Safety of the machine operators has to be top priority for business owners. It is estimated that over 800 people die in the US every year due to the accidents involving industrial equipment and machinery. Companies that have any kind of equipment needing safeguarding should develop a sustainable and comprehensive safety plan. There are several stages such plan should have. It needs to start with surveying and then assessing the risk. Once the issues that need to be addressed are identified, design of safe guards can commence, culminating in review and implementation.
Key Takeaways:
- The challenge is putting together an organized, systematic machine safeguarding plan. The task can be daunting.
- The best and most effective way to tackle this overwhelming task is to understand where the hazards are, why they exist, and how frequently employees are exposed to them.
- Once companies know where their exposures lie, they can then determine the best course of action to mitigate risks.
“Machine operators suffer approximately 18,000 injuries and 800 deaths per year—a stat from ICW Insurance Companies—and year after year, machine guarding violations show up on OSHA’s top 10 list of most frequent citations.”
