Page 55 - OHS, November/December 2020

work has been completed. This means making sure that workers and materials have been cleared from dangerous areas, that all lockout devices are removed and equipment tested and that the appropriate personnel have been informed that the LOTO is removed. None of the equipment should be re-energized until these actions are taken, at which point workers can be notified that equipment is ready for use.
A potentially dangerous form of hazardous energy, which may be taken for granted, is gravity. If you have ever slid under the car in your garage to perform a repair, you were probably keenly aware of the two tons of unforgiving metal balanced right above you. Which is why, if you are smart, you won’t rely on a floor jack to keep the car aloft. You will also use jack stands in case the jack’s hydraulics should fail. Gravity, after all, can never be turned off.
Best Practices for LOTO Safety
Regardless of your role in the organization—whether you’re a maintenance worker, a safety officer or the president of the company—it pays to be aware of these common-sense best practices for an effective LOTO program and equipment-specific procedures:
■ Keep it simple. Focus on the user, not on the OSHA standard. You can develop the most detailed and thorough written procedure in the world, but if the user doesn’t understand it, it isn’t useful.
■ Be consistent. Facilities may have hundreds or thousands of pieces of complex equipment, each with its own protocols. Strive
to simplify things by ensuring consistency in the way equipment is labeled and procedures are described.
■ Enforce accountability. If an employee has not been properly trained and coached on equipment and procedures and ends up hurting themselves or someone else, it isn’t just their fault —it may also be yours. Ensure that safety training is conducted and requirements are enforced at all levels of the organization.
■ Did we mention verify? We said it before, but we’ll say it again. There have been real-world situations in which initial LOTO procedures have been carefully followed, but a failure to observe the final step—verifying that all energy sources have been controlled—has damaged or destroyed equipment, caused serious injury and even caused some of the many fatalities that still happen every year.
Lockout/Tagout procedures need not be unnecessarily complicated, and we hope this has cleared up some of the mystery surrounding this vital safety practice. When you hear about a worksite injury or death involving machinery or energy, chances are that steps in the LOTO process were missed. By ensuring that programs are effective and enforced, and that everyone is trained on what to do and how to do it, we can keep ourselves and others safe.
Tom Burgess, MS, CSP, CIH, Client Manager; and Justin Wilson, CSP, Group Manager, are with T&M Associates, a leading national consulting, environmental, engineering, technical services, and construction management company.
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NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2020 | Occupational Health & Safety 49 5/6/19 12:12 PM