Page 70 - Occupational Health & Safety, September 2019

MATERIALS HANDLING
Materials Handling Training Throughout the Facility
BY KAREN HAMEL
Safely managing hazardous materials isn’t just a series of tasks for the crew at the re- ceiving dock to complete. Recognizing every area where hazardous materials are handled, stored, used, transported and collected is the first step in creating trainings that minimize risk and promote safe work practices throughout the facility.
Just as technicians in a quality control lab per- form different job functions and work with chemi- cals differently than the engineers in a product de- velopment area, their risk levels also vary. Tailoring training to reflect those specific risks will help to promote the safe handling of hazardous materials in every area of a facility.
Receiving Areas
Raw materials can arrive in many different forms, each presenting its own special handling needs. Materials may arrive in bulk and be transferred directly to stor- age tanks. Drums and pails may be shrink-wrapped on skids. Boxes may contain several small containers.
For the most part, however, receiving crews don’t see or directly handle the actual materials inside each of the containers. They typically move intact contain- ers from the receiving dock to another area. After do- ing this all day, every day without incident; it can be
easy to forget or minimize the potential for harm in the event of a container failing or a transfer hose breaking. Like all other employees, receiving crews need to have hazard communication training to be taught about the hazardous chemicals that they work with each day. This training should also include instruction that prepares them to know what to do when a trailer arrives with something unknown leaking out of the back of it. They also need to know what is expected of them when they graze or puncture a container that’s
been placed in a congested unloading area.
Warehouse and Storage Areas
Just because a container has been put on a rack or in a cabinet and no one has touched it doesn’t mean that it won’t leak. Sometimes packages are damaged during transportation, but the damage isn’t evident at first. Other times, materials are forgotten or are not prop- erly rotated, and they pass their expiration date, caus- ing the container or package to degrade and allowing the contents to leak.
In addition to the mess a leaky container causes, the spilled contents can present additional safety problems if they leak onto something that is incom- patible. Establishing dedicated areas for each raw material that is stored and communicating the need for product segregation with employees during train- ings reduces the risk of incompatible materials being stored on top of, below or near each other.
Manufacturing and Processing Areas
Employees in manufacturing and processing areas have more potential to come into direct contact with hazardous materials than employees in other areas of a facility. Chances are, in addition to hazard commu- nication training, they also have a series of additional safety trainings that work together to support writ- ten work processes and procedures to minimize the chance of incidents.
Part of handling hazardous materials safely in manufacturing areas is preventing those materials from entering the environment. If it is not included in standard operating procedures, training may in- clude the need to segregate hazardous wastes and keep it in closed containers as well as preventing spills of hazardous materials from entering drains that lead to waterways. Training may also include instruction on special packaging or labeling that is required for finished products.
Laboratories
Like employees in manufacturing areas, lab techni-
66 Occupational Health & Safety | SEPTEMBER 2019
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