Employees remote locations

The following four steps can help you reduce the safety vulnerability of remote workers. These tips apply to all employees, and their management, who must work alone or with others in remote locations where normal means of communication are unreliable or nonexistent. 

The American Water Works Association is pleased to provide you with this 2011 edition of Let s Talk Safety. We ve reviewed, updated, and edited the discussion topics to ensure they continue to be current, pertinent, and beneficial to you and your employees. For example, this edition provides updated information about the revised cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) guidelines recently adopted by the American Heart Association. There s also an important overview of the much-anticipated revisions to Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) regulations on cranes and derricks. New articles provide helpful tips on preventing heat illness and guidelines for ensuring the safety of employees working in remote locations. We ve added Web site addresses to every article so you and your staff can conduct deeper research into particular safety topics. 

Because of the cyclical nature of the oil and gas industry, there are periods in which skilled employees such as drilling engineers are in high demand, but these workers also experience layoffs during downturns. Work can be at remote locations, and global mobility is often expected. 

Organizations with unique occupations and a culture that lacks employee involvement require clever and creative behavioral interventions in order to succeed. Such was the case with a large power and light company that employs numerous linemen. These employees perform hazardous work on electrical lines, often in remote locations and always in teams of three. The behavioral safety process created for these employees involved a combination of self- and peer-sampled observations. 

It was decided to address these questions simultaneously. Several cooperating farms In Wayne County were found with similar CCCs consisting of pad, leach lines, remote water source, water storage tank, and adjacent pesticide storage. A control farm was also located. Most pesticide operations were performed by the owner-operators or regular employees, and they agreed to personally cooperate. 

Employee injuries or illnesses that arise out of and in the course of employment are usually considered compensable. These definition phrases have expanded such injuries and illnesses beyond the four corners of the workplace, to include work-related injuries and illnesses incurred on the highways, at various in- and out-of-town locations, and other such remote locales. These two concepts, arising out of the employment and in the course of the employment, are the basic burdens of proof for the injured employee. Most states require both. The safety and health professional is strongly advised to review the case law in his or her state to see the expansive scope of these two phrases. That is, the injury or illness must arise out of i.e., there must be a causal connection between the work and the injury or illness, and it must be in the course of the employment this relates to the time, place, and circumstances of the accident in relation to the employment (see selected case summary). The key issue is a work connection between the employment and the injury or illness. ... 

Fume hoods are intended to be used to house activities that should not be done on an open bench because of the potential hazard which the activities represent, usually the generation of noxious fumes. The ability of fume hoods to capture and retain fumes generated within them is especially vulnerable to air movement, either due to traffic or other factors such as the location of air system ducts, windows, doors, or fans. Clearly, they should be located, as in the standard laboratory module, in a remote portion of the laboratory selected for low traffic and minimal air movement. Other fume generating apparatus, such as Kjeldahl units, should also be placed in out of the way places where errant air motion will not result in dispersion of the fumes generated into more heavily occupied areas of the room. A point that needs to be considered is the work habits of laboratory employees. Data on the possible health effects of long-term exposures to the vapors from most laboratory chemicals is relatively scant, although there are beginning to... 

Fixed work locations. For fixed work locations such as substations, the number of trained persons available shall be sufficient to ensure that each employee exposed to electric shock can be reached within 4 minutes by a trained person. However, where the existing number of employees is insufficient to meet this requirement (at a remote substation, for example), each employee at the work location shall be a trained employee. 

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