Page 16 - MetalForming November 2015

Safety Update
3M Brings Digital Science to PPE Management
tional leap in machine-safety manage- ment,” says Jack Reiter, MSM president and CEO. “From day one, our commit- ment has been to care for people first and improve the safety of machine operators. To be honored by the ASSE with this award is humbling and also affirming. We are accomplishing what we set out to do—make an impact on workplace safety.”
Environmental, health and safety (EHS) professionals typically find themselves inundated with paperwork to document issuance, maintenance and inspections of personal-protective equipment (PPE). A recent study by 3M finds that most safe- ty and health professionals still manually document their safety programs using pen and paper, word processing or spread- sheets. To help reduce paperwork and time spent on documentation and com- pliance tasks, 3M has developed Active Safety, a digital PPE-management system.
MSM is a full-service provider of machine-guarding products and tools for the management of machine safety in both schools and businesses. www.machinesafetymanagement.com
Says Hugh Murphy, 3M business devel- opment manager: “Active Safety is a soft- ware tool to help EHS professionals reduce the time spent on paperwork, access data when and where they need it, identify trends and ultimately help employers keep workers safe and healthy.”
OSHA’s Revised Hazard Communication Requirements
Active Safety uses radio-frequency iden- tification (RFID) tags and cloud-based software that runs on mobile and desktop devices. To deploy Active Safety, EHS professionals add each piece of PPE onto the platform. They attach an RFID tag to each piece, and a user scans the tag with a mobile device to record PPE history, usage and location. The EHS professional also can schedule upcom- ing events, such as worker inspections and PPE fit testing, and can access data from the PPE program on a simple dashboard.
allows EHS professionals to connect with their employees and focus on improving safety, rather than completing paperwork.
Starting June 1, 2015, chemical man- ufacturers, importers, distributors and employers are required to provide a com- mon approach to classifying chemicals and communicating hazard information on labels and safety datasheets. Chemical manufacturers and importers must provide a label that includes a signal word, pic- togram, hazard statement and precau- tionary statement for each hazard class and category. Beginning in December, dis- tributors may only ship containers labeled by the chemical manufacturer or importer if the labels meet these requirements.
By gathering PPE data from across a facility or multiple sites, Active Safety
Additional features of Active Safety include worker-specific PPE-record man- agement, inspections and maintenance, PPE audits, inventory management and trackers for employee training, medical eval- uations and fit-testing. www.3M.com/PPESafety
The June 1 deadline was established when OSHA aligned its Hazard Communi- cation Standard (in 2012) with the global standard for chemical product labeling. The provisions for labeling offer workers better protection from chemical hazards, while also reducing trade barriers and improving pro- ductivity for U.S. businesses that regular- ly handle, store and use hazardous chem- icals. The updated standard also provides cost savings for businesses that periodically update safety datasheets and labels for chemicals covered under the standard.
Machine Safety Management
Wins ASSE Award for Safety Software
Machine Safety Management Corp. (MSM), Minneapolis, MN, has received the 2015 Award for Innovation in Occu- pational Safety Management from the American Society of Safety Engineers (ASSE). The award honors companies that bring innovation and creativity to manag- ing safety in the workplace.
tions with the tools necessary to maintain up-to-date machine-safety audit records for internal and OSHA compliance.
MSM received the honor for its Machine Safety Management software product designed to help improve machine safety, reduce accidents, and maintain compliance with applicable standards and regula- tions. The software provides organiza-
Launched in 2011, the software is a secure, cloud-based solution that enables organizations throughout North America to conduct, store and manage machine-safe- ty audits, risk assessments and machine information; helping to reduce machine- related injuries, OSHA citations and fines. A central information repository gives safety managers an accurate, detailed view of the organization’s machine-safety compliance.
The new format for Safety Data Sheets requires 16 specific sections to ensure consistency in presentation of important protection information. For more information on the requirements, visit www.osha.gov/dsg/hazcom/index.html.
14 MetalForming/November 2015
www.metalformingmagazine.com
“The software represents a genera-