WORKER HEALTH AND SAFETY IN THE PLASTICS INDUSTRY

For additional information concening worker health and safety issues that affect plastics processors, please contact Susan Howe, Senior Technical Director, Worker and Product Safety.

What's New at OSHA?

• The Plastics Industry Page. Employing more than 1.1 million workers in the United States, the plastics industry represents a substantial portion of the American workforce. Various safety and health concerns exist throughout the plastics industry, ranging from raw material manufacturing to plastics processing. This page is maintained as a product of the Alliance between OSHA and the Society of the Plastics Industry, Inc.



• Quick Start is a tool to introduce employers and employees, especially those at new or small businesses, to the compliance assistance resources on OSHA's website. By following the step-by-step guides, you can generate an initial set of compliance assistance materials tailored to your workplace.



• Compliance Assistance for Hispanic Employers and Workers. While this site includes links to Spanish-language resources, it is intended primarily for English-speaking and bilingual users. Included in the resources are English-to-Spanish and Spanish-to-English dictionaries for common OSHA terms, general industry terms, and construction terms.



• Assistance for Small Business. OSHA offers many resources designed specifically for smaller employers. The agency wants to encourage all businesses to establish safety and health programs and find and fix hazards to prevent workplace injuries and illnesses. This page provides access to the most popular materials for small businesses, from free on-site consultation to interactive computer software to technical information to easy-to-follow guides for specific OSHA standards. It also includes links to OSHA local offices and the Small Business Administration.



• OSHA Safety and Health Topic Pages provide occupational safety and health information categorized by 100+ technical subjects. They include pages about hazards, which describe ways to recognize, evaluate and control the hazard. The pages about industries describe the hazards in the industry and how to control them. These topic pages also provide a variety of reference materials including OSHA and non-OSHA documents, training slides, course handouts, video clips, and links to other Internet sites.

What's New at NIOSH?

• What is NIOSH? The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) was established by the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970. NIOSH is part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and is the only Federal agency responsible for conducting research and making recommendations for the prevention of work-related illnesses and injuries.



• NIOSH Alert on Forklifts Workers who operate or work near forklifts may be struck or crushed by the machine or the load being handled. This alert, Preventing Injuries and Deaths of Workers Who Operate or Work Near Forklifts, provides safety information for workers who operate or work near forklifts.



• NIOSH - Ergonomics and Musculoskeletal Disorders Specific information on ergonomics and musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) can be found on this site. Included is information on: Ergonomic Programs and Interventions; Evaluating Risk Factors for Lifting Tasks; and Back Belts and Back Injuries.

OSHA Provides eTools and Expert Advisors

eTools are stand-alone, interactive, Web-based training tools on occupational safety and health topics. They are highly illustrated and utilize graphical menus.

• Machine Guarding for the Plastics Industry - This module was developed in cooperation with the Society of the Plastics Industry, Inc. (SPI) as part of their alliance with OSHA. Currently, it discusses guidelines and safety measures for horizontal injection molding machines. There is also a virtual tour of an injection molding machine available.



• Noise and Hearing Protection - Exposure to high levels of noise may cause hearing loss, create physical and psychological stress, reduce productivity, interfere with communication, and contribute to accidents and injuries by making it difficult to hear warning signals. This eTool discusses what is considered "noise" and the potential health effects. It also includes information on what constitutes an effective hearing conservation program.



• Eye and Face Protection - Thousands of people are blinded each year from work-related eye injuries that could have been prevented with the proper selection and use of eye and face protection. Eye injuries alone cost more than $300 million per year in lost production time, medical expenses, and worker compensation.



• Lockout/Tagout Interactive Training Program - Whether you are a recent hire or an experienced employee, this program will expand your knowledge of the Lockout/Tagout (LOTO) standard. The program has three major components that you can go through at your own pace and in any sequence: tutorial, hot topics, and interactive case studies.



• Safety and Health Management Systems - The best Safety and Health Programs involve every level of the organization, instilling a safety culture that reduces accidents for workers and improves the bottom line for managers. Modules in this eTool include: Safety and Health Payoffs; Management Systems and Safety and Health Integration; Doing a Safety and Health Check Up; and Creating Change.

Expert Advisors are based solely on expert systems modules, which enable the user to answer questions, and receive reliable advice on how OSHA regulations apply to their work site.

• Respiratory Protection Advisor - The purpose of this Advisor is to help you comply with the new OSHA respirator standard. This advisor will instruct you on the proper selection of respiratory protection and the development of change schedules for gas/vapor cartridges.



• The Hazard Awareness Advisor - is designed to help employers and employees, especially those from small businesses without a professional safety and health consultant, locate potential hazards in their specific work environments.



• Safety Pays - software is designed to illustrate to employers the impact occupational injuries and illnesses have on the company's bottom line.

OSHA Hot Topics of Interest to Plastics Processors

Safety

Please check out these links for detailed information on the following safety-related topics of interest to plastics processors.

• Accident Investigation
  This site contains many links to additional information on accident investigation, job hazard analysis, applicable OSHA standards and directives.



• National Emphasis Program on Amputations
  On March 26, 2002, OSHA finalized their National Emphasis Program on Amputations. This program is aimed at reducing amputations in general industry workplaces, and targets all types of power presses, including press brakes, saws, shears and slicers. The program is targeted to industries that are considered a high risk for operating dangerous equipment. Plastics processing, SIC code 3089, is among the industries that will be under scrutiny for workplace amputations. Additional information can be found at the following links:
  • SPI Background Paper on Amputations
  • OSHA Amputation Fact Sheet
  • NIOSH Best Practices in Workplace Surveillance - Workplace Amputations
  • OSHA Publication - Safeguarding Equipment and Protecting Workers from Amputations



• Emergancy Preparedness and Response
  This site provides information regarding the safety and health of workers engaged in emergency responses to releases of hazardous chemicals.



• Lockout/Tagout (Control of Hazardous Energy)
  The OSHA Standard for Lockout/Tagout (Control of Hazardous Energy) covers servicing and maintenance of machines and equipment in which the unexpected energization or start up of the machines or equipment or release of stored energy could cause injury to employees. This site contains links to the OSHA standard, fact sheets, procedures, and applicable OSHA directives.



• Machine Guarding
  Moving machine parts have the potential for causing severe workplace injuries. Safeguards are essential for protecting workers from these preventable injuries. This site contains links to the OSHA Standard Machinery and Machine Guarding, an OSHA publication on the concepts and techniques of machine guarding, compliance documents and directives.



• Rollstock and Sheet Extrusion Machine Safety Training Course This course contains machine-specific modules on machine guarding and lockout/tagout and helps to identify the types of injuries that can occur while operating an extrusion machine and ways to avoid those injuries.



• Injection Molding Machine Safety Training Course This course contains machine-specific modules on machine guarding and lockout/tagout and helps to identify the types of injuries that can occur while operating an injection molding machine and ways to avoid those injuries.



• Roll-fed and Inline Thermoforming Machine Safety Training Course This course contains machine-specific modules on machine guarding and lockout/tagout and helps to identify the types of injuries that can occur while operating roll-fed and inline thermoforming machines.



• Forklift Trucks (Powered Industrial Trucks)
  Many forklift-related injuries occur in US workplaces. Examples of these injuries include employees being struck by lift trucks, lift trucks inadvertently driven off loading docks, or employee falls while standing or working from elevated pallets and tines. This site contains training standards and compliance documents, and a link to the OSHA revision to the general industry safety standard for training powered industrial truck operators.



• PPE (Personal Protective Equipment)
  OSHA requires the use of personal protective equipment to reduce employee's exposures to hazards when engineering controls are not feasible or effective in reducing these exposures to acceptable levels. Employers are required to determine all exposures to hazards in their workplace and determine if PPE should be used to protect their workers. This site contains additional information on accessing the need for PPE and OSHA standards and directives that include protection for eyes, face, the respiratory tract, head, feet and hands.



• Fall Protection - It's a Snap!
  This "Employer Information Kit" was developed to raise awareness of fall hazards in the construction industry and to comply with OSHA fall protection standards. This kit provides information on how much accidents may cost your company; statistics and summaries of construction fall fatalities and catastrophes which have occurred in Kansas, Missouri, and Nebraska; summaries of OSHA construction regulations related to fall hazards; NIOSH Alert on dangers of working from scaffolds; personal fall protection information; and Disaster Facts Accident Reports related to falls.



• Walking/Working Surfaces
  According to OSHA, slips, trips and falls constitute the majority of general industry accidents, and cause 15% of all accidental deaths. This site contains OSHA standards and directives on scaffolding, stairways and ladders.

Health

Please check out these links for detailed information on the following health-related topics of interest to plastics processors.

Health Advisory-Legionnaires' Disease.

Are your workers at risk for Legionnaires' Disease from your water systems, blow-down activities, eye wash or safety showers? OSHA has investigated recent outbreaks of Legionnaires' Disease in plastic injection molding facilities in Cincinnati, Ohio and Baltimore, Maryland. One worker died and several were hospitalized due to this disease.

Legionnaires' Disease is a potentially fatal respiratory infection commonly discovered with pneumonia. This bacterial disease is generally associated with untreated poorly maintained water-based systems and water-based aerosols. Legionnaires' has not been shown to be a communicable disease, but is of an environmental origin. Consequently, it affects those who are directly exposed to a contaminated aerosolized water source and further contamination to others is minimized. Although OSHA currently has no specific Standard or Directives for Legionnaires' disease, on December 9, 1998, they published a Hazard Information Bulletin - Legionnaires' Disease Risk for Workers in the Plastic Injection Molding Industry. Additionally, OSHA has issued violations for gross contamination in poorly maintained water systems, in the General Duty Clause Section 5(a)(1).

Read more about Legionnaires' Disease

• Legionnaires' Disease - Recognition and Prevention
  on the OSHA website
• Information about Legionnaires' Disease can be found the Health and Safety Executive (UK) website)

Common sources of potentially contaminated water in the workplace may include:

• Cooling towers
• Evaporative condensers
• Fluid coolers that use evaporation to reject heat
• Hot-water systems that operate below 140 degrees F
• Stagnant water in fire sprinkler systems
• Warm water for eye washes and safety showers
• Process water systems
• Blow down activities

• Heat Stress
  This site contains a guide to information regarding the recognition, evaluation, control and compliance actions involving heat stress.

• Noise and Hearing Conservation
  Occupationally induced hearing loss continues to be one of the leading occupational illness in the U.S. Included at this site is a link to the newly published NIOSH criteria document, "Criteria for a Recommended Standard: Occupational Noise Exposure"- 1998.

Safety and Health Management

• Recordkeeping
  OSHA issued revised recordkeeping regulations to improve the system employers use to track and record workplace injuries and illnesses. The final rule became effective on January 1, 2002. This site contains links to the new OSHA Recordkeeping Standard, 29 CFR 1904, the new OSHA 300 Log of Work-Related Injuries and Illnesses, and FAQs sheets, with a side-by-side explanation of how the new requirements differ from the previous ones.



• Safety and Health Programs
  Effective management of worker safety and health protection is a decisive factor in reducing the extent and the severity of work-related injuries and illnesses. Effective management addresses all work-related hazards, and addresses hazards whether or not they are regulated by government standards. This site contains links to OSHA's Voluntary Safety and Health Program Management Guidelines, and a program evaluation profile (PEP) as an example of an auditing tool to assist in the evaluation a Safety and Health Program.



• Hazard Communication
  Chemical exposure may cause or contribute to many serious health effects. Some chemicals may also be safety hazards and have the potential to cause fires and explosions and other serious accidents. The OSHA Hazard Communication Standard (HCS) is intended to assure that employees receive information about the hazardous chemicals, which they may be exposed to, on the job under normal conditions of use or in a foreseeable emergency. This site contains links to the OSHA HCS, OSHA directives, internet resources for Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS), and international health and safety information.
  
  SPI has prepared a "Guidance Document for Preparing Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS) Specifically Focusing on Hazard Determination for Plastics and Plastics Related Materials." This Guidance Document discusses the hazard determination procedure as a part of the process of preparing MSDSs and labels for plastic materials and products. SPI members perceived a need for such a document because there are certain hazard determination and hazard communication issues that are unique to plastics and products manufactured from plastics. Most plastic resins must be transformed into end use products by heating, forming, and other methods to obtain the desired shape or properties. Therefore, the safety considerations for the plastic resin when shipped by the manufacturer are not the same as those required in the workplace where the resin is heated and molded. Furthermore, hazard determination considerations such as whether the plastic product is exempt from the OSHA Hazard Communication Standard (HCS)-i.e., whether it is an article under the HCS, or the hazardous ingredients in a product are inextricably bound and therefore cannot produce an exposure to downstream users-are additional issues that are unique to solid materials such as plastics products.

Click here to purchase a copy of the "Guidance Document for Preparing Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS) Specifically Focusing on Hazard Determination for Plastics and Plastics Related Materials", 2nd Edition, 1995, #AE-152.

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