Individuals are not good and sometimes make mistakes. We take shortcuts, neglect methods to do things, or change into distracted at times after we shouldn’t. In most aspects of our lives, these should not things that have dire consequences. At work, however, surrounded by hazards, these types of errors can alter lives, even finish them. So, though human beings are not good, we have to make our safety programs as near good as we can.
PPE Focus: Face Shields
Personal protective equipment (PPE) is a side of safety where people tend to make many errors, and for a variety of reasons. Typically, we think that the mere wearing of PPE makes us proof against 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? Definitely, eye protection is essential, since eye accidents can lead to everlasting blindness. Equally necessary is head protection, preventing deadly head injuries one of the best that we can. Face injuries could not seem as significant a priority. They do not have the fast, permanent, and doubtlessly fatal penalties of the others. With that said, though, an employer’s accountability is to protect all elements of their workers, together with their faces.
That duty contains figuring out tasks the place face shields needs to be used, providing face shields for employees to use, training them to use face shields correctly, and to appropriate staff when face shields are used incorrectly or not used at all. The primary parts are easy. Our staff will make mistakes. Correcting these mistakes and enforcing your organization’s face shield necessities is an essential a part of an effective PPE program. Sadly, too usually, this aspect of the PPE program just isn’t enforced until after an employee is injured.
Conditions to Use Face Shields
Consider the following conditions where face shields ought to have been used, and the implications 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 improper valve, causing a pressure release in the line. The release of anhydrous ammonia splashed on the employee’s face. The worker was hospitalized for chemical burns on and across the face.
An worker was installing a water pipe at a multifamily residential development project. The worker initially was working an excavator, then climbed down from the excavator to cut a ten-inch water pipe with a reduce-off saw. The noticed kicked back and struck the employee’s face. Co-workers called emergency providers, who transported the employee 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.
In the first state of affairs, the employee suffered serious chemical burns. A face shield would have significantly reduced the chemical publicity, the extent of the chemical burns, and probably could have prevented any ammonia from splashing on the employee’s face. Sure, the worker turned the flawed valve, but does that mean that the employer is absolved of all responsibility for this incident? Of course not. The very fact remains that the employer should provide workers filling ammonia nurse tanks with face shields, train workers to use the face shields accurately, and require them to make use of them when performing this task. Then they need to continually and constantly implement the face shield requirements. Doing so would have provided additional protection to the worker, even from the effects of the worker’s own actions.