Page 34 - Occupational Health & Safety, April 2017

FIRST AID TRAINING
First Aid Preparedness
Having trained personnel ready and willing to render first aid will reassure other co-workers and make them feel safer themselves. BY FRED ELLIOTT
28 Occupational Health & Safety | APRIL 2017
www.ohsonline.com
An OSHA enforcement case announced in December 2016 is a good example of the kind of worker injury where a co-worker might have to respond quickly with first aid assistance. The agency proposed $274,934 in penalties against an Ohio plastics manufacturer af- ter a pneumatic bench cutter severed a 27-year-old employee’s finger as she cut rubber material in June 2016. Along with the penalties came four repeated, six serious, and three other-than-serious violations filed by OSHA against the company, which also was placed in the OSHA Severe Violators Enforcement Program, according to OSHA.
The key standards for ensuring employees are ready and able to provide first aid care to an injured or sick co-worker are familiar ones. The OSHA standard for general industry is 29 CFR 1910.151, medical ser- vices and first aid, and the one for logging operations is 29 CFR 1910.266, with 1910.266(d)(2) addressing first aid kits and, in Appendix B, both first aid training and CPR training.
This Appendix B provides a list of topics for what OSHA considers to be the “minimal accept- able first-aid and CPR training program” for em- ployees engaged in logging, and it’s a handy guide for other workplaces, as well. The appendix states that first aid and CPR training should be delivered in a variety of methods and should include practi-
cal exercises and examinations (both written and practical), and the length of the training must be enough to ensure the trainees understand the con- cepts of first aid and can demonstrate their ability to perform the various procedures needed to help someone experiencing:
■ Respiratory arrest
■ Cardiac arrest
■ Hemorrhage
■ Lacerations/abrasions ■ Amputations
■ Musculoskeletal injuries ■ Shock
■ Eye injuries
■ Burns
■ Loss of consciousness
■ Extreme temperature exposure (hypothermia/ hyperthermia)
■ Paralysis
■ Poisoning
■ Loss of mental functioning (psychosis/halluci-
nations, etc.).
It says the training should cover CPR; the appli-
cation of dressings and slings; treatment of strains, sprains, and fractures; immobilization of injured per- sons; handling and transporting injured persons; and the treatment of bites, stings, or contact with poison- ous plants or animals.
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