Guidelines

Recommended Practices for Safety & Health Programs

/ nationalsafety / 2 Comments

From osha.gov…

OSHA has recently updated the Guidelines for Safety and Health Programs it first released 30 years ago, to reflect changes in the economy, workplaces, and evolving safety and health issues. The new Recommended Practices have been well received by a wide variety of stakeholders and are designed to be used in a wide variety of small and medium-sized business settings. The Recommended Practices present a step-by-step approach to implementing a safety and health program, built around seven core elements that make up a successful program.

The main goal of safety and health programs is to prevent workplace injuries, illnesses, and deaths, as well as the suffering and financial hardship these events can cause for workers, their families, and employers. The recommended practices use a proactive approach to …

Guidelines for Safety and Health Programs

Read more and download the new “Recommended Practices for Safety and Health Programs”

Therapy Instead of Opiates

/ nationalsafety / Leave a comment

drugs_pills_medication_269930

On Friday March 15th 2016, the CDC issued guidelines concerning the prescribing of opiates for chronic pain for cases other than “active cancer treatment, palliative care, and end-of-life care.” They put together this guideline in order to address the epidemic of opiate addictions and overdoses evident in America today. Fact is that more people die each year from opiate overdoses than from guns or car accidents; most of those deaths, the CDC believes, could have been prevented with stricter guidelines on how and when to prescribe the drugs.

The bottom line is that the CDC recommends alternate therapy (exercise, Ibuprofen and other non-steroidal anti-inflammatories). If opiates are, in fact, deemed necessary, healthcare professionals should prescribe the lowest effective dose for the shortest amount of time. Patients who are given opiates should also be closely monitored to make sure that the benefits outweigh the risks.

Questions remain, however, as to whether these new guidelines won’t, at least in the short-run, increase crime (as addicts break into homes and pharmacies to get the opiates that they are addicted to and can no longer get) and deaths (as addicts who can no longer get opiates start using heroin instead).

There is no doubt that tighter controls are needed. There is also no doubt that, in the long run, these new guidelines will help reduce overdose deaths, especially in people who’ve gotten addicted unintentionally. What, however, is missing in these guidelines is a plan to help those presently addicted to opiates.

You can read the complete CDC Guideline here.

Guardrail Guidelines

/ nationalsafety / Leave a comment

Today’s post is an article by Jack Cameron of Guardian Fall Protection on guardrail guidelines

Guardrail Guidelines

By Jack Cameron

One of the simplest ways to keep people safe on a worksite is the use of guardrails. However, depending where you are, your guardrail might not be compliant with OSHA or your state regulations. While OSHA is a federal agency and their standards apply throughout the United States, many individual states have their own version of OSHA that not only includes OSHA’s standards, but additional state specific regulations.

OSHA’s guardrail requirements are fairly simple.

  • Top rail must be 42″ plus or minus three inches from the working surface.
  • Top rail must be capable of withstanding at least 200 pounds in an outward or downward direction without bending lower than 39″.
  • Mid rail must at least 21″ high.
  • Mid rail must withstand 150 pounds.

There are other specifics that you can read at the link below, but those are the major points when it comes to guardrails and OSHA. Notice that there is no mention of vertical posts being required at any specific distance. I called OSHA to see if this were perhaps an oversight or simply something I was unable to find in their standards. I was told that as long as it fits the standards in the link below, specifically not deflecting lower than 39″ when 200 pounds is applied, then the vertical posts can be ten feet apart or even further.

However, if you’re in a state with a state run OSHA program like California, don’t order that ten foot guardrail just yet. OSHA requires that state agencies be at least as strict as OSHA, but they are allowed to be stricter or more specific. In the case of Cal/OSHA, the rules are as follows:

  • Top rails must be able to withstand a 200 pound load in any direction.
  • Top rail must be 42″–45″ high from floor to top of rail.
  • Posts must not exceed 8 foot centers.
  • Must have a mid-rail. The mid-rail must be at least 1″ x 6″.
  • The top rail and posts must be at least 2″ x 4″ if  made of wood, at least 1.5″ thick if metal pipe, and if made of structural steel, must be at least 2″ x 2″ angle iron.

As you can see, these standards are much more specific. Not only do you need vertical posts at least every eight feet, but those posts must be a specific thickness depending on the material. In other words, a worksite that might be entirely OSHA compliant in Idaho, might result in violations in California. This is, of course just one example of differences between OSHA and a state run OSHA.

Related Links:

OSHA Guardrail Standards

http://www.osha.gov/pls/oshaweb/owadisp.show_document?p_table=STANDARDS&p_id=10758

Cal/OSHA Guardrail Standards, go to the link below and then search for Title 8, Section 3209

http://ccr.oal.ca.gov

List of State Run OSHA Agencies

http://www.afscme.org/publications/2846.cfm

Jack Cameron has been working at Guardian Fall Protection for over four years. He’s a certified Competent Person and a published author. He is the lead Technical and Content Writer at GFP. You can contact him at johnc@guardianfall.com