Landscaping and Horticulture Safety

1
Landscaping and Horticulture Safety

• Introduction to OSHA

2
What is OSHA?

• Occupational Safety and Health Administration
• Responsible for worker safety and health
  protection
• Created in 1970 by the Occupational Safety and
  Health (OSH) Act

3
What Has OSHA Accomplished?

• Help cut the work-related fatality rate in half.
• Worked with employers and employees to reduce
  workplace injuries and illnesses by 40
• Reduced trenching and excavation fatalities by
  35

4
What Does OSHA Do?

• Encourages employers and employees to reduce
  workplace hazards and implement or improve safety
  and health programs.
• Enforce safety and health standards
• Monitoring of job-related injuries and illness
• Provides assistance, training and other support
  programs to help employers and workers

5
OSHA Standards

• OSHA develops and enforces standards that
  employers must follow.
• Where OSHA does not have standards, employers are
  responsible for following the OSH Act's General
  Duty Clause.

6
General Duty Clause

• Section 5(a)(1)
• Each employer shall furnish to each of his
  employees employment and a place of employment
  which are free from recognized hazards that are
  causing or are likely to cause death or serious
  physical harm to his employees

7
General Safety and Health Provisions

• 1910.22 Housekeeping
• All places of employment shall be kept clean and
  orderly and in a sanitary condition
• Floors of all rooms shall be kept clean and dry
• Aisles and passageways shall be kept clear

8
General Safety and Health Provisions

• 1910.132 Personal Protective Equipment
• PPE shall be provided, used, and maintained when
  it is when hazards of processes can cause injury
  to any part of the body
• Employers shall assess the workplace and
  determine if hazards are present which
  necessitate the use of PPE, and provide workers
  with properly fitted PPE

9
General Safety and Health Provisions

• 1910.132 Personal Protective Equipment
• The employer shall provide training to all
  employees required to use PPE
• Each employee should be trained to know
• When PPE is necessary
• What PPE is necessary
• How to properly don, doff, adjust, and wear PPE
• The limitations of the PPE
• The proper care, maintenance, and useful life of
  PPE

10
General Safety and Health Provisions

• 1910.212 Machine Guarding
• Guards shall be affixed to the machine where
  possible and secured
• The guard shall not pose a hazard in itself
• Point of operation guarding shall be used where
  the work is actually being performed on the
  material processes
• Ex. (Shears, power saws, portable power tools)

11
General Safety and Health Provisions

• 1910.151 Medical and First Aid
• The employer shall ensure the ready availability
  of medical personnel for advice and consultation
  regarding health
• In the absence of a clinic or hospital in near
  proximity to the workplace, a person or persons
  shall be trained to adequately administer first
  aid
• First aid supplies shall be readily available

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Recordkeeping

• CFR 1904
• If your company had more than 10 employees at any
  time during the last calendar year, you must keep
  OSHA injury and illness records

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Recordkeeping

• CFR 1904
• You do not need to keep OSHA injury and illness
  records if
• Your company had ten (10) or fewer employees at
  all times during the last calendar year
• All employers covered by the OSH Act must report
  to OSHA any workplace incident that results in a
  fatality or the hospitalization of three or more
  employees.

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Recordkeeping Forms
15
Recording Criteria

• 1904.4 - Covered employers must record each
  fatality, injury, or illness that
• Is work-related, and
• Is a new-case, and
• Meets one or more of the criteria contained in
  sections 1904.7 through 1904.12

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Work-Relatedness

• 1904.5 - A case is considered work-related if an
  event or exposure in the work environment
• caused or contributed to the resulting condition,
  or
• significantly aggravated a pre-existing injury or
  illness, and
• that the injury or illness resulted from events
  or exposures occurring in the work environment

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Significant Aggravation

• 1904.5 - A pre-existing injury or illness is
  significantly aggravated when an event or
  exposure in the work environment results in any
  of the following (which otherwise would not have
  occurred)
• Death,
• Loss of consciousness,
• Days away,
• days restricted,
• job transfer, or
• Medical treatment.

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New Cases

• 1904.6 A case is new if
• The employee has not previously experienced a
  recorded injury or illness of the same type that
  affects the same part of the body, or
• If an exposure triggers the recurrence of an old
  case in which the employee had recovered
  completely.

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General Recording Criteria

• 1904.7 An injury or illness is recordable if it
  results in one or more of the following
• Death
• Days away from work
• Restricted work activity
• Transfer to another job
• Medical treatment beyond first aid
• Loss of consciousness
• Significant injury or illness diagnosed by a
  PLHCP

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Workplace Inspections

• Establishments covered by the OSH Act are subject
  to inspection by OSHA compliance safety and
  health officers (CSHO's).
• Most inspections are conducted without advance
  notice.

21
Inspection Process

• CSHO displays official credentials
• Opening conference
• Walk-around inspection
• Closing conference

22
After Inspection

• OSHA may or may not issue citations
• Citations inform employer and employees of the
  regulations and standards allegedly violated and
  of the proposed time for abatement
• Employer must post a copy of each citation at or
  near place where violation occurred, for 3 days
  or until violation is corrected, whichever is
  longer

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OSHA Inspection Priorities

1. Imminent danger
2. Fatalities/Catastrophes
3. Employee complaint
4. Referral from other agencies
5. Random Selection
6. Follow-up inspections

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Multi-Employer Worksites

• Who should get sited?
• The creating employer
• The employer that caused a hazardous situation
  that violates an OSHA standard
• The exposing employer
• An employer whose own employees are exposed to
  the hazard

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Multi-Employer Worksites

• Who should get cited?
• The correcting employer
• An employer who is engaged in a common
  undertaking, on the same worksite, as the
  exposing employer and is responsible for
  correcting the hazard.

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Multi-Employer Worksites

• Who should get cited?
• The controlling employer
• An employer who has general supervisory authority
  over the worksite, including the power to correct
  safety and health violations itself or require
  others to correct them.

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Landscaping and Horticultural Service Industry

• Approximately 1192 establishments with greater
  than 10 employees
• 101 establishments in OSHA region III

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Inspection Summary (2005)

• 255 total inspections for all OSHA regions
• 18 in OSHA region III
• 98 planned/programmed inspections
• 150 un-programmed inspections
• 43 were result of accident
• 45 were result of complaints
• 49 were result of referrals

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Top Ten Citations

• 1910.132 - Personal Protective Equipment (51)
• 1910.1200 - Hazard Communication (49)
• 5(a)(1) - General Duty Clause (43)
• 1910.67 - Vehicle-Mounted Elevating/Rotating Work
  Platforms (31)
• 1910.133 - Eye Face Protection (24)

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Top Ten Citations

• 1910.269 - Electric Power Gen/Tran/Dist. (22)
• 1910.135 - Occupational Head Protection (17)
• 1910.266 - Pulpwood Logging (17)
• 1910.305 - Electrical Wiring Methods, Components
  (16)
• 1904.39 - Fatality/Multiple Hospitalization
  Accident Report (10)

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Injury Statistics (2003)

• All recorded cases 11,500

Sprains, strains 34.7
Fractures 4.9
Cuts, punctures 16.7
Bruises 8.3
Multi trauma total 4.6
Back pain total 5.8
Back pain/hurt back Only 2.2
All others 22.6
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Sources of Injury Statistics (2003)
Containers 4.3
Machinery 8.6
Parts and materials 6.3
Worker motion 11.7
Floors/Walkways 19.1
Handtools 14.8
Vehicle 9.7
All other sources 24
33
Age Distribution
16 to 19 5.2
20 to 24 24.3
25 to 34 30
35 to 44 21.8
45 to 54 14.3
55 to 64 3.6
34
Event Leading to Injury
Total Contact With Objects 37.7
Struck By Object 22.9
Struck Against Object 7.6
Caught In Object 3.7
Fall to Lower Level 10.2
Fall On Same Level 6.7
Slips Or Trips 3.0
Overexertion In Lifting 9.0
Exposure to Harmful Substance 4.7
Transportation Accidents 7.4
All other events 11.2
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Some Other Statistics

• Days away from work with injury/illness.
• Highest 24.7 31 or more days away from work
• Average days away from work 12 days
• Length of service
• Highest 35.3 1 to 5 years of service

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OSHA Potential Hazards of Landscaping Industry

• Sprains and strains
• Electrical hazards
• Noise
• Heat stress
• Falls
• Struck-by

• Manual handling of landscaping tools and
  materials
• Working in proximity to overhead power lines
• Powered equipment such as chainsaws, chippers,
  and trenchers
• Working for extended periods of time outdoors
• Working from bucket trucks, working in trees
• Working around motor vehicles, overhead hazards