MSHA recently issued a safety alert emphasizing the importance of seasonal safety. According to a new safety alert from NSSGA and the MSHA Alliance, slips, trips and falls accounted for 19% of injuries in the aggregates industry during 2014. With colder weather around the corner we need to be more careful when it comes to working in harsher conditions as the risk for slips and falls only increases. Best practices in the alert include:
- Task train all persons to recognize all potential hazardous conditions that can decrease bank or slope stability, and ensure that they understand safe job procedures for elimination of the slopes.
- Train people to recognize the hazards of working near belt conveyors.
- De-energize and block belt conveyors against motion before working near a chute, drive, head, tail or take-up pulley.
- Lock-out and tag-out all energy sources to belt conveyors before working on them.
- Always use fall protection when working where a fall-to-below hazard exists.
- Establish policies and procedures for safely clearing plugged material in a jaw crusher.
- Maintain and use all available methods of communication, such as sirens and radios, to warn people of an impending blast. Establish methods to ensure that all people are out of the blasting area.
- Always wear a life jacket where there is a danger of falling into the water.
?NSSGA encourages all operators to review the alert so they can be prepared to work safely, and demonstrate full compliance with standards addressed in the above-mentioned best practices,? said Joseph Casper, NSSGA vice president of safety.
