Lockout/Tagout Essays - Occupational Safety And Health,

Lockout/Tagout It is a hot day in the middle of July, and there is a brother and sister impatiently waiting while their mother finishes packing for their trip to Disneyworld. This is their father's last day to work before his vacation starts. Their father is an air conditioning technician, and this morning he was called out to a movie theater to work on an air conditioning unit. This particular unit is located on the roof of the theater. It had been raining the day before; on the roof around the unit water is standing where he is going to have to work. In checking the unit out, he finds electrical problems that require him to shut the power off to the unit. He looks for the disconnect at the unit. Not finding one, he discovers that the only way to shut the power off is a breaker located downstairs inside the projection booth. He turns the breaker off and goes back on the roof to repair the unit. He does not know that someone has also connected one of the projectors to the same breaker. While he is working on the unit, the projectionist comes in and finds out that one of the projectors will not work, so he checks the breaker and finds it in the off position. He does not know that the air conditioning unit is also on that breaker. The projectionist turns the breaker on and at the same time, the technician working on the unit is standing in the water with his hands on the wiring. The electricity flows and electrocutes the technician, killing him. If this unit had been properly Lockedout/Taggedout, the brother and sister would be enjoying Disneyworld with their father. Instead, they are attending his funeral. Lockout/Tagout is essential in the workplace because it prevents unneeded shutdowns, saves money, and prevents loss of limb and life. Lockout/Tagout is essential in the workplace because it prevents unneeded shutdowns. These shutdowns are primarily the result of improper Lockout/Tagout procedures. In Lockout/Tagout: A Matter of Control, Susannah Zak Figura explains that in 1996 OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) reported that Lockout/Tagout was the third most frequently cited standard and that the average number of days lost from work was twenty-four per incident (27-9). In some cases, a portion of the building or factory could be destroyed by fire and cause the business to shutdown longer than was originally anticipated. According to Tommy Gilbreath, Associate Professor at The University of Texas at Tyler, There is nothing more unproductive than an injured worker (Personal interview). Often these companies wait until an accident occurs to implement the proper Lockout/Tagout procedures. Companies that have proper Lockout/Tagout programs in place have fewer accidents, lost work time, and fewer shut downs than companies that do not. Safety is no accident explains Frank C. De Felice, author of Electrical Construction and Maintenance (48). According to Occupational Hazards, AK Steel, a company with a bad safety record, hired a former OSHA compliance officer as vice president of safety and health to help the company comply with OSHA's rules. Since 1993, AK Steel, the nation's seventh largest steelmaker, has had a flash fire that killed one and injured two and an explosion that injured fourteen (Federal OSHA targets AK Steel for Fines and Further Inspections 25). OSHA issued more than 6,000 citations in 1996 alone for the violation of the Lockout/Tagout standard. Lockout/Tagout is a common sense approach to safety. Yet, many companies do not implement it until an accident injures or kills someone. Then it is a little late. Some companies have had Lockout/Tagout procedures in place long before the OSHA standard went into effect in 1990; because the policies were not written down, so metimes crucial steps were left undone (Figura 27-9). Performing Lockout/Tagout properly prevents losses arising from failure to control hazardous energy. Figura notes that in 1994 a 3,700-pound table broke loose from temporary slings and crushed a worker killing him. Because of this accident, OSHA cited the company for failure to control hazardous energy, i.e. gravity, and fined it $2.1 million. Under the Lockout/Tagout rule, hazardous energy must be isolated and rendered inoperative before work can begin. Not having the proper procedures in