E-Newsletter

Savings / Safety Tips for March 2017 from All Safety Products, Inc.

Final Rule to Update General Industry Walking-Working Surfaces and Fall Protection Standards - OSHA

Falls from heights and on the same level (a working surface) are among the leading causes of serious work-related injuries and deaths. OSHA has issued a final rule on Walking-Working Surfaces and Personal Fall Protection Systems to better protect workers in general industry from these hazards by updating and clarifying standards and adding training and inspection requirements.

The rule affects a wide range of workers, from painters to warehouse workers. It does not change construction or agricultural standards.

The rule incorporates advances in technology, industry best practices, and national consensus standards to provide effective and cost-efficient worker protection. Specifically, it updates general industry standards addressing slip, trip, and fall hazards (subpart D), and adds requirements for personal fall protection systems (subpart I).

OSHA estimates that these changes will prevent 29 fatalities and 5,842 lost-workday injuries every year.

Benefits to Employers

The rule benefits employers by providing greater flexibility in choosing a fall protection system. For example, it eliminates the existing mandate to use guardrails as a primary fall protection method and allows employers to choose from accepted fall protection systems they believe will work best in a particular situation - an approach that has been successful in the construction industry since 1994.

In addition, employers will be able to use non-conventional fall protection in certain situations, such as designated areas on low-slope roofs.

As much as possible, OSHA aligned fall protection requirements for general industry with those for construction, easing compliance for employers who perform both types of activities. For example, the final rule replaces the outdated general industry scaffold standards with a requirement that employers comply with OSHA's construction scaffold standards.

Timeline

Most of the rule will become effective 60 days after publication in the Federal Register, but some provisions have delayed effective dates, including:

• Ensuring exposed workers are trained on fall hazards (6 months),
• Ensuring workers who use equipment covered by the final rule are trained (6 months),
• Inspecting and certifying permanent anchorages for rope descent systems (1 year),
• Installing personal fall arrest or ladder safety systems on new fixed ladders over 24 feet and on replacement ladders/ladder sections, including fixed ladders on outdoor advertising structures (2 years),
• Ensuring existing fixed ladders over 24 feet, including those on outdoor advertising structures, are equipped with a cage, well, personal fall arrest system, or ladder safety system (2 years), and
• Replacing cages and wells (used as fall protection) with ladder safety or personal fall arrest systems on all fixed ladders over 24 feet (20 years).

All Safety Products provides a wide variety of fall protection products.


SEE OSHA'S WEB PAGE FOR ADDITIONAL INFO


Some Interesting Safety Trivia about the Top Objects That Changed Safety, Culture, and Health

One hundred objects have shaped public health and safety for the last 100 years, says Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Health.

On its Global Health Now Website, the school describes all 100 objects, some weird, some obvious, to celebrate its centennial. (globalhealthnow.org)

Here are some important ones:

Bike helmets - They have been around since 1860 but in wide use only since 1975. Helmet use reduces the odds of severe head injury by 50 percent. Since 1975, annual bicycle deaths have dropped about 25 percent.

Fly swatters - Imagine a more humble object that does so much. This was the invention of a Kansas Boy Scout troop that nailed spare pieces of window screen to yardsticks. The swatters were free at the Kansas State Fair. The swatter has been pivotal in the public health campaign against flies, which carry typhoid, cholera and infections.

Hard hat - So effective and necessary, hard hats have become virtually the icon of modern safety. First used by construction workers in the 1900s, the hard hat has evolved from hardened tar into the tough plastic gear we know today. Their suspended interior adds extra protection from falling objects. Their use in construction is now law.

Safety goggles - About 2,000 workplace eye injuries occur every day. About 70 percent are caused from flying or falling objects. Safety goggles alone prevent (or just make less severe) about 90 percent of these injuries.

Horseshoe crab - The blue blood of the horseshoe crab contains a critical agent for detecting deadly bacteria. The blood compound is so sensitive that it can detect the equivalent of one grain of sand in a swimming pool. In an era of chemical imitations of many natural things, the blood of the horseshoe crab has never been replicated. More than 600,000 are caught each year and bled. About 20 percent die in the process. The rest are returned to the sea.

Garbage Trucks - Arguably one of the innovations that made modern life possible, the garbage truck allows us to take trash off the streets, out of sewers and rivers and out of sight and smell. That's a good thing because each American generates about 7 pounds of trash every day. The first hydraulic garbage truck was patented in 1938.

All Safety Products provides a wide variety of fall protection products.


Healthy Tip For March

Berries Aid Thinking!

Two separate clinical studies show that berries appear to give a boost to brain power.

In one study, healthy men and women ages 60 to 75 were given two cups of strawberries for 90 days. They showed improved scores for word recognition and spatial memory.

In another study, researchers showed that older adults who ate the equivalent of one cup of blueberries for 90 days didn't repeat themselves as often. Quoted in Tufts Health Nutrition Letter, Barbara Shukitt-Hale said researchers speculate that the anthocyanins in berries have certain anti-inflammatory properties that have direct effects on the brain. Supplements, she said, don't appear to work. It is the combination of nutrients in berries that seem to have a benefit.

Delicious Recipe:
Split Pea In The Pressure Cooker

(Editor's Note: Not everyone loves Split Pea Soup but it is a personal favorite of our family)

Ingredients:

• 6 cups chicken stock or water
• one package of dried split peas
• 3 medium onions
• one large onion
• ham bone
• carrots (many as you like)

Instructions:

• salt to taste
• pepper to taste
• Cut carrots
• Dice onions
• Pour the 6 cups of stock into the pressure cooker
• Add the package of split peas (no need to soak), the ham bone, vegetables, and pepper to taste.
• Stir until combined

Pressure Cooker Instructions:

• Lock pressure cooker lid Set to soup function and adjust time to 15 minutes (Editor's Note: some pressure cookers are older and don't have this function)
• Allow a ten minute natural release before switching to quick release
• Add salt to taste (always add salt after cooking bean/legume recipes to avoid tough beans)

About All Safety Products

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