Lifting things safely at work. One of the more common problems found at work is the right way to lift something.  Though it may sound like something that everyone may know I can assure you there are still questions that many have over a simple procedure like how to lift something safely and properly to avoid back injury at work.  The worst thing you can do is lift something the wrong way as the reprocussions will no doubt not make you happy.  I know as a youngster I made the mistake of misjudging the weight of a particular box I was asked to move from the storage area to the front office.  Being a fit young man I just walked right over and snatched the box up as though it were the weight of a feather,  as it turned out this box weighed almost hundred pounds.  Now because I didn’t prepare myself to lift that much weight I ended up pulling something in my back which has caused me injuries in the decades to come. 

Making sure your employees know the proper weight to lift something while in your employ can save you much money in insurance. Were one o your employees to injure their back it can become a life long problem that you may end up responsible for.  Lifting something incorrectly can cause more than just back problems, you can end with problems breathing and sometimes joints, ligaments, and bones can be injured or broken in other places on your body than your back.  Your legs, arms, and chest can be injured just as easily as your back when lifting safety has been ignored.

  • How to lift a heavy object safely.
  • Teach your employees proper lifting procedures in the work area.
  • Display signs or posters to remind employees the proper way to lift.
  • Catchy slogans or quotes also serve a friendly and cheerful reminder of how to keep your workplace safe.

When preparing to lift something, there are just a few simple things to remember. 

  1. Make sure to get yourself into a comfortable position prior to picking anything up.
  2. Bending the knees when picking somthing up from the floor or beneath you helps protect your back.
  3. Never lift anything that is too heavy for you.
  4. Never use just the back when lifting.
  5. Always make your whole body work for you when lifting, your legs should actually take on most of the weight when lifting, not your arms.

Food safety involves many different facets of safety that deal with workplace food regulations and issues as well as general food safety guidelines. The FDA (Food and Drug Association) governs the laws and regulations that deal with nutrition and food safety. There are two very important laws / acts that govern food safety. These are the Commodity Labeling Law and the sanitation act.

Recent Food Safety News :

At present the commodity labeling law dictates that it must be specified by the labeler to include where the final food products were originally located and shipped from. This means that after the food is canned or preserved in other ways, it must be clear where this packaging took place.

The sanitation act, in part states that food companies must inform us via the label what the ingredients were used to create each food as well as the quantities of each ingredient that was used to make foods be clearly placed on the label of all foods.

Recently the DPP Proposed changes to the sanitation act and food commodity laws :

The changes proposed were that foods must be labeled to specify the origin of the actual ingredients in all foods and not simply where the food was finally packaged.

This seems an obvious decision to me as it is nice to know where you food was packaged and distributed from, however knowing where the actual ingredients came from serves another important food safety cause. The fact is that in more recent times there have been several scary incidents involving foods grown in certain areas of the world and what health concerns arose from these foods being shipping to the United States for distribution. You may recall that many restaurants stopped serving certain spinaches for awhile a year or so ago. Reason being that they couldn’t be certain which products contained ingredients from an area where these problems stemmed.

I believe this is an important step in furthering health, nutrition, and food safety for all.

Workplace safety questions?

Today’s blog is a bit shorter as this is written to encourage anyone stopping by with concerns or questions about safety at work or any workplace safety questions at all to please leave your questions as a comment and one of our safety writers will be happy to help with any safety precautions, questions, techniques, ideas or any work safety question you may wish to propose. Do not be shy when it comes to asking your questions, no matter how important or unimportant you may feel your thoughts on the topic of safety are. When it comes to how to maintain a safe work environment there can be no point to small to cover. All safety concerns are important especially if they are weighing on your mind or when you are considering what safety methods to begin utilizing at your office.

Whether a safety trainer, manager, employer or perhaps you are an employee who has questions they want answered with regard to their specific job. This thread was created to help and encourage anyone with a safety question and to provide a forum where safety professionals can discuss their thoughts and safety ideas.

What are workplace safety posters and why would you place these safety posters in your office?

Workplace safety reminders are the most important facet of safety enforcement in your place of work. These posters serve many purposes with regard to keeping your business running accident free. There are many kinda of safety posters you can purchase or design yourself to encourage your employees to remember what to do and when. Some posters serve as reminders and others serve to show your employees as well as others what safety regulations you have been following and how well you have been doing it. A popular form of safety poster is one where you display the number of days that you have kept things running accident free. Finding a poster that reminds your workers about OSHA regs and how to abide by them serves to keep your workplace safe and also doesn’t hurt when it comes time for a safety inspection around the office. An example of a nice safety poster you can find to display and update around the office may look something like the snapshot of the poster provided. You may wish to create your own free workplace safety poster if you can’t find a particular poster that matches the conditions set forth in your occupation. There are many free safety posters available around the internet and if you can’t find one there are a wide variety available for purchase as well.

OSHA Workplace Safety Poster Calendar

OSHA Workplace Safety Poster Calendar

Safety games for the workplace turn the tables on what most employees consider to be one of the most monotonous tasks of their employ. The last thing your employee wants is to come in on a day off for a safety exam. Rounding up twenty five employees to gather around a conference table to listen to one more humdrum workplace safety seminars certainly does not serve to inspire your employees to remember the workplace safety facts that you are putting forward in your meetings. Recently an employee here had been called in on a day off along with five or ten other workers to join a workplace safety seminar. Listening to the stories of what activities were put into action for him certainly shed some light on a subject that sometimes employers forget can be a tedious exercise for their staff. Sitting down in a room for two hours of safety testing, though an excellent reference and educational experience for workers, sometimes serve to bore the employee out of their mind and actually serve the opposite effect than one may want. Stories of how silly the questions were and how ridiculous the advice on safety was littered the air as this employee recanted the deatils of his seminar.

So what is the alternative to the monotony your employees fear from a workplace safety lecture? Safety games for the workplace encourage your employees to remember their safety precautions in a way which serves to better aid them to recall these details on demand when needed without even realizing that this is happening. So workplace safety games seem silly perhaps? What workplace safety games could you possibly conjure in an effort to stimulate your employees to care about workplace safety? Though I won’t be presenting a list of workplace safety games that you could start on location at your business I will take the time to point out a popular game that works in any work environment. So what is my favorite workplace safety game? Bingo, Of course! Mixing your workplace safety facts into a game of bingo creates a fun method to promote workplace safety through safety games that your employees can enjoy. Now let us take this example a little further. Though bingo is a fun game for all and certainly more enjoyable than work for most of your staff the plain reality of the matter is that no employee really wants to be at work regardless of what activities they are presented with. So how can you make these workplace safety games fun? Here is my tip to promote workplace safety through games at your location. I’m certain you can imagine some subtle changes around the job that your employees may appreciate. Perhaps your business is one where a strict business dress code is adhered to, if this is the case then perhaps offering a Friday dress down day to the winners of the workplace safety bingo games could be applied. There are many things you can do to encourage your employees to remember these very important facts. Another simple example that I use is the winner of whatever safety games were on the table this month gets to leave an hour early on friday, now what better encouragement is there than that?

Try workplace safety games as an alternative to the monotony of the normal workplace safety promotion techniques!

How to reduce injuries in the workplace can be a top priority for any business big or small. Primarily I would hope out of concern of your employee’s well being and secondly for the monetary advantage of keeping your liabilities to a minimum.

There are many factors that you may wish to consider when attempting to decide what workplace prevention methods you should adopt and figure out how to best prevent injuries in the workplace as well as how to promote workplace safety suited to your business needs exclusively. An example would be in large office buildings it is often common to adorn certain areas of the walls with safety signs conducive to preventing accidents in designated area. One thing that I strongly advise if you have a number of employed persons in one building are regularly held safety meetings and safety strategy sessions where you brain storm ideas tailored by you for your company as this is one of your best resources to really encourage a a safer workplace through innovation versus hum drum, run of the mill safety practices. Add a twist to the old and do something for your company, Safety Slogans for your employees company t-shirt or whatever attire your employees wear. Alternatively you may find yourself in a related industry or can somehow incorporate into business slogans you use or new slogans you plan to use in the future. When training new employees they should always be tested on their knowledge of safety in the workplace. Should you be extremely serious about injury prevention at work and maintaining strict safety policies at work I encourage you to make a standard safety test that each employee must past every cycle. Testing your employees is always a good way to ensure that each employee knows what to do by heart should a situation arise where you need them to react appropriately.