevention Precautions You Should Know
Long hours, exposure to the elements, and physically demanding tasks make construction a challenging and dangerous environment to work in. With a fatality rate nearly three times the national average, construction consistently ranks among the top five most dangerous industries in the U.S., according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). The most effective way to deal with accidents is to prevent them from happening in the first place, which is why the US Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) continues to promote accident prevention programs.
Traditional approaches to health and safety are usually reactive, which means they are ineffective. New guidelines are published or independent inspection teams find a problem that needs to be addressed only after a worker is injured or ill. OSHA Recommended Practices take a proactive approach to managing health and safety in the workplace. A much more effective (and sensible) approach is to detect and address hazards before they cause injury or illness.
The main objective of health and safety programs is to prevent accidents in order to reduce the number of injuries, illnesses and deaths in the workplace. OSHA’s Health and Safety Handbook presents a step-by-step approach to ensuring a healthier and safer workplace built on seven essential elements. While there is a strong emphasis on workplace injury prevention, OSHA’s safety and health program has other benefits, such as improved compliance with laws and regulations and significant reductions in workers’ compensation awards.
A safe workplace is a productive workplace. Fewer accidents increase worker morale. This in turn leads to increased productivity, greater efficiency and faster time to complete projects. In short, everyone benefits from a safer work environment.
What security measures are necessary, how to understand them, how to implement them? Each of OSHA’s essential elements helps ensure that all stakeholders participate in making health and safety programs successful.
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Leadership in safety management
Company leaders provide direction in achieving organizational goals and play a key role in directing resources to achieve business goals, including accident prevention. Through words and actions, leadership sets the tone that teams follow.
- In developing health and safety programs, managers must:
- Commit company resources to reduce hazards and protect workers
- Continually improve health and safety programs
- Visibly demonstrate and communicate health and safety commitments
- Lead by example
A consistent, positive and encouraging tone is essential. Successful programs reward rather than punish workers who raise issues or concerns. Disciplinary action should only be considered when a manager or employee refuses to cooperate or impedes progress.
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Participation of workers
Although employers have a responsibility to maintain a safe and healthy workplace, they cannot do it alone. Employee participation is the cornerstone of an effective injury prevention program. Your employees have an overview of the dangers in their immediate work areas. After all, they face potential dangers more often than supervisors. Successful programs leverage this valuable knowledge base.
Contractors, subcontractors, temporary employees and contractors should all be involved in developing, revising and improving the health and safety program for maximum effect.
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Hazard identification and assessment
This includes gathering and reviewing information on accident triggers likely to affect the work area. A good safety program should outline a routine that requires regular inspections of work areas and equipment to detect potential hazards.
Your employees must participate in the identification and assessment of hazards. They are the ones best equipped to know the sources of these dangers and what caused them. Depending on your location and the materials used on site, state agencies, along with the Environmental Protection Agency and OSHA, may require additional precautions for emergency plans. Make sure your procedures are in line with these.
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Risk prevention and control
The next step is to address these hazards by putting controls in place that can help mitigate potential accidents that can result in the loss of time, money, and even lives. Doing so sends a strong message to workers that management remains committed to its accident prevention programs.
Before deciding on any control measures, it is essential to ask workers for input on the feasibility and effectiveness of your hazard control plan. Collect, organize and review information with workers to determine what types of risks may exist, where they are located, and which workers are most at risk.
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Education and training
The training not only provides detailed instructions on how workers should perform their tasks, but also provides procedures for properly identifying, reporting, and controlling potential hazards before someone gets hurt.
Education and training are important tools to keep workers and managers alive to the dangers that pose hazards in the workplace. These processes provide workers and managers with a better overview of the OSH program itself. This allows workers to better understand how these programs work to raise health and safety standards in the workplace.
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Program Evaluation and Improvement
A health and safety program will require ongoing evaluation to determine which parts are working and which areas require intervention. This includes sharing the results of the assessment and asking for their input on how to improve it.
When workers are actively involved, it helps them understand the process better and enables them to effectively implement workplace safety measures. When employees understand the importance of implementing control measures, it will ultimately reduce the number of workplace injuries.
A well-communicated and well-coordinated health and safety program means investing in resources to ensure workers get the information they need quickly, no matter where they are.
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Communication and collaboration
The purpose of introducing the OSH program is to insure the well- being of the entire pool. Without clear communication and smart collaboration, the program will collapse. Effective communication and collaboration between all employers means that before arriving on point, contractors and staffing agencies must insure that their workers are apprehensive of Types of hazards that may be present.
What to do in an exigency.
A well- communicated and well- coordinated health and safety program means investing in coffers to insure workers get the information they need snappily, no matter where they are.
A successful health and safety program means getting the right software
Directors and workers are important mates in any occupational hazard control program. A safe work terrain is further than just compliance with OSHA conditions. They bear a commitment to safety from all parties involved.
Communicating with workers in remote locales can be a delicate task. still, with pall- grounded software, you exclude the distance factor when dealing with attestation requests from remote construction spots. erected for the construction assiduity, Salus’ safety operation results enable the transferring and entering of digital forms and compliance documents between work spots, so workers can concentrate on their work.
This means security staff can bear remote workers to subscribe training and policy forms without leaving the plant. Workers can complete their assigned compliance operation and force reports and incontinently shoot them to their administrators via the pall, safely and securely. It’s so simple and it’s so accessible.
Learn further about how security attestation and compliance has been simplified. Get in touch with our platoon to find out how Salus can now help raise your structure safety norms.
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