Individuals are not perfect and often make mistakes. We take shortcuts, overlook the best way to do things, or become distracted at occasions once we shouldn’t. In most facets of our lives, these are not things which have dire consequences. At work, nevertheless, surrounded by hazards, these types of mistakes can alter lives, even finish them. So, regardless that human beings usually are not excellent, we need to make our safety programs as near excellent as we can.
PPE Focus: Face Shields
Personal protective equipment (PPE) is a side of safety the place folks are likely to make many errors, and for quite a lot of reasons. Often, we think that the mere wearing of PPE makes us immune to injury. With as a lot emphasis as we place on eye protection and head protection, will we lose sight (no pun intended) of protecting our faces? Certainly, eye protection is important, since eye injuries can lead to permanent blindness. Equally necessary is head protection, stopping deadly head injuries the perfect that we can. Face accidents may not seem as significant a priority. They do not have the fast, everlasting, and potentially deadly penalties of the others. With that said, though, an employer’s duty is to protect all elements of their employees, together with their faces.
That accountability includes figuring out tasks the place face shields should be used, providing face shields for workers to make use of, training them to use face shields appropriately, and to right employees when face shields are used incorrectly or not used at all. The first elements are easy. Our employees will make mistakes. Correcting these errors and enforcing your company’s face shield necessities is an essential part of an efficient PPE program. Unfortunately, too typically, this aspect of the PPE program isn’t enforced until after an worker is injured.
Conditions to Use Face Shields
Consider the next conditions where face shields should 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 employee was distracted while closing the valves, and mistakenly turned the wrong valve, causing a pressure launch within 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 employee was putting in a water pipe at a multifamily residential building project. The worker initially was operating an excavator, then climbed down from the excavator to chop a ten-inch water pipe with a minimize-off saw. The saw kicked back and struck the employee’s face. Co-workers called emergency providers, who transported the employee to the hospital. The worker was admitted to the hospital and handled for facial lacerations that prolonged from underneath the left eye to underneath the jaw.
Within the first scenario, the worker suffered severe chemical burns. A face shield would have significantly reduced the chemical publicity, the extent of the chemical burns, and presumably could have prevented any ammonia from splashing on the employee’s face. Sure, the worker turned the unsuitable valve, but does that mean that the employer is absolved of all duty for this incident? Of course not. The actual fact remains that the employer should provide employees filling ammonia nurse tanks with face shields, train employees to use the face shields correctly, and require them to use them when performing this task. Then they have to frequently and constantly enforce the face shield requirements. Doing so would have provided additional protection to the employee, even from the effects of the employee’s own actions.