MEMIC Safety Blog

Splish, Splash

 Posted By Randy Klatt

It was one of those moments when I kept thinking, “How stupid can you be?  You’re a safety consultant!”  Fortunately, such thoughts don’t occur very often, but there I was in my driveway…

I was filling my lawnmower using a full 5 gallon gasoline container.  Since the plastic can was full it weighed about 35 lbs and the gasoline poured out of the plastic spout very quickly.  As I was trying to keep the gas flowing without spilling it the lawnmower tank filled quickly.  I was crouching over the lawnmower as I pulled the spout out of the tank.  The spout had been bent over in order to keep the pour going into the tank and when I pulled it out it flipped upward, splashing gas back towards my face.  The “how stupid…” thought that I mentioned earlier now came flooding over me as my right eye began to burn. 

I ran inside and flushed my eye with water for the next several minutes.  The burn subsided somewhat, but the eye was uncomfortable for the next several hours.  Now the question is “what did I learn from this and what can the readers take away from this story?”  

• Keep your face away from any pouring operation.
• Wear safety glasses when handling gasoline or any other hazardous chemical.

 

Additional safety tips for handling gasoline:

• Never fill gas cans while in the bed of a truck or in a trunk; always fill cans on the ground.
• Don’t get in and out of your car when pumping gas; the static buildup can discharge igniting the gas vapors. Remember, the flash point of gasoline is -40 degrees F; it is always extremely flammable!
• Always wash your hands after handling gasoline, especially before eating or drinking.
• Store gasoline in proper containers.

 

Nearly everyone handles gasoline; just remember it is a toxic substance that is extremely flammable.  Give it the respect it deserves.  I always wear safety glasses when mowing the lawn, but will now ensure I have them on before I ever start the engine.  I recommend you do the same.  For some sobering reading on what is in gasoline and its potential hazards, download a gasoline Material Safety Data Sheet using the BLR MSDS Search feature available through the Safety Director at MEMIC.com.

Back to School Construction—Commuters Beware

  Written by Peter Koch

The impending close to summer reared it’s ugly head earlier this week while dropping my daughter off at 6:30 AM for the first of her pre-season double session practices.  That also dredged up images of the hundreds of school buses and thousands of parents transporting kids, not to mention the scores of recently licensed drivers that will soon be competing for our attention during the morning commute. 

Combine these with the much needed repair work currently happening on our roads and a lack of planning on our part, and you have a recipe for, at best, a tardy arrival to work or speeding ticket.  You can imagine the worst case . . .

While no injury or fatality is considered good, the frequency of school bus related traffic fatalities is relatively low.  National Highway Statistics provides this brief summary of the stats relating to school bus crashes:

• Each year, approximately 800 school-age children are killed in motor vehicle crashes during the normal school travel hours (weekday mornings and afternoons during school months). 
• Roughly 2% of the 800 children killed are school bus related while 74% occur in private passenger vehicles and 22% are the result of pedestrian or bicycle accidents.  

What can we do to keep the grim reaper or trooper from the rear view mirror?  Start with a good plan:

1. Know your route – Be aware of any planned or current construction along your way.  Using web resources such as Trafficinfo, Rand McNally, or a local city website can help identify areas where delays are likely.
2. Leave early – Be sure to leave enough time to account for any known construction delays or school bus stops along the way.  Usually 30 minutes is enough, but more may be necessary depending on where you live.  If you get there ahead of time you can catch up on your email and text messages.
3. Stay visible – Stop far enough back for the bus driver to see you in their mirror and use your hazards when stopped for a bus, giving notice to any drivers behind you.
4.  Avoid distraction – It’s not the phone, it’s the conversation.  Refrain from using cell phones while driving in school zones or areas with children. The same goes for activities that distract the driver, such as changing CDs, looking at notes and reading maps.

The following sites provide additional tips and strategies for avoiding tragedy on you morning commute this fall:

• Back-to-School Safety
• Jiffy Lube Safety Tips
• State of Maine Good Driving Tips

Younger Workers: Willing To Please Even If It Hurts

School is out and kids are looking for work. Approximately 2.3 million will get a job this summer in the U.S. and 157,000 of them will get more than just a pay check—they’ll get hurt on the job too. Lacerations, burns and broken bones are just some of the common injuries young workers sustain summer after summer.

Even though out-of-school students fill a much-needed gap in the workforce, employers need to be aware that this age group is at higher risk for work-related injuries because of their unique biological and social characteristics:

• Teenagers are known to do tasks they haven’t been trained to do. 
• Many lack physical and emotional maturity to assess risk.
• They may not know which work tasks are prohibited by child labor laws.
• Young people are more susceptible to chemical exposures.

Right about now you’re probably wondering if you can prevent a young worker from getting hurt at your business. As with any worker, no matter what the age, the answer is always yes through proper training, supervision and clear safety rules.

Training
The first thing to consider is their experience. 

• Break them in. For example, if they have never spent the better part of a day painting from a ladder, you can lessen their risk by teaching them how to setup a ladder, pointing out overhead electrical lines and explaining why working on a sunny side is more hazardous due to higher work area temperatures and exposure to UV rays.
• Beware of the over-confident returning worker. If the employee is experienced, then their break in time is shorter, but beware that this can create complacency. 
• Be a safety coach. The only way to know if your young worker is working safely is to watch them work and coach as needed.  All too often this “safety coaching" is not done and I liken it to a two-legged stool—it might work for awhile but not for long.

Supervision
Once the young worker shows proficiency, your supervisory role is not over. 

• Be on the lookout for shortcuts. Even though they may be employed for only a few months, some workers may go out of their way to please you by skipping a safety step for the sake of productivity.
• Monitor performance in 3 areas. If your worker is held accountable only for quality and productivity but not safety, you are back to the two-legged stool. Decrease exposure by reinforcing your expectations and hold them accountable.

Clear safety rules
One last thing to be aware of is how impressionable younger workers can be. 

• Practice what you preach. If the rule is to have a blade guard in place on a meat slicer, then it must be applied across the board to all workers. If a 5-year veteran, or worse a supervisor, removes it--what kind of message does that send?  Putting oneself in danger just got a little bit easier.