The National Safety Council has a team of consultants who travel across the

country – and the world – to visit worksites and conduct safety audits. But no
matter where each team member is, chances are good that he or she will spot
one or more of seven common safety hazards. Here, NSC consultants JoAnn
Dankert, Namir George and Rachel Harrington identify for Safety+Health the
workplace hazards they see over and over again.

1Working at height
It shouldn’t be a surprise that Dankert, Harrington and George frequently
spot hazards associated with working at height. Bureau of Labor Statistics
data shows that falls to a lower level accounted for 14 percent of all fatalities
in 2014, and OSHA standards related to scaffolding and ladders are regularly
among the most frequently cited violations.

Dankert, an NSC senior consultant based in Arizona, said hazards associated

with working at height can originate from a lack of understanding. Employers
may not know they have to provide fall protection, or the fall protection gear
may not be worn properly or not hooked up to anything. Some employers
don’t even have a written fall protection procedure or process.

Employers need to identify all locations where fall protection is necessary –

as well as where the engineered anchor points are – and train employees and
regularly audit the fall protection program, she said.

Watch an interview with National Safety Council Senior Consultant JoAnn

Dankert about common safety hazards she finds on jobsites.

Some of those locations may be surprising. Dankert recently visited a

manufacturing facility that was expanding and had added to its roof a new
12-foot-tall chiller next to three existing ones. But something was missing.
The old equipment had proper fall protection, including swing gates and a
railing for when maintenance work is needed, but the new chiller didn’t.

“The fall hazard was not about doing work and falling off the roof – it was
the equipment on top of that roof,” Dankert said. “These are hidden places
you don’t go to very often, and you just don’t think about it.”
Dankert cites this case as an example of the need for safety professionals to
have a seat at the table when decisions on design or purchases are made.
Their input, she said, can save employers time and money.

More advice: Buy the correct-sized gear for workers, and keep in mind that
although some work environments may have anchor points readily available,
other locations may need an engineer to install them. Remind employees to
hook to the anchor point when working at height, and keep a close eye on
how well personal protective equipment is holding up. Environments with
sharp edges, chemicals or welding, for example, can weaken a harness.
Regularly inspect gear, and remove damaged PPE from service.

“Fall protection is like other PPE – it’s not good forever and ever,” Dankert
said.

In some situations, it may be beneficial to forgo using personal fall protection

equipment and instead build a platform with standard railings and a swing
gate in front of a fixed ladder. Although such a platform costs money,
Dankert said, it may be less costly than creating a fall protection plan, buying
the PPE, and training and re-training employees.
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2Poor housekeeping
Clutter blocking fire exits, aisles and emergency exits is a housekeeping
problem that George, who is based in the United Kingdom as NSC’s manager
of international consulting services, sees often.

Another common hazard? Over-stacking loads on racks in a warehouse that

bring them too close to a sprinkler head, which can limit the sprinkler’s
efficiency in an emergency. Clutter, leaks or standing water also can
contribute to slips, trips and falls.

Workers shouldn’t wait for housekeeping or sanitation crews to take care of

these issues, Dankert said. Instead, they should clean as they go. “Just
because it’s a dirty process doesn’t mean you shouldn’t clean up spills,” she
said.
If the clutter or spill requires specialized training to clean up, then employees
need to alert their supervisor, who can send in the appropriate staff.
Additionally, Dankert recommends setting aside a few minutes at the end of
each shift, or on a Friday afternoon, to clean up before leaving for the day.

When it comes to storage, employers need to make sure appropriate areas are
made available, notes Harrington, an NSC senior consultant based in Illinois.
Harrington said she often sees electrical rooms used inappropriately for
storage, with supplies blocking electrical installations.

Even if clearance between the stored supplies and the circuit breakers is
appropriate, Harrington pointed out, employers need to consider situations
that could arise in which someone would need easy access to that room.

“Think about an emergency where lights are out, something has gone wrong,
and it’s full of chairs,” she said. “I wouldn’t recommend storing anything in
an electrical room beyond what’s in the use of that room. I wouldn’t
recommend it at all.”

JoAnn Dankert Namir George Rachel Harrington

3Electrical – Extension cords

Blocked breakers aren’t the only electrical hazard NSC consultants frequently
see. Many electrical hazards spotted are related to inappropriate use of
extension cords.
Dankert often witnesses “daisy-chaining” – using multiple extension cords or
power strips for a device. At one manufacturing facility Dankert visited, she
saw as many as five extension cords chained together.

“It was almost like Christmas tree lights,” she said. “All you really saw were
all these electrical cords everywhere.”

Because the employer is a developer of prototype equipment, the layout of

the manufacturing floor was regularly being changed. And in most other
aspects, the employer was conscientious about safety – the extension cords
being used were new and heavy-gauge, and the facility was very clean.

“They were trying to do the right thing, but it also made me think it’s not
really temporary,” Dankert said.

And that’s the point: Although extension cords can be useful for temporarily
supplying power for certain operations, the key word is “temporarily.” When
a cord is used for several weeks or months, Dankert said, OSHA doesn’t
consider the use temporary. This opens the door for a violation.

Beyond that, extension cords lying on the ground for extended periods of
time are a trip hazard. They also can be subject to traffic abuse if run over by
forklifts or feet, which can wear down insulation and create shock hazards.
When cords are daisy-chained, they can easily overdraw electricity from the
circuits, causing the wires to heat up and potentially result in a fire.

Employers should assess whether extension cords are truly being used for
temporary measures – perhaps to power a fan on an especially hot day. In
such an event, Dankert said, the cord should be gathered up at the end of the
shift and stored. She recommends establishing a system to periodically
inspect extension cords, and training employees on that system to ensure the
cords stay in good working condition and worn-out cords are placed out of
service.

Workers need to ensure they’re using the right extension cord for the job.
Typically, a more expensive cord has a heavier gauge, which allows it to take
more power without getting hot. The same applies for using a single power
strip to plug in several different devices – the power strip may not be rated
for the combined wattage needed for all the high-draw appliances being
plugged in.

If the extension cords are not being used for a temporary fix, employers
should consider bringing in an electrician to drop in a line and outlet.
View the full infographic

4Forklifts
What’s a leading cause of forklift-related hazards in the workplace? In
George’s experience, it’s when workers feel compelled to work quickly.

“What dictates their activity is production,” he said. “They’re all under

pressure, and when you’re under pressure, they start taking shortcuts.”

Shortcuts include driving with too large of a load or driving distracted. The
end result may be hitting a rack, damaging a wall or product, or even injuring
a co-worker.

How employers react to these occurrences is critical, but their responses often
miss the mark, NSC consultants say. George said a common attitude after an
incident is to blame the individual and instill discipline. The forklift driver is
re-trained, re-tested and then put back into the system. But employers fail to
identify the root cause, which often is not enough staff or trucks to manage
the current workload.

Compounding these problems is a lack of maintenance and daily checks of

trucks, and failing to segregate vehicles from pedestrians, George said.
Trucks should be regularly inspected to ensure they are in proper working
order, and employers should create designated walkways.

5Lockout/tagout
Proper lockout/tagout procedures can help prevent serious injuries, but only if
those procedures are followed.
“A lot of organizations, they’ve got the best procedures in place, but it’s the
implementation of the procedures that fails,” George said.

Some examples:

 One employee may go home for the day with his lock on, and the next
worker on duty cuts the lock.
 Workers may simply use a label on older equipment for which secure
lockout is more difficult.
 Instead of installing a chain to lock a valve in place, a wire that can
easily be cut may be used.

Even if all lockout/tagout steps are followed, faulty equipment can still lead
to failures. George recalled a case in which an electrician doing rewiring
work was shocked. The equipment was locked out, but the instruments he
was using to check the system were tampered with and failed to read that the
system was live and not isolated. The worker touched a live cable, causing a
third-degree burn.

Violation of lockout/tagout procedures often boils down to three reasons:

1. Complacency
2. A rush to finish the work
3. Being unfamiliar with the equipment

Employers need to train employees on lockout/tagout and ensure they’re

qualified to carry out the procedures, George stressed.

6Chemicals
Chemicals can be expensive, and workers in some industries may never know
when they’ll need to use a certain chemical again in the future. But according
to Harrington, this kind of thinking can lead to serious hazards.

“Before you know it, you have all these chemicals no one wants or needs,”
she said. “There’ll be literally hundreds of chemicals on the shelves.”
She added that although it may be easy to overlook a small, 5-gram bottle,
those 5 grams can become unstable over time. For example, after a year or so,
ether can degrade into explosive peroxide.

When an organization purchases and uses chemicals, it needs to have a

control system, Harrington said. It needs to know what the chemicals are for
and why they were ordered.

OSHA’s Hazard Communication Standard requires facilities to keep an

inventory of all products. Mark down the chemical’s expiration date, and use
the chemical by that date or dispose of it properly. This is more than just a
safety issue, Harrington said – stockpiling a huge cache of unwanted
chemicals can be illegal. It also can be very expensive to dispose of large
quantities of expired chemicals.

Another potential hazard is transferring chemicals from one container to

another. Even if employees feel comfortable around the chemicals and have
worked with them for years, the containers must be labeled as required under
the hazcom standard.

7Confined spaces
Confined spaces can present a number of hazards. George said many
tragedies involving confined spaces have occurred because an employer
didn’t issue a permit or failed to carry out a risk assessment.

In one scenario George encountered, a confined space’s hazardous

atmosphere wasn’t assessed properly because the equipment being used was
out of date. A fire broke out.

“I’ve seen people go inside drains without a permit, and didn’t even know it
was a confined space,” he said. “Someone’s gone inside to pick up something
and he collapses because the standby person was distracted.”

If the risk assessment and permit process are done correctly, and all steps are
followed, employers won’t have a problem, George said. “Everything is all
planned,” he added. “If you don’t plan it correctly, you plan for a disaster.”
Focus on prevention

The seven hazards presented are by no means an exhaustive list – many other hazards
may exist at your worksite, and spotting them requires vigilance. To help identify
workplace hazards, NSC consultants recommend focusing on the following areas:

Training – Workers won’t inherently know they have to do something a certain way,
Dankert said. It’s up to each organization to appropriately train employees on safety
protocols. This training begins upon hiring the new worker, when an employer provides
an introduction to occupational safety and health, including hazard recognition. The
training should continue under the specific department in which the new employee will
work. Afterward, regular refresher training is necessary.

Know the purpose of the training, and ensure the appropriate training is given for each
individual worker based on his or her needs. After the training, monitor and supervise the
workers to check whether they’re applying it appropriately.

“ Spending a little bit of money up front on

prevention can save you money on the back
end ”
JOANN DANKERT
SENIOR CONSULTANT
NATIONAL SAFETY COUNCIL

Personal protective equipment – “The use of PPE falls squarely on the role of
employers to determine, to provide and to ensure people are wearing it,” Dankert said.

If employers determine PPE is necessary, they need to select the right sizes and a variety
of choices for their staff – and train workers on how to properly put on, wear and take off
the gear. Supervisors on the floor should model the behavior they expect from employees
by wearing all required PPE. If employees aren’t wearing PPE, Dankert said, employers
need to find out why – the gear may be uncomfortable or not performing correctly.

But providing the right safety equipment isn’t enough. The devices can be misused or
neglected. “People are pretty cavalier with their PPE,” Harrington said, adding that
employers should ensure gear is placed in its appropriate container and not simply slung
over a hook.
Clearly communicate and reinforce the need for workers to wear PPE by stressing that
the equipment protects them from injuries and illnesses, such as losing an eye or
developing a respiratory disease. In short, George said, teach “what’s in it for me.”

Resources – Quite often, small businesses simply don’t have the resources to adequately
check their systems for safety. And in many situations, Dankert added, employers may
not know what encompasses a safe procedure.

These employers should reach out and access available resources, many of which are
free. Several fire insurance and workers’ compensation insurance carriers offer
complimentary inspection programs. OSHA does too, and says employers won’t be
penalized if violations are found during a consultation visit. (For more on OSHA’s On-
Site Consultation Program, see p. 76)

Some equipment vendors also may be willing to conduct certain audits, according to
Dankert, so ask. Check out free resources on the web – including those from OSHA and
the National Safety Council – and search for free, local training. OSHA’s Susan Harwood
Training Grant Program routinely provides training in a variety of areas, and its website
has free resource materials.

However, not all resources are free, and employers must be willing to make an
investment in certain training or PPE if they want to keep workers safe. “Spending a little
bit of money up front on prevention can save you money on the back end,” Dankert said.

Culture – Many worksites have a “monkey see, monkey do” mentality, according to
Harrington. If a supervisor or manager does something in an unsafe manner, other
workers will follow suit.

Instead, organizations should establish a culture in which safety becomes everyone’s

responsibility and workers feel comfortable reporting hazardous processes. Leadership
sets the tone.

“If management is committed, and they send a signal to employees about the
management of safety to the shop floor or the bottom end of the tree, it cascades that
responsibility,” George said.

Infographic
< Read the article and watch the video
What are the elements of the emergency plan?
The emergency plan includes:

 All possible emergencies, consequences, required actions, written procedures, and the
resources available.
 Detailed lists of personnel including their home telephone numbers, their duties and
responsibilities.
 Floor plans.
 Large scale maps showing evacuation routes and service conduits (such as gas and
water lines).

Since a sizable document will likely result, the plan should provide staff members with
written instructions about their particular emergency duties.
The following are examples of the parts of an emergency plan. These elements may not
cover every situation in every workplace but serve they are provided as a general
guideline when writing a workplace specific plan:

Objective
The objective is a brief summary of the purpose of the plan; that is, to reduce human
injury and damage to property and environment in an emergency. It also specifies those
staff members who may put the plan into action. The objective identifies clearly who
these staff members are since the normal chain of command cannot always be
available on short notice. At least one of them must be on the site at all times when the
premises are occupied. The extent of authority of these personnel must be clearly
indicated.

Organization
One individual should be appointed and trained to act as Emergency Co-ordinator as
well as a "back-up" co-ordinator. However, personnel on site during an emergency are
key in ensuring that prompt and efficient action is taken to minimize loss. In some cases
it may be possible to recall off-duty employees to help, but the critical initial decisions
usually must be made immediately.
Specific duties, responsibilities, authority, and resources must be clearly defined.
Among the responsibilities that must be assigned are:

 Reporting the emergency.

 Activating the emergency plan.
 Assuming overall command.
 Establishing communication.
 Alerting staff.
 Ordering evacuation.
  Alerting external agencies.
 Confirming evacuation is complete.
 Alerting outside population of possible risk.
 Requesting external aid.
 Coordinating activities of various groups.
 Advising relatives of casualties.
 Providing medical aid.
 Ensuring emergency shut offs are closed.
 Sounding the all-clear.
 Advising media.

This list of responsibilities should be completed using the previously developed

summary of countermeasures for each emergency situation. In organizations operating
on reduced staff during some shifts, some personnel must assume extra responsibilities
during emergencies. Sufficient alternates for each responsible position must be named
to ensure that someone with authority is available onsite at all times.
External organizations that may be available to assist (with varying response times)
include:

 Fire departments.
 Mobile rescue squads.
 Ambulance services.
 Police departments.
 Telephone companies.
 Hospitals.
 Utility companies.
 Industrial neighbours.
 Government agencies.

These organizations should be contacted in the planning stages to discuss each of their
roles during an emergency. Mutual aid with other industrial facilities in the area should
be explored.
Pre-planned coordination is necessary to avoid conflicting responsibilities. For example,
the police, fire department, ambulance service, rescue squad, company fire brigade,
and the first aid team may be on the scene simultaneously. A pre-determined chain of
command in such a situation is required to avoid organizational difficulties. Under
certain circumstances, an outside agency may assume command.
Possible problems in communication have been mentioned in several contexts. Efforts
should be made to seek alternate means of communication during an emergency,
especially between key personnel such as overall commander, on-scene commander,
engineering, fire brigade, medical, rescue, and outside agencies. Depending on the size
of the organization and physical layout of the premises, it may be advisable to plan for
an emergency control centre with alternate communication facilities. All personnel with
alerting or reporting responsibilities must be provided with a current list of telephone
numbers and addresses of those people they may have to contact.
Procedures
Many factors determine what procedures are needed in an emergency, such as:

 Nature of emergency.
 Degree of emergency.
 Size of organization.
 Capabilities of the organization in an emergency situation.
 Immediacy of outside aid.
 Physical layout of the premises.

Common elements to be considered in all emergencies include pre-emergency

preparation and provisions for alerting and evacuating staff, handling casualties, and for
containing the danger.
Natural hazards, such as floods or severe storms, often provide prior warning. The plan
should take advantage of such warnings with, for example, instructions on sand
bagging, removal of equipment to needed locations, providing alternate sources of
power, light or water, extra equipment, and relocation of personnel with special skills.
Phased states of alert allow such measures to be initiated in an orderly manner.
The evacuation order is of greatest importance in alerting staff. To avoid confusion, only
one type of signal should be used for the evacuation order. Commonly used for this
purpose are sirens, fire bells, whistles, flashing lights, paging system announcements,
or word-of-mouth in noisy environments. The all-clear signal is less important since time
is not such an urgent concern.
The following are "musts":

 Identify evacuation routes, alternate means of escape, make these known to all staff;
keep the routes unobstructed.
 Specify safe locations for staff to gather for head counts to ensure that everyone has left
the danger zone. Assign individuals to assist employees with disabilities.
 Carry out treatment of the injured and search for the missing simultaneously with efforts
to contain the emergency.
 Provide alternate sources of medical aid when normal facilities may be in the danger
zone.
 Ensure the safety of all staff (and/or the general public) first, then deal with the fire or
other situation.

Testing and Revision

Completing a comprehensive plan for handling emergencies is a major step toward
preventing disasters. However, it is difficult to predict all of the problems that may
happen unless the plan is tested. Exercises and drills may be conducted to practice all
or critical portions (such as evacuation) of the plan. A thorough and immediate review
after each exercise, drill, or after an actual emergency will point out areas that require
improvement. Knowledge of individual responsibilities can be evaluated through paper
tests or interviews.
The plan should be revised when shortcomings have become known, and should be
reviewed at least annually. Changes in plant infrastructure, processes, materials used,
and key personnel are occasions for updating the plan.
It should be stressed that provision must be made for the training of both individuals and
teams, if they are expected to perform adequately in an emergency. An annual full-scale
exercise will help in maintaining a high level of proficiency.

National Competency Codes and Titles

National Element Code & BSBOHS405B Contribute to the implementation of emergency

Title: procedures

Elements: Contribute to post event activities

Identify options for initial response

Identify potential emergencies

Implement initial response procedures

Monitor emergency response and address deficiencies

Plan initial response procedures