Safety

Waste Prevention

• Even better than recycling are the efforts to prevent waste at the source. Some of our efforts include:
• Reuse wooden pallets
• Eliminate disposable cups for water and coffee
• Customers and vendors are encouraged to use email.
• Directive from executive management to limit printing and use email for all written communication.
• Utilizing Harness to perform safety documentation electronically.

Non-Hazardous Waste

• Non-Hazardous waste shall be disposed of at frequent regular intervals in designated disposal areas. Work areas shall maintain good housekeeping throughout all jobs.

Hazardous Waste

• Hazardous waste must be disposed of in accordance with federal, state and local regulations. Examples of hazardous waste include oils, fuel, paints and solvents, aerosol cans, etc. Other examples include lead and asbestos, in this instance the owner will be responsible for directing waste disposal. All hazardous waste must be handled by trained employees with appropriate PPE and precaution.

Storage

There are special precautions that must be in place for storage of fuel, oils or other hazardous waste. These precautions include:

• A containment area or container that will contain 110 percent of largest container in the storage area.
• Must be located away from drains.
• Elevate off of the ground.
• Labeled appropriately.
• All containers must remain closed and be in good condition.

Labeling

• Containers holding hazardous waste must be labeled with the contents of the container, type of hazard and EPA hazardous waste number.
• Secondary containers are usually smaller containers, such as spray bottles, jugs, glue guns, or jars that chemicals are transferred to from the primary container once within the workplace.
• Secondary containers must include at minimum, the full name of chemical, the hazard, the date transferred and expiration date.

What Injury-Free is NOT:

• It is not the same as zero injuries
• It is not a goal, but rather a value
• It is not a guarantee
• It is not a prescription
• It is not the elimination of all risk

What Injury-Free IS:

• It is about caring for one another, and demonstrating that care on a daily basis.
• It is about all workers going home safely everyday.
• It is about a mindset intolerant of any level of injury.
• Taking responsibility for your own safety and those that work with you and around you.
• Being proactive and asking questions, such as what is the most dangerous thing that can happen to me while performing this task, and how can I mitigate this risk.
• Having a positive attitude of choosing to follow the safety rules and procedures.
• Speaking up and expressing your concern when you see something unsafe.

What our leaders should expect from us!

• If a task is not safe, do not perform the task or letter other employees perform the task.
• Speak up immediately if you see something unsafe. Have a voice!
• If you are unsure of something (gut feeling), stop work and speak up.

What we should expect from our leaders!

• Support, when someone does “stop work” or speak up.
• When a safety concern is brought to our attention, it should be addressed, corrected, mitigate, or communicated further up to management or customer.
• If an injury occurs, it will be investigated in such a way to not blame the injured.

Personal Challenges

• Individual commitment to safety, and intervene
• Preventing injury or loss
• Ignore it and we condone it
• Lead by example
• Learn from experience
• Support each other
• Drive the organization towards World Class Safety!

A Job Hazard Analysis (JHA) is a tool we utilize in order to identify the task we are performing for the day, any potential hazards that may be associated to those tasks, and the controls to mitigate the hazards. The JHA is a process that will identify the tools, materials, and equipment needed to develop safe work methods and procedures in order to accomplish a task safely. This tool is completed prior to work commencing and shall be re-evaluated if work scope/task change in order to capture the associated hazards of the new task.

Steps to an Effective JHA

1. Define the scope of work to be performed (TASK)
   • Involve the employees performing the work
2. Identify the Hazards associated to the scope of work
   • What could go wrong?
   • What could cause things to go wrong?
   • What other factors in the work area could cause a hazard?
3. Identify the controls for each of the hazards identified.
   • Engineering- Eliminate/substitute the hazard or reduce exposure
   • Administrative- Changing the conditions, reducing exposure, or following the process/procedure
   • Personal protective Equipment- When engineering or administrative controls cannot be performed, utilize PPE “Last Line of Defense”.

Benefits of JHA

• Setting a standard
• Following processes and procedures
• Comply with OSHA requirements
• Reduce injuries
• Protect employees
• Provides a form of training (specifically for new employees)
• Improve communication

Effective August 1st, 2022, all Gribbins/Elite foreman and crew, shall be conducting a JHA within Harness prior to the start of the shift. Foreman will be the individual conducting the JHA reviewing with the entire crew, engaging with the crew and requiring each crew member to sign the JHA. If a customer or owner requires a specific JHA (ex. JSA, STA, DHA, TAP, etc.), Gribbins/Elite employees will not be required to complete the Gribbins/Elite JHA.

If you are unaware on how to utilize the Harness Safety Software in order to complete Toolbox Talks or JHA’s, please contact

Adam Mayer- Cell:(812) 454-6460

What are Bloodborne Pathogens?

Bloodborne pathogens are infectious microorganisms in human blood that can cause disease in humans. These pathogens include, but are not limited to, hepatitis B (HBV), hepatitis C (HCV) and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Needlesticks and other sharps-related injuries may expose workers to bloodborne pathogens, as well as something as simple as caring for an injured employee.

Our exposure control plan is how you will protect yourself and others from coming in contact with bloodborne pathogens. The exposure control plan consists of 5 sections.

Training and Medical Services

• Foreman & supervision will be trained in First Aid. This training addresses the issue of bloodborne pathogens as it relates to administering First-Aid.
• Bloodborne pathogen training will be yearly provided after the initial first aid CPR training
• A copy of Gribbins bloodborne pathogen program is available in the Safety Manual.
• The hepatitis B vaccine, post-exposure evaluation and follow-up visits are available to all employees, at no cost to the employee, if he/she has had a potential occupational exposure.

Protective Equipment

• First aid kits shall contain latex or nitrile gloves, that are required to be worn if administering first aid to any person.
• Gauze pads are supplied to act as barriers when rendering first aid as well as plastic mouthpieces to be used if administering CPR

Hygiene Practices

• After First-Aid is provided to any injured person, the person rendering First-Aid shall wash his/her hands with soap and water as soon as possible. If hand washing facilities are not available, utilize antiseptic hand cleaner in conjunction with clean cloth/paper towels. (When hand cleaners are used, hands must still be washed with soap and water as soon as feasible.)

Medical Records

• A record will be kept on any employee with an occupational exposure in accordance with CFR 1910.1020. These medical records will be kept for the duration of employment plus 30 years
• Records will be available to the employee upon request.
• Transfer of records will only be done with the written consent of the employee.

Housekeeping

• All equipment or environmental surfaces shall be cleaned and decontaminated after contact with blood or other infectious materials and be sealed in the bio-hazard bag.

It is important to remember that if you are not trained in first aid and blood-borne pathogens then you should not render aid to another person because you may be putting yourself at risk as well. If at any point you get another individual’s blood on you, you should report it to the safety department immediately.

Explain dangers

The hazards of working in confined spaces are often not recognized until it’s too late. For example:

• Four workers died from hydrogen sulphide poisoning in a sewage holding tank.
• A worker was killed by carbon monoxide gas from a gasoline-powered pump used to drain a pit.
• A worker was caught in a mixing tank which was inadvertently started while he was inside.

Identify controls

In the Confined Spaces Standard (1910.146), “confined space” means a space that:

• Is large enough and so configured that an employee can bodily enter and perform assigned work; and
• Has limited or restricted means for entry or exit (for example, tanks, vessels, silos, storage bins, hoppers, vaults, and pits are spaces that may have limited means of entry.); and
• Is not designed for continuous employee occupancy.

In chemical and petrochemical plants, confined spaces include tanks, vessels, pipes, sumps, and pits.

Confined spaces in heavy industrial plants can be roasters, digesters, boilers, ID/FD Fans, mixers, bins, trenches/excavations and conveyors.

Sewage-handling and water-treatment plants include various kinds of confined spaces, from settling and holding tanks to maintenance holes and wells below floor level.

In general construction, confined spaces include vaults, maintenance holes, tanks, and other spaces that meet the criteria of the definition.

Physical hazards such as live electrical conductors, operating equipment, stored energy, pressurized pipes, noise, and heat sources must be controlled in confined spaces through lockout and tag-out (LOTO). You must also control other dangers, including those you may introduce into the space by the work being performed. Such hazards include hazardous dusts, chemical vapors, engine exhaust, and welding fumes.

Other spaces that may not fall under the definition of confined space but need to be assessed and controlled include

• basements
• halls
• small rooms
• tunnels
• crawl spaces

These spaces must be adequately ventilated to ensure hazardous materials and atmospheres are not present and do not accumulate from the work being performed. Workers have been overcome and killed by solvent and adhesive vapors in small, poorly ventilated rooms.

If at any time you are unsure if a space shall be considered to be a confined space, contact the safety department.

Date of Incident: 05/17/2022

Gribbins scaffolding crew was asked to make some modifications to existing hanging scaffolding by adding additional pans into a scaffold deck. The location of the scaffolding was approximately 30’ off the ground on the northside of the CSM Furnace Baghouse. The employee was wearing a tool belt, with 5-tools tethered to his tool belt. Employee accessed the existing scaffold to begin work, and kneeled down onto the scaffolding. As the employee kneeled down, a wrench inside of his belt was pushed up/out of his tool belt and fell out. The tether came out of the tethering tape which secured it to the tool itself. The wrench fell approximately 30’ to ground level. Fortunately, no other individuals were in the area at the time the tool fell. The crew did not have the area below barricaded.

Contributing Factors

• It was unknown to employee that the tool tether was not sufficiently secured due to tape being exposed to heat.
• Area below was not barricaded, preventing others from working under overhead work.

Corrective Preventative/Actions

• Stand down was held with crew and management to discuss incident and review corrective actions, red danger tape requirements, and proper tool inspection/verification.
• Gribbins Insulation requires danger tape shall be installed prior to erecting, modifying, or dismantling scaffolding.
• Re-training of scaffolding crew on tool inspections (specifically verifying tool tether securement-TESTING)
• Providing scaffolding crew with key ring type attachment eliminating tethering tape for specific tools.