Accident prevention techniques

ACCIDENT PREVENTION TECHNIQUES

People- employees- represent high-risk, high-reward resources of an enterprise. They are costly to employ and difficult to manage. They are the most productive influence in the resource mix, however without them, there is no enterprise. Without their skills, knowledge, and judgment, few systems or machines could perform as effectively as they do. It is the supervisors challenge, then, to select and train these employees, determine how many are needed, and what their skills should be. A supervisor is also held directly to task for employee safety and health. Henrich E. W., The German Scientist, declares that The First Line Supervisors is in a tremendously important position so far as attaining the results in ACCIDENT PREVENTION is concerned. No safety programs can hope to be wholly successful without the sympathetic and intelligent support of able supervisors. The overriding principle the supervisor must follow- and sees that employee must follow- is SAFETY FIRST: this means, literally, that a concern for safety must precede all other considerations. It must come before production; it must come before quality and it must come before cost. SAFETY RULES AND REGULATION CODE: If the company has established a set of Rules and Regulations or a code for safe practice, this becomes the Safety Bible: with this as a basis, a supervisor can set up a continuing, three phase programs. I. ENGINEER FOR SAFETY by planning the work, the job, and the equipment for the most fool-proof operation. As a starter, this means safety goggles or glasses, hard hats, safety shoes and other protective clothing; it is in this technical area that the safety officer can be of most help; EDUCATE FOR SAFETY by showing the employees why, where and how accidents can happen. If a supervisor can show an employee, where the danger spots are in the job, training the employee in ways to minimize the exposure to them is also possible; ENFORCE FOR SAFETY by never looking the other way when the safety Rule is violated. Hard as it may seem, the only sure way to show
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employees that a supervisor means business about safety is to check down on the slightest infringement- even if it is something as minor as not holding on to a safety hand railing or removing safety glasses in a required area. CHECK-LIST AS PER THE FACTORIES ACT 1948: 1. Prescribed safety clothing and/or protective equipments (such as gloves, goggles, aprons, hard hats, etc.) must be worn at all times; 2. Protective devices (machine guards, gates, safety switches, lock-out switches) on machinery and equipments must be in place and operative before equipment is used; 3. No smoking or use of open flame (matches, cigarettes, lighters, candles and so on) will be permitted on all areas as designated; 4. No repairs will be made on machinery, while it is running without the express approval of the safety officer; 5. Any injury, no matter what its severity must be reported to the departmental supervisor immediately; 6. When in doubt, in an unsafe condition, do not proceed without first checking with the departmental supervisor; 7. In case of fire, unless otherwise instructed by a Fire Marshal, leave the premises at once by the most convenient Fire Exit; 8. Do not obstruct the Fire Extinguishers, Fire Doors or Fire Equipment such as hoses and sprinkler heads; 9. Observe standards and safe conducts by avoiding horse-play, and by accepting responsibility for your safety and health and 10. The company subscribes to these standards for safe operation pledges to provide employees with safe and healthful working conditions pursuant to standards, regulations and orders issued under the Tamilnadu Factories Rules 1950. TECHNIQUES OF DISCOVERING HAZARDS: Accidents do not happen; they are caused. The prime concern of accidents is unsafe conditions and unsafe acts. The way to prevent accidents is to discover and

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eliminate causes. The following are the most acceptable techniques of discovering hazards: I. CURATIVE II. III. PREVENTIVE IV. I. JOB SAFETY ANALYSIS. ACCIDENT RECORDS & STATISTICS PLANT SAFETY INSPECTION ACCIDENT REPORTING & INVESTIGATION

ACCIDENT REPORTING & INVESTIGATION: In industry, every action is planned and expected; an accident is an unplanned and unexpected occurrence. It disrupts the planned and expected course of events. It is not necessarily the moment when the accident happened; it usually precedes it. The purpose of investigation, therefore, is to disclose the moment of divergence. When this moment of divergence is disclosed, the true cause of accident is revealed. ACCIDENT RECORDS & STATISTICS: Records of accidents are essential for efficient and successful investigation. The completeness and accuracy of the entire accident record system depend on the information transmitted in the individual accident reports. Therefore simple forms which contain all essential information should be used for reporting. Records convey the information of situations; accurate information help in formation of sound policies by the Government. Many studies are being conducted with records and statistics. We look at the man- the tensions under which he is working; the place where he is staying- the problems that he is facing; and why this? In our entire process, we have a multidisciplinary approach. It is only when we look at all these facts, we can know What can be done to bring about industrial discipline.

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PLANT SAFETY INSPECTION: Every inspector should make up his own check-list to suit his own needs and methods, for such lists serve as a safe-guard against his memory lapse and oversight. R.P. BLAKE, Principal Safety Engineer, Division of Labour Standard, U.S. suggests the following as a foundation list:

1. House-keeping; 2. Material Handling Methods; 3. Adequacy of aisle space and working space; 4. Guarding of transmission machinery; 5. Points-of-operation guards; 6. Maintenance; 7. Hand-tools; 8. Ladders, portable steps, horses, etc.; 9. Hand trucks, power trucks, wheel-barrows, etc.; 10. Floors, platforms, stairs, railings; 11. Cranes, hoists, derricks, plant railways; 12. Lighting; 13. Electrical equipments, particularly extension chords; 14. Elevators; 15. Eye protection; 16. Other personal protective equipments; 17. Dust, fume, gases and vapors; 18. Pressure vessels; 19. Any other explosion hazard as volatiles, gases, chemicals; 20. Other dangerous substances; 21. Oiling methods; 22. Inspection of chains, cables, slings and other lifting tackles; 23. Access to overhead equipment; 24. Exits; 25. Yards, roofs and roadways and 26. Any other conditions suggested by the accident records.

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JOB SAFETY ANALYSIS: Job Safety Analysis requires getting down to the minute detail involving all the operations of a job. A detailed description of each step from the time the work is started should include the preliminaries of issuing the job tickets, blue-prints, and special tools, as well as definition of the skill and other qualifications required for the job. STEPS= i. Select the job ii. Break the job into successive steps iii. Identify the hazards in each step iv. Develop the way to eliminate the hazards. (e.g.) Fettling of ferrous castings weighing about 10 Kgs. with a pedestal grinder in a Foundry: S. NO.OPERATION STEPS..HAZARDPRECAUTION 1. Start the machine Breakage of wheel Check and adjust the guard; Contact with wheel Flying particles Adjust tool rest; Get wheel dressed; If necessary, wear Goggles/shield. 2. Pick up the job Sharp surface Fall of casting Use hand gloves; Proper handling/ Wear safety shoes Sprain Storing properly/ Proper handling. 3. 4. Grinding Replace the job Dust nuisance Same as in step.2 Use respirator; Same as in step.2.
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WORKING CONDITIONS AND ENVIRONMENT MONITORING: It has taken long time for the full extent of the inter-dependence between working conditions and environmental conditions to be properly recognized. The first move in this direction came when people began to realize that occupational accidents has economic as well as physical consequences, although at first only their direct cost (medical care, compensation) were perceived and subsequently attention was paid to occupational diseases as well. As a final step, it was realized that the indirect cost of occupational accidents (working time lost by the injured person, the witnesses and the accident investigators, production stoppage, material damage, work delays, possible legal and other costs, reduced output when the injured person is replaced and subsequently when he returns to work and so on) are usually for higher- as much as four times higher in some cases- than the direct costs. The reduction in productivity and the increase in production-rejects and manufacturing waste that result from fatigue due to excessively long working hours and bad working conditions in particular, lighting and ventilation, have shown that the human body, in spite of its immune capacity for adaptation, is far more productive when working under optimal conditions. Indeed, in certain developing countries, it has been found that productivity can be improved merely by improving the conditions under which people work. The four basic methods of controlling occupational hazards classified by decreasing order of effectiveness are: 1. 2. 3. 4. Elimination of Hazard HazXard Removal of Individual from exposure Hazard Isolation of the Hazard [Hazard] Protection of the Individual Hazard Individual IndivXidual Individual [Individual]

ERGONOMIC CONSIDERATION AT WORK SPOT: A few general notes as on laying out the work places may be useful: y If similar work is being done by each hand, there should be a separate supply of material or parts for each hand;

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y If eyes are used for selecting the material, as far as possible, the material should be kept in an area where the eyes can locate it without there being any need to turn the head; y The nature and shape of the material influence its position in the lay-out;

y Hand-tools should be picked up with the least possible disturbance to the rhythm and symmetry of movements. As far as possible, the operator should be able to pick up or put down a tool as the hand moves from one part of the work to the next, without making a special journey. Natural movements are curved, not straight: tools should be placed on the arc of the movement, but clear of the path of movement of any material which has to be slid along the surface of the bench; y Tools should be easy to pick up and replace, as far as possible, they should have an automatic return, or the location of the next piece of material to be moved should allow the tool to be returned as the hand travels to pick it up;

y Finished work should be-

a. Dropped down a hole or chute; b. Dropped through a chute when the hand is starting the first motion of the next cycle; c. Put in a container placed so that hand movements are kept to a minimum; d. If the operation is an intermediate one, place in a container in such a way that the next operative can pick it up easily and e. Always look into the possibility of using pedals or knee operated levers for locking devices on fixtures r devices for dispensing any finished work.

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