Thursday, January 5, 2012

Safety first . . .and next, and last!

First off, Happy New Year!  The holidays have passed and 2012 is here with new opportunities and challenges.  One challenge that cannot be ignored (especially at work) is safety.  And as you know, safety is not only very important in the waste handling industry but EVERY industry.

You may or may not be aware that a sizeable amount of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA) focus is on employee education and training in the workplace.   For some time though, this information hasn’t been easy to locate because a great deal of it is spread throughout their standards publication and within other regulations.   In response to this “missing section” a recent collection of OSHA standards that are employee-training specific has been produced that aims to be a useful reference.

Although they do represent a condensed version of the standards and are not 100% authoritative, this site provides an invaluable resource for managers.  Across the board standards such as emergency and fire evacuation plans are listed as well as considerations for specialized industries that deal with chemicals and radiation.  Also, this reference provides detail on the safe use of heavy duty material handling machinery for both commercial and industrial jobsites. 

So expand your understanding of workplace safety by visiting this part of the OSHA Training network:  www.oshatraining.com/osha-general-industry-training-requirements.php  

For more safety information regarding the use of our waste handling equipment specifically you can always browse our equipment specifications online at:  www.bestcompactors.com  Also, feel free to contact the chairman of the compactor committee for the ANSI Z245 Accredited Standards Committee and our president, Denny Pool, at denny@sp-industries.com