June, 2001

An editorial by R. Ronald Sokol, CSP, General Manager, CSC/TC

What to do if OSHA visits...

NOTE: This article appeared in the newsletter of the Contractors Safety Council of Brazosport and it has excellent information regarding OSHA inspections, so we reprint it here for the benefit of our own membership.

KEY GUIDELINES

OSHA shares your goals of greater health and safety in the workplace. Your company has responsibility for helping accomplish these goals in four ways:

1. Implementing a strong health and safety program

2. Performing regular hazard assessment

3. Correcting and controlling potential hazards

4. Providing good safety and health training

1. Comply with OSHA standards.

2. Involve the entire company, at every level.

3. Create a written health and safety plan. Include clearly stated goals and objectives, policies and procedures, and state how you implement evaluate and revise your plan as necessary.

4. Deal effectively and efficiently with potential workplace hazards. OSHA wants you to know how to recognize hazards, including what your inspection and monitoring schedule is and who performs these jobs, how you investigate complaints and what your emergency procedures are.

5. Regularly educate workers about safety and health. Employees should know what to do in any safety-related situation.

6. Have medical and industrial hygiene staff on call or employed for consultation.

7. Use qualified professionals to monitor potential hazards.

8. Evaluate workers on a regular basis for medical evidence of overexposure to hazardous substances or situations. Necessary medical treatment should be available.

9. Keep written records of all health and safety monitoring and evaluations, and check with OSHA regarding how long such records must be kept.

10. Comply with the "Right To Know" or Hazardous Communication Standard by making information about possible health hazards available to employees on a consistent and regular basis.

11. Describe and model procedures which encourage employees to practice good health and safety at all times.

12. Make effective engineering controls and personal protective equipment available to employees.

Sincerely,

R. Ron Sokol, CSP, General Manager

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