Industrial facilities can be dangerous places where serious injuries and fatalities can occur. As an industrial worker, it is your job to ensure safety in your working environment. Yes, freak accidents can happen. For the most part though, industrial injuries are the result corners being cut, improper equipment being used, poor training, or simple carelessness. The good news is that all of these issues can be avoided with diligence and conscientious effort. Such effort must be company-wide: all employees must work together to maintain a safe working environment. This article will highlight some ways that you can maintain a safe working environment for you and your coworkers.
Proper Training Is Essential
One of the primary reasons that on-the-job injuries happen is that employees are not properly trained to perform a certain task or use a certain piece of equipment. If employees receive training on all aspects of their job, and all equipment that they will be using in performing their job, workplace injuries would decrease significantly. It can be helpful to hold a group session, perhaps with the aid of training videos, but hands-on, individual training is crucial. And this should not be a “one and done” type of lesson: employees should be periodically retrained so that the training stays fresh in their memory. This is especially important if new equipment is being used. Enforcement of proper procedures is important as well. All of the training in the world means nothing if employees are not following procedure. Any breaches of such procedure should be reported to management, who should then take disciplinary measures. This is literally a life-and-death issue.
Using Proper Safety Equipment
Aside from training, another very important tool for maintaining workplace safety is using the proper equipment. There are many items that are used to help maintain safety in most work environments. This section will highlight some of the most common. Any facility should have a first aid station. This is usually a metal kit that you would attach to a wall in an easily accessible area of your facility. This kit contains first aid essentials such as Band-Aids, gauze, and anti-bacterial ointment. Employees should be able to access this whenever they need to. Another essential piece of safety equipment is a defibrillator, which should also be placed on the wall, and can be used if someone goes into cardiac arrest. Any facilities where chemicals are used should have an eye-wash station. This should also be placed in an easy-to-locate area that any employee can go to, should they get chemicals in their eyes. This station operates similarly to a water fountain and allows employees to wash harmful chemicals or particles out of their eyes. This is not a substitute for wearing goggles, which should always be mandated for employees working with chemicals. Finally, there should be many slip proof mats on the factory floor, so that employees do not slip and injure themselves while walking around. These measures, along with the proper training, while greatly cut down on injuries.
