Page 84 - OHS, July/August 2020

FACILITY SAFETY
1910.176(g). Guarding. Covers and/or guardrails shall be provided to protect personnel from the hazards of open pits, tanks, vats, ditches, etc.
“One of the biggest things a facility can do is just making sure that equipment and product pallets aren’t cluttering up walkways in the facility,” Iowa-based industrial safety professional, Clint Hillary said.
Removing clutter is a first step toward keeping employees safe from congestion, blind spots and unprotected fall hazards. How- ever, an even higher degree of safety can be attained with the right combination of equipment.
For example, inside the loading dock area, red/green dock lights indicate that a trailer is restrained and safe to enter (or, to a truck driver, unrestrained and safe to pull away). While these lights have been standard for some time, they’re not always visible inside, as stacked pallets can obscure a lift driver’s view of them on the control panel.
To solve that issue, an enhancement was developed, with highly visible LED lights placed in the upper corners of dock doors. As a result, forklift operators can see the red/green signal even if the control box lights are obstructed. Additionally, red/green lights can also be placed on the dock leveler, thereby letting forklift operators within the trailer know that it is still safely secured to the loading dock. Other recent innovations include ceiling-mounted control lights for blind corners that can be seen above stacked pallets.
From light communication systems at the loading dock, to light communication systems inside the plant, U.S. safety managers who use this type of equipment will be well prepared to comply with the standards outlined in subparts A and C of CFR 1920.176. To re- main compliant with subpart G, guarding equipment, more facili- ties now go beyond the traditional “stops 10,000 pounds at 4 mph” industry standard and choosing barrier products to install based on the kinetic energy distance formula, also known as BLAST rat- ings (for “barrier load and speed testing”).
OSHA 29 CFR 1910.28: Walking-Working Surfaces (U.S.) What it says:
1910.28(b)(4)(i). The employer must ensure that each employee on a dockboard is protected from falling 4 feet (1.2 m) or more to a lower level by a guardrail system or handrails.
The protection of workers—from falling off the edge of an open dock position, as well as into recessed pit areas—should be a priority for facility and safety managers. Unfortunately, fixed barriers aren’t practical in loading dock areas, as workers need to move across the dock leveler and into a truck’s trailer to load and unload products.
Retractable barriers, which may help prevent forklifts from carrying heavy loads off an edge, are essential to use at the end of loading dock positions, especially when doors are open and trailers aren’t present.
“There’s a big emphasis on Walking-Working Surfaces from OSHA. They retrained everyone in 2017,” Hillary said. “Basically, they want to make sure working areas are clear of hazards and that workers aren’t in danger of being struck by a forklift or falling into pits or recessed areas.”
The loading dock is one of the most dangerous areas of any warehouse, manufacturing facility or processing plant. While a busy loading dock signifies a successful business, the risk of injuries
will only increase as forklift traffic rises and more workers attempt to fulfill shipment orders.
Busy loading docks also require equipment that is up to stan- dard for repeated use. A single leveler can expect more than 30 forklift crossings just to load or unload a single shipment. Dock levelers, especially those that don’t offer smooth transitions from the loading dock floor to the trailer floor, can result in lower ex- tremity and lower back injuries to fork truck operators, according to an Ohio State University study.
OSHA 29 CFR 1910.178: Forklift Operations (U.S.)
This regulation mentions that a “dockboard or bridgeplates shall be properly secured before they are driven over. Dockboard or bridge- plates shall be driven over carefully and slowly and their rated ca- pacity never exceeded.” Dock levelers serve as major upgrades to dockboards or bridgeplates, as they are already affixed to the floor. They can typically handle much greater weights as well.
More advanced dock levelers will go beyond the simple task of connecting a trailer to the warehouse. Some dock levelers, for example, have safety features, such as a safety lip that can prevent forklifts from rolling over the edge of an open dock door. Other safety features include constant pressure controls (on vertical-stor- ing levelers) and automatic free-fall protection and strut supports and lockout/tagout capabilities to protect personnel during clean- ing and inspection.
OSHA 29 CFR 1910.900: Ergonomics (U.S.)
This new standard contains stringent requirements for most non- construction employers to identify and abate musculoskeletal disorders. The standard identifies five such risk factors, which are defined in terms of “action triggers,” based on the duration of ex- posure to specified actions or conditions. The risk factors called out in this regulation are:
■ Repetition
■ Force
■ Awkward postures
■ Contact stress
■ Vibration
While written safety protocols are a great starting point, leading
facilities will go a step further towards preventing musculoskeletal disorders by installing equipment that reduces heavy repetition, force, awkward postures, contact stress and vibration.
At the loading dock, this entails bridging the gap from the plant floor to the trailer bed with the smoothest path possible. While dockplates and dockboards can transport a forklift operator across this gap, they aren’t going to be as smooth as a dock leveler.
Hydraulic dock levelers typically provide smoother transitions from the facility floor into the trailer than dockplates or manually operated pull chain dock levelers. Leading models are specifically designed to reduce this bumpy “dock shock” sensation at both the rear and tip of the trailer.
ANSI MH28.3: 2009: Elevated Platforms /
ANSI 6.4.3: Reciprocating Barriers (U.S.)
The American National Standards Institute’s ANSI MH28.3 and ANSI 6.4.3 mention that any gate that provides an access opening through the guards—for the primary purpose of loading and unload- ing material onto a work platform—shall be designed in such a way
78 Occupational Health & Safety | JULY/AUGUST 2020
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