SportsTurf provides current, practical and technical content on issues relevant to sports turf managers, including facilities managers. Most readers are athletic field managers from the professional level through parks and recreation, universities.
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/86038
Facility&Operations and machinery. This responsibility falls under the sports turf manager. Personal protective equipment. Standards in this part require the employer to provide personal protective equipment (PPE), includ- ing respirators and other types of PPE, be- cause of hazards to employees impose a separate compliance duty with respect to each employee covered by the requirement. The employer must provide PPE to each em- ployee required to use the PPE, and each fail- ure to provide PPE to an employee may be considered a separate violation. Training. Standards in this part require training on haz- ardous and related matters, such as standards requiring that employees receive training or that the employer train employees, provide training to employees, or institute or imple- ment a training program, impose a separate compliance duty with respect to each em- ployee covered by the requirement. The em- ployer must train each affected employee in the manner required by the standard, and each failure to train an employee may be con- sidered a separate violation. The weather is forever changing; you can blame it on global warming or natural phe- nomena, but if one of your employees gets fa- tally sick from heat exhaustion or heat stroke, you might be investigated from OSHA and held accountable. Have precautions in place such as: more allowable breaks to cool down, and available water to prevent dehydration. Do your heavy workloads in the morning when it's a little cooler and more relaxed workloads in the afternoon when the sun is beating down with hot temperatures. FLAMMABLE STORAGE & FIRE PROTECTION Flammable liquid: Any liquid having a flash point below 100ºF, except any mix- ture having components with flashpoints of 100ºF or higher, the total of which make up 99 percent or more of the total volume of the mixture. Flammable liquids shall be known as class I liquids. Class I liquids are divided into three classes as follows: Class IA shall include liquids having flash points below 73ºF and having a boiling point below 100ºF; Class IB shall include liquids having flash points below 73ºF and having a boiling point at or above 100ºF; and Class IC shall include liquids having flash points at or above 73ºF and below 100ºF. 20 SportsTurf | October 2012 The turf manager needs to have a fire pro- tection plan for all his areas of responsibility. The employer shall provide portable fire ex- tinguishers and shall mount, locate and iden- tify them so that they are readily accessible to employees without subjecting the employees to possible injury. Only approved portable fire extinguishers shall be used to meet the re- quirements of this section. The employer shall assure that portable fire extinguishers are maintained in a fully charged and operable condition and kept in their designated places at all times except during use. The employer shall distribute portable fire extinguishers for use by employ- ees on Class A fires so that the travel distance for employees to any extinguisher is 75 feet or less. The employer shall be responsible for the inspection, maintenance and testing of all portable fire extinguishers in the workplace. At least two exit routes must be available in a workplace to permit prompt evacuation of employees and other building occupants during an emergency. The exit routes must be located as far away as practical from each other so that if one exit route is blocked by fire or smoke, employees can evacuate using the second exit route. INJURY REPORTS The purpose of this rule is to not only protect the worker, but to protect your com- pany as well. Worker compensation frauds cost companies and insurance groups a lot of money, having documented records on file can aid in any investigation for fraud claims or law suits. If your company had 10 or fewer employees at all times during the last calen- dar year, you do not need to keep OSHA in- jury and illness records unless OSHA informs you in writing that you must keep records. However all employers covered by the OSH Act must report to OSHA any workplace in- cident that results in a fatality or the hospital- ization of three or more employees. If your company had more than 10 employees at any time during the last calendar year, you must keep OSHA injury and illness records unless your establishment is classified as a partially exempt industry. REASONS FOR OSHA INSPECTIONS This information courtesy of James B. Meehan, PE, CSP, Iowa State: Don't wait for an incident to occur to take action on a CFR to be in compliance, this will not help you, the damage is already done. Have someone from your crew to volunteer as a safety officer and help aid you in finding deficiencies and correcting them. Remember to document everything and file it accordingly, this can only help you in an event that some unfortu- nate incident happens, you are well covered with documentation training, PPE employee issues, etc. There are several ways you might find yourself getting inspected, however, the most common are: Imminent danger: Allegations of an immi- nent danger situation will receive highest pri- ority. The inspection will be conducted within 24 hours of notice of the imminent danger to OSHA unless extraordinary cir- cumstances exist. Fatality and catastrophe: Accidents will be investigated if they include any of the follow- ing conditions: One or more fatalities; Three or more employees hospitalized for more than 24 hours; Significant publicity. Program inspections based upon Federal OSHA priorities. Employee or ex-employee complaint: Complaints are investigated by inspection or by letter. If OSHA formalizes the complaint by a letter, your letter reply to the complaint is a serious report, not to be taken lightly. Complaints to OSHA that are signed by an employee will always result in an inspection. The inspection, however, may be limited to the items in the complaint. Programmed inspection: OSHA policy re- quires that programmed inspections will be conducted in industries where OSHA expects to achieve a significant impact or has targeted specific hazards. Follow-up inspection: OSHA can re-in- spect to assure that an employer has abated the violations that have been cited. Fines are usually approximately ten times higher for "Failure to Abate" citations. TIPS TO HELP YOU GET IN COMPLIANCE spector: Don't make me wait. It just tells me From the point of view of the OSHA in- you're not ready. Nothing you can do at the last minute is going to make much dif- www.sportsturfonline.com