Category: News & Announcements

OSHA Top 10: Guarding Floor and Wall Openings and Holes

Floor openings are a broad OSHA standard covering stairwells, ladderways, hatches, skylights, pits, manholes, and other walking or working surfaces that workers can fall into.  In industrial workplaces, floor openings commonly provide multi-level access or access to storage or materials, and are often found when labor or construction is underway.  Consider the Top 10 citations for OSHA safety standard 1910.23 in 2012.

  1. Manufacturing (302 Citations in 2012)
  2. Wholesale Trade (71 Citations)
  3. Transportation, Communications, Electric, Gas, and Sanitary Services (61 Citations)
  4. Services (49 Citations)
  5. Mining (38 Citations)
  6. Retail Trade (30 Citations)
  7. Construction (12 Citations)
  8. Agriculture, Forestry, and Fishing (5 Citations)
  9. Public Administration (3 Citations)
  10. Finance, Insurance, and Real Estate (2 Citations)

Source: OSHA 2012 Statistics and Data

Safety managers and operations personnel must keep in mind OSHA guidelines including proper railings, floor opening covers, toe boards, manhole guards, and platforms.  Industries with the most frequent violations include manufacturing, transportation/energy, and mining.  The common thread among these industries?  Material storage, operational setting variations, and multi-level access.

Wall Opening Ladder for Material Access
Storage Access
Walkway Across Floor Opening
Floor Opening Walkway
Manhole Guard with Spring Latch
Manhole Guard

 

 

 

 

If your work area provides access to multiple levels for which standard equipment will not safely facilitate, custom solutions may be necessary.  Proper equipment will protect your employees, manage worker’s comp safety risk, and prevent OSHA citations.

Innovative Access Solutions, LLC

For custom access design, Innovative Access Solutions is an experienced and knowledgeable producer of OSHA safe solutions, across industries.  For more information about IAS, visit IAScustom.com or call (800) 388-6884.

Slip & Fall Injuries in Truck Transportation [Infographic]

The National Bureau of Labor’s 2011 Census of Occupational Injuries brought to light a theme that occupational safety management professionals have observed for years: Slips & Falls are a leading cause of occupational injuries.  Combined with Roadway Incidents, the two categories make up over a third of all fatal occupational injuries. Trucking, Transportation & Warehousing is the industry sector with the most fatal work injuries and a Top 3 work injury rate.  Safety professionals in these industries should consider leading fall protection risk areas and consider mitigation tactics for each.

Sounds easy, right?  Have a look at our premier infographic ‘Slips & Falls in Trucking’ to see this concept illustrated for painless consumption.

Introducing Safety & Numbers

Welcome to the Safety & Numbers blog!  Our blog will be a resource for Business Owners, Safety Managers, and Operations Personnel, to keep you informed about statistics, policy trends, best practices and related topics in the field of occupational health and safety.

The Safety & Numbers blog is presented by Innovative Access Solutions, LLC.  IAS has produced OSHA safe access solutions for over a dozen years.  We have created this resource to provide summary information for interested members of the occupational safety community.  We hope that you will find this information valuable, and invite you to share our content with other members of the community.

And of course, we also invite you to contact us for your workplace access safety needs. Our posts will often be structured to target the industries that we currently serve: trucking transportation, shipyards and marine transport, construction, mining, energy and other industrial sectors.  We also plan to provide posts that transcend industries to assist management with setting up company safety policies.