Warehouses, with their bustling activities and dynamic environments, are essential hubs for goods and materials. However, as places that have a higher fatal injury rate than other industries, they also pose significant safety challenges that demand attention. In this blog post, we'll delve into common warehouse pain points and explore actionable solutions to mitigate risks. Discover how Ritz Safety offers comprehensive safety gear to address these challenges, making your warehouse a safer place for everyone.
Fall Hazards:
Falls are one of the most common causes of injuries and deaths than any other type of warehouse accident. However, despite this, fall protection violations are consistently ranked as one of the most frequently violated OSHA standards. But with so many fall hazards in warehouses, including loading docks, mezzanines, ladders, and more, fall protection and safe practices are a necessity. Ignoring the importance of using fall protection and safe practices can lead to unsafe working conditions, employee injuries, and costly OSHA penalties. So, how can you start to put in place safety solutions to minimize the fall hazards in your warehouse?
Roughly one out of every four warehouse injuries take place on a loading dock. To help mitigate this risk and prevent falls off the edge, you can install guardrails or barriers around loading docks. According to the Safety and Health Magazine, these should be able to be installed and removed as quickly as possible to be productive around busy docks. Where guardrails are not feasible, personal fall arrest systems should be used.
Fall protection and guardrails should also be used on mezzanines. If mezzanines are overloaded with products and equipment, they can quickly become dangerous areas where workers can trip and fall from them. Installing guardrails around mezzanines can help minimize these falls from happening and fall protection can help protect the worker in case a fall was to happen.
Ladders are another big fall risk in warehouses. To help prevent falls, maintain 3 points of contact when climbing up or down ladders and use fall protection where possible.
Our top recommended fall hazard solutions:
Material Handling Risks:
Moving heavy objects poses its own set of challenges for workers, creating many different types of injuries from strained muscles to cut injuries. Ensuring you wear proper hand protection while handling materials can help provide protection against cuts and abrasion and help to keep your hands clean while working around the warehouse. Additionally, following safe lifting practices can help reduce muscle strains and other injuries associated with lifting heavy objects. These are important to always keep top of mind, as it’s easy to become comfortable if you handle materials on a daily basis, allowing you to forget or ignore the usual safety procedures.
Here are some safe lifting best practices:
- Where possible, replace manual lifting with engineered solutions such as material lifts or forklifts
- When lifting an object, bend at the knees and keep your back straight
- Don’t be afraid to ask for help if the load is too heavy
- Raise pallets and cases between the knee and mid-chest level to reduce bending and allow workers easier access to products
- Place other objects at chest height instead of on the floor to help aid in lifting them
Our top gloves to protect your hands while handling materials:
Slips and Trips:
Slips and trips are another common hazard in warehouses. However, there isn’t just one thing you can do to minimize these injuries, as there are multiple things that can lead to slips and trips. For example, crowded warehouse floors and aisles can create risks of slips and trips. Which is why you should always keep warehouse floors and aisles clear of clutter, electrical cords, hoses, and other product. Slips and trips can also happen where floors may be wet or slippery. This may be due to high humidity or the accumulation of ice, snow, or water. You can mitigate the risk of slips and trips from these by keeping your warehouse floors clean and dry, maintaining good drainage, and use grated floors, platforms, or rubber mats to provide dry places for workers to stand and places to clean off their shoes before tracking through the warehouse.
Our favorite floor matting to help prevent slips and trips:
Fire and Chemical Hazards:
Unexpected releases of toxic, reactive, or flammable liquids and gases in warehouses with highly hazardous chemicals pose a significant threat. The risks associated with hazardous materials go beyond the potential for large chemical spills; they extend to fires, explosions, and toxic gas releases. This necessitates a comprehensive management program, such as OSHA’s Hazard Communication Standard (HCS) Program. To implement an effect HCS Program:
- Designate a primary person to responsible for coordinating implementation and becoming familiar with OSHA’s Hazard Communication Standard
- Prepare a written hazard communication program for your warehouse
- Maintain a list of hazardous chemicals and ensure safety data sheets (SDSs) are readily accessible to workers
- Label containers when possible
- Train workers on the hazardous chemicals in their work area, including the hazards of such chemicals and appropriate protective measures
- Continuously review and revise your program
Additionally, with the implementation of a hazard communication program, chemicals should be stored properly within the warehouse to prevent the threats mentioned above. To store chemicals properly, warehouses should provide appropriate storage cans and cabinets.
Our favorite chemical storage solutions:
According to OSHA, fire hazards are also not to be underestimated, emphasizing the importance of proper fire safety measures. This includes putting in place fire extinguishers and also providing FR clothing to help prevent burns to employees working around fire hazards. To prevent fire hazards, warehouses must:
- Ensure portable fire extinguishers are adequate and appropriate for the facility's hazards.
- Mount, locate, and identify fire extinguishers for easy accessibility.
- Conduct regular visual inspections and maintenance of fire extinguishers.
- Train workers on general principles of fire extinguisher use, retraining them annually.
Our recommended fire safety products:
Forklift and Equipment Safety:
Forklift accidents and equipment-related risks also demand attention. According to OSHA, forklifts account for nearly 35,000 serious injuries and 85 fatalities annually in the United States alone. These versatile workhorses, if not handled with precision, can quickly cause injuries. From overloaded capacities to neglecting daily inspections, each oversight amplifies the potential for disaster. Forklifts can also be dangerous for other personnel working around them, especially if the forklift operator or pedestrian isn’t paying full attention. From quality training to daily inspections, enforce safety protocols to reduce the risk of accidents.
The following tips can help improve forklift safety in your warehouse:
- Provide training for beginners and recertification training at least every 3 years
- Conduct daily pre-trip inspections and do not use forklifts that need maintenance
- Keep up on scheduled and preventative maintenance to prevent personnel from using deficient equipment
- Install safety separators between pedestrian and forklift traffic if possible
- Use floor markings and other signage to mark out cross walks and stopping points for pedestrians and forklifts
- Put in place forklift speed limits
- Slow down and honk the born at blind spots and intersections
- Proceed with caution when driving over wet or slick surfaces
- Never turn a forklift on an incline or decline
- Never exceed a forklift’s load capacity rating
- Ensure all personnel working around the forklifts and equipment wear high-visibility clothing to keep them visible to equipment operators
Our favorite forklift safety equipment from floor markings to Hi-Viz PPE:
Emergency Response Preparedness:
Unfortunately, emergencies happen. The best thing we can do is ensure we are ready to respond when they do. To be prepared, every warehouse needs a well-defined emergency response plan. This plan should include what workers must do in case of everything from forklift accidents, fire, and chemical burns to tornadoes, hurricanes, and earthquakes. For instance, a useful warehouse emergency plan should include:
- Fire safety and prevention
- Emergency exit locations
- Evacuation routes and procedures
- Methods for accounting for all workers and visitors
- Fire extinguishers, eye wash stations, and AED and first aid locations
While it’s a good idea to train all employees on best practices in emergencies and how to operate emergency equipment, it’s also beneficial to ask willing employees to be ready and act as first responders in case of emergencies.
Additionally, warehouses should ensure exit signs are illuminated and clearly visible at all times, this means they should be unobstructed and clearly indicated. Warehouses also need to ensure they have all the safeguards and equipment in place to protect workers during an emergency, including everything from sprinkler systems, alarm systems, exit lighting, eye and wash stations, complete first aid kits, AED’s and more.
Our recommended emergency prep products:
Conclusion:
Prioritizing safety in warehouses is not just a legal requirement; it's a commitment to the well-being of your workforce. Ritz Safety stands as your partner in creating a safer warehouse environment. While this blog post didn’t cover all warehouse pain points, it did touch on some of the most prevalent hazards found in warehouses. If you are looking for more information or solutions regarding the above hazards or additional pain points you’re facing in your facility, contact us today or shop all safety gear at Ritz Safety!