It’s difficult to stop the bleeding once you nick your finger carelessly, flipping through the pages of the OSHA rulebook. Those dense, yet stringent procedures and guidelines for workplace safety exist for a reason – to protect your employees. Regardless of the industry, safety and project manager needs to become well-versed in every pertinent regulation OSHA hands down. Failure to ignore commonsense storage practices can lead to recurring OSHA penalties and financial ruin. Stop bleeding careless negligence before it’s too late. Let U.S. Hazmat Storage be your tourniquet against noncompliant chemical storage before hemorrhaging thousands of dollars in federal fines.
Nebraska Beef Faces Hefty OSHA Penalties Following Amputation Injury
A freak forklift accident recently kicked off a lengthy federal investigation that led to 11 serious safety violations at Nebraska Beef. OSHA says an employee at the Midwestern food processing facility got their fingertip caught in a forklift attachment while helping the operator position materials. Unfortunately, the forklift also did some inventorying on the employee’s fingertip as the injury led to the finger being amputated a few weeks later. Once onsite to investigate the amputation, OSHA also found a litany of other serious safety violations including:
- Failure to isolate energy during service and maintenance of dock levelers,
- Unsafe working surfaces
- Fall hazards on platforms and ladders
- No readily available eyewash and drenching facility
- Electrical hazards
- Lack of kits to handle chemical spills
- Improperly trained forklift operators
- Unsafe battery maintenance
Proper Lockout/Tagout Procedures Can Prevent Serious Injury
From the list of the more egregious safety violations, OSHA took particular issue with the company’s lack of proper lockout/tagout procedures. A lockout protocol involves “locking out” or temporarily disabling machinery to prevent improper use by an employee. Most companies will put a simple padlock on dangerous machinery when it’s not in operation. Red and white stripped warning tags can also be adorned to equipment to accomplish a lockout/tagout procedure. OSHA says that its lockout/tagout standard is its sixth most frequently cited standard.
“An employee of Nebraska Beef Ltd. suffered a permanent injury because the company knowingly ignored safety measures that are meant to prevent this very type of incident,” Matthew Thurlby, OSHA’s Omaha area office director, said in an agency statement. “The company must reassess its safety training and procedures immediately to keep other employees from suffering needless injuries.”
Stay Organized and Protected With Compliant Chemical Storage
Clutter and messy working conditions will always be a precursor to lost earnings and willful safety violations. Lack of organization and keen oversight creates confusion on the jobsite, which invariably leads to stressed employees making careless accidents while working. Our fire-rated chemical storage lockers can help you stay organized and isolate dangerous chemicals from daily operations. The very presence of compliant chemical storage adorned with attention-grabbing safety hazard placards will encourage your employees to pause and take note of their immediate surroundings more often, further diminishing the chances of careless mistakes and oversteps. Compliant chemical storage warehouses can also streamline operations by more carefully monitoring inventory and supply levels so you never have to stop production, thus optimizing efficiency in meeting orders.