The Environment and Forestry Class that our nephew attends had a safety drill on their wood lot this past weekend. Their instructor, Mr. Dennis Flynn, stated the school has fire drills and lockdowns, he thought it was a good idea to have a simulated accident on the wood lot. Several area fire companies were invited to help with the drill. The fire fighters became familiar with the location of the wood lot and practiced extricating a victim from under a downed tree. More details on the wood lot drill can be seen at http://capitalregion.ynn.com/content/656128/first-responders-and-boces-students-train-for-logging-accidents/
Safety in the Work Pace
The safety conscious instructor got me thinking about safety in our plant. Here at Ketchum we have a very good safety record and work diligently to keep our manufacturing plant incident free. As a small business, we do not have the luxury of a full-time safety department. We rely on videos, borrowed from our insurance company, to add visual content to our training. Our April topics are hearing conservation and hand protection.
Hearing Conservation
We hire a company to bring their mobile testing van to our plant. After watching a video on hearing conservation and proper use of hearing protection, through a series of beeps our hearing is tested. The machines used in our manufacturing process are very loud and hearing protection is required. I believe the information we receive during training allows our employees to understand the benefits of wearing hearing protection.
Hand Protection
The punch presses at Ketchum stamp, cut and bend metal, as you can imagine, fingers and hands are no match for them. All of our presses have electronic guards, the presses will not operate if the guards are not in place. The metal coils have sharp edges and leather gloves help to keep fingers and hands laceration free.
A big “Thank You” to Mr. Flynn for teaching safety to our students and reminding all of us that safety requires education and practice.
