April Work Safety News and Notes
ANSI Approves Revised Vehicle Operations Standard.
A comprehensive standard aimed at increasing commercial motor vehicle operations’ safety developed by the American Society of Safety Engineers (ASSE) was approved recently by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI). The revised ANSI/ASSE Safe Practices for Motor Vehicle Operations, Z15.1-2012, standard will be effective August 20. The revised standard provides guidelines needed to address a wide range of safety management issues related to motor vehicle operations. Topics include occupant restraints, impaired driving, distracted driving, aggressive driving, fatigue and operational policies on vehicle business use. Read more here, or browse Vehicle Safety signs and labels here.
OSHA Finally Issues HazCom Standard Update to Match GHS.
OSHA has finally published the long-awaited revisions to its Hazard Communications Standard, to align with the Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labeling of Chemicals (GHS). This update to the Hazard Communication Standard will provide a common and coherent approach to classifying chemicals and communicating hazard information on labels and safety data sheets. Read the announcement here.
OSHA Seeks Comments on Vehicle Backovers and Reinforcing Concrete Activities.
These accidents are more common than you might think. Earlier this week a road construction worker died in Indianapolis after an excavator backed over the worker. OSHA will use the comments received to learn more about how workers get injured and what solutions exist to prevent injury and death, including possible regulatory action. Comments on this RFI must be submitted by June 27, 2012. Interested parties may submit comments at https://www.regulations.gov, the Federal eRulemaking Portal. See the Federal Register notice for details.
App for NIOSH Lifting Equation Calculator.
A new mobile application calculates the risk OSHA Lifting Signassociated with manual material handling tasks.The certified professional ergonomists at Humantech developed the htLiftCalc application, available on iTunes, to perform the NIOSH Lifting Equation whenever and wherever needed. The app can be used at the job site to evaluate both existing and proposed lifting conditions to determine the Recommended Weight Limit (RWL) for a specific job or task, and it can identify those jobs or tasks that might require ergonomic intervention. Read more here, or browse Safe Lifting signs here.
Sleep and Work Risks for Workers.
Sleep is a vital biological function, and many Americans don’t get enough. To coincide with National Sleep Awareness Week, the new NIOSH blog post: “Sleep and Work” summarizes the risks to workers, employers and the public when long hours and irregular shifts required by many jobs do not allow workers to get adequate sleep. Read more at the NIOSH Science Blog.
No Texting Talking While Operating Vehicle Sign
Distracted driving kills far more people each year than we should be allowing it to. Making it clear that cell phone usage while driving will not be tolerated may just keep some drivers from becoming statistics.