OSHAjed
I received my annual OSHA safety training today (last training was circa 2001).
We did the following segments: Forklift Safety, Fire Extinguisher Training, Bloodborne Pathogen Training, Material Safety Data Sheet Training, and Lockout-Tagout training. Each section had an accompanied quiz that went along with it.
Of highest note were the following items:
* If you come into contact with blood or a bodily fluid, you can request that your employer provide to you (free of charge) the ability to obtain Hepatitis B vaccinations. You are also at risk of contracting HIV, Syphilis, and Brucillosis (?), but are not able to get treatment for them at the expense of the employer.
* Forklifts are more dangerous when they have no load on them than when they are carrying a load
* AEI has two HALON based fire extinguishers (along with a plethora of CO2 and Powder based ones). HALON extinguishers are not legal to buy anymore, but are okay to own if you already have them in your possession (we think because HALON is ozone depleting). Anyway, HALON is a very good acceptor of Oxygen and will quickly suck up all of the Oxygen in the room putting out the fire. It will also suck up all the Oxygen in your lungs if you breathe it, putting out your life. So, be careful when using it.
* Do not eat, drink, or smoke in a laboratory where airborne particles that are dangerous could be present.
* It is acceptable to use a forklift to raise a person in the air as long as they are in a basket that has standard rails. This person must be careful not to stick their hand out past the rails lest it get caught in the scissoring fork lift system and they lose it.
* OSHA must be notified in the following circumstances: someone is hospitalized with a major injury OR more than 3 people die in an incident at work.
* When performing fork truck testing procedures, it is NOT acceptable to use human pedestrians ( as, for example, poles on a slalom course)
Glad we got all of that cleared up.