Chemical hazards and hand protection must always go together. Choosing the proper hand protection for different chemical hazards creates safe workspaces. Handling hazardous materials properly is essential to avoid hand injury.
Oven cleaners, tile cleaners, toilet-bowl cleaners, liquid drain openers, antifreeze, chrome-wheel cleaners, rust removers, gasoline, motor oil, lead paint, turpentine, lacquer thinner, and muriatic acid are just a few examples of products commonly found in homes that contain hazardous chemicals.
Keep your workspace safe through these chemical hazard measures.
5 Best Practices for Handling Hazardous Materials
It is important to take extra precautions while handling hazardous products, both for the safety of your personnel and to ensure compliance with relevant rules. Reviewing safe practices for potentially dangerous substances is never a bad idea. Here is a list of the top five hazardous material handling best practices.
Identify Hazardous Materials
Learning about hazardous materials at work is the first step toward safe handling. Think of the hazardous materials, their risks, and their purpose. Further, consider what precautions you must take when working with certain hazardous materials.
Understanding the potential hazards and types of trash employees may face helps management evaluate the risks and formulate a plan for safely handling such materials.
Label Hazardous Materials
All potentially hazardous materials must be correctly labeled and stored appropriately. Something could leak or corrode the containers if not in the proper storage.
As part of proper labeling and storage, ensure that staff members clean up the workspace right after using any hazardous material. There is less possibility of an unintentional spill and other risks involving hazardous materials when the workspace is clean.
Secure Safe Storage for Hazardous Materials
It all boils down to open communication between management and personnel regarding the safe handling of hazardous material. You can make an action plan to ensure that materials are initially in their proper storage with the proper labels. Maintaining a secure workplace for your employees is the major goal of regulatory policies.
Ensure to safely put all potentially hazardous materials in a dry, ventilated place away from people. Employees should be able to keep their workspace clean and free of hazardous trash.
Train Employees in Handling Hazardous Materials
Employers must instruct their staff members in properly handling dangerous materials; signage alone is insufficient. While following professional procedures is a wonderful place to start, you should also prepare for unforeseen circumstances. It is important to equip employees on emergency protocols, including what to do in various hazardous material-related and medical emergencies.
When it comes to the safe handling of materials at your place of employment, make training a top priority. More importantly, review training yearly to ensure that employees are always aware of how to be safe. Employees must be fully aware of reporting procedures and how to carry out their job responsibilities.
Maintain Hazardous Materials Storage Area
Hazardous materials rules require the correct maintenance of main storage sites. If your company ignores this, regulators may levy hefty fines against you.
A dry, cold storage space with sufficient ventilation is advised according to best practices for storage rooms. It\’s crucial to designate hazardous waste as such, maintain all materials stored appropriately, and always keep lids on containers.
Review how to use, handle, and store hazardous chemicals at your workspace and make any necessary adjustments to align the policies with safe material handling. Then do ocular inspections to ensure that staff members are abiding by regulations. Regular inspections help stop reoccurring issues with the storage of hazardous waste.
Types of Hand Protection for Hazardous Materials
Occupational Health & Safety (OH&S) states hand injuries are between 40% and 60% of recorded occupational incidents. Finding the ideal fit and form is only one aspect of choosing a pair of gloves for the workplace.
Many types of work safety gloves provide hand protection. There are some gloves you\’ll want to utilize for certain jobs rather than taking a one-size-fits-all strategy.
How do you tell if your glove is right for the job? Continue reading this article to know the different kinds of work safety gloves and when to wear each.
Leather Gloves
Leather gloves are widely known for their versatility. They offer good durability, insulation, and grip. They provide a higher level of protection because they are thicker than conventional cloth.
However, prolonged exposure to extreme temperatures can cause leather gloves to dry up, crack, or fade. This makes them less than ideal for dealing with heat. When you maintain them in good condition, they provide considerable burn protection.
Welders frequently use leather gloves with a sturdy liner to provide additional protection.
Latex, Rubber, or Platic Gloves
Plastic gloves typically offer protection against biohazards, chemicals, solvents, and other dangerous substances while being form-fitting to allow mobility.
However, due to the material\’s extreme flexibility and thinness, these gloves do not provide any heat or puncture protection. They are not the best for working with hot surfaces, sharp objects, or fires.
Kevlar Gloves
Kevlar gloves are a great option for industrial settings due to their durability. The material provides a light yet durable answer to hand protection that keeps its strength under pressure. Kevlar is frequently used as a liner in different types of gloves since it is resistant to cuts and punctures.
Butyl Gloves
Gloves made of butyl rubber are the ideal choice when handling chemicals. They don\’t absorb liquids because they are rubber and come into contact with them. The rubber withstands dangerous substances like acids, bases, alcohols, ketones, nitro compounds, and rocket fuel. They can endure extremes of heat and cold, abrasion, oxidation, and ozone corrosion.
Coated Fabric Gloves
These gloves offer greater protection against cuts, punctures, and chemicals than non-coated fabric gloves. Common coatings include polyurethane, nitrile, and PVC, but the one you need will vary based on the task and hazardous materials you must handle.
Bottomline: Choose the Proper Hand Protection
As the saying goes, prevention is better than cure when dealing with potentially harmful substances, just as in the medical field. The likelihood of a hazmat accident can be reduced with a firm commitment to using certain best practices in handling hazardous materials coupled with proper hand protection in the workplace.
