Workplace habits

Effectiveness of engineering controls (e.g., dust masks, respirators) Safety (i.e., improving workplace habits to minimize exposure) Communication and education... 

The use of personal protective equipment is considered an important element of safety management. The top management and supervisors at the workplace should make it a habit to preach on this aspect periodically without fail, till it becomes a habit of the workers. 

For the procedure, I would like to refer you to the a book entitled Building Student Safety Habits for the Workplace, developed recently by the Partnership for the Advancement of Chemical Technology (PACT), centered at Miami University/Middletown, Middletown, OH, with funding from the National Science Foundation. The specific exercises to be performed are Exercise 4E in which a fume hood is examined and tested, and Exercise 7C in which eyewash stations and safety showers are examined and tested. 

Permission to link this experiment to the book Building Student Safety Habits for the Workplace, developed by the Partnership for the Advancement of Chemical Technology and published by Terrific Science Press, Miami University, Middletown, OH, is gratefully acknowledged. 

I have provided your supervisors with copies of a document on MSDSs that should be very helpful as you proceed in this work. It is a section entitled Exploring MSDSs found in the book Building Student Safety Habits for the Workplace, published by Terrific Science Press at the Center for Chemical Education at Miami University, Middletown, OH. This section includes a set of instructions for doing exactly what is required for this project (Exercise 3B). I also have made photocopies of the labels in question (found in Section 2B in the above referenced book) and the MSDSs (found in Section 3B in the above referenced book). Also, your supervisors will decide who should evaluate which labels. I have recommended that each participant be assigned two of the four chemicals (four labels) at random, meaning that each participant will each have four labels to evaluate, a consumer product label and an industrial chemical product label for one chemical and a consumer product label and industrial chemical product label for a second chemical. Please use the method suggested for Exercise 3B in the book referenced above and keep a good record of your work in your notebook so that you can prepare a quality report memo for WSHA. 

Innumerable factors, such as crop pattern, food habits, processing conditions, species variations, and multiple uses of pesticides and toxic metabolites, complicate the determination however, human data on a pesticide, whether from volunteer studies or from other investigation,s of human exposures in the workplace or environment, can be extremely valuable in placing the animal data in context and, when available, should always be evaluated even when they are not u,sed to derive ADls. 

After compliance with the regulatory requirements is achieved and maintained, it is important that the focus be placed upon the behaviors of the individuals within the workforce. Employees working the same job for 40 hours a week, every week, acquire habits within the performance of their job function. The employee may not even realize that the behavior exhibited placed him or her or others within the workplace at risk. Although safety and health professionals often perform job observations, job hazard analysis, and other periodic activities, the safety and health professional cannot be everywhere in the workplace. Employees should be aware of not only the risks and safeguards of their job function but also actively involved in assisting fellow employees in improving their safety and health performance. 

Try to get into the habit of doing a risk assessment every time you arrive in the workplace. Not a formal written risk assessment like the one described in Chapter 1, but an informal one for yourself, assessing the potential hazards around your area of work. You can then reduce any potential hazards by appropriate safety measures which will make your working environment safer. 

Motor carrier safety is dependent in large measure upon employees attitudes and work habits. Without employee cooperation, the use of safety measures is no guarantee of workplace safety. Proper direction from management can greatly affect worker cooperation and attitude. Reinforce the concept that your managers and supervisors must be your safety champions. 

Issues like employees driving home after an on-the-premises sundowner or happy hour need to be considered. The policy must not be seen to be an undue interference in an employee s private life, but that is not to say that workplace wellness campaigns shouldn t target alcohol, drags, smoking, and fitness and eating habits. The problem arising from workplace social functions can be reduced if low or non-alcoholic drinks are available and adequate food is provided. 

There is one problem that must be addressed at this time. Seasoned employees may train new employees with old procedures. These procedures may not be correct and could in effect cause injuries, some due to a shortcut. You need to be careful that you are not training employees on the bad habits that may exist in your workplace. 

Five S Eive terms utilized to create a workplace suited for visual contfol and Lean production. Sort means to separate needed tools, parts, and instruction from unneeded materials and to remove the latter. Simplify means to neatly arrange and identify parts and tools for ease of use. Scrub means to conduct a cleanup campaign. Standardize means to conduct Sort, Simplily, and Scrub at frequent intervals to maintain a workplace in perfect condition. Sustain means to form the habit of always following the first S s. 

A level II study gathers data that are not available in public records. The kinds of data depend on whether the study design is case control or cohort. A level II case-control study typically investigates pathways of exposure for the at-risk population. An investigation of exposure includes interviews with individuals in the at-risk population about their length of residence in the presumed impact area, dietary habits, workplace conditions, and places where children play. It may also include qualitative or semiquantitative modeling of the environmental fate and transport of chemicals of concern (Chapter 2). Samples of body fluids and tissues such as blood, urine, hair, or nails may be analyzed for evidence of exposure to bioaccumulative chemicals such as arsenic, mercury, or PCBs. An effort is made to identify and exclude possible confounding factors. Erin Brockovich and A Civil Action are examples of level II case-control studies. 

The major reasons that employers want safety-savvy chemists, (or other employees who wear a chemist s hat in their workplaces), reflect basic economic concerns. The cost of hiring a chemist or other technical graduate can exceed 100,000. (2) Any time lost to accidents represent a loss to the company. An individual with poor safety habits is a potential liability to him/herself, to co-workers, and to the company and its facilities. Such individuals who move on to supervisory positions can pass on bad habits to others. In addition to accidents and associated litigation, the possibility of regulatory fines pose another concern. 

When trainers represent these behaviors as anomalous or irrational, they may fail to teach miners how habitual behaviors, reinforced through repetition in the workplace, often take the place of reasoned judgments about risk. We expect miners to become better—more experienced—as they perform more and more iterations of an action. But we may not perceive how these iterations become embodied habits that miners can perform mechanically without thinking. 

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