Safe workplace

Similarly, airborne emission limits have been estabHshed by the NRC for nonrestricted areas. Limits of surface contamination must be estabHshed to provide a safe workplace for users (19). The appHcation of the as-low-as-reasonably-achievable (ALARA) principle to the above draws on the creative talents of the user to regard the limits as nonapproachable barriers and not as tolerable maxima for discharge. 

Site-specific health and safety requirements and site personnel, including contractors, are typically held responsible for managing and conducting all activities safely. Every worker should understand that he or she is responsible for sharing in the commitment to a safe workplace. In addition, employees should perform their work in accordance with any applicable laws, regulations, contract provisions, and established site-specific requirements. 

Employees who expect to be provided a safe workplace—these include operators, maintenance workers, laboratory technicians and technical staff. Each of these groups has different needs. 

The goal of OSHA is to ensure that no employee will suffer material impairment of health or functional capacity, due to a lifetime occupational exposure to chemicals and hazardous substances. The statute imposes a duty on employers to provide employees with a safe workplace environment, free of known hazards that may cause death or serious bodily injury. 

We believe these Minimum Requirements are important, and we expect compliance as a way of life to assist in achieving the Company s goals of providing a safe workplace for each of its employees and of protecting its plants and property. 

A cell culture laboratory, in which activities are restricted to manipulation of established or pathogen-free derived cell lines, is a relatively safe workplace. Major risks are related to potential injuries resulting from liquid nitrogen manipulation or glassware accidents. 

Hendershot, D., Smaller Is Safer—Simplifying Chemical Plant Safety, Safe Workplace, National Council on Compensation Insurance, 750 Park of Commerce Drive, Boca Raton, FL 33487,2000. Hendershot is a senior technical fellow in the Process Hazard Assessment Department of the Rohm and Haas Company, Bristol, PA, and has written extensively on Process Safety. 

The aim of occupational toxicology is to help create a safe workplace. Historically, occupational studies... 

Your employer is legally responsible for providing a safe workplace and should freely answer your questions about hazardous chemicals. Your OSHA-approved state occupational safety and health program or OSHA can also answer any further questions you might have, and help your employer identify and correct problems with hazardous substances. If you would like to make a formal complaint about health hazards in your workplace, your OSHA-approved state occupational safety and health program or OSHA office will listen to your complaint and inspect your workplace when necessary. 

The results of an effective safety program not only can be measured in injuries prevented and lives saved but also may have a distinct bottom-line impact on the corporation or entity. Companies that do not have effective safety programs often pay the equivalent cost in terms of workers compensation and lost productivity. The inference can be made that a safe workplace is a productive workplace (McElroy 1964). 

How dangerous are America s workplaces Workers apparently feel they are unsafe. A poll of blue-collar workers taken in Indiana in 1990 found that nearly 30 percent considered their jobs not safe, and those who felt their jobs less safe compared to three years earlier outnumbered those who felt their jobs more safe by 22.9 percent to 16.3 percent. Almost three out of five reported that they had been seriously injured on-the-job of these, a third reported multiple injuries. (The emphasis on serious was in the questionnaire.) When asked what priority his or her employer placed on safety, twice as many said low as high (The National Safe Workplace Institute, 1990a). 

The National Safe Woritplace Institute. 1990a. What Indiana Blue Collar Workers Have to Say about Employers and the Role of Government. Chicago The National Safe Workplace Institute. 

Management will maintain a safe workplace Management maintain a safe wrakplace... 

Improvements in safety and health in the future are likely to come as a result of greater awareness of the cost effectiveness of a safe workplace and the competitive advantage gained from a safe and healthy workforce. 

Housekeeping—maintaining a clean, neat, orderly, and safe workplace. 

No one person, CEO, COO, vice president of manufacturing, director of manufacturing, or anyone else, can guarantee a safe workplace. 

World-class safety is dependent on engaging the workforce is proactive workplace safety improvement. No one person can guarantee a safe workplace. A distributed approach to safety leadership, using a formal, team-based structure, will be covered in this chapter. Developing a safety team of passionate about safety people provides both current safety leadership and a path for the development of future business leaders. 

The understanding that both management and employees are partners in accident prevention and risk management, and that together they can create and maintain a safe workplace with a proactive safety culture, is needed to change the workplace safety culture. 

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