How To Identify Quality Safety Equipment
Procedures For Identifying Quality Safety Equipment
Have you ever wondered how industrial facilities and chain supply stores with high production rates maintain the health and safety of their employees? Surely, with such overwhelmingly large properties and equally large equipment, they cannot possibly regulate safety as well? Contrary to these beliefs, even the largest factories in America are required to produce safe and risk-free working environments for their employees.
All American businesses follow strict safety and health regulation codes. With so many codes to follow, it seems easy to forget which safety equipment or personal gear meets these standards. Fortunately, the Singer Safety Company produces quality safety equipment for several industries. Why worry about a poor OSHA hazard assessment due to poorly designed equipment in your facility when you could elevate the safety of your employees using our OSHA-compliant equipment? High-quality safety equipment and proper PPE are necessities for all industries. To identify quality safety equipment, ensure you invest in proper PPE, act responsibly as an employer, and maintain OSHA safety standards.
What Is Proper PPE?
Whether your employee participates in heavy welding with debris flying toward their eyes or walks around the perimeter of a construction site wearing a hard hat, your employee requires proper PPE. You might be familiar with PPE even if you do not recognize the acronym. PPE refers to personal protective equipment (PPE), worn to reduce exposure to accidents and hazards within the workplace. Such threats may include injuries from mechanical, physical, chemical, or electrical hazards; even something as simple as lifting a box without proper PPE gloves counts as a possible hazard.
To avoid injury to the employee and to avoid any liability, ensure your business follows all PPE standards. Given that personal protective equipment varies between industries, you may amass quite an extensive checklist for proper PPE. Examples of simple necessities include gloves, earplugs, hard hats, safety shoes and glasses, coveralls/ body suits, or respirators.
How Can You Ensure Responsible Use of Proper PPE?
All personal protective equipment undergoes rigorous and systematic testing to ensure it is well-constructed and safe for employee use. As part of the name implies, this equipment is “personal,” meaning it is intended for extended wear on individuals. Ideally, if a relatively comfortable fit, all employees will wear it regularly. If it is a poor fit, and the employee has to either choose not to wear it or take the risk and still wear an ill-fitting piece, then the employer is liable for injuries to the employee.
Ultimately, if your equipment and work practices do not provide sufficient protection for employers, such as a welding barrier or fire retardant materials, then employers must provide proper PPE. When providing PPE, employers must also train workers on how to use PPE safely.
Through proper PPE training, all employees should know these critical rules:
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Proper adjustment and use of PPE
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Limitations of the PPE and extra precautions through other quality safety equipment
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What kind of PPE is necessary, and in which cases
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The care, maintenance, and disposal of PPE
When employers establish a PPE training program, they should address these PPE wear rules, assess current workplace hazards, provide selected PPE immediately, train employees, and monitor the equipment’s effectiveness.
National Standards For Quality Safety Equipment
Safeguarding your workplace with quality safety equipment should be the number one priority for every industry. Whether you notice one welding tool creates more sparks than another or the handle of a hammer seems just slightly loose, even these tiny qualities make a huge difference when determining quality safety equipment. Indeed, if even a larger piece of equipment is out of compliance with safety standards, you may need to stop production.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) form the United States governing body for setting, enforcing, and updating workplace safety standards. OSHA aims to minimize safety and health risks by maintaining safe working conditions and providing sufficient safety training to employees. All companies are required to follow OSHA regulations for quality safety equipment and proper PPE.
OSHA Hazard Assessment
Before providing proper PPE and regulated equipment, your business must perform an OSHA hazard assessment. OSHA hazard assessments aim to prevent employee workplace injuries and illnesses through proactive safety measures. These procedures ensure the continual safety of all who enter the workspace.
Usually, employers perform the OSHA hazard assessments themselves and send a signed document verifying the inspection to the department. When performing these assessments, you will assess potential hazards through the following steps:
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Record and analyze information about potential or current workplace hazards
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Lead period inspections of the workplace to spot new or existing hazards
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Perform detailed investigations of injuries, illnesses, or incidents to verify overlooked hazards and unsafe working environments
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Note trends in hazards or injuries reported for investigation
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Note hazards associated with emergencies versus everyday routines
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Assess the severity of incidents for each identified hazard and create a plan to eliminate these hazards
Once you identify and assess all potential workplace hazards, follow the correct hazard prevention and control processes to eliminate them quickly. Doing so swiftly reassures employees of your commitment to their well-being.
Employers’ Responsibilities For Safety Equipment
To remain OSHA compliant, employers have a responsibility to their employees to maintain safe and limited-risk working environments. Critical responsibilities of employers include:
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Develop a safety training program and identify leaders or managers responsible for knowing all procedures
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Provide safety training to all employees before PPE or equipment use
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Train workers to identify and assess hazards
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Provide a safe working environment with established safety codes such as OSHA’s recommended color-coding scheme and environmental protection barriers
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Remain compliant with all OSHA standards, including unfair termination due to unsafe working conditions as described in the Whistleblower Protection Act
Use Singer Safety Company’s OSHA Compliant Equipment
Identifying, installing, and maintaining quality safety equipment within the workplace quickly becomes tedious. Additionally, remaining knowledgeable and compliant with OSHA’s standards for proper PPE and equipment transforms a tedious task into an overwhelming one. To eliminate one step and make your daily checklist even less stressful, consider partnering with experts in the industry who know how to produce quality safety equipment. With the Singer Safety Company, you’ll be able to go about your day knowing that your employees are working with safe products that will pass even the most rigorous OSHA hazard assessment with flying colors.
