Prevent Poisoning-at Work and at Home
Everyone needs to be aware of hazardous substances and how to protect themselves. Take time to train your workers on how to avoid poisoning at work--and how to avoid taking poisonous substances home. Start with the basics.
Overexposure to certain materials we work with can cause health problems. There are three ways these materials can get into our bodies:
1. Inhaling hazardous airborne vapors, dusts, fibers, etc., can be harmful to health. Effects range from headaches, nausea, and respiratory problems to far more serious-sometimes even fatal-ailments.
2. Swallowing hazardous substances can poison you or cause serious internal damage. Though you're unlikely to actually drink a hazardous substance, you could swallow it if it gets on food, a coffee mug, or even your hands.
3. Skin and eye contact can irritate or burn and may cause serious eye damage, recurring allergies, or a variety of other problems. Some chemicals can enter the bloodstream through skin contact, which could poison you.
If you accidentally bring these hazards home, they could also cause health problems for the people who share your home. Hazardous materials can be transported home in several ways.
-Work clothing. Dusts and particles on clothes can get into the air in your home as well as clinging to other surfaces. If you wash contaminated work clothes with other laundry, those items could become contaminated, too.
-Tools and equipment. Hand tools and other equipment that have had contact with hazardous substances can contaminate whatever they touch-furniture, flooring, and car or truck.
-Work-related materials such as bags, rags, or scrap lumber can also be contaminated and spread contamination.
-Your body. If you have not carefully removed any hazardous substances from you hands, hair, or other body parts, you are likely to spread the contamination to what ever--and whomever--you touch.
Follow the rules for the material you're working with. You may be required to:
-Ventilate work areas.
-Enclose hazardous operations.
-Enter areas only if you're authorized, trained and properly equipped.
-Use PPE specifically designed to protect you against the specific hazardous materials you're working with.
Check with the MSDS and your supervisor for the proper PPE to use, which may include:
-Gloves
-Safety goggles or glasses
-Protective suits or other clothing
-Protective boot or boot covers
-Respirator
If your PPE gets contaminated, remove it in the proper sequence to prevent further contamination. Here's how:
-Avoid touching contaminated clothing. When you unfasten contaminated snaps and zippers, wear gloves or hold the clothing from the inside.
-Remove items from the upper body first and work your way down.
-Place clothing immediately and properly in containers for disposal or decontamination.
Finally, follow these good hygiene habits to help you protect yourself and your family from contamination.
-Keep food, coffee mugs, and other nonessential items out of the work area.
-Wash thoroughly before eating, drinking, smoking, or using the toilet if you've been working where you could have been exposed to hazardous substances.
-Don't keep PPE or work clothes in the same locker with your personal clothing.
-Wash thoroughly after any potential exposure to a hazardous substance--for at least 15 minutes if you know you were exposed.
-Shower and change clothes when possible before leaving work.
-Launder work clothes separately from other clothing or linens.
-Don't take tools, scrap, packaging and similar items home.
May 24, 2010 OSHA Compliance Advisor
Lose Weight, Save Money
Can a workplace wellness program actually result in a return on investment in your workplace? Yes, it can, although patience is a virtue because the greatest return on investment takes, on average, 3 to 5 years. Consider this one costly health issue: weight.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), almost 1 in 5 American adults are now considered obese, and more than half of all Americans are overweight. Since the early 1960s, the percentage of overweight American adults has increased from 45% to 65%.
Help your workers determine if they are overweight by showing them how to calculate their body mass index, or BMI. Have trainees complete the worksheet below. Bring a calculator (or several) to the meeting and help trainees make the calculations required.
How to Calculate Your BMI
To determine BMI, you need to do a little math, using the following formula:
Weight (in pounds) ___ x 703 = BMI
Height (in inches) x Height (in inches)
For example, say a person's height is 5'7" (67 inches) and weight is 140 pounds:
BMI = 140 x 703 =21.9
67 x 67
Calculate your BMI:
Are you maintaining a healthy weight? For adults, a BMI of 18.5 to 24.9 indicates a healthy weight. A person with a BMI of 25 to 29.9 is considered overweight, and person with a BMI of over 30 is obese.
When trainees are finished calculating their BMI, discuss the U.S. Surgeon General's suggestion for maintaining a healthy weight. To achieve and maintain a healthy weight, the surgeon General suggests three simple steps:
1. Be active:
-Keep physically active to balance the calories you consume.
-Be physically active for at least 30 minutes on most days of the week.
2. Eat well:
-Select sensible portions of nutritious food.
3. Aim for a healthy weight:
-If you're overweight or obese, losing just 10 percent of your body weight can improve your health.
-If you need to lose weight, do so gradually--one-half to 2 pounds a week.
By encouraging and equipping your workers with the information and resources to lose weight, you will be saving your employer money in lost work time from injuries and illnesses, health insurance expenses, and more. But those savings may take some time to show up if you have a number of overweight workers who need to lose weight safely at a pound or two a week for 6 months or more.
Why It Matters
-The Surgeon General reports that more than half of American adults do not get enough exercise, and a quarter of all American adults get no exercise at all.
-Researcher estimate that preventable illnesses make up approximately 70 percent of the burden of illness and the associated costs.
-More than 95 percent of the nation's health expenditures, including most of the billions of dollars employers spend on health coverage, are committed to diagnosing and treating disease only after it becomes evident.
May 2010 OSHA Compliance Advisor
Are You Depressed
Answer these questions
According to a report by the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA - www.oas.samhsa.gov), almost 15 percent of adults over the age of 18 (31 million) have experienced a major depression episode (MDE) in their lives. In addition, the two age groups that had the highest rate of MDEs in the past year (more than 10 percent each) were those aged 18 to 25 and 35 to 49--people in the prime of their working lives. SAMHSA says that depression is one of the leading causes of disability, and may cost around $12 billion in lost workdays each year with another $11 billion lost because of decreased productivity from depression's symptoms.
Use this checklist of symptoms from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH - www.nlm.nih.gov).
Do you experience:
-Ongoing sad, anxious, or empty feelings?
-Feelings of hopelessness?
-Feelings of guilt, worthlessness, or helplessness?
-Irritability or restlessness?
-Loss of interest in activities or hobbies that were once enjoyable, including sex?
-Constant tiredness?
-Difficulty concentrating, remembering details, or making decisions?
-Difficulty going to or staying asleep?
-Sleeping all the time?
-Overeating or loss of appetite?
-Thoughts about or attempting suicide?
-Ongoing aches and pains, headaches, cramps, or digestive problems that do not go away?
If you experience these symptoms for more than 2 weeks, see the article below for how to get help.
Depression at Work
It's common, costly--and treatable
See the quiz Are You Depressed? for the statistics on how depression can affect the workplace. The good news is that depression is also highly treatable--more than 80 percent can successfully overcome clinical depression--as long as sufferers seek treatment. So, if you think you (or a co-worker) may be depressed, take these steps:
Seek treatment--and encourage others to do so. Some people are reluctant to speak up because they worry how such an admission will affect their career or that their insurance won't cover treatment. But the earlier people seek help, the more quickly they can recover and resume normal life. Your employer may have an employee assistance program (EAP) that can help.
Speak with your doctor to get a complete diagnostic evaluation including onset, frequency, and severity of symptoms; family history; other medications you're taking and possible side effects; and other relevant information.
Follow the prescribed treatment, which may include antidepressant medications, psychotherapy, or alternative remedies such as St. John's wort.
May 2010 SAFETY WORKS for Employees