Environmental Health and Safety Update

TransCanada announced this week that they will build a pipeline from Oklahoma to the Gulf of Mexico.  This endeavor is to move oil from Cushing, Oklahoma to refineries in the Gulf of Mexico which will be refining the gasoline and the crude oil by products. This project will alleviate an oil bottleneck at the Oklahoma storage hub.

The original proposal suggested a pipeline from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico. The President rejected this plan in January saying that it required further environmental reviews. The benefit of the TransCanada pipeline is that approval from the US State Department would not be needed since it will not cross the Canada – U.S. border.

According to an article by USA Today, moving oil from the Midwest to the world-class, state-of-the-art refineries on the Gulf Coast will modernize our infrastructure, create jobs, and encourage American energy production. TransCanada says that it will start working on the pipeline as soon as possible and the construction will be completed by late next year.

This new pipeline will further boost the oil and gas industry in Oklahoma and more employees will be required to meet safety standards and regulations. noodleStream.com, the maker of SafetySkills™ is an Oklahoma based online safety training provider that specializes in training for the Oil and Gas Industry as well as the General Industry. Course titles include Confined Space Awareness, Oil Rig Safety, Excavation and Trenching, Lockout/ Tagout and over 200 additional OSHA compliant courses. Training is also available in a DVD format for employees without computer access. Please call us today for more information on course titles, regulations and pricing at 888-844-3549.

Warehouse Safety the Dangers of Modern Warehouses and How to Prevent Them

SafetySkills™ is starting off November with showcasing another free course of the month. This month’s free course is Hazardous Materials Transportation, Introduction. This free course is available to individuals or companies looking for online safety training. To view the course, you must create an account. The account is free and the course is free and the certificate of completion is also free.  Why do we offer free training? Because we hope you find SafetySkills™ so effective and easy to use that you choose us for all of your compliance training needs.

More than 800,000 hazardous material shipments occur every day – 365 days a year. Commerce involving hazardous materials contributes more than $446 billion to the US economy annually. It is an important part of everyone’s daily life. Persons involved in the packaging, marking, labeling, and transporting of hazardous materials must be familiar with the proper handling and safeguarding of hazardous materials as prescribed in the Hazardous Materials Regulations, or HMR. This free course is designed to give HAZMAT employees a general awareness of the requirements of the HMR.

Hazardous Materials Transportation,Introduction can be used to fulfill the requirements of 49 CFR 174(a)(1) for the general awareness/familiarization training. After the completion of the course you will be able to summarize which packages and containers the HMR apply to, what training is required and what the possible penalties are for violating the HMR. Employers may also be interested in all the courses available in our Hazardous Materials (DOT) Training Series.

To check out all of our over 200 OSHA, EPA and DOT compliant courses, visit us at http://safetyskills.com/

This week is the Drive Safely Work Week sponsored by the National Safety Council and the Network of Employers for Traffic Safety (NETS).  In partnership with the U.S. Department of Transportation, the week is to remind employees to avoid driving distracted.  The AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety states that distracted driving contributes up to 8,000 crashes every single day.

Many accidents could be prevented if drivers took this time to focus only on driving. Many drivers use this time to multi task, whether it be to answer emails, respond to texts, eat breakfast or put on makeup. A delay in reaction time due to multitasking can prove to be fatal. One of the most important rules to follow and stay safe is to plan ahead. The Foundation for Traffic Safety offer excellent tips and facts on distracted driving – http://www.aaafoundation.org/multimedia/distracteddriving.cfm

To get the whole office or company involved, have them take a few minutes to complete the SafetySkills Distracted Driver course. This course is designed to give the learner knowledge and skills needed to drive safely and avoid distractions that can lead to traffic accidents. When this course is over the learner should be able to recognize the causes of driver distraction and the appropriate actions for distracted drivers to take.  The Distracted Driver online course is part of the Driver Safety Training Series. This series includes Delivery Driver Safety, Driver Safety,Hazardous Driving Conditions,Hazards of Speeding and Road Rage.

To find out more about SafetySkills™, visit us at http://safetyskills.com.

1. The water in the water bottle has a funny shade of green
2. The plastic holding the liquid has melted around it
3. It has a funny shade of florescent green and you don’t remember Gatorade coming out with any new flavors
4. It sizzled on the ground when poured out
5. There are some funny letters and numbers written on the bottle that kind of remind you of high school chemistry class
6. The bottle was found hanging out around the chemical closet
7. You get this faint dizzy feeling when you take a whiff of it
8. You have no idea where this container came from
9. It says ice tea, it even kinda looks like ice tea but you think you burnt some of your nose hairs off when you went to take a swig
10. The last guy who drank out of that bottle hasn’t been seen in a couple of hours
11. The guy before him has been wondering around looking dazed and confused and demands to be called Lord Fluffinstuff

A picture perfect day with a cool breeze and warm sun shining down could make any outdoor worker’s day almost enjoyable.Unfortunately days such as those do not happen as often as we like. People who perform most of their job duties outside such as oil and gas workers, road crews and construction workers will sometimes have to prepare themselves for severe weather conditions. Severe weather awareness falls under OSHA’s General Duty Clause and it is important that employers and employees are aware of incoming severe weather and develop an action plan. Awareness is the key to safety.

A severe weather action plan will provide employees the best method of action when working on an outdoor job site in inclement weather. Most plans will have to be tailored to the weather conditions in the area such as hurricanes or tornadoes, but thunderstorms are a dangerous weather condition for most outdoor workers across the country. To learn more about severe weather action plans, please view the SafetySkills™ course at  http://www.safetyskills.com/occupational-health-and-safety-series/severe-weather-and-outdoor-work-safety. After viewing the course, employees will be able to demonstrate knowledge of severe weather hazards and how to react when severe weather strikes during work processes. Employees will learn to identify hazards associated with severe weather and standard protocols to follow during severe weather events. Proper knowledge of severe weather is key when developing the best safety plan for outdoor workers.

On May 25 2011, OSHA had issued a news release concerning the US Department of Labor’s fines of over $1.2 million to AMD Industries of Cicero, IL. According to the news release, AMD Industries violated OSHA regulations after 5 unprotected and untrained workers were allegedly required to conduct asbestos removal which had exposed the workers to cancer causing material. This is not the first time that AMD had a run in with OSHA laws. In December 2010 the company was issued 19 willful and 8 serious health citations. At that time, AMD was conducting an in house asbestos removal project using untrained workers. AMD had failed to provide protective respirators or even warn the workers of the risk to their health. (Source: www.osha.gov)

The general public may be exposed to asbestos in small doses daily in the air. Most people who develop asbestos related diseases were exposed to asbestos at their workplace. The greater the exposure to large quantities of asbestos, the greater the risk of developing a related illness. Under the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970, employers are responsible for providing safe and healthful workplaces for their employees. To keep employees safe, employers must know the forms and toxicity level of asbestos. SafetySkills™ provides an Asbestos Hazard Awareness course available at http://safetyskills.com/occupational-health-and-safety-series/asbestos-hazard-awareness This course provides information on the basics of identifying asbestos hazards and how to eliminate the hazards in the workplace. For more information on this courses and other safety training courses, please visit us at safetyskills.com

OSHA is proposing to revise its Occupational Injury and Illness Recording and Recordkeeping regulation to include a column on the OSHA Form 300 Injury and Illness Log (OSHA 300 Log). This revision would require employers to check a column if a case they already are required to record is a work related musculoskeletal disorder (MSD). The proposed rule would also require employers to put the totals from the MSD column on the OSHA Form 300A Annual Summary at the end of the year.

OSHA held a teleconference in April 2011 to gather information from representatives of small businesses about their experience recording work related MSDs and how they believe they would be impacted by OSHA’s proposed rule. The proposed rule would not change existing requirements about when and under what circumstances employers must record any work related injury or illness. The new rule would only apply to cover MSDs that employers are already required to record under the current OSHA Recordkeeping rule. One small business participant of the teleconference believes that the proposed rule will increase the need for a more thorough investigation to correctly classify work related MSDs. OSHA is still taking comments on the topic until June 16th 2011.

SafetySkills™ offers a training course that focuses on OSHA’s current standards of reporting and recordkeeping. This course is available at http://safetyskills.com/occupational-health-and-safety-series/osha-reporting-and-recordkeeping. This course will identify OSHA’s general requirement for injury/illness, identify OSHA’s required reporting forms and identify the types of incidents the OSHA requires to be reported. To learn more about this course and others, please visit us at safetyskills.com

With melamine-tainted milk continuing to be a problem in convenience stores in China, it brings a very important issue up for everyone – how safe are our supermarkets? The U.S. has previously experienced various health concerns with fruits, vegetables and even peanut butter, but do we ever think of how the safe practices of supermarket employees could potential harm us?

Besides how supermarket safety can affect consumers, employees’ are at high risk of injury due to the variety of tasks that must be performed. Cashiers, bakery and deli workers, butchers and stockers all need specialized training to help them safely perform their job duties. SafetySkills™ has developed an online grocery and supermarket safety training series that addresses safety concerns in grocery stores. This series includes the following courses:

• Supermarket Safety – Backroom Safety
• Supermarket Safety – General Safety
• Supermarket Safety – Safe Lifting Basics
• Supermarket Safety – Bakery/Deli Safety
• Supermarket Safety – Meat Market Safety
• Supermarket Safety – Slips, Trips and Falls

According to Tiara Rye, a Homeland Assistant Frontend Manager, felt that the series “was very interactive…it is easy to use and covers all the basic points in safety.” She also encourages other members of this industry to use this training .

Take a look for yourself at http://safetyskills.com/supermarket-safety-series.

As most of my readers know, I think that SafetySkills online training is pretty great. The company that created the SafetySkills brand, noodleStream.com, has receieved the 2009 Best in Business Award in the Safety Training Service category by the Small Business Commerce Association (SBCA).

The SBCA 2009 Award Program recognizes the top 5 percent of  small businesses across the country. The winners of the award are chosen by the use of consumer feedback and how important the small businesses are to the American economy.  The selection committee chooses the award winners from nominees based off information taken from monthly surveys administered by the SBCA, a review of consumer rankings, and other consumer reports. Award winners are a valuable asset to their community and exemplify what makes small businesses great.

“Being chosen as one of the top 5 percent of small businesses is fantastic and shows the public that we offer a great service,” said Greene. “The need for the best training possible is something that I hope more and more businesses will realize is essential to building a strong business.”

I hope that everyone makes workplace safety their New Year’s resolution and learns from the lessons of 2009 and looks to this company to make safety a priority in their business.