Holly Pups

ENVIRONMENTAL, HEALTH, AND SAFETY

Holly Pups joined J. J. Keller in 2021 as an EHS Editor, specializing in workplace safety. She is a former OSHA compliance officer with over a decade of industrial safety experience including warehousing, pharmaceuticals, public sector, and plastics manufacturing.

As a seasoned safety professional, she has worked extensively creating and updating programs, training, conducting accident investigations with root cause analysis, LEAN/6-Sigma, employee and management buy in, and a variety of management systems. Holly was certified as an emergency medical technician (EMT), has a Bachelor of Science (BS) in occupational safety, and health and is a Certified Safety Professional (CSP).

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FAQs answered by Robin Marth:

Does OSHA have general standard for Storm shelters?

ANSWER:
No, OSHA does not have a standard for storm shelters. If there is a reasonably anticipated hazard such as a tornado or hurricane in your area, planning for them should be included in your emergency action plan. OSHA does have resources specific to those types of storms on its website. If you are looking for guidance on specifications, we recommend checking out the International Code Counsel standard ICC 500-2014, ICC/NSSA Standard for the Design and Construction of Storm Shelters. Depending on where you are located, your insurance company may have more specific shelter requirements and would likely look to FEMA and ICC for that information.

How high can employers stack pallets?

ANSWER:
Pallets are stacked for a variety of reasons, but it often boils down to save floor and rack space. Full and partially loaded pallets are often stacked 2-5 pallets high to save space for temporary product storage or for staging prior to transport. Empty pallets are stacked for both immediate use and for long-term storage. However, stacking without proper planning and safety considerations, hazards may be introduced. An area with multiple stacks may be difficult to protect from facility traffic or be difficult to retrieve pallets from the top. Both scenarios could easily lead to a disastrous situation. The regulation at 1910.176(b) simply says “storage of material shall not create a hazard” but employers must determine an appropriate height for the type of material and other considerations.

Is it an OSHA requirement to wear a harness in a scissor lift?

ANSWER:
OSHA considers scissor lifts to be mobile scaffolds and the guardrails on said lift act as fall protection as long as employees stay within the guardrails. Additional fall protection (such as the lanyard/harness) is required employees are working over the guardrails (leaning over to complete work).

However, just because fall protection is not required does not mean it should not be worn. It is a common and best practice for employers to require employees to be tied off 100% of the time while in the scissor lift. Mistakes happen and someone who doesn't want to move the lift may reach further than they should or step up on the guardrail to reach one last thing. As a best practice, it has been my experience that if you are required to wear fall protection at height, to treat your scissor lift as you would a boom lift, order picker or other elevated apparatus and require fall protection. Retractable lanyards have often been the best option for tie-off in scissor lifts (as well as all aerial lifts).

Recent Articles by Holly Pups

› Avoid incidents from improperly stacked pallets

› Effectively keeping your employees safe and productive

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