Page 12 - OHS, September 2024

FACILITY SAFETY
Advanced Lighting Features Assist with Facility Safety and Employee Well-Being
New technology continues to raise the bar on behalf of safety.
BY AARON FREUND
There are many factors that contribute to workplace safety today, including proper facility maintenance, reduction of tripping hazards, cleanliness, everyday floor upkeep, proper use of hazardous materials and so much more. However, a very important measure—which is sometimes overlooked—is prop- er lighting, both overhead and direct, to not only prevent slips, trips, and falls but to protect eye strain, headaches, and employee fatigue.
Various studies suggest that appropriate lighting in the work- place reduces eye tension, improves productivity, and eliminates the numbers of accidents and falls. A CDC study found that LED lighting reduced glare discomfort by 45 percent and floor trip haz- ard detection improved by 23.7 percent.1
Improvements in overhead and stationary lighting have made great strides in enhancing workplace safety, but new technological advancements are also yielding an unprecedented number of fea- tures and applications in flashlights, lanterns and headlamps, which are becoming indispensable safety tools on the job. From USB re- chargeable lights that can be charged on the go to safety-rated lights that protect workers in all types of hazardous environments, today’s professional-grade flashlight products have come a long way.
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Delivering Multi-Function Lighting
Workers in many industrial settings depend on high-quality flashlights, headlamps and lanterns to fill a work area with either soft flood light that won’t tire eyes or a bright focused beam for concentrating on the task at hand. High lumen (1,000 lumens or more) flashlights provide full situational awareness by delivering extraordinary brightness in a wide beam pattern. These lights are ideal for smaller areas where workers require a lot of light, in- cluding hard-to-see peripheral areas and corners where dangers might lurk, but not an exceptionally long reach. Other categories of lights feature high levels of candela (the distance over which a light beam is “thrown”), designed for down-range applications requiring optimal beam distance. Some lighting products can provide both functions in the same light, enabling workers to either light up entire work scenes—thus illuminating potential fall hazards—or provide spot lighting for jobs closer to hand. Products also are available that allow technicians to use both a forward-facing spot beam and side-facing flood light individu- ally or simultaneously for optimizing navigation and eliminating blind spots.