Persons are not excellent and sometimes make mistakes. We take shortcuts, forget the best way to do things, or become distracted at instances when we shouldn’t. In most points of our lives, these usually are not things which have dire consequences. At work, however, surrounded by hazards, these types of mistakes can alter lives, even finish them. So, although human beings usually are not good, we need to make our safety programs as near good as we can.
PPE Focus: Face Shields
Personal protective equipment (PPE) is an aspect of safety the place individuals tend to make many mistakes, and for a variety of reasons. Often, we think that the mere wearing of PPE makes us proof against injury. With as much emphasis as we place on eye protection and head protection, can we lose sight (no pun supposed) of protecting our faces? Certainly, eye protection is essential, since eye accidents can lead to everlasting blindness. Equally necessary is head protection, stopping fatal head injuries the very best that we can. Face injuries might not appear as significant a priority. They don’t have the rapid, everlasting, and doubtlessly deadly consequences of the others. With that said, although, an employer’s duty is to protect all parts of their staff, including their faces.
That accountability includes identifying tasks the place face shields should be used, providing face shields for employees to make use of, training them to make use of face shields appropriately, and to appropriate staff when face shields are used incorrectly or not used at all. The primary components are easy. Our employees will make mistakes. Correcting these mistakes and imposing your organization’s face shield requirements is an essential part of an effective PPE program. Unfortunately, too often, this aspect of the PPE program shouldn’t be enforced until after an employee is injured.
Situations to Use Face Shields
Consider the next situations where face shields ought to have been used, and the consequences for the injured workers and their employers.
An worker was filling ammonia nurse tanks from a bulk plant. The worker was distracted while closing the valves, and mistakenly turned the wrong valve, causing a pressure launch in the line. The release of anhydrous ammonia splashed on the worker’s face. The employee was hospitalized for chemical burns on and around the face.
An worker was putting in a water pipe at a multifamily residential development project. The employee initially was working an excavator, then climbed down from the excavator to chop a ten-inch water pipe with a cut-off saw. The saw kicked back and struck the worker’s face. Co-workers called emergency companies, who transported the worker to the hospital. The employee was admitted to the hospital and treated for facial lacerations that prolonged from underneath the left eye to underneath the jaw.
Within the first scenario, the employee suffered severe chemical burns. A face shield would have significantly reduced the chemical publicity, the extent of the chemical burns, and presumably may have prevented any ammonia from splashing on the worker’s face. Sure, the employee turned the flawed valve, however does that imply that the employer is absolved of all responsibility for this incident? Of course not. The fact stays that the employer should provide staff filling ammonia nurse tanks with face shields, train employees to make use of the face shields appropriately, and require them to use them when performing this task. Then they have to regularly and persistently implement the face shield requirements. Doing so would have provided additional protection to the employee, even from the effects of the worker’s own actions.
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