There are many tools for health and safety.
Lockout/Tagout is essential. The locks and the tags often are color-coded and can protect against unexpected startup of equipment and machinery.
PPE, or personal protective equipment are some of the tools that can be used to protect eyes, the head with hardhats, safety glasses for the eyes.
Technology is marching along at such a pace. What was true three years ago is now ancient history and with the advent of apps there are apps for health and safety both for the iPhone, android and Blackberry. Some apps turn your phone into a dosimeter so that you know you have a problem with noise because you are actually measuring it by using your phone. You can use more accurate measuring tools once you have determined that you have a problem and you need to measure this and that is called decibel 10 by SkyPaw Company Limited. OSHA has a heat safety tool in the summer that calculates the worksite’s heat index and risk level so you know how often to take breaks and what to do if it is very, very hot. Sometimes you have to cease work and this tool will help you do it. The American Red Cross first aid app provides advice on every day emergencies. So there are innumerable apps.
In Canada we have E-compliance which has really slick auditing software programs which are accepted by the certifying partners and really enhance the ability of an auditor to do their job because it calculates and lets you know when you have sufficient interviews and lets you know the additions and it highlights if you have made a mistake in your analysis. It can actually let you know when you have to correct things like cascading hazard assessment questions. One question cannot be higher than another and it will let you know this.
Then there are software program analytics that let you know when accidents occur before they happen. This is very cutting edge. Think money ball. The prices are coming down as we speak. There’s drive cam technology, which has a video recording 12 seconds before an incident and 12 seconds after. It can act to show what happened. You can coach people because it is very hard to argue with their own behavior either before an incident happens or when an incident happened what they did and how they can improve it. So it is both a training tool and behavioral based safety.
You can also create an incident investigation kit. Have a digital camera, barrier tape, pencil/pens, measuring tape, accident investigation forms, witness statements and put it in a little carry-all so that when you go to the scene of the incident you can break it out and protect the evidence.
There are a number of tools and equipment and it is changing all the time. Technology is radically affecting health and safety tools. Apps three years ago were basically unknown or not used very much and now they are becoming an important tool in a health and safety professional’s arsenal. Don’t be a dinosaur. Stay with technology. Make sure that you prepare the necessary tools you need before you need to use them. Remember, health and safety people are proactive.