COTTON
Ginners Marketplace COTTON FARMING IS THE OFFICIAL PUBLICATION OF THE GINNING INDUSTRY.
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What’s In Your Gin Safety Program?
Over the past few months with the increased presence of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration in many industries, the question is continuing to come up: What is your safety program? As we’ve been working with our members, their answer typically is, “We show the videos.” Or they point to the association’s safety reference manual that was provided to them. This just isn’t going to cut it much longer I’m afraid. In the Southeast, we’ve seen more of OSHA than we really want to see since the new reporting rules kicked in. Although there is no requirement for a “safety program,” there are requirements for training in certain areas. We often leave it up to the “videos” to do the training. Although the authors of those videos have done a terrific job of trying to incorporate as much variety as possible, they can only do so much. No two gins are exactly alike, and nothing will replace you, your gin superintendent or head ginner going through each person’s job and making sure all the steps are covered. Try to imagine how a person can get hurt when doing a job or not following the rules. The videos should be used as a basis, and then train the employees on how to do their jobs safely. OSHA is currently seeking comments on a new guideline
to what makes a comprehensive safety program. These pieces are mostly not new, and anyone who has opened any of the regional ginners association’s safety program manuals will find that most, if not all, of the elements are in there. OSHA looks for these things: 1. management leadership; 2. worker participation; 3. hazard identification and assessment; 4. hazard prevention and control; 5. education and training; 6. program evaluation and improvement; and 7. coordination and communication on multi-employer worksites. If your safety program has all of these elements, you’re doing great. Keep it up. This article doesn’t have the space or time to dissect each element, but it’s really not that difficult to do these things. They don’t all have to be done at one time, and many can and should be done in the off-season when there’s not a lot
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COTTON FARMING JANUARY 2016
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