Page 71 - Occupational Health & Safety, July 2017

building if they have exhausted an extin- guisher but have failed to put out the fire.
Spill Response
Most spills that happen in fixed facilities are small and can be safely cleaned up by em- ployees in the immediate area. OSHA calls these “incidental spills.” When a spill creates an unsafe atmosphere or threatens the health of employees, it is most likely an “emergency spill” and needs to be cleaned up by employ- ees who have been trained to OSHA’s Haz- ardous Waste Operations and Emergency Response (HAZWOPER) Standard.
All employees need to be taught how to quickly determine whether they are ca- pable of cleaning up a spill or need to call in trained emergency spill responders. Volume, location, chemical properties, and levels of training are all factors that need to be taken into consideration when training employees how to determine whether a spill is incidental.
Injury Response and Reporting
Facilities that are not located in close prox- imity to hospitals or infirmaries need to have employees who are trained to admin- ister first aid. While it is not necessary for every employee to receive first aid training, it is important for every employee to know what to do when someone is injured. At a minimum, every employee should know whom to report an injury to, as well as the process that will be used to investigate the root cause of an incident. Even elementary skills such as being able to retrieve the first aid kit or AED or being able to meet the ambulance at the door and direct them to an injured employee, are helpful.
Few people ever reach the point where responding to emergencies is as instinctive as tying their shoes. But without regular emergency training and drills, response ac- tions will never become familiar, let alone become habits.
The more comfortable employees are with their roles in emergency response, the more likely they will be to follow estab- lished plans and avoid injuries.
Karen D. Hamel, CSP, WACH, is a regula- tory compliance professional, trainer and technical writer for New Pig. She can be reached at 1-800-HOT-HOGS® (468-4647) or by email, karenh@newpig.com.
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