Page 70 - Occupational Health & Safety, July 2017

EMERGENCY RESPONSE
Six Emergency Response Habits Employees Need to Develop
Employees need to refresh their training and have drills regularly so they will be able to rely on both their knowledge and their experience when emergencies happen.
BY KAREN D. HAMEL If safety glasses, ear plugs, and steel-toed shoes are required in a production area, most employees who work there every day will eventually get into the habit of wearing them—especially when they receive coaching and positive reinforcement for re- membering them. When the same start-up procedure is used at the beginning of the shift every day, it will
become habitual, too.
Developing good safety habits can help reduce the
chance of injuries. But what happens when there is an emergency or something out of the normal happens? Employees need to be just as prepared for the unex- pected as they are for routine operations.
Training employees on the types of emergencies that could happen at or around the facility and what their role is during those emergencies are essential first steps in preparing them to respond appropriately. In some cases, the training may be even be required by OSHA regulations. Drills help everyone to apply what they have learned and actually walk through the response process so that it becomes familiar. The trick is having drills often enough that employees can de- velop emergency response habits.
Many professional responders agree that when there is an emergency, people’s actions don’t rise to the occasion—they fall back to their highest level of train- ing. This happens because it is what they know, which makes them comfortable with the actions they need to take. That’s one of the reasons why even the most seasoned responders train and drill regularly, so that they know what they are going to do, which makes them ready to act instinctively when the need arises.
Given that even professional responders continu- ally train and drill so that they will be prepared to act, it is wrong to assume that employees will instinc- tively know what to do when there is an emergency. Just like the firefighters, hazmat team, ambulance crew, or anyone else who may be called for assis- tance, employees need to refresh their training and have drills regularly so that they will be able to rely on both their knowledge and their experience when emergencies happen.
While it is probably not realistic to train every em- ployee to be a contingency planner who is prepared for any time of emergency that could ever happen, each employee needs to specifically know what they are expected to do during different types of emergen- cies. Here are a few of the basic emergency response habits every employee can develop.
Exit Routes
Some facilities have multiple types of alarms, but for many facilities, an alarm means that something is wrong and everyone should evacuate. Each employee should know where the exit routes are and where the closest exit is. In addition, they should also be able to leave the building at least two different ways.
Be sure that evacuation drills allow employees to practice using both primary and alternative routes so that they are less likely to panic if they aren’t able to use their primary route in an emergency. Employees also should know where to go after they leave the building and whom to report to after they have evacuated.
Chemical Splashes
Under OSHA’s Hazard Communication Standard, hazardous chemical containers need to be properly labeled. The information on the label provides basic information about a chemical’s hazard. But when an employee has been splashed or unsafely exposed to a hazardous chemical, Safety Data Sheets (SDS) can provide more details to better help the affected em- ployee. Knowing where to locate SDS and how to quickly find the one that is needed allows faster re- sponse and can lessen the extent of an injury.
Eyewash Stations and Drench Showers
In areas where corrosive chemicals are used, knowing how to get to eyewash stations and drench showers quickly can literally mean the difference between a first aid incident and a recordable injury with a long recovery time. Try blindfolding employees to see whether they can reach the nearest eyewash or drench shower in less than 10 seconds.
Fire Extinguishers
Most building codes require fire extinguishers; be- cause they need to be checked monthly, most are fully charged and ready to use. However, whether or not employees should actually use them is sometimes a debate. Some facilities develop “do not use” policies because they feel that having an employee attempt to put out an incipient fire with an extinguisher is too big of a risk. Instead, they want their employees to pull the fire alarm and exit the building.
For facilities that do not have this type of policy, annual fire extinguisher drills can help them to re- member to pull, aim, squeeze, and sweep. Be sure that these drills also include instruction on exiting the
66 Occupational Health & Safety | JULY 2017
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