The Value of Ergonomics for your Business
By Mary Dunlap, CIH Ergonomics, defined simply, is fitting a job to a person to reduce the risk of strains and injury to muscles, tendons, and ligaments, also known as musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs). The human costs are the best reason for preventing MSDs, but the financial burden to businesses cannot be underestimated. A 2018 survey of days away from work from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics determined that 30 percent of cases were due to MSDs and that MSD cases require 38 percent more lost time days than typical injuries and illnesses. The direct costs associated with a sprain, strain, or hernia type injury can cost a business between $28,000 and $32,000 for medical treatment to resolve the injury. However, the medical costs are only part of the story and do not include indirect costs such as work stoppage, overtime, training of new employees, legal costs, and increased insurance premiums.
What are the benefits of ergonomics programs?
In addition to keeping workers healthy, there are many added benefits to implementing an ergonomics program that ultimately can make a business more profitable and attractive to potential business partners, highly qualified new employees, and outside investors, including:
Reduced costs associated with treating MSDs
Reduction in lost workdays and the length of long-term absences
Lower employee turnover and costs associated with replacing an employee
Higher employee engagement and focus on work quality
Increased productivity and efficiency
Reduced costs for correcting defects
Creating a safety record that is attractive to lenders and outside investors
When ergonomics is regarded as an important part of the operational process, employee engagement is enhanced, as is productivity and work quality. When an employer places value on the ability to perform the job comfortably and efficiently, employees feel respected. From this respect, workers are much more likely to be engaged in their work. With this engagement, comes regard for the quality of work they produce and a willingness to participate in improving processes and performing the work more efficiently. It has been estimated that even a simple improvement can result in a one-percent increase in quality and a five-percent increase in productivity. As attention to detail increases, the defect rate goes down and, with that, the costs for correcting the defects. Safety and sustainability have become very important aspects of how companies operate and are key environmental, social, and governance (ESG) indicators that lenders and investors consider when assessing business performance, assigning corporate credit ratings, and considering new investment opportunities. It is common practice for investors and lenders to request disclosure of injury rates. The top 29 companies that have earned safety culture awards have been found to consistently outperform the S&P 500 stock index.
What are the risks of workplace injuries?
The major risk factors for musculoskeletal disorders are:
forceful exertions involving with lifting, lowering, carrying, pushing, and pulling
repetitive movements, encountered when job cycles are less than 30 seconds long and when the cycle is repeated two or more times in a minute
awkward postures that result from poor equipment or the workspace design, not having the right tool to perform a job, and lack of worker awareness of how to properly move and position their body when performing a task.
Of these factors, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has estimated that 25 percent of non-fatal occupational injuries result from forceful exertions primarily associated with material handling. The costs associated with treating MSDs can be significant when an injury occurs. Such injuries often result in multiple trips to a doctor or clinic, physical therapy appointments, and even surgery. In addition to treating the injury, lost workdays and sometimes long-term absences create staffing issues which increase overtime costs and losses in production. Additionally, job duties sometimes require modification to accommodate an employee who has been injured. When job tasks remain at risk for injury, there are not only lost workdays directly related to injuries but often there is also an increase in “casual absenteeism”. When strains or injuries are common, workers simply do not want to do the job. As dissatisfaction increases, so does the rate of employee turnover and the costs for replacing an employee. On average, it costs a business 20-50 percent of an employee’s salary to find and train a new employee replacement.
What is included in an ergonomics program?
Ergonomics programs and tools can make a big difference in the comfort, safety, and well-being of workers as well as add money to your bottom line? Actions can range from the simple to the complex and may include:
Implementing a daily stretching program for employees
Frequently rotating workers that perform repetitive jobs during a shift
Providing work surfaces that are the right height for the job
Reducing reach distances for parts or tools
Providing the right tools and equipment such as lift assist devices
Designing new workstations and equipment to best fit workers and their job tasks.
Coach and train employees how to properly position their bodies when lifting and performing tasks to avoid strains and injuries.
Further information
Cornerstone’s Health and Safety department can perform a Worksite Analysis to observe operations, job tasks, and work practices for ergonomic safety. As a Certified Industrial Hygienist, I can provide reports of risks, prioritize areas for changes, and recommend control measures. Contact Cornerstone at info@corner-enviro.com or on our website for more information. Mary Dunlap, CIH, is a Senior Industrial Health and Safety Specialist and Certified Industrial Hygienist. She works with Cornerstone’s clients to develop exposure assessment strategies tailored for their work environments. She regularly performs ergonomic assessments using a variety of OSHA and NIOSH tools to rate severity of risk for work related to musculoskeletal disorders.
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Update SDS Regularly for Better Work Safety
Safety Data Sheets inform employees about the hazards of the chemicals in their workplace, how to obtain information on chemicals, and what to do if a spill or accident occurs with those chemicals in order to provide a safe, secure workplace. The information contained on each SDS also enables organizations to better understand the chemicals they use and how those substances impact the environment. Constant communication of SDS updates to staff is a vital way to promote a positive safety culture in any company. It creates a safer, more informed environment for employees. Changes to SDS can impact the handling or transport of material, as well as disposal methods, and the potential health hazards to employees.
What OSHA regulations require SDS?
The OSHA Hazard Communication Standard (OSHA, 29 CFR 1910.1200(g) and Appendix D) requires manufacturers and importers of a new hazardous chemical to obtain or develop safety data sheets. From there, the manufacturers, suppliers, and distributors are responsible for passing that information along as the product moves through the supply chain. Those entities also are required to update existing SDS as new information becomes available regarding identification, handling, and spill response of hazardous chemicals. This applies to every hazardous chemical they produce or import. The HCS requires that SDSs be updated by the chemical manufacturer or importer within three months of learning of "new or significant information" regarding the chemical's hazard potential. The downstream or end users are responsible for the use and maintenance of SDSs, including accessibility to the most recent version of SDSs for all employees. Users can request updated SDS information from the original supplier or manufacturer. All along the supply chain, employers must provide training to employees regarding how to access an SDS and communicate changes to employees in a timely manner.
What other mandates require SDS?
The U.S. EPA also has regulations that address SDSs. These documents were a requirement under the Clean Water Act of 1970 and the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA) of 1980. Subsequently, these were reaffirmed under the Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act (SARA) section 313 of the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA), which is also known as Title III. Many state and local environmental and safety agencies have a number of regulations that may redundantly require SDSs. Most corporate safety and environmental protection programs also rely on SDSs to educate and inform workers about dangers in the workplace.
What are the dangers of an outdated SDS?
If a manufacturer chooses not to maintain up-to-date SDS documents on file, they are denying their staff valuable information about specific chemicals substances and how to safely handle them. This puts employees at risk and could lead to workplace incidents and injuries or environmental damage. In addition, OSHA or EPA inspectors have the authority to issue violations and assess fines for non-compliance with SDS-related regulations.
Further Information
With Cornerstone’s Foundation SDS Management and Chemical Inventory System, our Chemical Management team do the work for our clients to ensure that their SDS are regularly updated. For a free demo, contact us.
Yabelin Batista has been with Cornerstone since 2019. She is a member of the Chemical Management department at Cornerstone, Environmental, Health and Safety. One of her main responsibilities consists of sourcing and updating current Safety Data Sheets (SDS) for a wide array of products in our Foundation SDS Management and Chemical Inventory System. Her efforts help ensure our customers have the latest documents available.
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EPA Identifies More Substitutes for Ozone-Depleters
In May, EPA published a final rule expanding the list of substitutes for ozone-depleting refrigerants, such as chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), and flame retardants. This rule becomes effective June 7, 2021 and specifically:
Lists R–448A, R–449A and R– 449B as acceptable, subject to narrowed use limits, for use in retail food refrigeration—medium-temperature stand-alone units for new equipment
Lists R–452B, R–454A, R–454B, R–454C and R–457A as acceptable, subject to use conditions, for use in residential and light commercial air conditioning (AC) and heat pumps for new equipment
Lists R–32 as acceptable, subject to use conditions, for use in residential and light commercial AC and heat pumps—equipment other than self-contained room air conditioners, for new equipment
Removes Powdered Aerosol E from the list of fire suppression substitutes subject to use conditions in total flooding applications.
What is EPA’s SNAP Program?
EPA is finalizing these new listings after its evaluation of human health and environmental information for these substitutes under the Significant New Alternatives Policy (SNAP) program. Section 612 of the Clean Air Act (CAA), established EPA’s SNAP program which requires the agency to reviews substitutes within a comparative risk framework in the following industrial sectors:
Adhesives, Coatings, and Inks
Aerosols
Cleaning Solvents
Fire Suppression and Explosion Protection
Foam Blowing Agents
Refrigeration and Air Conditioning
Sterilants
Tobacco Expansion
The SNAP program evolves the list as EPA makes decisions that are informed by its overall understanding of the environmental and human health impacts as well as its current knowledge about available substitutes. Section 612 also provides that EPA must prohibit the use of a substitute where EPA has determined that there are other available substitutes that pose less overall risk to human health and the environment. Read the full rule in the Federal Register
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Fast Facts About Tier II
By Rachel Powell Tier II Emergency and Hazardous Chemical Inventory Reports, commonly referred to as “Tier II”, is due annually on March 1st. The following is a quick overview of reporting requirements.
What is EPCRA?
The Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act of 1986 was created to help communities plan for chemical emergencies. It also requires industry to report on the storage, use and releases of hazardous substances to federal, state and local governments. EPCRA has four major provisions and serves as the governing body for Tier II reporting.
What makes a chemical reportable under Tier II?
Any OSHA-hazardous chemical stored over the federal threshold quantity of 10,000 pounds or more and any extremely hazardous substance (EHS) stored in quantities of 500 pounds or its threshold planning quantity (TPQ), whichever is less. Individual states may have more stringent reporting requirements. Exceeding the threshold at any time during the reporting year triggers the reporting requirement.
What are EHS chemicals?
EPA has designated EHS chemicals as those which could cause serious irreversible health effects from accidental releases. A full list of EHS chemicals can be found on epa.gov.
What storage information is needed to file the Tier II?
Reporting requirements include a section that lists specific location(s) within a facility where reportable chemicals are stored. In addition, the type of container being utilized and exact maximum amount (usually measured in pounds) of hazardous chemicals present at a facility at any one time during the previous calendar year must be reported.
How do I know what reporting requirements exist for my state?
Although each state’s reporting system can vary, Tier II reports must be filed annually with the State, County (LEPC) and local Fire Department. Additional information regarding filing criteria by state, including what fees are associated, can be found at https://www.epa.gov/epcra/state-tier-ii-reporting-requirements-and-procedures.
How can I prepare for this next year?
Don’t let the March 1 annual Tier II reporting deadline sneak up. Since the spring deadline covers materials for the previous calendar year, it’s important to track all chemicals/products that enter and leave your facility on an ongoing basis. Maintaining on-site inventory throughout the year will allow for a smooth Tier II reporting season.For the past seven years Rachel Powell has served as a Chemical Data Management Specialist at Cornerstone. She assists clients in setting up and maintaining their Safety Data Sheet Foundation System. On a monthly basis she serves as a facilitator who trains new users. She serves as a Tier II Emergency and Chemical Report filer for our clients on an annual basis.
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Using Leading Indicators to Prevent Workplace Injuries
By Joshua Sampia All companies have an obligation to create a safe work environment that allows their employees to do their jobs with minimal risk of injury. Most business understand their obligation to report accidents and illnesses to government agencies at the federal, state, and local level. What if you could use modern technology and trends to not only create a safer work environment but also prevent injuries from ever happening? This would save you time and money from completing reports, medical billing, and insurance claims, as well as reduce lost work time hours.
What are leading indicators?
Leading indicators are data points that can help predict future events and trends. This is where having a proactive safety culture comes into play. Leading indicators can be used to assess workplace culture in order to develop safety plans to minimize risk and increase productivity. OSHA defines leading indicators as “proactive and preventive measures that can shed light about the effectiveness of safety and health activities and reveal potential problems in a safety and health program.” The cost of worker’s compensation claims can range from thousands to hundreds of thousands of dollars depending on the nature of the incident. Having a program in place that can help prevent even one of those claims will automatically pay for itself. There also are many other intangible benefits like reduced costs for worker’s compensation insurance or a reduction in the number of fines. As the saying goes, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
Set Goals for Leading Indicators
Most companies have goals set for lagging indicators, such as a threshold for lost work time or number of injuries; however, your organization should also set goals for leading indicators, such as:
Attendance Rates
Safety Observations
Risk Assessments
Preventative Measures and Maintenance
The key to any good program is setting, identifying, and reaching quantifiable goals. For example, we work with a company that had historically relied on lagging indicators such as types of injuries, location, and work task to track injuries. Our team worked with them to implement a more observational approach focused on minimizing future occurrences. They formulated daily observation checklists of employees to determine if they were performing their tasks in an efficient and safe manner. That daily observation data was then aggregated and analyzed develop better safety and training programs. The change has helped reduce the number of injuries and accidents. Incidentally, productivity has also increased. Implementing this kind of process does not have to be a time-consuming process. The daily observations are short checklists of yes or no type questions that take approximately two minutes each day to complete. The checklist can be completed on mobile devices which most staff are currently using in their work tasks. The company also can share observations across multiple departments and shift supervisors to create a network of data for the entire business.
Technology and Software for Worker Safety
There are other examples of using modern data technology to help. Tracking employee training is a great way to ensure a good safety environment. Making sure employees are well-trained and that training is up to date is crucial to safety success. Another important aspect is that you must have a robust program in place to capture and analyze the data. A good system will:
let you easily capture all this information through multiple devices and portals
let you report the data back into multiple formats and reports
have a great dashboard to see a visual representation of the data
improve accountability
It is also critical to have traceability so it is clear who entered what data and when. This is extremely important when it comes to having a chain of evidence.
How can Cornerstone Help?
Cornerstone’s Incident Management and Training Tracking systems can capture all of this information as well a provide data reporting, visual representation, and more. Our applications have highly customizable systems that can adapt to literally any industry including automotive, manufacturing, medical, industrial as well as retail and warehousing. Each system is configured to each company’s specifications and requirements. This can also be accomplished at a cost-effective price point, especially when compared to the cost of having one accident on record. Contact us for details on how Cornerstone can help your facility establish an effective safety program using leading indicators and our industry-leading software systems.
Joshua Sampia is the Director of Product Development. He is responsible for the applications development team at Cornerstone, ranging from web based and mobile applications to device management for safety and environmental compliance and applicability.
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Where the S in ESG Intersects with the HS in EHS
By John Scifres Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) rating is all about the long game. Industry has learned if they are to stay in business and thrive in today’s world, they must be sustainable in all facets of their culture. For our Health and Safety Division, the “social” portion means offering our client’s the best tools to take care of their workers. Today, compliance with Environmental, Health and Safety (EHS) regulations is a given and employers are expected to go beyond compliance in their worker safety efforts. The links between employee health and safety, morale, loyalty, and retention are undeniable. Healthy, happy, loyal, and experienced workers make for a sustainable business. Today’s investors know this and demand it from the companies they want to back. Cornerstone helps to improve ESG metrics by maximizing worker health and safety with a stepwise approach from assessment to training.
Assessment
The first step in our Health and Safety Management System services is a baseline assessment of Compliance to get the feel for where a company is in the spectrum from Compliance to Sustainability. It is a Gap Analysis of sorts, but it gives our experienced evaluators a feel for what they have to work with. We present our clients with a detailed report of regulatory applicability including a finding of compliance or non-compliance for each element. For those areas that need work, a Findings and Corrective Actions Summary becomes a compliance punch list that can be attacked quickly and systematically to bring the site into compliance. We can couple a Compliance Assessment with a Culture Assessment to dive even further into needed actions to improve the “S” in ESG. Either along with or as a result of the assessment, Cornerstone then begins the task of evaluating worker health and safety hazards and their risks with a Risk-Based Workplace Hazard Assessment. The goal of this is to assess each job and its component tasks to determine the hazards present. Our evaluators determine the risk of negative outcomes from each task by judging the Severity and Probability of the negative outcome. They assign a numerical score to each and the product of those gives us a Risk Level for each hazard. Of special note is our Ergonomic focus. A critical part of workers’ health and safety is how they feel and move while accomplishing their jobs. Using the risk assessment data our ergonomics team monitors employees in each workstation to ensure a practical solution to complex ergonomic issues.
Control
Generally, we determine an acceptable risk level with the client and anything exceeding that level requires action. Our staff then determines required or recommended controls for each hazard. We use the U.S. OSHA Hierarchy of Controls to guide this part of the assessment. In the end, Cornerstone Health and Safety Evaluators produce a prioritized list of necessary controls. Those hazards with a higher risk level demand more urgent action. Controls often include the development of administrative policies, procedures, and programs. Cornerstone works hard to develop these along with stakeholders at every level of the company. The information gathered during previous steps guides this process. It can range from something as simple as protective gloves to Injury and Illness Prevention Plans and the establishment and facilitation of Health and Safety Committees. Worker Health and Safety training and coaching are integral to making these Administrative Controls come to life.
ESG Reporting
While the methods to arrive at an ESG rating differ, they all have the same end goal in mind; to identify those companies that consider their human resources as a long-term investment in their success. Data from government reports of compliance, worker injury audits, and worker experience of every sort regarding compliance and culture all play into ratings. Everything we do helps our clients prove to the world through ESG score that they are a sustainable business. This is never more evident than in our approach to worker health and safety. We carefully determine compliance gaps, rate the risk of everything done at a client’s operation, and then work closely with all levels of employees at the facility to ensure that compliance obligations are met, hazards are controlled, and workers go home at the end of their workday in the same condition that they arrived. And, we do this over time with the overall goal to continually improve all factors that play into an ESG rating.
Further Information
As ESG reporting becomes more vital and more publicly transparent, Cornerstone’s industrial health and safety experts can help ensure that your programs and data are ready for the spotlight. Contact us at info@corner-enviro.com or through our website.
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Permit Ownership Change is an Important Part of M&A Process
By Cassie Lee It may have been the economic uncertainty of 2020, the emotional rollercoaster of quarantine or too much time to think and reflect on business but I had many clients reach out in the first quarter of 2021 asking for support in changing the ownership on their environmental permits. Just like when you transfer the deed to a house or a title to a car, if a commercial property changes ownership or name, all applicable permits held on the property or facility must be transferred to the new entity. Federal and state environmental regulations and statutes may also apply to the property transfer or merger process. While many permits may be held for a property, the most common Cornerstone assists with transferring include:
Air Permits
Stormwater (NPDES) Permits
Process water Discharge Permits
Wastewater Discharge Permits
Hazardous Waste Identification Numbers
Timeline and Applicability
Many times, the owner entity or individual contact person can be changed during the next reporting period for certain compliance obligations. Unfortunately, since state and local forms and applications vary, there are no hard and fast universal instructions. While a Phase I Environmental Site Assessment and any necessary environmental due diligence assessments occur prior to an ownership transfer, permit transfers are completed after closing. Experienced real estate and environmental attorneys recommend completing these transfers promptly after closing, usually within 60 days.
More Information
Feel free to contact me at clee@corner-enviro.com or (317) 501-7060 to discuss your merger and acquisition environmental, health and safety documentation needs. Cassie Lee is has spent more than 10 years serving Environmental Health and Safety Managers, Human Resource professionals, company owners and presidents navigate environmental compliance and worker safety. Prior to account management, she was in the field executing and reporting for property transactions and building health in the realm of environmental due diligence and industrial hygiene.