Category: Safety Tips

Threads of Life

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Threads of Life

Did you know that each year, one thousand workers come home from work forever changed – or do not come home at all? The Association for Workplace Tragedy Family Support, known as Threads of Life, supports the journey of families who have suffered from a workplace fatality, traumatic life-altering injury, or occupational disease. Threads of Life currently supports more than 2,900 family members across Canada affected by workplace tragedies with family support programs and services. Steps for Life events not only raise money for these programs, they also aim to educate the community about the devastating ripple effects of each workplace tragedy and how we can work together to prevent others from being injured or killed on the job.

F.A.S.T. Rescue’s team will be walking with communities across the country in order to help all those affected by workplace tragedies.  Please click here to join our team or to donate.

Coronavirus

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Coronavirus

Protecting yourself against the Coronavirus 

The World Health Organization has suggested some ways to keep yourself safe
  • Clean your hands often using alcohol-based hand rub or soap and water
  • When coughing and sneezing, cover your mouth and nose with your flexed elbow or tissue.  Throw the tissue away immediately and wash your hands
  • Avoid close contact with anyone who has a fever and cough
  • If you have a fever, cough or difficulty breathing, get medical help right away and let them know if you travelled recently
  • When visiting live markets in areas currently experiencing cases of novel coronavirus, avoid direct unprotected contact with live animals and surfaces in contact with animals
  • Don’t eat raw or under-cooked animal products. Raw meat, milk or animal organs should be handled with care, to avoid cross-contamination with uncooked foods, as per good food safety practices

Do you need masks?   Click here to buy. We have limited quantities available.

What You Need To Know About Staying Safe While Working In Extreme Heat

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What You Need To Know About Staying Safe While Working In Extreme Heat

When you think of dangerous jobs, you might think of firefighting. You might think of being a pilot. Maybe you think of something more technical, like welding.

Those are all dangerous jobs, and all of them involve heat in some way or another. And it’s very likely your job can involve heat, especially if you work outside and the climate changes unexpectedly.

You might think it’s tornados. Fires. Hurricanes. But the biggest weather-related danger to people in the United States is actually extreme heat. Every single year, hundreds of people sustain injuries from working in extreme heat, or even die.

Athletes, too, particularly need to watch out for heat-related illnesses. Before they can even realize it’s happening, they can become dizzy and faint. That’s all due to exertional heat stroke, or EHS.

Heat Related Illnesses

Heat stroke and exertional heat stroke are both very serious illnesses that can occur when working in extreme heat.

Heat Stroke

Heat stroke is what happens when your body’s core temperature goes about 40°C. This extreme rise in temperature of the body makes it so your body is no longer capable of regulating itself. The signs start to show when a person acts disoriented or confused. They can also faint. Heat stroke can put someone at risk for permanent damage. It could result in brain, heart, or kidney damage. Sometimes, it can even be fatal.

Exertional Heat Stroke

When someone is experiencing exertional heat stroke, it doesn’t necessarily need to be extremely warm outside. Athletes are the people who most frequently deal with exertional heat stroke. The high temperatures in their body is caused by their own physical exertion. People who work in labor outside can also be very susceptible to this type of heat stroke.

Heat Exhaustion

This is generally what someone will experience before it leads to full heat stroke. The person will sweat excessively, which means their body is still able to cool itself down from the heat. They can still experience confusion and exhaustion, and if not treated immediately, can result in heat stroke.

Heat Cramps

When your body is lacking in electrolytes, it can result in cramping of the arms, legs, or stomach. A person experiencing heat cramps needs to rest and hydrate, which will alleviate the symptoms.

How to Stay Safe in Extreme Heat

All heat related illnesses are preventable. The more informed you are about heat illnesses when you’re working in extreme heat, the safer you’ll be. Awareness is the number one thing that’s going to prevent people from getting heat stroke, heat cramps, heat exhaustion, or any other type of illness from exposing the body to too much heat.

Obviously, the best way to avoid heat illnesses is to stay out of the heat. But if you’re working in a hot environment, it can’t be avoided. If you can, increase your exposure to working in heat gradually. Instead of working the full eight hours of the day in the sun, spend some time getting used to the heat and ramping it up until you can safely work the entire day. Many cases of on the job illness occur because workers haven’t taken the time to acclimatize themselves to their conditions.

You might know exactly what we’re going to say, but hydrating your body is of the utmost importance. Drink water every fifteen minutes when working in extreme heat. Even if you’re not thirsty, it’s important to drink to keep your body hydrated before you start feeling that thirst, which means you’re on your way to being dangerously dehydrated.When you’re working somewhere hot, always plan ahead.

If you and your company need a plan, F.A.S.T. Rescue can help teach you the ropes and provide a safety course that will allow you to work in the heat without contracting any of these illnesses.

Ways To Make Workplace Safety Training More Exciting

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Ways To Make Workplace Safety Training More Exciting

When you hear the phrase “Workplace Safety Training,” do you jump for joy? The answer is probably not. In fact, it’s probably more of the opposite of that reaction. Workplace safety training can often be a very boring topic, and seem like just another chore for you to have to go through in your business as an employee or an employer.

Yet you know the importance of getting your employees trained effectively, efficiently, and comprehensively. But everyone knows that information is easier to retain when it’s presented in an easily digestible manner that people will actually enjoy.

Here’s how to get the most of your employee’s workplace safety training.

Have a Conversation

If you’re doing a presentation about workplace training or simply guiding your employees through a safety lecture, don’t do so without allowing a place for feedback. Most studies report that the education that attendees yield from lectures is relatively low. On the other hand, when you incorporate room for interaction into your presentation, retention of the topic is increased.

When you’re preparing to train your employees on safety, structure the event so you’re having a conversation with your workers. Instead of talking at them, you can talk with them, and they will feel more engaged.

A Little Incentive Never Hurt

If you used a rewards-based program as an incentive for employees to complete their training, they’ll have a whole new level of motivation associated with their task.

You can turn the training into a friendly competition, based on who can complete it in the shortest amount of time, who can score the highest on the tests, or who can answer the most questions.

You can use a gift card as a reward, or just bragging rights that they did the best. You can even offer an extended break to the person who performs the best.

Use Roleplay

Getting your head into the game with roleplay is a great way to increase retention of materials and allow the training to make a lasting impact. When you assign roles to your workers, you can act out real-life scenarios that may arise on the job. This way, your employees can engage in kinetic learning and have already been walked through a potential dangerous situation. That way, if the dangerous situation did actually arise, they’ve already experienced a similar scenario and will remember how to react.

Use Multimedia

Wherever possible, incorporate ways for your employees to interact with the information that you’re giving to them. Depending on your work situation, you can make video games that simulate situations that they might encounter, or use quizzes to keep them paying attention to the presentation at hand.

The closest you can get to simulation a real-life situation that you’re describing, the better. Not only does this make your presentation more fun, it gives workers some experience dealing with potential situations.

Get it at F.A.S.T.

You knew we were going to go there. Yes, when you do your workplace safety training with F.A.S.T., you’re getting all that exciting workplace safety training. You might have thought that the word “exciting” and “workplace safety training” couldn’t be used together in the same sentence, but we’ve got your back for engaging safety seminars of all types.

We make safety a way of life, not just a one-time training session that your employees are going to be likely to forget. We offer all measure of safety and training solutions for your business, and can consult with you to create the most effective training session possible.

What’s Hot Work Training and Why Do You Need It?

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What’s Hot Work Training and Why Do You Need It?

Hot work. That sounds like work that you do that’s a little bit spicy, right? Things get a little heated? That may be what it sounds like, but it’s not exactly right.

What Is It?

Hot work is work that produces a flame, spark, or any heat. It’s work that is often seen around construction or demolition sites. Hot work often involves cutting, welding, using arc welding equipment, portable gas, soldering, or grinding.

What’s the Danger?

Hot work can introduce fire hazards into the scenarios and areas where it is being conducted, so a high level of safety training and skill is required for the job.

With hot work, you’re frequently around gas when you’re working with flames. That means leaks could occur, and release flammable gas into the area.

Often, additional personnel are assigned to fire watch with hot work is being conducted to make sure that there is no possibility that anything greater than a minor fire could develop.

Gas detectors are also commonly put into place. If a flammable or combustible gas in the atmosphere gets to ten percent or higher of the lower explosive level, the hot work must be stopped until the source of the leak is found and repaired.

Another possible danger is flash fires. These happen when gasses like Hydrogen Sulfide or Methane build up around the wellhead area where the hot work is being performed. These gases are able to be monitored by gas detectors as well.

Work with grinding produces sparks that can cause considerable damage if the proper protective gear is not worn. Face shields are required, and fire protection equipment. Besides fire danger, fingers can also get stuck in the grinding wheel, which, needless to say, is something you wouldn’t want to happen.

Why Do You Need a Certification?

Because you’re literally playing with fire, a permit is important. A certification allows your employer to know that you’re qualified for the job you’re applying for, and you know the safety measures required of you.

When you’re safe and the area you’re working in is safe, everyone can rest assured that the job will be done well and be done securely. Besides that, every site and every employer you work for will require that you have your certification. Otherwise, you’ll be some random person wielding fire, and they won’t be able to trust you.

The Course

At F.A.S.T, creating a safe work environment is highly emphasized.

The class is four hours long, and the certification lasts for three years. You’ll learn how to identify hazards that arise with hot work. Atmospheric testing, setting up a permit system, and safeguarding areas is all also covered. You’ll be able to follow safe work policies, and not have to take another course for three more years.

Get the most comprehensive hot work training out there, because you don’t want to risk it when it comes to your safety.

Protective Wear, What Do You Need It For Anyway?

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Protective Wear, What Do You Need It For Anyway?

If you’ve ever worked in an industry where you need protective gear to be able to conduct your job, you know that it’s of vital importance. You can get written up for not wearing the proper safety gear, and if employees fail to wear the proper protection, potentially not survive an audit. Most importantly, you might be injured on the job if you fail to wear the proper protection.

People with regular desk jobs mostly have to worry about paper cuts or carpal tunnel syndrome, but you have to worry about life and death burns, hand protection, and eye protection.

Personal protective equipment is called PPE, and it’s required for workplaces that work with hazardous materials, fire, welding, and more.

Eye Protection

These aren’t just your regular sunglasses. Eye protection in professional fields means heavy duty protective gear that might actually prevent you from going blind. It’s an important safety precaution that your goggles fit tightly, so they don’t slip off by accident and expose your eyes to danger.

Welding goggles help you be able to withstand the heat of the products you’re working with and still be able to clearly see what you’re working on. They’re super flexible and durable, because when welding your gear tends to take a lot of wear and tear.

Other professions like chemistry, food, construction, and others, may need goggles in order to protect the eyes. It’s also necessary to have cleaning solution on hand so that vision is never restricted due to cloudy eyewear.

Fire Retardant Clothing

Fire retardant clothing is just that – it helps protect individuals from their clothing catching on fire. It usually comes in a jumpsuit form for the employee to wear, or a jacket that they can put on when needed.

The clothes are made out of industrial strength PVC and Polyester. They are usually worn at construction sites, chemical refineries, or oil and gas companies.

Gloves

You use gloves around your kitchen, but there’s a huge number of different gloves out there that you can use and are needed for various industries.

Mechanic gloves help keep their hands safe when working with heavy duty equipment and can increase the traction of a grip. Ski gloves, welders gloves, and lineman’s gloves are all examples of industry specific gloves that workplaces require.

Disposable gloves are important when working with food so that there is no contamination. Clean room gloves have much the same concept in mind, but when it comes to making electronic components instead.

Hearing Protection

It is required that employees who are exposed to noise in their workplace the exceeds 85 decibels wear hearing protection.

Hearing protection can come in the form of earplugs or ear muffs. Earplugs are used for lower noise environments that still require them, while ear muffs are necessary for areas with higher volumes of noise like construction. Air traffic controllers and factory workers also require strong hearing protection.

Masks

Facemasks and personal respirators are needed for people with jobs that deal with toxic chemicals or work that produces small fibers that would be dangerous to breath in, like carpentry.

The face mask category can range from dental face masks to gas masks, sometimes called a full face piece. An N95 masks protects the wearer against liquid or solid particles that may be dangerous to breathe.

Face pieces can lock into place to give lateral and frontal protection to the wearer against the hazards they may be working with. They attach to headgear or a bracket, and literally allow you to get your head in the game without fearing for your safety.

If you’re in need of safety gear, F.A.S.T. can be your one-stop shop for everything you require to stay safe and sound. They have all of this protective wear and more available for you to finally get some peace of mind.

All of the gear is certified by the labour boards in every workplace and business that they’re necessary for use in. Committed to health and safety supplies, you’re being well taken care of when you choose to put your safety in the hands of F.A.S.T.

Working at Heights: Safety Tips for a Dangerous Job

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Working at Heights: Safety Tips for a Dangerous Job

Working at heights is literally as it sounds: when you see construction crews on high level buildings, they’re working at heights. It’s working from anywhere that a fall could be considered debilitating. Thought your office job was stressful? Imagine having to worry about falling every time you take a step. Continue reading Working at Heights: Safety Tips for a Dangerous Job

How To Use An Eyewash Station: What To Do In An Emergency

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How To Use An Eyewash Station: What To Do In An Emergency

Have you seen the emergency eyewash station at your work, but really have no idea what that contraption is meant to do? Not even sure why you’d need to use it? Or worse, does your work not have one of these stations at all?

First of all, if your workplace guidelines require an eyewash station and you don’t have an operational one in your vicinity, you could be risking failing at an audit when the time comes. Not only that, but if a serious incident actually takes place, you need to have the proper safety materials in place to avoid eye injury as best as possible.

Get Your Equipment

Different workplaces, obviously, require different safety measures. You may need eye dressings, eye drops, a portable station, a cederroth eye wash station, or others. They’re all listed out for you to easily find online.

Depending on federal, provincial or workplace labour laws, your place of work might require you to have some or all of these things. If you work around chemicals, especially, you’ll likely be required to have multiple of these stations around the area.

What’s It For?

An eye was station is used when foreign particles get into the eyes. They help to prevent the eyes from getting permanently damaged by rinsing out the hazardous material right away.Having or not having an eye wash station can literally be the difference between someone going blind and someone recovering their vision.

An eyewash station must be used if the object that gets into the eyes is found of the MSDS, or the Material Data Safety Sheet. This is a document that catalogs all the foreign substances that are potential hazards to our bodies, and our eyes. This document also informs you that if you don’t wash your eyes when coming into contact with these materials, serious eye injuries can occur.

Most containers that have the potential to cause this kind of damage come with warnings such as “Causes Permanent Eye Damage” or “Causes Chemical Burns.” If a substance has this type of warning on it and it gets into someone’s eyes, an eyewash station is then used.

Eye wash stations should be inspected regularly to ensure that in an emergency they would function properly.

How Do You Use It?

An eye wash station is only considered operational if it contains fresh, clean water. You should also be able to use it without the assistance of your hands. It needs to be highly visible, with signs that point out exactly where it’s located. The access to your eyewash station cannot be obstructed by any other object.

The most important thing to remember about using an eyewash station is that every second counts. You absolutely cannot waste any time between getting a harmful substance in your eyes and using the station. Getting there faster could mean saving your vision.

The eyes should be flooded with water, using the fingers to keep the eyes open. This is why it’s important that the station is able to be operated without the use of your hands. It’s essential that the eyes are cleaned fully, which means cleansing the eyes for an entire fifteen minutes.

While cleaning the eyes for fifteen minutes, you should roll your eyes as much as possible to assist in removing the foreign substances. Absolutely nothing but water or the eye wash solution should be used in the eye wash station.

If you need to consult someone on how to train your employees to use an eyewash station, F.A.S.T. Rescue will send out an expert to teach your employees emergency response training in the most efficient way available.

Air Quality Improvements: Tips To Breathe Freely In The Workplace

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Air Quality Improvements: Tips To Breathe Freely In The Workplace

When it comes to building a healthy workplace, never underestimate the role of air quality. The more effectively you keep chemicals, pollen, and other harmful items out of the air, the easier it is for your employees to breathe freely during the day. Clean air also reduces the threat to workers who have allergies, asthma, and other respiratory conditions. Thus as an owner or manager, you must invest in the measures necessary to keep the air clean year-round. The following tips will give you a strong head start, setting the stage for clean air throughout your workplace.

Continue reading Air Quality Improvements: Tips To Breathe Freely In The Workplace

Fortified Against Flame: Preparing Your Office For A Fire

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Fortified Against Flame: Preparing Your Office For A Fire

As an employer, your highest duty is to keep your workers safe, and few issues are more important to their safety than fire preparation. While many offices have fire prevention strategies, stopping a fire is not always in your hands. You must thus have a strategy in place to safeguard your staff in the event of a fire. To create as comprehensive and effective a strategy as possible, make sure to include:

Continue reading Fortified Against Flame: Preparing Your Office For A Fire