Nippers, grabbers and throwers--beware!

Unguarded woodworking machines can nip fingers, grab body parts and throw materials. Any machine part or operation that can cause injury should be guarded.

The machinery areas to guard include: the point, of operation, such as where the drill or blade meets the stock; transmission parts such as drive shafts and pulleys; and all moving machine parts such as blades or spindles.

Sharp Safety Study

In 2002, the Washington State Safety and Health Assessment & Research for Prevention (SHARP) program conducted a statewide survey of the millwork, furniture and fixtures industries; 165 companies participated. Companies reported that injury from machines was one of their top safety and health concerns.

Participants were asked about solutions they had put in place to reduce or prevent injuries or amputations. Many companies responded that they had good guarding. Additional strategies included communication, company organization, training and hazard assessment. Following is a checklist of common responses for each of these four key safety issues.

Communication: Get employees' input on how they think safety hazards can be fixed. Increase informal conversations and incorporate worker safety issues and ideas. Encourage employees to tell their supervisor if anything is wrong so that it can be taken care of immediately. Conduct inspections once a week to look for physical hazards. Constantly check with various companies for new and better safety equipment and read safety product catalogs.

Organization: Get other people more involved in safety so one person does not have to do everything. Designate one person to be responsible for fixing hazards that have been identified.

Training: Train workers so that they can identify hazards themselves. Develop and use a safety checklist to train new employees. (Provide personal instruction and training to employees prior to machine use. Install safety guards on all machinery. Make sure each machine has a PPE (personal protective equipment) sheet stating what safety gear is required. Make sure everyone knows all the safety rules and procedures.

Hazard Assessment: Conduct weekly inspections of equipment. Be aware that employees have been known to modify a machine's safety equipment, making it less safe.

Strategies and Motivation

In addition to tire phone survey, SHARP staff conducted site visits at nine companies in the millwork, furniture and fixtures industries. Some of the machine-guarding strategies and motivations observed in the workplaces included:

One medium-sized company conducted "Machine of the Month" safety sessions. Each month, production employees discussed the safe operation of a different machine. This activity was begun after an injury occurred at one machine. The monthly discussion served as a refresher for all employees and was a chance for all users to share their experiences using a given machine. The sessions also allowed management to learn about safety issues on the production floor.

Another company made it a practice to decommission machines as "out of service" until proper guarding could be acquired. The rationale behind this practice was to prevent amputations and cuts and to demonstrate management's commitment to safety and health.

A sheet goods manufacturer had an old plugging line that required custom guarding to meet today's more stringent safety and health standards. The motivation behind this was that fingers, hands, hair or loose clothing could be caught or crushed in the machine.

One small business enforced consistent and mandatory use of jigs while cutting and shaping. The main driving force behind this was to standardize the quality of work, but it also reduced the amputation hazard when working with small stock.

A large company was using several older-style, multi-blade moulders. Each moulder was enclosed in a sound barrier room, accessed with in- and out-feed conveyors. The purpose of the barriers was to reduce the noise level on the production floor. The en closure not only reduced noise, but restricted access and contained dust.

Safety Control Hierarchy

As the strategies above indicate, managers have a multitude of approaches that can be used to prevent machinery-related injuries such as cuts and amputations. The big questions are what approach yields the best results and where is your energy best invested?

The first step in reducing injuries is to assess the hazards. Once the hazards have been assessed, the method for controlling them should follow the hierarchy of controls. The hierarchy of controls is a prioritized method that can be applied to control any hazard in the workplace. The hierarchy lists, in descending order, the measures that prevent injury the best:

* Management has the greatest control of a hazard when it uses the measures listed at the top of the hierarchy, such as elimination or substitution.

* When controlling a hazard, the very first question to ask is: Can I eliminate the hazard or substitute with a different machine or process? For example, the use of an auto feed device can eliminate the hazards present with manual feed. Buying sawn timber eliminates the hazards of cutting timber. Substituting cordless drills for drills with cords eliminates electrical hazards. It is important that new hazards are not created when alternatives are used. System changes should be reviewed with equipment manufacturers where appropriate.

* Isolation is an approach that contains the hazard and prevents employees front contact, such as fences or enclosures around machinery.

* When a machine hazard cannot be eliminated, substituted or isolated, engineering controls should be applied. Engineering controls include guard systems. Guard systems must be appropriate, functional and acceptable to the worker or they will not be effective. In some eases, finding the right guard for the job may take more than one attempt. Employee input on guard systems can help with compliance in using the guard.

* All hazard control applications need to meet or exceed regulatory requirements. While safe work practices and the use of personal protective equipment (PPE) are important links in injury, prevention, they are a manager's last line of defense in hazard control. Safe work practices and PPE provide an additional level of protection to the worker but are not primary control measures.

Oftentimes elimination or substitution is not feasible when controlling machine hazards. However, it is still useful for managers to think through the hierarchy as a routine approach to hazard control. Ideas that cannot be implemented at the present time may guide decisions made in the future.

Resources for Guarding

To obtain a copy of SHARP's Millwork, Furniture, and Fixtures Industry Final Report, Technical Report number 673-2003, phone [phone].

To learn more about A Guide for Protecting Workers front Woodworking Hazards, published by the U.S. Department of Labor, OSHA 3157, 1999, visit osha.gov/SLTC/machineguarding/training.html.

Machine Guarding eTool at osha.gov/SLTC/machineguarding

Carolyn Reeb-Whitaker "is an industrial hygienist involved with the Safety and Health Assessment & Research for Prevention program at Washington State Department of Labor and Industries.