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What is ISNetworld and What Are the Top 10 Things You Will Need to Have to Comply

Sep 4, 2025

If you are a contractor, subcontractor or vendor, it’s likely the number of times you’ve been sent prequalification paperwork or links has increased significantly in the past few years. Standardized prequalification websites such as ISNetworld, Avetta, Veriforce, ComplyWorks, First Verify, COMPASS and others are increasingly being used. These sites are mostly for safety prequalification, but more and more business information has been added to them.

How Does ISNetworld Work?

Programs such as ISNetworld allow companies to turn contractor vetting and risk management over to someone else, putting tracking responsibilities back onto the contractors themselves. The companies who use ISNetworld to manage their contractors are referred to as “Owner Clients.” Owner Clients can use these programs to narrow the field of potential contractors to just the serious ones who have good policies, programs and performance. ISNetworld gives you a grade based on how complete your profile is, if you’ve included all the information that Owner Client wants, how good your safety stats are compared to what the Owner Client’s standards are and how your stats compare to other companies in your NAICS code. Each Owner Client has their own requirements and grading system so you could have an A with one company, a B with another and a C with another. Many times we’ve seen ISNetworld participation and grades are connected to purchasing so you will need to be a member in good standing in order to get paid. To join, there is an annual subscription fee you must pay first, and then you take the time and effort to enter all your company information and programs into the system.

In this article, we’re going to focus on ISNetworld because they are one of the leaders in the safety prequalification industry. Avetta and Veriforce are also amongst the top as well, and they will ask for many of the same things ISNetworld will. At first glance, setup for ISNetworld setup can look like a very daunting task. To help get you prepared, we present the Top 10 items you’ll need to gather for ISNetworld compliance (and just about any other safety prequalification program).

The Top 10 Items You’ll Need to Gather for ISNetworld (and Just About Any Other Safety Prequalification Program)

General Company Information

You will need to know basic information about your company such as date established, structure, addresses and contacts, special codes and numbers (NAICS, Tax ID, DUNS, etc.), number of employees, financial and project references and more.

Safety Policies and Procedures

You will be asked a number of questions about your safety policies such as: How is your safety program set up, how is it built and who’s responsible? What’s the management structure and is company leadership involved? Are hourly employees involved and do you have full-time safety personnel? What training do supervisors get? Do you do audits, who does them and how often? Some clients will ask about your safety culture and if you’ve had a third-party survey of your culture. If not, ISNetworld can do one for you.

Also included are questions about safety meetings, training, documentation, observations, stop work policies, hazard reporting, policies for new hires, incident investigation and communication.

Written Safety Programs

If you’re following OSHA compliance, you should already have written safety programs for the hazards your employees can be exposed to – and at a minimum, the programs OSHA requires you to have. Depending on the services you say you provide in your company profile, ISNetworld and your Owner Client will generate a list of the individual written safety programs that you are required to show. There will be specific elements that you’ll be required to incorporate into your written programs, so it’s likely you’ll need to update your programs.

Be very mindful what your revised program commits your company to. If it’s written in your program that your company will do something, you need to do it. If not, you could expose yourself to fines from OSHA for not following your own plan. ISNetworld will ask you every 3 years to revalidate these programs to ensure they are still current.

If you are a company such as iSi who does many, many different kinds of services, be very careful about all the services you say your company provides. When we first signed up we were only doing asbestos work for one Owner Client, but we put in all the other industrial and consulting services we do. That triggered a huge list of required programs that were needed and many were brand new ones we needed to develop because they were not typical written programs needed by OSHA, or were smaller components of larger programs. We went back and just put in just the asbestos service and it shrunk the list by half. Once we started doing other services for more Owner Clients, we had to add those back onto our profile and any new programs added became more manageable to handle.

Training Programs

For some of the written programs, you’ll be asked to upload corresponding training documentation from those classes, so you may need to conduct additional training on a variety of topics. Besides OSHA-required training, some Owner Clients will add requirements for additional training. The training always corresponds to the written program for that same topic. Certain trainings require annual uploads of training documentation, and others can have other frequencies as long as 3 years.

Be prepared to answer questions related to what kind of training you provide to new hires and routine employees, how often and how they are documented.

Regulatory Data

You will need to track OSHA injury and illness data on a quarterly basis. This information is required to be input both quarterly and annually. In ISNetworld you are graded on your 3-year average safety numbers and how they compare to industry standards. Thus, if you have a bad year, your grades may suffer for 3 years.

If you have commercial vehicles, you may need to enter DOT numbers and annual stats for number of drivers, miles driven, number of units, owner operators and violations. You’ll also need to enter in information about your company vehicle/driver programs and policies.

Insurance

Individual insurance certificates will need to be uploaded for each client, and each will have specific requirements. Be mindful of what the insurance requirements are for each client and know ahead of time what policies you have and what that covers. Sometimes clients will require specialized policies or varying levels of coverage for certain items that can end up costing thousands of dollars if you agree to that. However, sometimes these things can be negotiated down, depending on what you’re going to do onsite. It just depends on the client and the situation.

Check with your insurance company to see if they’re a member of ISNetworld. If so, you can assign them to your account and they can upload certificates and deal with the nuances and negotiations for you. You will also need to enter 3 years of experience modification rate data and upload those documents as well.

Employee and Contractor Data

Some clients will require you to track the number of hours that you and/or your subcontractors spent on the site each month. These reports are typically required at the beginning of the month and can be required per site location. Among the data you may need to report (depending on client requirements) will be hours spent onsite, number of employees onsite, number of miles driven, number of incidents (accidents, fires, spills), subcontractor hours, subcontractor numbers, subcontractor travel data, etc. Some Owner Clients are required to keep track of this information for Process Safety Management purposes and some like to keep track of contactor activities onsite.

Human Resources-Type Information

You’ll be asked to input your drug and alcohol policies and procedures. Some owner clients will require you to have individual employees tested for drugs and alcohol through one of their approved vendors who shares the data directly with the program so that they can see if employees are in a green “OK” status or a red status. They may also require background checks for each employee who will come onsite as well. You may also need to provide employee personal information separately to your client to comply with Department of Homeland Security checks as well. Thus, you may need to pull in some of your HR department to help you accomplish some of these requirements and get some answers.

Other Procedures — Sustainability and Cyber Security

Within the past couple of years we’ve seen questions pop up in ISNetworld and throughout multiple programs about our corporate sustainability and social responsibility programs. One program (not ISNetworld) required us to write a separate written policy statement against human trafficking and a written policy on our stance on child and forced labor. ISNetworld has an extensive cyber security questionnaire to fill out. Several owner clients required us to develop a written cyber security program. So besides HR personnel, you may need to bring in your IT people and anyone responsible for sustainability programs to help answer questions.

Site-Specific Individual Training Before Going Onsite

More and more clients are requiring individuals to do facility-specific safety orientation training ahead of time before ever stepping onsite. Thus, if you have a specific project that you’re getting ready for, you may need to know exactly who is going to be involved in the project so that you can assign this training to them. This would include subcontractor employees too. Some clients will let you do the training all at once in a group, but more and more are requiring individuals to be given separate logins so that they can complete the training themselves. You may need to eventually to enter specific employees in the system and assign them to training. You will also need to budget time for those employees to take that training. ISNetworld now has the Empower app which allows individual employees to download an app that’s connected to all of their assigned training or other items such as required worker acknowledgements in one place. They can take the training and make acknowledgments through the app rather than giving each one a login and password for online computer access.

A Plan for Getting All the Information Entered and Keeping It Updated

A best practice is to identify a person(s) on your team who’s going to be responsible for managing sites such as ISNetworld. There can be a number of time-sensitive items which need to be completed. Not maintaining them will make your grades drop, hindering your ability to get further work with them or even issue invoices. You may need one organizer who can pull in different subject matter experts when needed.

The initial setup may require the assistance of a number of people in your company, or the help of an outside firm. You may need a combination of compliance personnel and administrative staff to handle the day-to-day management. Please note that if you do involve administrative staff, policy questions and program creation are best completed by someone with a compliance background. You need to be very careful on how you answer the questions and what you commit yourself to. It could make all the difference between an “A” and an “F”.

Keeping your records updated will be important when it’s time to add a new Owner Client who may want you to do the project RIGHT NOW. It will take long enough to get insurance reviewed, employees trained on site-specific requirements. Don’t let missing programs or general training hold your grades down, cost you valuable time or make your Owner Client want to choose someone else.

Other Considerations

ISNetworld automatically uploads any OSHA citations for your clients to see, and these will likely affect your grade. You may also be required to have your own subcontractor management program, that is, a procedure for vetting your own subs.

We’ve found that ISNetworld is one of the most detailed prequalification sites. The silver lining is if you can get through ISNetworld, you have a good head start on some of the others. However, every single site will ask for something new that one of the others didn’t, so don’t get too frustrated. For example, some sites want you to upload your entire safety manual, some require specific procedures such as JSAs, and some will require much more if your employees perform specific tasks that require additional “operator qualifications” for each.

Resources

Make sure you keep your information stored in one central place so that it’s easy to access when you need it because it’s likely there will be information you’ll need to input a number of times.

iSi helps companies get setup in ISNetworld by providing policy and procedure guidance, written programs and training. We also manage ISNetworld day-to-day compliance for companies.

Our sister company SafetyPlans.com has a number of ISNetworld-related program templates that will help you get a good start on developing a new plan if needed.

What can we do to help make the process smoother for you? Contact us today!



Need Help?

Need an extra hand to get this done? How about policies/programs developed or training conducted?

Get Help Here



Need Help?

Need an extra hand to get this done? How about policies/programs developed or training conducted?

Get Help Here

If you are a contractor, subcontractor or vendor, it’s likely the number of times you’ve been sent prequalification paperwork or links has increased significantly in the past few years. Standardized prequalification websites such as ISNetworld, Avetta, Veriforce, ComplyWorks, First Verify, COMPASS and others are increasingly being used. These sites are mostly for safety prequalification, but more and more business information has been added to them.

How Does ISNetworld Work?

Programs such as ISNetworld allow companies to turn contractor vetting and risk management over to someone else, putting tracking responsibilities back onto the contractors themselves. The companies who use ISNetworld to manage their contractors are referred to as “Owner Clients.” Owner Clients can use these programs to narrow the field of potential contractors to just the serious ones who have good policies, programs and performance. ISNetworld gives you a grade based on how complete your profile is, if you’ve included all the information that Owner Client wants, how good your safety stats are compared to what the Owner Client’s standards are and how your stats compare to other companies in your NAICS code. Each Owner Client has their own requirements and grading system so you could have an A with one company, a B with another and a C with another. Many times we’ve seen ISNetworld participation and grades are connected to purchasing so you will need to be a member in good standing in order to get paid. To join, there is an annual subscription fee you must pay first, and then you take the time and effort to enter all your company information and programs into the system.

In this article, we’re going to focus on ISNetworld because they are one of the leaders in the safety prequalification industry. Avetta and Veriforce are also amongst the top as well, and they will ask for many of the same things ISNetworld will. At first glance, setup for ISNetworld setup can look like a very daunting task. To help get you prepared, we present the Top 10 items you’ll need to gather for ISNetworld compliance (and just about any other safety prequalification program).

The Top 10 Items You’ll Need to Gather for ISNetworld (and Just About Any Other Safety Prequalification Program)

General Company Information

You will need to know basic information about your company such as date established, structure, addresses and contacts, special codes and numbers (NAICS, Tax ID, DUNS, etc.), number of employees, financial and project references and more.

Safety Policies and Procedures

You will be asked a number of questions about your safety policies such as: How is your safety program set up, how is it built and who’s responsible? What’s the management structure and is company leadership involved? Are hourly employees involved and do you have full-time safety personnel? What training do supervisors get? Do you do audits, who does them and how often? Some clients will ask about your safety culture and if you’ve had a third-party survey of your culture. If not, ISNetworld can do one for you.

Also included are questions about safety meetings, training, documentation, observations, stop work policies, hazard reporting, policies for new hires, incident investigation and communication.

Written Safety Programs

If you’re following OSHA compliance, you should already have written safety programs for the hazards your employees can be exposed to – and at a minimum, the programs OSHA requires you to have. Depending on the services you say you provide in your company profile, ISNetworld and your Owner Client will generate a list of the individual written safety programs that you are required to show. There will be specific elements that you’ll be required to incorporate into your written programs, so it’s likely you’ll need to update your programs.

Be very mindful what your revised program commits your company to. If it’s written in your program that your company will do something, you need to do it. If not, you could expose yourself to fines from OSHA for not following your own plan. ISNetworld will ask you every 3 years to revalidate these programs to ensure they are still current.

If you are a company such as iSi who does many, many different kinds of services, be very careful about all the services you say your company provides. When we first signed up we were only doing asbestos work for one Owner Client, but we put in all the other industrial and consulting services we do. That triggered a huge list of required programs that were needed and many were brand new ones we needed to develop because they were not typical written programs needed by OSHA, or were smaller components of larger programs. We went back and just put in just the asbestos service and it shrunk the list by half. Once we started doing other services for more Owner Clients, we had to add those back onto our profile and any new programs added became more manageable to handle.

Training Programs

For some of the written programs, you’ll be asked to upload corresponding training documentation from those classes, so you may need to conduct additional training on a variety of topics. Besides OSHA-required training, some Owner Clients will add requirements for additional training. The training always corresponds to the written program for that same topic. Certain trainings require annual uploads of training documentation, and others can have other frequencies as long as 3 years.

Be prepared to answer questions related to what kind of training you provide to new hires and routine employees, how often and how they are documented.

Regulatory Data

You will need to track OSHA injury and illness data on a quarterly basis. This information is required to be input both quarterly and annually. In ISNetworld you are graded on your 3-year average safety numbers and how they compare to industry standards. Thus, if you have a bad year, your grades may suffer for 3 years.

If you have commercial vehicles, you may need to enter DOT numbers and annual stats for number of drivers, miles driven, number of units, owner operators and violations. You’ll also need to enter in information about your company vehicle/driver programs and policies.

Insurance

Individual insurance certificates will need to be uploaded for each client, and each will have specific requirements. Be mindful of what the insurance requirements are for each client and know ahead of time what policies you have and what that covers. Sometimes clients will require specialized policies or varying levels of coverage for certain items that can end up costing thousands of dollars if you agree to that. However, sometimes these things can be negotiated down, depending on what you’re going to do onsite. It just depends on the client and the situation.

Check with your insurance company to see if they’re a member of ISNetworld. If so, you can assign them to your account and they can upload certificates and deal with the nuances and negotiations for you. You will also need to enter 3 years of experience modification rate data and upload those documents as well.

Employee and Contractor Data

Some clients will require you to track the number of hours that you and/or your subcontractors spent on the site each month. These reports are typically required at the beginning of the month and can be required per site location. Among the data you may need to report (depending on client requirements) will be hours spent onsite, number of employees onsite, number of miles driven, number of incidents (accidents, fires, spills), subcontractor hours, subcontractor numbers, subcontractor travel data, etc. Some Owner Clients are required to keep track of this information for Process Safety Management purposes and some like to keep track of contactor activities onsite.

Human Resources-Type Information

You’ll be asked to input your drug and alcohol policies and procedures. Some owner clients will require you to have individual employees tested for drugs and alcohol through one of their approved vendors who shares the data directly with the program so that they can see if employees are in a green “OK” status or a red status. They may also require background checks for each employee who will come onsite as well. You may also need to provide employee personal information separately to your client to comply with Department of Homeland Security checks as well. Thus, you may need to pull in some of your HR department to help you accomplish some of these requirements and get some answers.

Other Procedures — Sustainability and Cyber Security

Within the past couple of years we’ve seen questions pop up in ISNetworld and throughout multiple programs about our corporate sustainability and social responsibility programs. One program (not ISNetworld) required us to write a separate written policy statement against human trafficking and a written policy on our stance on child and forced labor. ISNetworld has an extensive cyber security questionnaire to fill out. Several owner clients required us to develop a written cyber security program. So besides HR personnel, you may need to bring in your IT people and anyone responsible for sustainability programs to help answer questions.

Site-Specific Individual Training Before Going Onsite

More and more clients are requiring individuals to do facility-specific safety orientation training ahead of time before ever stepping onsite. Thus, if you have a specific project that you’re getting ready for, you may need to know exactly who is going to be involved in the project so that you can assign this training to them. This would include subcontractor employees too. Some clients will let you do the training all at once in a group, but more and more are requiring individuals to be given separate logins so that they can complete the training themselves. You may need to eventually to enter specific employees in the system and assign them to training. You will also need to budget time for those employees to take that training. ISNetworld now has the Empower app which allows individual employees to download an app that’s connected to all of their assigned training or other items such as required worker acknowledgements in one place. They can take the training and make acknowledgments through the app rather than giving each one a login and password for online computer access.

A Plan for Getting All the Information Entered and Keeping It Updated

A best practice is to identify a person(s) on your team who’s going to be responsible for managing sites such as ISNetworld. There can be a number of time-sensitive items which need to be completed. Not maintaining them will make your grades drop, hindering your ability to get further work with them or even issue invoices. You may need one organizer who can pull in different subject matter experts when needed.

The initial setup may require the assistance of a number of people in your company, or the help of an outside firm. You may need a combination of compliance personnel and administrative staff to handle the day-to-day management. Please note that if you do involve administrative staff, policy questions and program creation are best completed by someone with a compliance background. You need to be very careful on how you answer the questions and what you commit yourself to. It could make all the difference between an “A” and an “F”.

Keeping your records updated will be important when it’s time to add a new Owner Client who may want you to do the project RIGHT NOW. It will take long enough to get insurance reviewed, employees trained on site-specific requirements. Don’t let missing programs or general training hold your grades down, cost you valuable time or make your Owner Client want to choose someone else.

Other Considerations

ISNetworld automatically uploads any OSHA citations for your clients to see, and these will likely affect your grade. You may also be required to have your own subcontractor management program, that is, a procedure for vetting your own subs.

We’ve found that ISNetworld is one of the most detailed prequalification sites. The silver lining is if you can get through ISNetworld, you have a good head start on some of the others. However, every single site will ask for something new that one of the others didn’t, so don’t get too frustrated. For example, some sites want you to upload your entire safety manual, some require specific procedures such as JSAs, and some will require much more if your employees perform specific tasks that require additional “operator qualifications” for each.

Resources

Make sure you keep your information stored in one central place so that it’s easy to access when you need it because it’s likely there will be information you’ll need to input a number of times.

iSi helps companies get setup in ISNetworld by providing policy and procedure guidance, written programs and training. We also manage ISNetworld day-to-day compliance for companies.

Our sister company SafetyPlans.com has a number of ISNetworld-related program templates that will help you get a good start on developing a new plan if needed.

What can we do to help make the process smoother for you? Contact us today!

Questions?

Does this apply to your company? Do you have questions? Contact us!

Ask a Question

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We send our articles by email whenever we add a new one. Don’t miss out! Sign up for our blog today.

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OSHA Increases Eligibility for Reduced Fines

Aug 1, 2025

To help encourage smaller companies to comply with regulations and invest resources into compliance and abatement, OSHA and the U.S. Department of Labor made some updates to their penalty reduction eligibilities.

New OSHA Penalty Reduction Guidelines

25 or Fewer Employees – The main change has been to add companies of 25 or fewer employees to eligibility for a 70% reduction in penalties. Until now, the reduction was only available to companies of 10 or fewer.
26-100 Employees – If your company has 26-100 employees you may be eligible for a 30% reduction.
101-250 Employees – Companies with 101-250 employees may be eligible for a 10% reduction.
Immediate Action – If you take immediate action to correct a hazard, you may be eligible for a 15% reduction in penalties.
Newly Inspected Companies – If your company has never been inspected by federal OSHA or a state OSHA agency you will be eligible for a 20% reduction in penalties.
Historical Compliance – If your company has not had a serious, willful or failure-to-abate violation within the past 5 years, you will also be eligible for a 20% reduction.

All changes in reduction criteria apply only to violations found after July 14, 2025.

When Reductions May Not Be Available

In their press release, OSHA said they still have the right to withhold reductions if they don’t advance the goals of OSHA. According to the OSHA Field Operations Manual, the following instances may NOT be eligible for a penalty reduction:
– The citation is related to a fatality or a catastrophe;
– The violation is considered egregious or novel;
– Your company has received a willful or repeat violation within the past 5 years related to a fatality;
– Your company has failed to follow the reporting requirements for a fatality, inpatient hospitalization, amputation or loss of an eye;
– Your company is either in the Severe Violator Enforcement Program, or the citation meets the requirements for inclusion in the program;

– Your company has numerous recordkeeping violations related to a large number or rate of injuries and illnesses;
– The proposed failure to abate notification is based on a previous citation and the employer failed to submit abatement verification for that;
– Your company has not paid past OSHA penalties to the point it was referred to debt collection; or
– Your company has not responded to previously issued citations.

For more information on how OSHA handles inspections and citations, you can consult the OSHA Field Operations Manual.



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Top Electrical Safety Violations

May 16, 2025

In honor of May’s electrical safety month designation, here’s a list of OSHA’s most common electrical safety violations found in General Industry and Construction:

Listed or Labeled Equipment 1910.303(b)(2) & 1926.403(b)(2)

This is OSHA’s most cited electrical standard. It reads “Listed or labeled equipment shall be installed and used in accordance with any instruction included in the listing or labeling.” So this is both using equipment approved by a National Recognized Testing Laboratory (NRTL) such as UL (Underwriters Laboratories), FM (FM Approvals), and ETL (Intertek). It’s also for using equipment in ways it wasn’t intended such as daisy chaining extension cords or using relocatable power taps (power strips) improperly.

Flexible Cords 1910.305(g) & 1926.405(g)

Flexible cords in this standard is extension cords. You cannot use extension cords as a substitute for fixed wiring. They must have sufficient strain relief and you cannot attach them to building surfaces. Also, never run extension cords through floors, ceilings, or door and window openings.

Clearance Around Electrical Equipment < 600 V is 1910.303(g)(1) & 1926.403(i)(1), > 600 V is 1910.303(h)(3) & 1926.403(j)(3)

Leave sufficient access and working space around electrical equipment. The depth and width of the working space, number of entrances and minimum headroom required depends on voltage. For 600V or less an area 3 feet deep in front of the panel face and equal to the width of the panel or 30 inches wide (whichever is greater) must remain clear around all electrical panels to allow for access to the panel. Do not block access to electrical equipment for emergency access.

Guarding/Enclosing Electrical Equipment < 600 V is 1910.303(g)(2) & 1926.403(i)(2), > 600 V is 1910.303(h)(5) & 1926.403(j)(3)

Live parts of electrical equipment at 50 volts or higher must be guarded against accidental contact by using a cabinet or other enclosure, by putting it in a room or vault that’s only accessible to qualified persons only, by placing it on an elevated balcony, gallery or platform so unqualified persons cannot access it, or by putting it 8 ft. or higher above the working surface. If equipment is likely to be exposed to physical damage, then sufficient strength guarding is required. High voltage equipment (> 600 V) must be physically restricted (e.g. locked) and have warning sign stating “high voltage.” Rooms with guarded live parts must also be labeled with warning signs forbidding unqualified persons to enter.

Unused Openings in Junction Boxes 1910.305(b)(2)(i) and 1910.305(b)(ii)

This standard is focused on electrical outlet covers, circuit breaker panel doors, covers and boxes, and junction box knockout covers. Close or cover any unused openings to protect against exposure to energized parts.

Grounding Path 1910.304(g)(5) and 1926.404(f)(6)

The path to ground from circuits, equipment, and enclosures shall be permanent, continuous, and effective. Build-up of voltages can lead to electrical shock, fire, arc flash, and downtime. The grounding system serves as a backup pathway that provide an alternative route for electrical current to follow back to ground in case of wiring system problems. Common mistakes include: failing to measure grounding system after install, not reattaching ground paths after relocating, replacing, or removing equipment for repairs, using ground wire incorrectly – i.e. not using gradual bends, short wire lengths and secure connections, and choosing incorrect ground wire.

Inspecting Cord and Plug Equipment 1910.334(a)(2)(i), 1910.304(b)(3)(ii)(c)(3) & 1926.404(b)(1)(iii)(c)

Portable cord and plug connected equipment and flex cord sets need to be visually inspected before each use on any shift for external defects and evidence of possible internal damage. Once it’s put in place if it’s not exposed to damage it will not need to be visually inspected until it’s relocated.

Some visual checks include:

Visible damage to equipment, wall disconnects, enclosures and devices
Defects and missing, bent, or broken plug prongs
External sheaths of power supply cords for cuts, frays, twists, or damage
Ensure inner cores of power supply cords are not exposed where they connect to equipment, plus and/or sockets
Ensure inner core of power cord is not exposed / twisted along cord length
Ensure electrical devices have proper ground with 3-prong plug
Keep power cords and hoses clear of walkways / equipment paths, and away from heat, oil, sharp edges and moving parts that can damage sheath or insulation
Use only approved extension cords with proper gauge wire for length of cord and voltage requirements of equipment to prevent overheating
Pull the plug, not the cord when unplugging equipment

Working With Energized Electrical Equipment

Energized electrical parts (>50 V) must be de-energized before work, unless de-energizing introduces additional or increased hazards, or if it’s infeasible due to equipment design or operational limitations. It requires lockout / tagout and only trained and qualified persons may perform energized work. Safe work practices include:

Job briefings
Energized electrical work permits
Personal protective equipment
Insulated tools
Written safety program
Alerting techniques (e.g. barricades, signage, attendants)

Training Qualified Persons

Qualified persons are capable of working safety on energized circuits and familiar with and utilize proper precautionary techniques, PPE, insulating and shielding materials, and insulated tools. Training for qualified persons at a minimum should teach the ability to distinguish exposed energized parts from other parts, how to determine nominal voltage of exposed energized parts, and the ability to determine clearance distances and voltages. NFPA 70E recommends refreshers for qualified personnel every 3 years. Training is also required for unqualified persons if exposed to shock hazards. For persons operating electrical equipment under normal conditions at 50-600V, training that covers safe work practices such as wearing leather gloves, flame resistant clothing, body positioning when throwing disconnects, etc. would be a good idea. Remember, electrical employees are only qualified to the level of their training. You need appropriate training and experience before you’re allowed to do any electrical work.

PPE

PPE is required for the head to protect from electric shock or burns due to contact, eyes and face to protect from arc flashes or flying objects, the body to protect from the temperatures of arc flashes, the hands to protect from shock and arc flash, and the feet to protect from arc flash. Training should include when and what PPE is necessary, how to don, doff, adjust and wear it, PPE’s limitations, and proper care, maintenance, useful life and disposal.

For more questions about electrical safety compliance, or to schedule training for your workers, contact iSi today!

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Do you have any electrical safety issues? What else is going on at your facility? iSi can help find other areas you may also need to look at and can give you a checklist to help you determine which areas need to be tackled first.

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Are You Shipping Hazardous Materials? Common and Surprising Hazardous Materials Many Companies Ship but May Not Realize

May 2, 2025

We do a lot of hazardous materials transportation training where we teach persons from industry how to properly package, label and ship hazardous materials by ground, air and by sea. Although each method is overseen in the U.S. by the Department of Transportation (DOT), there are international guidelines that DOT defers to when it comes to air and sea shipments. These are the International Air Transport Association (IATA) for air and the International Maritime Organization who publishes the International Dangerous Goods Code (IMDG) for vessel/sea shipments. Training is required for DOT, IATA and IMDG shipments.

Anyone who signs off on a hazardous waste manifest needs ground training as they are the ones who are certifying that the shipment is safely packaged and labeled, even if the hazmat transporter company does all the work/paperwork. Thus, we have a lot of students who come to training just because of hazardous waste. However, once they get in there, we have found that many who thought they were just shipping hazardous waste were actually sending other hazardous materials and didn’t even realize it (or knew that someone in the company was).

Below is a list of commonly shipped hazardous materials that you may or may not know about. Is your company shipping any of these and do those people who are sending these out have proper training?

More Commonly Recognized Hazardous Materials Shipped

Hazardous Waste
Paints and Inks
Acetone
Fuels
Alcohols
Solvents
Glues
Industrial Chemicals
Compressed Gases – Oxygen Bottles, Nitrogen Bottles, Carbon Dioxide Cylinders
Refrigerant Gases
Batteries – All Kinds, Especially Lithium Batteries
Biological Samples
Mercury and Things Containing Mercury
Radioactive Material
Aerosol Sprays

Less Commonly Known – Easily Missed Hazmat

Patch and Repair Kits with Touch-up Paints and Glues in Them
Paint Markers
Parts and Engines With Residual Fuel in Them Post-Testing
Dry Ice
Fire Extinguishers
Magnets
Self-Inflating Life Saving Equipment, Including Those for Aircraft and Automobile Air Bags
Squibs
Bleaches and Ammonia-Based Cleaning Products
First Aid Kits
Equipment With Backup Batteries in Them
Medical Supplies

Office and Household Items Considered Hazmat

Smoke Detectors
Insecticides and Pest Control Products
Wood Treatment Products (Sealants and Varnishes)
Perfumes and Colognes
Essential Oils
Nail Polish and Nail Polish Remover
Aerosol Hair Sprays and Dry Shampoos
Camping Equipment (Stoves and Kerosene Bottles)
Car Batteries
Pool Chemicals
Fireworks

Keep in mind this isn’t an exhaustive list, but some ideas for other products to look out for at your work and home.

Know How Your Materials Will Be Sent

The regulations for DOT (ground), IATA (air) and IMDG (vessel) can be very different from product to product and even country to country. There are certain items that cannot be put on a plane or cannot be sent to certain countries. Know exactly how your materials are going to be shipped. Sometimes when you intend for something to be sent via ground, it may get put on a plane anyway. If you only intend for it to be sent by ground you must make sure it’s marked accordingly. Also, if you want to ship something quickly, because some items cannot go on planes, overnight service may not be an option. Plan ahead and plan accordingly.

Make Sure Your Workers Are Trained and It’s Documented

Most importantly, make sure you and those shipping hazmat are properly trained, and that training is well documented, including copies of materials, certificates, tests and agendas. Make sure new people to the shipping process are trained within the required date guidelines of the regulations and that their job description includes hazmat training. A regulatory auditor will ask you to pull employment records to prove that.

Anyone involved in the hazmat shipping process is required to have training – those who package and label, those who fill out the paperwork (even if it’s an admin assistant), those who load and unload cargo, those who choose the packaging and labels/placards and determines it’s proper, supervisors of hazmat shippers, and anyone signing paperwork.

If you have any questions about shipping hazardous materials or would like some pricing to have workers at your site trained, contact us today!

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Welding Fumes

Mar 7, 2025

When you see the visible smoke coming from the welding process, whether it’s from welding, oxy fuel cutting, plasma cutting or brazing, that smoke is a welding fume. Welding fumes contain very fine particles of metal and gas by-products that can negatively affect your health if you are not protected with proper PPE and ventilation.

Fumes come from the base material or filler, paints and coatings on the metal and covering the electrode, shielding gases, arc ultraviolet light and heat reactions, process and consumables, and vapors from cleaners and degreasers.

Welding fumes can contain exposure to a number of heavy metals as well as gases such as argon, helium, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, nitrogen, phosgene, and hydrogen fluoride. Each metal and gas will have different effects on the body and some materials such as cadmium, nickel, beryllium, chromium, manganese and arsenic can be especially harmful and cause their own symptoms.

Tips to Remember

• Because each material you’re welding with can have different effects, it’s very important to know the hazards of the materials you’re working with. Know what the hazards of the specific metals and the gases you are using. Each welding power source and container of consumable product should have a warning labels with specific safety instructions. Consult SDSs of the materials and consumables you are working with.
• Breathing in welding fumes can cause nose and throat irritation, nausea and dizziness and in cases of prolonged exposures, can cause asthma as well as eye, kidney, stomach, nervous system, and other issues. If you experience any of these, leave the area immediately to fresh air.
• Never weld in confined spaces as confined spaces can trap the gases and displace the air causing you to suffocate. Any confined space welding requires additional ventilation.
• Local exhaust ventilation is more effective for reducing fumes but if that is not available, general ventilation methods such as roof vents, open doors and windows, roof fans, and floor fans can move air throughout the area. Watch where these air sources are directing the chemicals as to not overexpose other workers and bystanders.
• If there is not proper ventilation available, respirators may need to be worn.
• Ensure the surface that you are welding is cleaned of any coatings like paints or solvents that may give off toxic materials.
• Position yourself so that you avoid breathing in the fumes. Stay upwind in open and outdoor environments or if indoors, use forced or natural air movement to reduce the fume. Make sure that any local exhaust ventilation systems are properly running so they can be used to remove fumes and gases from the breathing zone.
• Keep fume hoods, fume extractor guns and vacuum nozzles close to plume sources. Portable and flexible exhaust systems can be positioned so that fumes are drawn away.
• If there’s a lower fume-generating material that can be used in welding, consider using it.
• It’s important for your employer to know the exposures of welders, welder helpers, fire watchers, and workers adjacent to welding operations, so they may conduct industrial hygiene sampling to determine exposures and if there are procedures that must be developed to keep them at acceptable levels.

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Which Annual Safety Training Requirements Should You Add to Your Calendar?

Jan 23, 2025

photo depicting annual OSHA safety training requirements for industry and constuction

Annual safety training is a best management practice and is most often required when conditions in the workplace change. However, the OSHA standards don’t specifically require annual safety training for all of its topic areas, just a handful of them.

Employee Access to Medical Records

This is one of the most overlooked requirements and one of the top items which pops up in our safety compliance audits. Annual notification for employee access to medical records is required. As a company you’re required to inform workers of their rights to access their medical records, where they’re kept, how to obtain them and who is responsible for keeping them. This applies to both general industry and construction – the construction standard references the general industry standard, 1910.1020.

Respiratory Protection and Fit-Testing

Employees wearing respirators or participating in your company’s respiratory protection program are required to receive annual training regarding respirator use, care, inspection, maintenance, limitations and other requirements. In addition, employees must be fit-tested in their respirator annually. That is, each employee should be tested to ensure the seal is still fitting their face and protecting them. There are standard fit-testing procedures to use to accomplish this item. This applies to both general industry and construction and the construction standard references general industry standard 1910.134.

Hearing Protection

If your employees are exposed to noise at or above an 8-hour time weighted average of 85 decibels, your company is required to have a hearing conservation program. As part of this program, annual training is required. Ensure you post a copy of the occupational noise exposure standard in your workplace and make any and all training materials related to this available to your employees. Hearing conservation programs are required by both general industry and construction.

HAZWOPER

Employees responding to hazardous materials spills, conducting hazardous substance removals, or working at Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) corrective action or treatment, storage, and disposal facility (TSDF) facilities are required to have hazardous waste operations and emergency response (HAZWOPER) training. There are various levels of HAZWOPER. Those with 24 and 40 hour initial training are required to have 8 hours of training annually per year. Annual training requirements for HAZWOPER can be found in 1919.120 for general industry and 1926.65 for construction.

Bloodborne Pathogens

Anyone with potential bloodborne pathogen exposure potential in general industry must have annual training and additional training whenever procedures and tasks are changed. Those who conduct first aid in construction are required to have training in hazards associated with bloodborne pathogens, as well as employees conducting maintenance activities, those collecting or separating wastes (sharps), or who could be exposed to blood or other potentially infections material as part of their job.

Fire Extinguishers and Fire Brigades

If your company provides portable fire extinguishers or other fire-fighting devices for designated employees to use in the workplace, training is required annually. For employees designated to inspect, maintain, operate or repair fixed fire extinguishing systems, annual training reviews are required. Fire fighters in shipyard operations are required to have semi-annual drills and annual training for fire watchers.

If your company houses an internal fire brigade that fight fires beyond the incipient stage, all fire brigade members are to be provided with annual training. Any members who are required to conduct internal structural firefighting are to have quarterly educational sessions or training as well.

Fire protection programs must be developed for all phases of construction and demolition jobs and, as a result, employers shall provide firefighting equipment and a trained and equipped fire fighting organization (fire brigade/group of employees that are knowledgeable, trained and skilled in the safe evacuation of employees during emergency situations and in assisting in fire fighting operations).

Confined Space Rescuers

Those who conduct confined space rescue are supposed to hold practice drills once per year. This applies to both general industry and construction.

Asbestos and Other Chemical and Substance-Specific Training

Anyone exposed to asbestos at or above permissible exposure limits are required to have annual asbestos awareness training. Maintenance personnel who may disturb asbestos within the course of their duties are also required to have annual awareness training. Those who conduct Class I through IV asbestos operations (removal activities) are also required to have annual training through the construction standards.

Employees with potential exposures to OSHA 1910.1003’s 13 carcinogens, vinyl chloride, polyvinyl chloride, inorganic arsenic, lead, cadmium, benzene, coke oven emissions, cotton dust, acrylonitrile (vinyl cyanide), ethylene oxide, formaldehyde, Methylenedianiline (MDA) and 1, 3-Butadiene are required to have annual safe usage training. Many of these are referenced individually in both the general industry and construction standards, but the construction standards will often reference the general industry standard rather than having separate rules. Construction has specific rules for cadmium, chromium, ethylene oxide, lead and MDA.

Others Worth Mentioning

Mechanical Power Presses – Operators of mechanical power presses with the Presence Sensing Device Initiation (PSDI) mode on them are required to have annual operator training.

Agriculture Industry – In grain handling facilities annual training is required for workers at grain handling facilities. Topics to be covered include dust hazards, dust accumulation, ignition control and prevention, cleaning/clearing/housekeeping procedures, hot work procedures, preventative maintenance, lockout/tagout and bin entry and engulfment hazards (for those entering bins). In other agriculture-related workplaces where employees are required to use tractors, annual training regarding rollover protective structures is required and those using farm field equipment, farmstead equipment and cotton gins are required to have safe operating and guarding training annually.

Logging Industry – Supervisors and employees in logging industry operation are required to have annual CPR training, with first aid training every 3 years.

Every 3 years – Because of their prevalence in industry, we thought we’d also mention that forklift recertifications are due every 3 years as is refresher training for Process Safety Management.

Lockout/Tagout – Not necessarily a training requirement, but an annual requirement nonetheless, employers are required to review their energy control procedures at least annually to ensure the procedure and the requirements of the lockout/tagout standard is being followed.

Environmental Training

Looking for annual EPA and environmental training? In addition to annual safety training, check out our article regarding annual environmental training requirements your company should schedule for the year.

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Environmental Training

Now that you’ve learned what safety training is required annually, learn more about what environmental training is required annually.

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2025 EPA and OSHA Compliance Deadlines

Jan 5, 2025

It’s a new reporting year and time to plan for reporting and compliance deadlines from 2024’s activities and for the new year. Mark your calendars with these environmental and safety reporting deadlines and other to-do tasks for 2025:

EPA/Environmental

March 1 (February 28): EPCRA SARA Tier II (311 and 312)
March 1 (February 28): Hazardous Waste – Biennial Reports for Large Quantity Generators
March 1 (February 28) (Kansas): X-Ray Equipment Registrations (check your local state for the requirement near you)
March 31 (California: June 30): Greenhouse Gas Emissions Report
April 1: Air Emissions Inventory: Class I and Class II
July 1: EPCRA SARA Form R Toxic Release Inventory (313)
July 1: Mercury Inventory Report, per TSCA
July 15: Annual PCB Report, per TSCA
July 31: Voluntary Form R or Form A Revisions to TRI-MEweb
September 30 : TSCA Form U Reporting (Due every 4 years, 40 CFR 711.20)
Small Quantity Hazardous Waste Generators Requirement to Update Site Notification Information Every 4 Years
Annual Supplier Notifications per EPCRA Section 313
Required Annual Environmental Training in Specific Topics

OSHA/Safety

February 1 (January 31): OSHA Annual Injury and Illness Summary: Post from February 1 through April 30
February 15 (February 14): OSHA VPP Sites Submit Annual Injury and Illness Rates per Annual Submission Document for VPP Sites
March 2 (February 28): OSHA Electronic Injury and Illness Reporting for 2023 [Take note that more industries will be required to report this year.]
Process Safety Management
Annual Respirator Fit-Testing and Respiratory Protection Training
Annually Required or Year-Based OSHA Safety Program Reviews
- Bloodborne Pathogens Exposure Control Plan
- Lockout/Tagout Energy Control Procedures
- Permit-Required Confined Spaces Program and Cancelled Permits
- Lead Safety
- Occupational Exposure to Hazardous Chemicals in Laboratories (effectiveness of Chemical Hygiene Plan)
- Silica Exposure Control Plan’s Effectiveness
- Lead Safety
Annual Audiograms for Hearing Conservation Program
Required Annual Training in Specific Topics

DOT/Transportation

June 30: DOT Registrations
Hazmat Refresher Training:
- DOT (Every 3 Years),
- IATA (Every 2 Years),
- IMDG (Every 3 Years),
- FAR Part 145 for Certified FAA Repair Stations (Every 2 Years)

State and Local Reporting Dates

There are other environmental and/or safety reports you must complete, but due dates may vary according to your state and local regulations or when your permits or reports were first completed. Some examples include:

Title V Air Permits (Semi-Annual Compliance Certifications)
Hazardous Waste Reports
Wastewater Discharge Certifications and Monitoring Reports
Aboveground and Underground Storage Tank Registrations
Groundwater Monitoring Reports
Air MACT Certifications, Deviation Reports and Summary Reports
Stormwater Reports, Inspections and Sampling
Boiler Reports
X-Ray Equipment Registrations

Stay tuned to our blog for any updates or notices of new regulations.

Because environmental and safety regulations vary from state to state, city to city, there may be additional requirements for your company which are not listed above. If you need assistance in determining which of these apply to you, or assistance with completing these reports and permits, iSi would love to help! Please contact us for more information and pricing.

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Back to Work Safety

Jan 2, 2025

After being off for the holidays or any time of vacation, sometimes it’s hard to get back into the groove of working. This is a time where it’s easy to not be as mindful about safety as we usually are.

Workplace accidents tend to be higher after people come back from an extended break, whether it be the holidays or a vacation. As a result, we need to be extra mindful about a safety focus when we come back.

Here are some tips to help get back in a safety mindset:

Review Job Safety/Job Hazard Analyses—What are the correct safety procedures and PPE required to do the job safely?
Take a look around—is the jobsite safe? Have there been changes? Are there safeguards missing?
Don’t take shortcuts
As you go about your work, take extra time and effort throughout the days to stop and focus on safety hazards in front of you. Take a few seconds to look around and survey the area to see if there are hazards that can hurt you or co-workers.
The first of the year is a good time to stop and do some safety reviews to easily jog memories and get back into the right mindset. This also will allow workers the opportunity to ease back into the routine.
Start off the year by taking stock and inventory of tools and equipment. Do inspections to make sure they’re in good condition and functioning correctly.
Do your eyewash stations and emergency decon stations work correctly?
Do first aid kits need restocking?
Does signage need to be replaced?
Are labels intact and legible?
Do fire extinguishers need recharging?
How does housekeeping look? Do we need to clean up and clean out work areas?
What are your safety goals for the year? What do we want them to be?
Make sure you are getting good rest, nutrition, hydration and exercise. Sometimes the holidays can take a lot out of us and break our routine and this will help us get back to “normal.”
Return to a normal home routine as well. If operations are normal at home, they’re more likely to become normal at work.
Before you get to work, clear your head of lingering issues and put those away for after work.
Look out for each other. Be mindful that others may be distracted and unfocused too.

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Be Safe When Ringing in the New Year

Dec 19, 2024

Regardless of whether you’re going out, or staying in for New Years celebrations, safety should always be top of mind. New Year’s Eve is actually one of the more dangerous holidays for car accidents. Here are a few tips to share about being safe when ringing in the new year:

Drink responsibly — This can be whether you decide to go out, or even if you choose to stay home. Alcohol and safety don’t always go hand-in-hand. Pace yourself, and if you’re away from home, make sure you have a designated driver. If you’re the host, make sure those who are buzzed don’t get behind the wheel of a car. In some states, you can be held responsible for people who leave your party and cause damage.
If you’re the host, serve plenty of food. Not only will it keep guests happy, it’ll counter the effects of alcohol. If you’re going to a party and don’t plan to eat, make sure you do so before you leave.
Avoid loud music where guests will have to shout.
If you do have guests, avoid accidental sharing of glasses by making sure everyone’s glass or champagne flute looks different. Use wine glass markers, colored glasses, or look into single serving wines or cans of bubbly.
No guns or fireworks — Shooting guns into the air is dangerous because the bullets will land somewhere and they could seriously hurt. Fireworks can be dangerous and may break local laws and noise ordinances. Stick to sparklers and noise makers.
Keep pets and children away from lit candles and fireplaces. Also, keep matches and lighters in a locked cabinet out of reach of children.
Do not leave food unattended in the kitchen when you are cooking, this is especially true when frying and boiling items on the stovetop. Keep children and pets away from cooking surfaces and hot pans and dishes.
Be mindful of your car. New Year’s Day is a top holiday for car thefts! If you’ll be away, don’t leave your car overnight, leave it at home if you won’t be driving home. Keep it in the driveway, and keep it locked.
Stay alert when walking and stay off your phone when walking. Did you know that New Year’s Day is the most dangerous day for pedestrians? Do not ignore traffic lights or crosswalks and be on the lookout for impaired drivers. The most dangerous time is 1-3 am.
And when it comes time for the New Year’s kiss, with COVID and the hacking cough lurking around, stick to kissing someone familiar, or at least someone who won’t get you a black eye afterward.

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Holiday Safety

Dec 12, 2024

This season of celebrating can be a wonderful time of the year, but it can also be a time for accidents.

• Keep Real Trees Watered: The combination of shorts in electrical lights and a tinder-dry tree can be deadly. Keep your tree well-watered. Water levels should never get below the base of the tree. Unplug lights before watering.
• Keep an Eye on Candles: Make sure you don’t leave your candles unattended, or burn them close to other decorations. Consider using the battery-powered ones.
• Sockets and Outlets: Water and debris can get into outdoor sockets, so make sure outdoor lights are plugged into a ground fault circuit interrupter outlet to reduce the risk of shorts and shocks. Hire a licensed electrician if you need to install GFCI outlets. Make sure you only use one plug per outlet and do not exceed the wattage rating for the outlet.
• Extension Cords: Keep an eye on extension cords, as they can occasionally overheat. Just touch-test the cord. If it’s hot, unplug it. When running extension cords along the ground, make sure to elevate plugs and connectors with a brick to keep snow, water and debris out of the connections.
• Turn Christmas Lights Off: Don’t leave Christmas lights running when you go to bed at night or when you leave the house.
• Walkways: Keep on top of removing wrapping paper, toys, boxes and other debris from walkways.
• Scissors and Knives: Some gifts that come in plastic clam shells, Aunt Tami’s overzealous tape jobs, and others with plastic fasteners may require a knife or a pair of scissors. Make sure to use knife safety principles and don’t let children use them.
• Lights on for Guests: If you have overnight guests, keep a light on in hallways to allow them to navigate to the bathroom without tripping.
• Fireplaces: Keep trees, wreaths, greeting cards, and the wrapping paper away from and out of the fireplace as they can quickly ignite. Use a screen to contain any flying sparks. Make sure your chimney has been swept if you haven’t used it in a while.
• Batteries: Take all batteries out of decorations before storing them. Have some spare batteries available for electronics. Don’t leave batteries sitting on the mantle, by the fireplace or near stoves or open flames. The heat can spark them or make them explode.
• Food: Don’t leave food out on buffets for hours on end, no one wants food poisoning as a party favor. Cover and refrigerate anything that could spoil within an hour. Keep kids and pets out of the kitchen when cooking (hot stoves, knives, trip hazard potential). Make sure you take allergies and dietary restrictions into account.
• Alcohol: Try to keep track of what you take in and make sure you count any puddings or foods that contain alcohol into your calculations. If you have multiple events to attend, try to give your liver a day’s break between them.

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Seasonal Distractions

Dec 6, 2024

The holidays are a busy time for most of us and with that comes a lot of distraction, stress, fatigue and loss of focus. These are all things that can negatively affect our safety.

Holiday Distractions:

It’s important to be aware that these conditions may be occurring not only with ourselves, but with our co-workers:
• Pressures to finish projects by the end of the year or before a vacation/shut down;
• Stress from the financial impact the holidays can have on some of us;
• Stress from feeling there’s not enough time to “get it all done”;
• Rushing to get things accomplished so we can go home;
• Family commitments, evening events, parties to attend or get ready for;
• The effects of working longer hours for overtime pay or to accomplish tasks (stress, lack of sleep); and,
• And sometimes the holidays are a very hard and depressing time for some, so there are co-workers dealing with emotional stress generated by the season.

All of these can cause us to lose focus and overlook hazards we may normally catch.

How to Better Cope With Them:

• Be mindful that this is a time that all of us can lose focus, so if you find your mind wandering, stop and refocus on your task. Be on the lookout for your co-workers and help each other stay on task. When we lose focus is when safety hazards are missed and accidents occur.
• Don’t rush or cut corners, this can lead to mistakes and the need to redo work which will cause you twice the time and effort.
• When moving from task to task, take 4 seconds to stop and survey the hazards around you
• Plan, plan, plan! If you come up with a plan and/or a schedule to get your personal and work tasks accomplished (and the sooner you do it) the less likely you’ll be as stressed about what needs to be done.
• Prioritize both at work and at home. What has to be done, and what can wait until after the holidays? What can you take off your list? And then, what can you scale back on at home? Some people want the holidays to be perfect, but do they really need to be perfect? Sometimes taking one more thing off your list will make a big difference in reducing stress.
• Make sure you’re eating right. You need to feed that engine that’s needed to keep you going to get your stuff done.
• Stick to the same sleep schedule and make sure you’re getting enough sleep. Lack of sleep will cause you to be less focused and more stressed.
• Take it easy on the alcohol.
• Be extra mindful for housekeeping. Sometimes visual clutter can cause mental clutter. Plus ensuring proper housekeeping will also remove hazards that could cause issues if you or your coworkers are not paying close attention.
• The holidays can be a sad and depressing time for some, so be on the lookout for your coworkers. If you are the one feeling depressed, seek a counselor to help or talk to someone about it. If you see a colleague having struggles, let their supervisor know and be there for each other.
• Don’t forget to breathe! Take deep breaths to calm and refocus. Take slow, deep breaths. Inhale, count to 3 slowly and gradually exhale. Do this for 4-5 repetitions to help you feel more relaxed.

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Compressed Air Safety

Aug 7, 2024

Compressed air is used in a multitude of applications in industry — pneumatic tools and equipment, pumps, valves, tires, robotic arms, conveyors, packaging machines, some welding operations, metal cutting, surface preparation, breathing air, natural gas extraction, ventilation systems, pipeline inspection, aeration, agitation, and more. You may think because “it’s just air”, that compressed air is harmless. It’s actually the opposite.

Why Do Safety Policies Tell You to Never Use Compressed Air to Blow Down Your Clothes?

Never use air to clean your clothes, never blow compressed air on yourself, and never blow compressed air at someone else. When compressed air hits your skin, the air can be forced into your tissues through the skin and cause an air bubble in your blood stream. This air bubble can be fatal if it reaches the very small blood vessels of your heart, lungs or brain. Your clothes are not strong enough to protect you. Air blown in your mouth at only 5 psi can rupture your esophagus or lungs.

PPE

• Always wear eye protection when using compressed air. Besides the fact that it only takes 12 psi to blow your eye out of its socket, flying particles can damage your eyes. Wear safety glasses with side shields or a face shield.
• Air compressors, impact tools and other compressed air equipment can be loud and damaging to your hearing. Wear ear protection while using.
• Gloves and safety boots are preferred.

Hoses

• Make sure your hoses are rated to meet the maximum operating pressure of the equipment.
• Keep hoses off the floor/ground where they can trip someone or become damaged by moving equipment, doors or dropped items. If they’re on a self-retracting reel, keep them reeled when not in use. If you don’t have a reel, keep them coiled (without kinks) and hang it over a broad support—not a hook or nail.
• Keep sharp objects away at a distance so they won’t rub on the hose. Don’t wedge hoses in corners or hang them around machines.
• If a hose gets stuck, don’t pull/yank on it until it becomes free. Go to the point where it’s stuck and guide it.
• Inspect hoses on a regular basis for weak points, cuts, frayed covers and other damage. Replace when needed. Weak points of the hose may swell up like a balloon and burst or thrash about dangerously. Before using, make sure connections are properly sealed and there isn’t damage to fittings or the hose itself.
• If a hose bursts and starts to thrash, get out of the way of it and shut off the air supply at its source.

Other

• OSHA’s limit for compressed gasses is 30 psi. Nozzles with relief holes on the tip are often used as a way to comply with the standard and to prevent over pressure if the nozzle were to become dead ended. Never remove the tip off the nozzle or use damaged nozzles where the tip isn’t maintaining the proper opening. This is one of the main inspection items we find regarding compressed air in audits.
• Never used a compressed-air tool or piece of equipment without the proper training, knowledge of the limitations of the equipment, and where the air supply shutoff is located. Air shutoffs should be located as near as possible to the point of operation.
• Besides the hoses, inspect other components of your compressed air systems on a regular basis. This may include air receiver tanks, distribution lines, pressure regulation devices and compressors.
• Only use qualified personnel to conduct maintenance on compressed air devices.
• When conducting maintenance, ensure lockout/tagout procedures are used.
• Unless a pneumatic tool has a quick disconnect plug, before it’s disconnected turn off the air supply and bleed the tool of air

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Summer Safety

Jun 28, 2024

We talk about the holiday season being a big time of distraction when one is focused on a bunch of other things where safety may not always be top of mind. However, the summer can be a big distraction too. There’s a lot of things that we do in our non-work lives during the summer that can get us hurt and affect our job. Besides being outside in the nicer weather and longer daylight in the evenings, there are other day and evening functions, weekend outings, and family vacations. There’s additional outside work to be done such as yardwork, grilling or playing outside in the weather. The following are areas of summer safety you need to be on the lookout for.

Note: if you like this Summer Safety article, sign up today for our free safety toolbox topic sheets which are delivered to your inbox every other Monday. We cover safety both at work and at home.

Grilling

Grill outside, away from structures. Make sure your grill is stable on a flat surface so that it can’t be tipped over. Keep the grill clean and wait for it to cool before you clean it. Check for propane leaks on your gas grill, and if you’re using charcoal, wait for the coals to completely cool before you dispose of them. Always dispose coals into a metal container. If the flame goes out on your grill, turn off the grill AND turn off the gas, then wait 5 min. before relighting. If you use a charcoal grill, only use charcoal starter fluid. If the fire starts to go out, don’t add any starter fluid or any other flammable liquids to the fire.

Mowing and Weed Trimming

On riding mowers, put the mower into neutral before startup and shutdown and make sure the transmission is out of gear and the mower blade clutch is disengaged before startup. Disengage the blade when you’re riding over pavement, sidewalks, and gravel. Keep the mower in gear and slow down when working on slopes and avoid mowing on slopes of angles of more than 15 degrees. Remove the key when not using the mower. Stay 5 ft. away from ditches, embankments, retaining walls, culverts or similar where you could roll over. Never remove roll over protection devices. If mowing near bodies of water, establish a safety zone to make sure you stay at a safe distance.

For walk-behind mowers, rotary blades underneath the mower can rotate at 200 mph. Keep your hands and feet away from the blade area when it’s running. Never remove installed safety guards such as directional flaps or shielded discharge outlets or bypass safety shut down devices such as clutch handles or switches that stop the blade as soon as you let go. Mow back and forth along the side of a steep hill, never up and down the slope.

Did you know that 1/3 of emergency room injuries from weed trimmers are eye-related, so wear your safety glasses. Bring the engine to speed before cutting. Cut away from yourself and when not cutting, run the engine at idle speed. Some types of trimmers may let out more string than you think and cause it to strike you unexpectedly so monitor string length. Before refueling a gas-powered trimmer, place it on the ground and allow the engine to cool. Keep people and pets at least 60 ft. away and stop if you’re approached. Use both hands when operating.

Before servicing your mower or your trimmer, always unplug an electric tool or shut down a gas-powered machine/tool before servicing, cleaning, inspecting, or adjusting it. Use the proper fuel and oil and be careful when always refuel when the engine is cool. Don’t service a gas-powered engine inside a storage shed as you could be overcome by carbon monoxide. Turn the power off and disconnect spark plug wires before cleaning, inspecting, and servicing and never touch the spark plug with your hand or a tool when the mower is operating.

Poison Ivy, Oak and Sumac

Get familiar with the difference between these plants and how to spot them. Remember, leaves of three, let them be! For rashes use a cold compress, calamine lotion, non-prescription hydrocortisone cream, or an antihistamine to ease itching. You can also use other non-traditional treatments such as wrap dipped in apple cider vinegar. Call your doctor if the rash is near your eyes or covers a large part of your body.

Bees, Wasps, Spiders, Ants, Ticks, etc.

Before performing work in an area, take a site survey to look for any hazards including bees and wasps. Avoid attracting them by wearing light colored clothes and avoid perfumes or cologne. Do not swat and wave wildly when they approach, instead use a gentle pushing or brushing motion to deter them. Wear long sleeves and pants and be cautious about walking in high grass or brush, a good hangout for ticks. Watch where you walk, stand and sit. Fire ants like to mound under tall grass and brush. Before picking something up, kick it before you pick it.

Bicycles and Scooters

Make sure you wear helmets and use other safety gear when riding such as high visibility or reflective clothing, shoes (not flip flops or sandals). Make sure your bikes don’t have broken reflectors and make sure the light works. Check tires for air and bring extra safety equipment such as a first aid kit and extra tires if you’re going to do trail riding . Make sure your wheels, seat and handlebars are tight and that your brakes work.

Swimming

Never swim alone, and always supervise children. Open water prevents a number of different hazards that pools don’t. These include limited visibility, depth changes, uneven surfaces, unknown objects that can be stepped on, and currents and undertow. Enter the water feet first to prevent head injury. This includes using water slides. Never dive into water that’s less than 8 ft. deep. Be on the lookout for maintenance issues around the swim area. Be alert of wet floors, sharp edges, broken glass, exposed bolts, broken ladders, broken railings and clear markings of water depth. If you find yourself struggling or accidentally fall in, float to live. Try not to panic as calmness will save you. Lean back and use your arms and legs to keep you afloat with gentle movements. Once you’re calm your breathing is controlled, then call for help or swim to safety. Don’t let your dog swim without supervision. While many dogs know how to swim, some can easily tire out.

Pulling Trailers

Choose the right tow vehicle and trailer for the load. Review the tow capacity and ensure it’s capable of handling the weight of the trailer and what you’re going to be towing on it. Exceeding the capacity can severely affect handling, braking and damage your vehicle’s suspension. Check the hitch for the maximum trailer and maximum tongue weights it can safely support. Make sure you have the proper hitch ball for the trailer. Incorrectly sized hitch balls are the #1 cause of trailer accidents. When hauling loads, 60% of the load on the trailer should be placed on the front half of the trailer, with a tongue weight of 10-15% of the total weight that’s loaded on the trailer. Ensure weight is evenly distributed on the left and right sides of the trailer. Straps are critical — broken or cheap straps can fail fast. Use ratchet straps for anything heavier than an average person and use more than one strap in case one comes loose. The working load of the strap should be more than the weight of what you’re hauling. Check your tires on both the vehicle and the trailer and make sure your lights work before you leave. Take spare bulbs and fuses with you. Check your brakes and make sure the breakaway cable is properly attached to your tow vehicle. Carry spare parts such as at least one trailer spare tire as well as extra wheel bearings and hubs.

Camping

Make your camp before dark and learn the terrain while it’s still light. Give yourself 2 hours of daylight for setup. Take a good flashlight, check your equipment that it’s in good working order before you leave and pack emergency signaling devices, emergency supplies and a first aid kit. Think about your footing and be alert to slippery areas. Watch for low hanging branches and take extra caution near cliffs, outcroppings, hills, and water edges. No matter how clear a stream looks, it’s likely to contain waterborne parasites & microorganisms, so pack your own water. Make sure your fires are always attended, cannot be spread laterally or vertically (used a grill or stone surface) and drown it with water to put it out. Embers buried deep in the pile can reignite later. Be cautious when using a propane stove. Tents should be flame retardant and far enough away from the campfire. Wear sunscreen, hats, sunglasses and drink plenty of water. Pack carbohydrate-energy bars, granola candy or fruit for instant energy on your hikes.

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Severe Weather — Tornadoes

May 10, 2024

Tornadoes are violent storms that don’t only strike in the traditional “Tornado Alley” region of the U.S. The southeastern part of the U.S. is starting to experience many more tornadoes over the past few years. Tornadoes can strike anywhere, including places like California, Arizona, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Virginia and New York.

Watch vs. Warning vs. Emergency

A Tornado Watch will be issued when conditions are favorable for severe thunderstorms to become tornadoes and thus you should stay alert and be prepared for changing conditions. A Tornado Warning means a tornado has been sighted or there’s a strong indication that one may develop at any time within the warning box area. A Tornado Emergency is the highest and rarest of warnings. A Tornado
Emergency means a tornado is in progress and will have significant impact to human life with catastrophic destruction to property.

What to Do

It’s critical you have a plan and that everyone knows what the plan is, whether it be at work or at home. What is the plan at work? What is the plan at home? Do your children know what to do if they are home alone? Make sure all of your communication devices are charged before the action is scheduled to begin in your area.

If you’re outside, get inside. It’s not time for photo shoots. There will be plenty others, including chasers, who will get that footage for you. Put on sturdy shoes and take blankets, helmets, and whatever else you can find to protect your head. Put as many barriers between you and the windows and the potential of flying debris as you can.

At Home

Head to the lowest floor. Being completely underground is best, but if that’s not possible, get to the lowest floor and towards the middle of the building. Smaller rooms are good. Stay away from doors, windows which may shatter, and outside walls which may collapse on you. Bathrooms that don’t have windows or outside walls are good because they are typically small and the plumbing adds some structural strength to the room. You can also choose to go under staircases, into closets (shut the door and cover up) and in hallways if you close the doors. In apartments, ground level clubhouses and laundry rooms often provide a good place to go if you live on upper floors. If you live in a mobile home, evacuate! Mobile homes can not stand up to even the smallest EF-1 tornado. It will get rolled over. For this reason, mobile home owners need to be extra vigilant of watches, and have a definite tornado plan ready to execute when needed.

Public Places

If you’re away from home, what do you do? In hotels and motels, review posted safety instructions along with fire exits when you check in. Hallways may be in the hotel’s plan for where to go in case of tornadoes, but make sure they don’t have doors and windows on either end. This makes them a wind tunnel for debris to fly through. Interior bathrooms and closets may be a better option.
In other public places like malls, stores, gas stations, and restaurants, stay inside and put as many walls between you and the outside as possible. Get to the lowest floor, get down and cover up with whatever you have to protect your head and body from flying debris. Don’t leave in your car! Sturdy buildings will protect you better.

Outdoor Activities—Campgrounds, Festivals, RV Parks, Sporting Events

Event planners should convey the plan for taking cover. This makes it all the more important for you to be weather aware! Before checking into an RV Park or campground, learn if there are storm shelters available and where they are located.

On the Road

Vehicles are amongst the last places you want to be in a tornado, so it’s critical you pay attention to weather conditions. If you can delay your trip, do so, but if not, make sure you monitor local radio stations or NOAA weather radio broadcasts, and know ahead of time where you are located. Weather warnings are issued by county, so know which counties you will be in. There are hundreds of weather apps that will track your location and send you alerts and notifications when you are in a watch or warning, even letting you know when lightning or heavy rain is near your area. The chances of being swept up in a tornado are much less than being affected by all the other severe weather that comes with them. Severe thunderstorms can produce large and damaging hail to break your windows, straight line winds that could topple you, and heavy rain to cause flash flooding which may sweep you off the road.

Stop and find a building to seek shelter in. If you’re stuck in traffic, you may need to seek shelter in a ditch, ravine or culvert as the last resort. Despite that very popular video which showed the TV reporter and the family who parked under an overpass and hid up under its girders as the tornado passed over, don’t ever do that! Powerful winds will kick up dangerous debris and send it flying up underneath the bridge like a wind tunnel.

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OSHA Updates Walk Around Rule for Inspections

Apr 19, 2024

A new final rule issued by OSHA gives employees the opportunity to designate an employee representative to accompany an inspector during OSHA inspections. The original rule, at 29 CFR 1903.8(c), allowed for employers to have a representative to accompany an inspector, now employees can designate one as well.

This new rule is a result of a 2017 court case where it was found the rule could be interpreted to allow employees to have a representative, but the rule wasn’t written that way.

What’s a Representative Do?

An example of an employer representative to accompany an OSHA inspector would be someone like iSi who provides a safety specialist to be there on behalf of the employer or provides an industrial hygienist for side-by-side sampling. Now, employees can designate a representative as well.

Employee representatives can be someone internally employed by the company, a union representative, or a non-employee third party. Third parties need to be someone “reasonably necessary” who can provide technical knowledge or practical experience about the processes and hazards of the types present in the workplace, or provide language and communication skills that facilitate the gathering of information from employees.

What Do You Need to Do?

The final rule is a right for employees, not a standard that requires employers to have any special compliance duties for. It’s up to the employees to come up with their representative and there’s no formal instructions on how they should do that. OSHA gives some suggestions on the process employees can use:

Chapter 3 of OSHA’s Field Operations Manual says in workplaces where employees are represented by a certified or recognized collective bargaining agent, the highest-ranking union official or union employee representative on-site designates who participates in the walkaround;
Employee members of an established safety committee or employees at large can designate the employee walkaround representative (per Chapter 3);
Employees can designate an authorized employee representative when they authorize them to file a complaint on their behalf;
Employees can also inform the inspector during the walkaround or during interviews that they have an authorized employee representative; or
An authorized employee representative can also inform the inspector or OSHA Area Office that they represent employees.

No set number of votes is required to designate an employee representative. It doesn’t even have to be by a majority. The person just must be authorized by more than one employee.

OSHA inspectors may determine at the complaint stage who the employee representative is based on who files the complaint or if they are represented by a labor organization. When they arrive onsite, inspectors may also ask if the employees have a designated representative or they may ask employees directly who their representative is.

Qualifications of Representatives

Inspectors have the right to question third party employee representatives on their qualifications or purpose for being there to ensure they’re making a positive contribution to a thorough and effective inspection. Third parties must be an aid in an inspection, not a distraction. Typically, one employer representative and one employee representative will be allowed during the inspection. An inspector can allow additional representatives in cases where they think it may benefit the inspection. If there is more than one employer onsite that will be affected by the inspection, they may be allowed to have their own employer and employee representative.

In cases where the employer disputes the necessity for the employee representative, and vice versa, the inspector has the final determination on who stays and who doesn’t.

Ground Rules for Inspections

All representatives will need to follow rules that all other visitors to the facility would be asked to follow regarding PPE use, confidentiality, limits on access to certain areas due to trade secrets, use of cell phones/cameras, etc. Limitations on access, however, cannot interfere with the inspection. Special requirements cannot be placed on inspection representatives. A documented Visitors Policy would be a good item to have on file at your facility to clearly state requirements for all visitors.

Representatives are not allowed to discuss matters unrelated to the inspection with the employees.

Third parties can participate in the opening conference, the inspection and the closing conference. Both employer and employee representatives are not to be present for private interviews of the employees unless the employee specifically requests their presence.

Third party representatives cannot disrupt the inspection by doing anything that’s not directly related to a fair and orderly inspection. Some examples would be preventing an inspector from taking photos, videos, or monitoring samples, preventing the inspector from privately interviewing employees, failing to always stay with the inspector, taking unauthorized photographs, handing out materials or cards, or failing to comply with any other ground rules set by the inspector.

Per the current policy, OSHA will only delay their inspection by 1 hour at the most to allow for offsite representatives to get to the facility. This applied to employer representatives and will apply to employee representatives as well.

Future Challenges to the Rule

Already it appears this rule could be facing some legal challenges. The rule was put together pretty quickly for an OSHA rule. Among the issues brough up that challengers have already voiced include the possibility of introducing union reps in non-union workplaces to solicit and campaign during work hours; attorneys may use this to conduct pre-litigation discovery in personal injury or wrongful death actions; it could bring worker advocacy groups and community organizations without safety expertise into the workplace to organize non-union employees; and, competitors or other security threats could potentially gain access to proprietary information for economic or physical harm.

Learn More

Check out the new rule here. If you have any questions, or would like to know more about the onsite employer representative services we can provide to you in your next regulatory inspection, contact us here.

Safety Inspections and Corrections

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Contributing:

Curtis Leiker, CSP

Certified Safety Professional | ISO 45001 and 14001 Lead Auditor

Curtis Leiker, CSP is a project manager at iSi Environmental. Besides assisting companies with ISO 14001 and 45001 implementation, Curtis manages environmental and safety programs, reporting and compliance issues for aviation, general industry and agricultural facilities. He’s able to see the big picture, but focus on the details and enjoys working to solve EHS issues.

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OHSAS 18001 and ISO 45001: What’s the Difference?

Apr 11, 2024

Need assistance with ISO 45001? iSi can help!

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On November 27, 2017, a final version of the new International Standards Organization (ISO) 45001 standard was published, creating an official ISO standard for occupational health and safety programs.

In the early 2000s there were international standards for environmental management systems with ISO 14001, but not health and safety. Thus, a British Standard was developed, called Occupational Health and Safety Assessment Series (OHSAS) 18001.

ISO 45001 takes much of what’s already in OHSAS 18001 and adds to it, reorganizes it to match current ISO formats, and modifies some areas. If you’re already OHSAS 18001 certified, you will have a good head start on ISO 45001 certification.

ISO 45001 brings the responsibility of safety to company leadership and establishes how safety incorporates into the entire organization, rather than making it a responsibility of safety management. The standard has more detailed clauses lining out its expectations of employee involvement, requiring the documentation of results and program effectiveness, risk evaluation and considering how safety affects all affected parties, not only employees but contractors, outsourced operations, vendors, etc.

Here are just a few of the differences between the two standards:

OHSAS 18001	ISO 45001
British Standard	International Organization of Standardization Standard
Reactive planning	Proactive planning
Hazard control	Risk evaluation, reduction and prevention
Procedures are prepared	Documented results are required
Safety management personnel play leadership role	Top management plays leadership role
Company management reviews the process after development	Company leadership takes leading role to ensure it fits within the overall organization’s processes.
Safety and health is the responsibility of safety management personnel	Safety and health is the responsibility of leadership and the overall management system of the organization. External and internal issues related to the safety management system should be addressed by leadership. Workers and interested parties’ needs should be addressed and incorporated into the plan.
Employee participation consultation	Everyone, including leadership, is responsible for safety. Workers should be provided education to help identify risks and everyone should participate. Internal audits and risk assessments should be shared with all employees and non-managers should participate in internal audits, risk assessments and incident investigation.
Information and communication procedures are prepared	Information and communication documentation is required including who, what, when, the objective of the communication and was it effective?
—	Additional Elements • Outsourced processes, procurement and contractors are addressed. • Hierarchy of controls are to be used. • Procurement of goods are to be considered. • Contractor controls and communication requirements for their workers, your workers and any other affected parties are required.

iSi can help with developing ISO 45001 programs! Contact us today!

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Example General Duty Clause Citations to Look for in Your Workplace

Mar 25, 2024

OSHA has a number of regulations that govern many aspects of the workplace. When there is not a specific regulation reference, they will often cite the General Duty Clause.

What is the General Duty Clause?

The General Duty Clause is found in Section 5(a)(1) of the Occupational Safety and Health Act. The General Duty Clause requires an employer to furnish to its employees “employment and a place of employment which are free from recognized hazards that are causing or are likely to cause death or serious physical harm to his employees.”

Employers can be cited for violation of the General Duty Clause if a recognized serious hazard exists in their workplace and the employer does not take reasonable steps to prevent or abate the hazard. The General Duty Clause is used only where there is no OSHA standard that applies to the particular hazard. The following elements are necessary to prove a violation of the General Duty Clause:

1. The employer failed to keep the workplace free of a hazard to which employees of that employer were exposed;
2. The hazard was recognized;
3. The hazard was causing or was likely to cause death or serious physical harm; and
4. There was a feasible and useful method to correct the hazard.

OSHA cannot just cite anything under the clause, but there is a lot of room for interpretation of the effects of the hazard. The hazard needs to be recognized by that industry, another industry or another entity as a hazard. It can be something that would be considered a common sense hazard or is something that could cause or likely cause serious harm or death. It must be correctable, and if injuries have been documented related to it, it can be cited.

Examples of Common General Duty Clause Citations

While OSHA has issued citations under the General Duty Clause for a wide variety of issues including risk of lightning strikes to employees, there are a number of situations OSHA has cited that have been consistent and steady over the years.

Some common violations where OSHA would use the General Duty Clause:

Boilers not inspected and maintained
Cell phone use while driving
Combustible dust hazards
Ergonomic hazards
High visibility clothing not provided where struck by hazard exists with vehicular traffic
Industrial storage racking not:
- Having maximum permissible load amount posted,
- Not secured in place where there is potential to be tipped over, or
- Significant damage
Personal fall protection equipment not inspected on annual basis
Powered Industrial Truck (forklift) drivers not wearing a seat belt while operating
Respiratory hazards from an air contaminant that is not covered by an OSHA permissible exposure limit (PEL)
Safety latch not in use on crane
Storing incompatible chemicals together
Structural damage to building causing struck by hazard
Thermal stress (high heat and cold)
Workplace violence risk that goes unmitigated

Do you have any of these issues at your facility? iSi’s team of safety professionals can help through safety audits, safety inspections, issue corrections, training and program development. Contact us today!

Safety Inspections and Corrections

iSi’s safety auditors can help you identify and prioritize the areas where potential violations may exist. We can also help you correct any issues that have already been found by inspectors. Contact us today!

Ask for Info

Contributing:

Curtis Leiker, CSP

Certified Safety Professional | ISO 45001 and 14001 Lead Auditor

Curtis Leiker, CSP is a project manager at iSi Environmental. Besides assisting companies with ISO 14001 and 45001 implementation, Curtis manages environmental and safety programs, reporting and compliance issues for aviation, general industry and agricultural facilities. He’s able to see the big picture, but focus on the details and enjoys working to solve EHS issues.

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What’s the Difference Between the HAZWOPER’s Emergency Response Plan and an Emergency Action Plan?

Mar 18, 2024

hazardous cleanup emergency

Being prepared for emergencies at your facility is vital, and having that plan communicated to your employees is even more critical. OSHA references a couple of different plans in its regulations, one is the Emergency Action Plan and then OSHA’s HAZWOPER standard mentions requirements for an Emergency Response Plan. So, what’s the difference between these two plans?

HAZWOPER emergency response team

Emergency Action Plans (EAP)

When reading the OSHA standards for Emergency Action Plans, it’s easy to be confused because they can be pretty complicated.

EAP requirements are found in 29 CFR 1910.38(a). They are part of Exit Routes and Emergency Planning in Subpart E. A number of OSHA standards require that you have an EAP, including the regulations related to Process Safety Management, Fixed Extinguishing System-General, Fire Detection Systems, Grain Handling, Ethylene Oxide, Methylenedianiline and 1,3-Butadiene.

In 29 CFR 1910.157, Portable Fire Extinguishers, there is mention of needing EAPs as an alternative to teaching your employees how to fight fires. There are a bunch of if/then conditions, but OSHA really puts it plainly in their online eTools that the only way a company wouldn’t have to have an EAP is if you have an in-house fire brigade where every employee was trained and equipped to fight fires. So basically, it doesn’t matter which regulations require EAPs, if you don’t have an in-house fire brigade where every employee is trained to fight a fire, you’re going to need an EAP.

So, Then What’s in an EAP?

This standard says that an EAP must be in writing, kept in the workplace, and available to employees for review.

At a minimum, EAPs need to include procedures for:

Reporting a fire or other emergency;
Emergency evacuation, including type and exit routes;
Employees who remain to operate in critical plant operations before they evacuate;
Accounting for all employees after evacuation;
Employees performing rescue or medical duties; and,
Name and job title of every employee who may be contacted by employees who need more information about the plan or their duties under the plan.

Employers with more than 10 employees are required to have an employee alarm system with a distinctive signal.

As an employer, you must train employees in the safe and orderly evacuation of other employees. You must review the EAP with every employee covered by the plan when they are initially assigned to a job, when that employee’s responsibilities in the plan have changed, or whenever you make any changes to the plan.

If you have 10 or fewer employees you can communicate the plan orally to employees however, it’s a good practice to still have it in writing because when you get your 11^th employee unless you’re super organized, it’s unlikely that will trigger a reminder to put your plan in writing.

HAZWOPER Emergency Response Plan

The OSHA HAZWOPER (Hazardous Waste Operations & Emergency Response) standard at 29 CFR 1910.120 goes into detail about Emergency Response Plans.

If you are going to have your employees respond to releases and spills, you are required to have an Emergency Response Plan. This also applies to employees that are dispatched to an incident such as from a fire station, fire brigade, or emergency medical service. This plan describes what the employees are expected to do in an emergency response.

If your facility intends to evacuate everyone from the danger area when there’s a release and have someone else do the emergency response portion, then you just need an Emergency Action Plan. Otherwise, if you are having employees respond, you need the Emergency Response Plan.

HAZWOPER emergency response

Emergency Response Plans need to include procedures/instructions for:

Pre-emergency planning and coordination with outside parties;
Personnel roles, lines of authority, training, and communication;
Emergency recognition and prevention;
Safe distances and places of refuge;
Site security and control;
Evacuation routes and procedures;
Decontamination;
Emergency medical treatment and first aid;
Emergency alerting and response procedures;
Critique of response and follow-up; and,
PPE and emergency equipment.

Emergency response organizations may use the local emergency response plan or the state emergency response plan or both, as part of their emergency response plan to avoid duplication. The HAZWOPER plan has also been adopted by EPA’s SARA regulations at 40 CFR 311 for state and local government employees in federal-OSHA states and their volunteers.

Other Emergency Response Plans Required

These are just two plans from a whole laundry list of emergency-related plans required by OSHA, EPA, DOT, and several other agencies. Want to learn more? Read our blog about all the other emergency plans required here.

Need Help?

If you need help determining which plans apply to you, need help writing one of these plans, or just want a review, contact us!

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PSM Compliance Audits: How Often Are They Required? What’s Involved?

Mar 17, 2024

Companies that fall under Process Safety Management (PSM) requirements because of their highly hazardous chemicals are required to recertify that they have completed an evaluation of PSM compliance.

Compliance evaluations must occur at least once every 3 years. Companies must certify that PSM compliance has been evaluated in order to verify that procedures and practices being followed are adequate and are being followed.

The audit needs to be planned ahead of time with plans for ensuring compliance, documenting findings, determining corrective actions and including field inspections of safety and health conditions and practices.

The Team

Audit team members should be chosen based on their experience, knowledge, training and familiarization with the standard. Smaller companies may be able to have teams as small as one, but larger companies like refineries with 3 or 4 processes may need a team of 5-6 people over the course of 1-2 weeks. You can use your own personnel, personnel from other plants, or consultants to conduct the audit.

The Audit

The audit should:

Make sure all PSM requirements are being followed;
Identify elements that need special attention;
Review pertinent documentation with samples large enough to ensure the audit results accurately reflect compliance;
Inspect the physical facilities to observe actual practices;
Interview all levels of plant personnel to determine awareness/knowledge of PSM requirements, safety procedures, and emergency procedures; and,
Record any deficiencies.

Report of Findings

Following the audit, a report of findings should document the results, and that should be signed by a responsible manager. This becomes the official certification. If you use an outside consultant as the auditor, the employer still needs to make that certification, not the consultant.

The report should include facts and information to support the audit did indeed determine and review compliance. It should document corrective actions required and document any findings so that they can be compared to future audits to determine trends. Additional observations discovered can also be included.

Deficiencies should be described, given milestones, tracked and assigned to affected personnel, then periodically followed up on. Anything that was logged as a deficiency where no corrective action was taken needs to have explanations on why it wasn’t followed up on.

Recordkeeping

Companies are required to keep their two most recent compliance reports on file. You do not need to turn those in to OSHA, just keep them on file and available for inspection. Some companies choose to destroy earlier reports because they tend to list more findings on them. Some companies also choose to do their reevaluations every 1-2 years for that reason as well.

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[For more about what PSM is, check out our blog “What is PSM?”]

Need help with PSM? We can help you get compliant with your 14 PSM elements, conduct or participate in your recertification audit, or help you correct findings. Check out our PSM page for more details!

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Contributing:

Curtis Leiker, CSP

Certified Safety Professional | ISO 45001 and 14001 Lead Auditor

Curtis Leiker, CSP is a project manager at iSi Environmental. Besides assisting companies with ISO 14001 and 45001 implementation, Curtis manages environmental and safety programs, reporting and compliance issues for aviation, general industry and agricultural facilities. He’s able to see the big picture, but focus on the details and enjoys working to solve EHS issues.

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Grade D Breathing Air: What Requirements Do I Have to Meet for My Breathing Air System?

Feb 27, 2024

Compressed air, either through a fixed or a portable system, can be used to supply air to employees as they perform tasks that could not be done using an air purifying respirator.

Supplied air respirators are respirators that supply the user with breathing air from a source independent of the ambient atmosphere.

First we’ll take a look at breathing air and then we’ll cover what its OSHA requirements are.

What Operations Use Supplied Breathing Air?

Supplied breathing air can be used across all industries for many different functions throughout the facility. Some of the most common include: paint booth worker

Confined Space Entry
Sand/Media Blasting Operations
Working in Paint Booths
Welding

What Are the Components of a Breathing Air System?

A simple breathing air system has four basic components.

Air Source

The air source can be from a fixed or portable compressor. This compressor can be either electric, gas or diesel powered. Another source can be from bottled or tanked air. The air source should be sized to provide a minimum of 4 cubic feet per minute (CFM), but depending on the work being done, workers may require up to 15 CFM. Typical systems operate around 10 to 12 CFM. Pay special attention to the intake area of the compressor to be sure that no gasses or vapors can be drawn into the system as they will be passed down to the employee.

Filtration

The filtration used is very important. The filtration system should be able to remove water, oil and particles, and many use a charcoal bed to remove odors and tastes. Remember to make sure the filtration system can supply the required CFM. Carbon monoxide (CO) is a special danger if the air source is not an oilless compressor and a CO monitor with alarm is then required. This alarm needs to be able to be heard by everyone connected to the air source at their point of use.

Air Distribution

The filtered air then needs to be set to the proper pressure required by the specific respirator so a regulator will be needed to drop the air pressure and not overpressure the employee’s mask. Employees are able to connect to a breathing air system via quick connect couplings, OSHA requires these couplings to be unique to the breathing air system. This ensures that employees are unable to connect a respirator to a non-breathing air system (shop air). It is also a requirement that the hose the employee uses is a maximum of 300 feet.

Respirator

The selected respirator can be of several varieties such as pressure demand or continuous flow, tight fitting face piece or loose-fitting hoods or helmets. These choices need to be made prior to the set up of the system as they can affect the design of the system. For example, if you are planning to use a continuous flow system a bottle supplied air source will not last very long.

breathing air system

What are OSHA’s Requirements for a Breathing Air System?

Breathing Air Gases Testing

The OSHA standard requires the employer provide employees using atmosphere-supplying respirators with breathing gases of high purity. To this end, OSHA has incorporated the ANSI/Compressed Gas Association Commodity Specification for Air, G-7.1 to include testing to meet the following: breathing testing

Oxygen content percentage by volume: Between 19.5% and 23.5%
Hydrocarbon (oil and particulate): maximum of 5 milligrams per cubic meter of air
Carbon monoxide: maximum of 10 parts per million by volume
Carbon dioxide: maximum of 1000 parts per million by volume
Lack of noticeable odor

This breathing air gases are also commonly referred to as Grade D breathing air. There are other grades of breathing air available that differ in oxygen content, hydrocarbons and water content that are used by fire departments and other SCBA wearers, but Grade D breathing air is the standard for industry.

While OSHA does not require breathing testing to be done on any interval, the industry standard for this testing is to be done annually for each distribution point.

Written Respiratory Protection Plan

Any company requiring employees to use respiratory protection must have a written Respiratory Protection Program that meets all the requirements of 29 CFR 1910.134.

Medical Evaluations

OSHA first requires the respirator user to be medically cleared to use a respirator. The doctor will need to know that the employee will be using a supplied air respirator so they can understand the physical requirements of the respirator being used.

Training

OSHA then requires that all respirator users be trained on how to use their respirator, the limitations of that respirator and any procedures such as when the CO alarm goes off what needs to be done.

Fit-Testing

If the respirator selected is a tight fitting facepiece, OSHA requires a fit test to ensure the facepiece provides a proper seal to the users face.

Preventative Maintenance Plan

On a system that has a CO monitor, a preventive maintenance plan needs to be established to perform calibration on the monitor. Most manufacturers require monthly calibration with a certified canister of carbon monoxide gas. Calibration dates should be documented.

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iSi has Grade D breathing air system testing equipment and routinely conducts tests for our clients. We can also help you with the other breathing air system requirements of OSHA. Contact us today!

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Compressed air, either through a fixed or a portable system, can be used to supply air to employees as they perform tasks that could not be done using an air purifying respirator.

Supplied air respirators are respirators that supply the user with breathing air from a source independent of the ambient atmosphere.

First we’ll take a look at breathing air components, then we’ll cover its OSHA requirements.

What Operations Use Supplied Breathing Air?

Supplied breathing air can be used across all industries for many different functions throughout the facility. Some of the most common include:

Confined Space Entry
Sand/Media Blasting Operations
Working in Paint Booths
Welding

What Are the Components of a Breathing Air System?

A simple breathing air system has four basic components.

Air Source

The air source can be from a fixed or portable compressor. This compressor can be either electric, gas or diesel powered. Another source can be from bottled or tanked air. The air source should be sized to provide a minimum of 4 cubic feet per minute (CFM), but depending on the work being done, workers may require up to 15 CFM. Typical systems operate around 10 to 12 CFM. Pay special attention to the intake area of the compressor to be sure that no gasses or vapors can be drawn into the system as they will be passed down to the employee.

Filtration

The filtration used is very important. The filtration system should be able to remove water, oil and particles, and many use a charcoal bed to remove odors and tastes. Remember to make sure the filtration system can supply the required CFM. Carbon monoxide (CO) is a special danger if the air source is not an oilless compressor and a CO monitor with alarm is then required. This alarm needs to be able to be heard by everyone connected to the air source at their point of use.

Air Distribution

The filtered air then needs to be set to the proper pressure required by the specific respirator so a regulator will be needed to drop the air pressure and not overpressure the employee’s mask. Employees are able to connect to a breathing air system via quick connect couplings, OSHA requires these couplings to be unique to the breathing air system. This ensures that employees are unable to connect a respirator to a non-breathing air system (shop air). It is also a requirement that the hose the employee uses is a maximum of 300 feet.

Respirator

The selected respirator can be of several varieties such as pressure demand or continuous flow, tight fitting face piece or loose-fitting hoods or helmets. These choices need to be made prior to the set up of the system as they can affect the design of the system. For example, if you are planning to use a continuous flow system a bottle supplied air source will not last very long.

breathing air system

What are OSHA’s Requirements for a Breathing Air System?

Breathing Air Gases Testing

The OSHA standard requires the employer provide employees using atmosphere-supplying respirators with breathing gases of high purity. To this end, OSHA has incorporated the ANSI/Compressed Gas Association Commodity Specification for Air, G-7.1 to include testing to meet the following:

Oxygen content percentage by volume: Between 19.5% and 23.5%
Hydrocarbon (oil and particulate): maximum of 5 milligrams per cubic meter of air
Carbon monoxide: maximum of 10 parts per million by volume
Carbon dioxide: maximum of 1000 parts per million by volume
Lack of noticeable odor

breathing testing

This breathing air gases are also commonly referred to as Grade D breathing air. There are other grades of breathing air available that differ in oxygen content, hydrocarbons and water content that are used by fire departments and other SCBA wearers, but Grade D breathing air is the standard for industry.

While OSHA does not require breathing testing to be done on any interval, the industry standard for this testing is to be done annually for each distribution point.

Written Respiratory Protection Plan

Any company requiring employees to use respiratory protection must have a written Respiratory Protection Program that meets all the requirements of 29 CFR 1910.134.

Medical Evaluations

OSHA first requires the respirator user to be medically cleared to use a respirator. The doctor will need to know that the employee will be using a supplied air respirator so they can understand the physical requirements of the respirator being used.

Training

OSHA then requires that all respirator users be trained on how to use their respirator, the limitations of that respirator and any procedures such as when the CO alarm goes off what needs to be done.

Fit-Testing

If the respirator selected is a tight fitting facepiece, OSHA requires a fit test to ensure the facepiece provides a proper seal to the users face.

Preventative Maintenance Plan

On a system that has a CO monitor, a preventive maintenance plan needs to be established to perform calibration on the monitor. Most manufacturers require monthly calibration with a certified canister of carbon monoxide gas. Calibration dates should be documented.

Questions? Need Help?

iSi has Grade D breathing air system testing equipment and routinely conducts tests for our clients. We can also help you with the other breathing air system requirements of OSHA. Contact us today!

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Contributing:

Keith Reissig

Industrial Hygienist | Project Manager

Keith brings over 20 years of industrial hygiene and safety experience to iSi and its clients. An industrial hygienist, Keith jokes that he "sucks air for a living." He specializes in workplace exposure testing and sampling strategies, safety compliance, ergonomics and training in a variety of topics in both the industrial hygiene and safety field.

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What is Process Safety Management, or PSM and Which Companies Are Required to Comply?

Feb 26, 2024

Process Safety Management, or PSM, is an OSHA regulation that is concerned with processes at your facility that use highly hazardous chemicals. PSM provides a compliance framework to evaluate each process with the end goal of no spills, fires, explosions, reactions, releases or other incidents arise from their use. The official standard can be found at 29 CFR 1910.119.

PSM applies to

Processes which involve certain threshold quantities of chemicals listed in the standard’s Appendix A
Processes where there are 10,000 lbs. or more of a Category I flammable gas (per 1910.1200(c)) or flammable liquids with a flashpoint below 100 degrees on site in one location
Manufacturing explosives or pyrotechnics in any quantity

Exceptions to these include retail facilities, hydrocarbon fuels for workplace consumption of fuels, oil or gas well drilling or servicing operations and unoccupied remote facilities. Facilities with flammable liquids with a flashpoint below 100 degrees that are stored in atmospheric tanks or that are transferred below their normal boiling point without being refrigerated are also exempt.

The 14 Elements of Compliance

There are 14 elements to a Process Safety Management compliance program. These include:

1. Employee Participation

Those who are most familiar with the process need to be involved. Facilities must have a written plan of action on how they’re going to incorporate employees into the process hazard analyses and development of other elements of PSM. Both operations and maintenance personnel and any other employees that play a heavy role in facilities operations must be involved. Employees must be represented at meetings and teams should include persons involved in the process being used.

2. Process Safety Information

Facilities must first compile written process safety information before they can do their hazard analysis. Process safety information looks at the hazards involved with the processes at the facility. Information should include:

Toxicity
Permissible exposure limits
Physical, reactive and corrosivity data
Thermal and chemical stability data, especially the hazards in mixing different materials
Flow diagram of the process
Process chemistry
Maximum intended inventory
Safe upper and lower limits for temperatures, pressures, flows, compositions
Consequences of deviations

Facility equipment must be evaluated for its compliance with engineering standards, including:

Materials of construction
Piping and instrument diagrams
Electrical classification
Relief and ventilation system designs
Design codes and standards
Material and energy balances
Safety systems

3. Process Hazard Analysis

Process hazard analysis should identify, evaluate and determine ways to control hazards involved within the process. OSHA lists some suggested methods you can use to do your process hazard analysis. The analysis needs to be updated, revalidated and documented every 5 years. It’s suggested that not only persons knowledgeable in the specific processes be involved, but engineering and maintenance experts need to be involved as well.

Some of the items to be evaluated:

The hazards of the process
The identification of any previous incident that had a potential for catastrophic consequences
Engineering and administrative controls applicable to the hazards and their interrelationships, like detections to provide early warning of releases
Consequences of failure of engineering and administrative controls
Facility siting
Human factors
A qualitative evaluation of a range of the possible safety and health effects if a failure of controls occurs.

Facilities are required to develop and document a system to address the findings and get them resolved in a timely manner.

4. Operating Procedures

Written operating procedures need to be developed with safety in mind. Some of these include procedures for:

Initial startup and startups after turnarounds
Normal operations
Temporary or emergency operations
Shutdowns
Operating limits
Precautions to prevent exposures
Safety systems
Quality control for raw materials
Safe work practices

5. Training

Initial PSM training is required for new employees or persons assigned to new processes. Refresher training is required every 3 years.

6. Contractors

PSM applies to contractors conducting maintenance, repair, turnaround, major renovation or specialty work adjacent to a covered process. Facilities are responsible for gathering contractor safety performance and programs, informing contract employers of known fire, explosion or toxic release hazards, explaining the emergency action plan, developing and implementing safe work practices to control the presence, entrance and exit of contract personnel and maintaining contractor injury and illness log information.

7. Pre-Startup Safety Review

Safety procedures must be reviewed in a pre-safety review before a new facility starts up or modified facility starts up again.

8. Mechanical Integrity

Mechanical integrity requirements apply to pressure vessels, storage tanks, piping systems, relief and vent systems and devices, emergency shutdown systems, controls and pumps.

Written procedures must be developed to ensure ongoing integrity of process equipment is maintained and routinely inspected using good engineering practices. Any deficiencies found must be corrected before further use.

9. Hot Work Permit

Hot work permits are required to be issued for work on or near a covered process and kept on file until completion of the work.

10. Management of Change

Any change to a process must be thoroughly evaluated for its impact on employee safety and health. Written procedures must be developed to discuss the change’s:

Technical basis
Impact on employee safety and health
Modifications to operating procedures
Time period
Authorization requirements

Any affected employees must be informed of and trained in the change prior to startup. Any changes that affect process safety information will mean changes in operating procedures or safety procedures as well.

11. Incident Investigation

Each incident that resulted in, or could have reasonably resulted in, a significant release of highly hazardous chemicals must be thoroughly investigated to identify the chain of events that led to it. The investigation needs to be held no later than 48 hours from the incident and must include at least one person knowledgeable of the process and any contractors involved. An investigation report needs to be developed and kept on file for 5 years.

12. Emergency Planning and Audits

An Emergency Action Plan must be developed for the entire plant in accordance with 29 CFR 1910.138(a). The plan needs to include procedures for small releases and may need to also follow HAZWOPER (Hazardous Waste Operations and Emergency Response) regulations 29 CFR 1910.120 (a), (p) and (q).

13. Compliance Audits

Compliance evaluations must be conducted every 3 years to verify PSM practices are adequate and being followed. A report of these evaluations need to be certified and the most recent 2 reports need to be kept on file.

14. Trade Secrets

Some companies didn’t want to disclose PSM information to their employees because of trade secret concerns, so OSHA added that they must make compliance, emergency and operational procedures information available anyway, as well as incident information available to investigators. A company can, however, ask an employee to sign a confidentiality agreement to protect trade information.

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Contributing:

Steve Hieger

Consulting Services Manager

Steve manages and oversees all of iSi’s environmental, health and safety consultants and provides as-needed technical support for all environmental and safety client projects. A former plant manager for chemical manufacturing facilities, Steve brings a vast knowledge in process hazard analysis, process safety management, facility safety and environmental issues.

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OSHA Electronic Injury and Illness Reporting Due March 2

Feb 23, 2024

OSHA’s final rule on electronic injury and illness reporting that passed in 2023 took effect on January 1, 2024. The new rule added some new companies and increased some of the reporting requirements. Electronic reports for 2023 injuries and illnesses are due March 2. Make sure you know what your company’s responsibilities are – do you need to report electronically?

What’s New in Electronic Reporting Standard

Companies with 20-249 employees whose NAICS codes were listed on Appendix A of the standard were required to submit their 300A electronically. This did not change, however a new appendix, Appendix B, was created for companies with 100 or more employees. This requires many more industries to report electronically. In addition to submitting the 300A, the 100+ employee companies who fall under Appendix B will also now need to submit their 300 and 301 forms.

As with 300A information, data from the 300 and 301 logs will be published on the OSHA website. Personally identifiable information from the 301, such as fields 1, 2, 6 and 7: employee name, employee address, physician name, and treatment facility name and address will not be collected.

The rules did not change for all companies with 250 or more employees. All companies, regardless of NAICS code, will need to submit their 300A forms. Those with 19 or fewer employees will still not be required to report.

Another change includes making inclusion of your company’s legal name required. Previously, only the Tax Identification number was required.

See Appendix A Here

See Appendix B Here

Industries Moved from Appendix A to Appendix B

Some NAICS codes were moved from Appendix A to Appendix B due to increased fatalities or increases in DART (Days Away; Restricted; Transfer) rates. Those companies with 20-249 employees who had been submitting only the 300A are now required to submit the 300 and 301. These include:

NAICS 1133-Logging
NAICS 1142-Hunting and Trapping
NAICS 3379-Other Furniture Related Product Manufacturing
NAICS 4239-Miscellaneous Durable Goods Merchant Wholesalers
NAICS 4853-Taxi and Limousine Service
NAICS 4889-Other Support Activities for Transportation

Why They Are Requiring the 300 and 301 Log for Some Industries?

Besides finding additional industry data on increased injuries, DART rate and fatalities, OSHA’s intent is to collect more accurate and detailed information for injuries and illnesses to help ultimately make workplaces safer. The detailed information is meant to help make statistics more accurate and to help identify trends that are relevant to industries and types of workers. The only time OSHA was able to get detailed information was through inspections. The type of data they will be gathering allows for different kinds of statistical analyses and to help determine where initiatives are successful, are failing, or need to be developed.

OSHA sees gathering 300 and 301 information as a benefit not only to themselves, but by posting it online it can be beneficial information to industries, employers, employees, safety consultants like iSi, and to the general public.

Some examples of this that they used in their final rule document include:

300A information only tells how many of each type of incident on that form are occurring. Now they will be able to see the different kinds of injuries and what they are. For example, “respiratory conditions” could mean as a result of chemical exposure, COVID, TB, or Legionnaires.
Now data can be pulled by roles within any type of company. For example, injuries for nurses aides vs. nurses vs. doctors in medical facilities.
The Presidential directive on climate change has OSHA them focused on heat hazards. The new information will help them figure out what kinds of injuries and illnesses are attributed to heat.
This will help give employers another resource to consult besides industry groups and insurance to benchmark themselves against others in their industry. For example, the state of Michigan independently researched and found that bath refinishing contractors had 13 deaths in the span of 12 yrs. From that information, they found it was because of the chemical strippers that were being used. As a result, safety guidance and training was sent to those companies to help improve safety and to alert them of those hazards in order to reduce the deaths.
Another employer in New York researched all injuries from their multiple worksites and found that there had been 11,000 lost workdays because of ladders. To reduce those numbers, they increased training in that area, making injuries drop to close to none. With publicly available information, research like that can be done by multiple parties to help find ways to strengthen workplace safety.

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Christmas Safety

Dec 19, 2023

Christmas can be a wonderful time of the year, but it can also be a time for accidents.

Keep Real Trees Watered: The combination of shorts in electrical lights and a tinder-dry tree can be deadly. Keep your tree well-watered. Water levels should never get below the base of the tree. Unplug lights before watering.
Sockets and Outlets: Water and debris can get into outdoor sockets, so make sure outdoor lights are plugged into a ground fault circuit interrupter outlet to reduce the risk of shorts and shocks. Hire a licensed electrician if you need to install GFCI outlets. Make sure you only use one plug per outlet and do not exceed the wattage rating for the outlet.
Extension Cords: Keep an eye on extension cords, as they can occasionally overheat. Just touch-test the cord. If it’s hot, unplug it. When running extension cords along the ground, make sure to elevate plugs and connectors with a brick to keep snow, water and debris out of the connections.
Turn Christmas Lights Off: Don’t leave Christmas lights running when you go to bed at night or when you leave the house.
Keep an Eye on Candles: Make sure you don’t leave your candles unattended, or burn them close to other decorations. Consider using the battery-powered ones.
Walkways: Keep on top of removing wrapping paper, toys, boxes and other debris from walkways.
Scissors and Knives: Some gifts that come in plastic clam shells, Aunt Tami’s overzealous tape jobs, and others with plastic fasteners may require a knife or a pair of scissors. Make sure to use knife safety principles and don’t let children use them.
Lights on for Guests: If you have overnight guests, keep a light on in hallways to allow them to navigate to the bathroom without tripping.
Fireplaces: Keep trees, wreaths, greeting cards, and the wrapping paper away from and out of the fireplace as they can quickly ignite. Use a screen to contain any flying sparks. Make sure your chimney has been swept if you haven’t used it in a while.
Batteries: Take all batteries out of decorations before storing them. Have some spare batteries available for electronics. Don’t leave batteries sitting on the mantle, by the fireplace or near stoves or open flames. The heat can spark them or make them explode.
Food: Don’t leave food out on buffets for hours on end, no one wants food poisoning as a party favor. Cover and refrigerate anything that could spoil within an hour. Keep kids and pets out of the kitchen when cooking (hot stoves, knives, trip hazard potential). Make sure you take allergies and dietary restrictions into account.
Alcohol: Try to keep track of what you take in and make sure you count any puddings or foods that contain alcohol into your calculations. If you have multiple events to attend, try to give your liver a day’s break between them.

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Safety Boots: What You Need To Know

Oct 20, 2023

Many types of jobs require the use of boots for safety purposes. Some jobs just need regular boots while others require steel or composite toes.

Toe Composition

Steel toe boots have a steel cap over the toe to prevent your feet from being crushed by objects falling on them or rolling over them. Composite toe boots can have toes made of Kevlar, carbon fiber, fiberglass or carbon nanocomposites (composite cylinders arranged in beehive pattern mixed with fiber resin). Composite toes don’t conduct heat, cold, nor electricity, and are thicker but lighter weight than a steel toed boot. They are not as impact-resistant. There are also alloy toe boots such as aluminum or titanium. These are a little less protective but lighter weight than steel toe boots. They can be a little more expensive as well.

Best Practices

Always buy boots that meet ASTM standards for impact and compression and always buy the types of boots your company recommends or requires. Your company has conducted formal PPE assessments to determine the safest types of boots for the work you do.
Always wear the proper socks. Moisture wicking socks are better than cotton socks because cotton socks will tend to create moisture leading to uncomfortableness, foot pain and faster damage to the inside of your boots.
Keep the insides of your boots dry and maintain the waterproofing on the outsides of them.
Remove mud, dirt, clay, and gunk—they’ll dry out the leather.
You can increase the life span of your boots by using premade orthotic insoles.

Checking the Wear

Worn out boots not only are uncomfortable, but they are unsafe. Not replacing them when they’re worn out can cause foot/back/leg pain, foot stress and ingrown toenails and can increase your chances of falling, especially in slippery environments. Check for wear by looking at:

Soles, outsides of the heels, and balls of the shoe for wear. Are soles separating? Sole separation can cause instability, reduce shock absorption and let moisture or chemicals in.
Tears, holes, cracks and external damage—Damage like this can make them less electrical and chemical resistant and more susceptible to foot punctures
Internal damage-Look at the inside, the tongue and look for the stitching. Torn insulation can let in moisture and chemicals. The instep shouldn’t be bunching up.

Finding and Trying on Boots

Wear the socks you’ll be wearing with the boots when you try them on
Your heel shouldn’t come up out of the boot or rub on the back. It shouldn’t move more than a quarter of an inch. As leather conforms to your foot, it will mold to your heel and slight slippage will reduce.
You should have an inch of room in your toes but your toes shouldn’t slide forward when you walk.
The boot should be secure on the sides and top of your foot but not be painful.
Make sure the inner stitching nor the tongue rub on your foot.
When trying them on put them through their paces because you want to make sure they’re right for you: walk, run, hop, do knee raises, stand in place, flex your foot, and carefully roll your ankles and stand on the sides of your foot to test ankle support. If you have red spots on your feet after trying them on, those are the places where the shoe will rub.
Always try on boots on both of your feet. Your feet change sizes throughout the day, so try boots on in the afternoon when your feet tend to be bigger.
If your feet are two different sizes, purchase the boot to fit your larger foot and wear a heel insert for your smaller foot.
If you have flat feet, taller boots with stronger insoles may fit better.
Boot companies traditionally have you order 1/2 size smaller than your sneaker size. For steel toe boots, you may need to order the same size as your sneaker size, or even a 1/2 size larger than your normal shoe size. If you wear thick socks, the larger boot sizes will be needed to accommodate those.

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The One Where You Must Post the Whole Standard

Oct 13, 2023

iSi’s consulting team recently provided a presentation to the annual Kansas Safety and Health Conference about OSHA’s top poorly written regulations. We gave the audience a chance to vote at the end and one of the top vote getters was found in standard 1910.95. This is the occupational noise exposure standard. More specifically, 1910.95(l)(1).

A Unique Requirement

The noise exposure standard aims to protect workers against the effects of noise exposure when sound levels exceed a certain scale pictured in the standard. This is also where instructions on the rules for and how to develop a Hearing Conservation Program can be found. Section K of the standard discusses the importance of training, what topics need to be covered, and the requirement that the training be repeated annually.

In the next section we find something very unique. Section L covers access to information and training materials. The very first requirement states “The employer shall make available to affected employees or their representatives copies of this standard and shall also post a copy in the workplace.” What?? A copy of the standard? Post a copy of the entire standard?

Yes, it means what it says. This is the only standard OSHA has that requires you to take a copy of the standard and post it. OSHA feels it’s important that in addition to training, employees have the chance to read the standard on their own without having to ask for it. It must be centrally posted and at no charge.

Updates to the Rule

This rule was written in 1983 and has not been updated since then. OSHA held firm on its stance in an interpretation letter written in 1988 from someone questioning posting the whole thing, but in 2016 OSHA decided to become a little more user friendly. In 2016 someone sent OSHA a letter requesting electronic posting. OSHA’s answer said they realized the internet was not around in the 80s, and thus, declared that with this letter, they were updating the policy to allow for electronic posting, but only under these certain conditions:

Your Hearing Conservation training program covers specific information to your employees on where and how to access the entire standard electronically;
The link you provide to employees does not go to a generic web page such as to your company’s website, a folder on your intranet or Sharepoint, or the home page for OSHA. It must go to the exact standard located here; and,
Computers must be located in all affected employees’ work areas so that they can have access to the standard at any time without having to request access to a computer or without having to ask for assistance on where to find it electronically.

Citations

It may be low risk that you’ll get fined for just this item unless the inspector has a special place in their heart for this standard. However, it IS likely that it becomes an easy tack-on citation along with other citations of the noise exposure standard.

For example, in the state of Tennessee, this item is one of the most often items cited for this standard, but so are:

Lack of training or lack of training program;
Did not administer a continuing hearing conservation program when workplace noise levels indicated it was required;
Lack of a monitoring program when information indicated the exposure levels may equal or exceed the limits;
No audiometric testing program or audiometric testing;
Did not establish a baseline audiogram within 6 months of an employee’s first exposure at or above the action level; and
Not giving employees the opportunity to select their hearing protectors from a variety of suitable hearing protectors provided by the employer.

Where Do You Stand on Noise?

When was the last time you had your workplace AND your workers tested for noise exposure? iSi conducts noise sampling, helps write programs, provides training and much more assistance for noise exposure issues. Contact us today!

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What’s the Difference Between OSHA’s General Industry and Construction Standards on Asbestos?

Sep 22, 2023

With so many entities regulating asbestos – EPA to OSHA to State Governments to even City and County Governments – we see a lot of confusion. These regulations cross over and intertwine with each other and it’s sometimes difficult to remember which rule is required by which agency. In this article, we will tackle OSHA’s side.

OSHA has two separate regulations regarding asbestos. The General Industry Standard is at 29 CFR 1910.1001 and the Construction Standard is at 29 CFR 1926.1101. Unlike other regulations that are shared between 1910 and 1926, these are NOT a carbon copy of each other.

Which One is For You? Well….It Depends.

In many standards, a company follows either the standard in 1910 or the standard in 1926 based on what type of facility you are. If you’re a manufacturer, fixed facility, traditionally the 1910 general industry standard applies to you. If you’re a construction company who moves from site to site, the 1926 construction standards typically apply to you. However, for asbestos regulations, the one that applies to you depends on what’s going on at your site and what your workers are doing.

A general rule of thumb is daily management of asbestos at your facility falls under the general industry standards. When you are intentionally disturbing asbestos, then you follow the construction standards. So a “general industry” facility could be subject to both the general industry and the construction standards if they have a renovation going on. It’s important that you know the difference between the two distinctions.

The Similarities

We’ll first take a look at the similarities between the two standards. Remember that OSHA’s goal is the safety of the worker so regulations are focused on worker protection.

Notifying Employees of the Hazards of Asbestos

Both regulations require that you notify workers of the hazards of asbestos and you can do this for everyone through your compliance activities for the hazard communication standard or you can do it through separate training. This includes informing workers of the presence and location of asbestos in their workplace as well as the health hazards caused by asbestos. Housekeeping personnel are required to be notified of asbestos-containing areas they could be cleaning. Outside contractors and project bidders who could work in areas where asbestos could be disturbed are required to be notified where it is. If asbestos is to be disturbed, such as a removal projects for a renovation, those people working in areas adjacent to those work areas are to be notified of the project. Tenants of buildings are required to be notified by the owner of the building.

Signage/Labels

Warning signs are to be posted on regulated areas where removal is being conducted or asbestos is being disturbed.

Warning labels should be on raw materials, mixtures, scrap, waste, debris, bagged protective clothing, and other products containing asbestos fibers, or be placed on their containers. Entrances to mechanical rooms or mechanical areas where employees could be exposed should have labels attached where they will clearly be noticed by employees.

Exposure Limits and Medical Surveillance

Each standard sets limits for the amount of asbestos a worker can be exposed to. If there’s the potential that a worker will be exposed past the limits in the standards, then respiratory protection is required and certain PPE is as well. If that limit is exceeded, then the worker also needs to be placed in a medical surveillance program to monitor the health effects of their potential exposure.

Training

Each standard lines out required training. The level of training required depends on what the worker will be doing and whether or not they’ll be disturbing asbestos. Training could range from an awareness class to a full week of intense training. Most asbestos training is required to be repeated annually.

The Differences

General industry standards have a section on suggested work practices for housekeeping personnel to follow, but the construction industry standard dives into detailed work practices for those personnel intentionally disturbing asbestos-containing materials to follow.

In the construction standard is where we find the terms Class I, Class II, Class III and Class IV work. The specific practices that workers are to follow are spelled out in detail for each class of work.

Class I work is for workers at the highest risk of exposure. These are the one who will be removing friable asbestos materials. Friable asbestos materials are those that when dry, can be easily crumbled or pulverized to powder by hand, making the potential for its fibers to be released even greater. Class I work is the large-scale abatements of thermal systems insulation from pipes, boilers, tanks and ducts as well as removal of sprayed-on insulation, “popcorn ceiling” texture or acoustical plaster and vinyl floor covering. This work requires specialized asbestos removal/abatement training of up to 40 hours with annual refreshers.

Class II work is the removal of non-friable asbestos. Non-friable asbestos cannot be easily crumbled or pulverized to powder by hand and its asbestos fibers are usually bonded into other materials. If a non-friable material remains in good condition, it poses little hazard. Because of its strength, incidental contact will not usually release a fiber. Class II work includes removal of vinyl asbestos floor tile, lay-in ceiling tile, Transite roofing panels, window glazing, asbestos siding and any non-friable materials. This work requires specialized asbestos removal training that can vary from full 40 hour courses to specialized training for the specific material to be removed.

Class III work is the intentional disturbing of asbestos for repair and maintenance of other items. For instance, if one needed to cut away a small amount of asbestos to fix a leaky pipe or to potentially disturb some asbestos in order to access an electrical panel for repair, that would fall under this class of work. This type of work can often be done by in-house maintenance personnel or even maintenance contractors. However, it’s still an intentional disturbance and so the workers who do these activities are required to take specialized asbestos removal training as well. Class III work only allows workers to remove a certain quantity of material before it crosses the line and become Class I or II abatement work. Specialized training to remove these small quantities is required, typically a 16-hour initial class with annual refresher training.

Class IV work is for those who will be conducting maintenance and custodial activities after a removal is completed, that is, cleaning up after Class I, II or III work. This level has its own specific training requirements with specific content requirements.

Questions?

Asbestos regulations can be hard to interpret and confusing as actually 4 entities can get involved in regulating it: EPA, OSHA, State Governments and City/County Governments. If you have any questions regarding this article or asbestos in general, contact us.

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Read the full NEP documentation here.

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OSHA Issues New National Emphasis Programs for Warehousing, Distribution Centers and Certain Retail Stores

Jul 28, 2023

OSHA’s latest National Emphasis Program (NEP) is targeting warehousing and distribution center operations, mail/postal processing and distribution centers, parcel delivery/courier services and certain retail stores with high injury rates.

An NEP is a temporary inspection emphasis based on a particular hazard that is typically targeted to specific NAICS codes where certain hazards are most prevalent or in safety areas showing a trend towards high hazards. NEP inspections can be scheduled on their own, or OSHA can tack one on at an inspection if they see something that applies. So, if OSHA is onsite to investigate a complaint and they see something that could fall under an NEP, they can inspect for that too while they are there.

Who’s Covered in this NEP and Why?

OSHA recognizes a warehousing and distribution growth boom and an increased DART rate compared to other industries. In 2011 there were 668,900 warehousing and distribution centers, and in 2021 that number was 1,713,900. DART rates and total recordables for the industries covered in this NEP were over twice that of all private industry, some were more than three times the private industry rate from 2017-2021.

These are the NAICS Codes that will fall under the NEP:

491110 Postal Service (Processing & Distribution Centers only)
492110 Couriers and Express Delivery Services
492210 Local Messengers and Local Delivery
493110 General Warehousing and Storage
493120 Refrigerated Warehousing and Storage
493130 Farm Product Warehousing and Storage
493190 Other Warehousing and Storage

The following warehouse-type retail stores are included because they have been found to have issues in loading and storage areas and have higher than average DART (Days Away; Restricted; Transfer) rates:

444110 Home Centers
444130 Hardware Stores
444190 Other Building Material Dealers
445110 Supermarkets and Other Grocery Stores
452311 Warehouse Clubs and Supercenters

This retail list will change each calendar year based on which related establishments have the highest DART rates.

What Will Inspectors Look For?

Inspectors will be looking at these program areas:

Powered Industrial Vehicles (already an emphasis program in several regions)
Material Handling and Storage
Walking-Working Surfaces
Means of Egress
Fire Protection
Heat (already a National Emphasis Program)
Ergonomic Hazards

For heat, inspectors will review injury and illness records, ask about it during worker interviews, and look for these in the walkthrough. If inspectors see exposures to heat-related hazards or if they find your NAICS code already falls under the Heat NEP, they will expand the scope of the inspection to include the Heat NEP. Read more about what that inspection entails here. Heat is a big emphasis right now with OSHA because it helps them meet their responsibilities in complying with the Presidential directive on climate change.

If inspectors see ergonomic hazards in their reviews of records, worker interviews and the walkthrough, they can also expand the scope to ergonomics and open a health inspection in addition to the safety inspection.

Questions? Need Assistance?

iSi can help answer questions you may have about this NEP or any others, as well as conduct a mock OSHA inspection to see where you stand if OSHA were to conduct this inspection at your facility today. Contact us!

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iSi Summer Toolbox Topics: Fireworks Safety

Jun 29, 2023

Download Article in Shareable Safety Sheet

One of the favorite events of the 4th of July holiday for many people is shooting fireworks. Contrary to what we may have seen and done in our teenage years, fireworks can actually be pretty dangerous. Here are some tips to remember and share for a safe holiday:

Know your local laws regarding the use of fireworks such as where you are allowed to shoot them, which types are not allowed and at what times you can shoot them.
If you’re not allowed to shoot them in your home area and need to go across city or county lines, make sure you have the permission of the owner of where you’re going to shoot them.

The Setup

Always use fireworks OUTSIDE within a clear area. Stay way from buildings and vehicles.
Stay away from trees, bushes, and other dry vegetation.
Adults should supervise all firework activities.
Alcohol and fireworks do not mix. Save your alcohol for after the show.
Always have a bucket of water and a water hose nearby.

Shooting the Fireworks

Before you begin, know your fireworks: read the caution labels and performance descriptions before igniting.
Wear safety glasses when shooting fireworks.
Light one firework at a time and then quickly move away.
Sparklers look harmless, but they can burn at 2000 degrees and quickly ignite clothing. Make sure anyone using them has their shoes on and that they hold them out away from their clothes and skin.
Never relight a “dud” firework. Wait 20 minutes and then soak it in a bucket of water.
Never carry fireworks in your POCKET or shoot them into METAL or GLASS containers.
Old fireworks can be a safety hazard—make sure they haven’t gotten wet and that the fuse is intact before using.

Disposal

Smoldering fireworks can cause a fire in a trash can.
Soak used and dud fireworks in a bucket of water for at least 20 minutes, or overnight which is even better.
If you find old fireworks that are damaged or you don’t want to light them, don’t just throw them away. Soak them in a bucket of water until fully wet.
Wrap the wet fireworks in Ziploc bags, trash bags or plastic wrap so they won’t dry out—especially the unused ones that still contain the explosives within them. Dry fireworks can become unstable.

Fireworks and Pets

Don’t bring your pets to a fireworks display, even a small one.
If fireworks are being used near your home, put your pet in a safe, interior room to avoid exposure to the sound.
Treat toys filled with their favorites such as pumpkin, peanut butter or applesauce may be a good distraction to keep their minds busy.
Make sure your pet has an identification tag, in case it runs off during a fireworks display.

We hope you have a safe and wonderful Independence Day holiday!

.One of the favorite events of the 4th of July holiday for many people is shooting fireworks. Contrary to what we may have seen and done in our teenage years, fireworks can actually be pretty dangerous. Here are some tips to remember and share for a safe holiday:

Know your local laws regarding the use of fireworks such as where you are allowed to shoot them, which types are not allowed and at what times you can shoot them.
If you’re not allowed to shoot them in your home area and need to go across city or county lines, make sure you have the permission of the owner of where you’re going to shoot them.

The Setup

Always use fireworks OUTSIDE within a clear area. Stay way from buildings and vehicles.
Stay away from trees, bushes, and other dry vegetation.
Adults should supervise all firework activities.
Alcohol and fireworks do not mix. Save your alcohol for after the show.
Always have a bucket of water and a water hose nearby.

Shooting the Fireworks

Before you begin, know your fireworks: read the caution labels and performance descriptions before igniting.
Wear safety glasses when shooting fireworks.
Light one firework at a time and then quickly move away.
Sparklers look harmless, but they can burn at 2000 degrees and quickly ignite clothing. Make sure anyone using them has their shoes on and that they hold them out away from their clothes and skin.
Never relight a “dud” firework. Wait 20 minutes and then soak it in a bucket of water.
Never carry fireworks in your POCKET or shoot them into METAL or GLASS containers.
Old fireworks can be a safety hazard—make sure they haven’t gotten wet and that the fuse is intact before using.

Disposal

Smoldering fireworks can cause a fire in a trash can.
Soak used and dud fireworks in a bucket of water for at least 20 minutes, or overnight which is even better.
If you find old fireworks that are damaged or you don’t want to light them, don’t just throw them away. Soak them in a bucket of water until fully wet.
Wrap the wet fireworks in Ziploc bags, trash bags or plastic wrap so they won’t dry out—especially the unused ones that still contain the explosives within them. Dry fireworks can become unstable.

Fireworks and Pets

Don’t bring your pets to a fireworks display, even a small one.
If fireworks are being used near your home, put your pet in a safe, interior room to avoid exposure to the sound.
Treat toys filled with their favorites such as pumpkin, peanut butter or applesauce may be a good distraction to keep their minds busy.
Make sure your pet has an identification tag, in case it runs off during a fireworks display.

We hope you have a safe and wonderful Independence Day holiday!

Questions?

Does this apply to your company? Do you have questions? Contact us!

Ask a Question

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