Safety Manual
Written by Steve Hudgik
A safety manual provides policies, rules and information about safety in your company. The rules and policies in your safety manual must meet the legislative requirements for your location, and are specific to each business. For example, if your business uses conveyors, they will have guarding, LOTO procedures, breakers (arc flash hazards) and required training. Your safety manual will need to identify the hazards associated with conveyors and how those hazards are controlled.
Every business is required by law to have a safety manual.
A safety manual typically covers topics such as:
- Your Injury & Illness Prevention Plan (I2P2)
- The names of those responsible for carrying out your I2P2, your safety policies, or your OSHA compliance policies.
- Your system for inspecting, identifying, evaluating and eliminating (correcting or guarding) workplace hazards
- A description of your system for communicating health and safety information to employees.
- Safety procedures, including disciplinary actions, for ensuring employees follow safe work practices
- Procedures for responding to injuries or illnesses.
- Procedures for responding to emergencies.
- A description of required training, who must be trained, schedules for training and identifying who provides the training.
- A description of your system for creating and storing required records and documentation.
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A typical safety manual might have the following sections:
- Introduction To The Company Safety Policy
- Drug and Alcohol Free Workplace
- First Aid Procedures
- Safety Meetings
- Safety Disciplinary Policy
- General Health & Safety In The Workplace
- Accident Prevention Plan
- Hazard Signs and Labels
- Ergonomics – Computers
- Fall Protection
- Ladder & Scaffold Safety
- Electrical Safety
- Chemical Safety, MSDS and Right-To-Know Labeling
- Powered Industrial Trucks
- Motorized Vehicles
- Fire Safety
- Housekeeping
- Appendix I – New Employee Safety Orientation
- Appendix II – Job Safety Hazard Analysis Worksheet
- Appendix III – Weekly Safety Inspection Check List
- Appendix IV – Fall Protection Safety Plan
- Appendix V – Hazard Communication Plan
- Appendix VI – Workplace Violence Prevention Plan
- Appendix VII – Required Forms
A downloadable example of a short safety manual, as well as other safety related manuals, are available on the Washington State Dept. of Labor and Industries web site at: http://www.lni.wa.gov/Safety/Basics/Programs/Accident/
The typical safety manual is not a short document
that can quickly be thrown together. Even a small safety manual will have over 100 pages. Expect to put significant time into creating your safety manual and update it on a regular basis.
Signs and labels are an important part of your I2P2. Even simple labels such as pipe markers and wire markers are important for safety. And, of course, having all required arc flash, confined space and RTK labels is critical. Having a DuraLabel printer on-site makes creating safety labels fast and convenient. Call 1-888-326-9244 today and ask about special DuraLabel Safety Labeling kits. You'll be glad you did.
