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INTRODUCTION Material handling means providing the right amount of the right material, in the right condition, at the

right place, at the right time, in the right position and for the right cost, by using the right method. It is simply picking up, moving, and lying down of materials through manufacture. It applies to the movement of raw materials, parts in process, finished goods, packing materials, and disposal of scraps. In general, hundreds and thousands tons of materials are handled daily requiring the use of large amount of manpower while the movement of materials takes place from one processing area to another or from one department to another department of the plant. Material handling in addition to handling of materials in an industry is also significant in terms of costs in overall operations because it is something that is quite common to all manufacturers. But when once its nature is exposed it may be difficult to overlook it as a major potential of effecting cost reduction. Materials handling problems involve surveys, plant and equipment layouts, routing, packaging and storage of materials. I am the Occupational Health and Safety Manager of this factory and since my last visit to the material and handling department, I have noticed several safety problems, since we have heavy machines and equipment in the department that may cause serious injuries if we do not take precautions. These machines and chemicals may be hazardous to the operators health which is also the factorys major concern. Therefore, I am outlining the problems and solutions so that you can take action wherever possible to ensure the employees health and safety.

CHEMICAL HANDLING Hazardous chemical can cause headaches, rashes and burns. Other than that, it can also cause respiratory problems, lung and liver damage, reproductive damage, and may also lead to cancer. Workers in any occupation need to be fully informed of the substances with which they come in contact. Federal regulations are in place to improve employee safety, but the regulations are ineffective if the employees do not utilize the protective clothing, masks, and other safety measures at their disposal. Individuals who learned their trade prior to the installation of many safety measures may find it difficult to retrain themselves with the new equipment. But not doing so may raise their risk of cancer.

Chemical substances can enter the body by inhalation, contact with eyes and skin, or ingestion. While many cancers have an unknown source, cancers due to occupational exposures have known sources. This means that they are preventable, if proper safety equipment is used all of the time, and always used correctly. Employers and self-employed persons have a legal responsibility to obtain adequate information about the hazardous substances used in their workplaces. This information is contained in Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS) which can be obtained from the manufacturer, importer or wholesale supplier. You must ask for MSDS for all chemical substances in your workplaces, preferably before ordering them. The information should be passed on to elected safety and health representatives or safety and health committees, where they exist. If you are unable to obtain an MSDS from the manufacturer, importer or wholesale supplier of a hazardous substance, you may refer this issue to WorkSafe. Read the MSDS and get as much additional information and advice as you need from the manufacturer, importer or wholesale supplier of the products, or from representatives of the organisations listed below. This information must be used in your risk assessment and in training employees in the hazards and safe use of the substances.

Put together a hazardous substances register, containing an index of substances, each MSDS and reference to the risk assessment. Ensure all employees have ready access to the register for all the hazardous substances they use or to which they may be exposed. Ensure all hazardous substances have their original label, or if decanted into another container and not used immediately, that the container now holding the substance is adequately labelled.

Encourage your employees to read the MSDS and make suggestions about improving safety procedures and safe working practices as well as emergency procedures. It's better to look at ways of preventing accidents and hazards rather than just how to deal with them if or when they occur. This information should be used to identify any potential hazards that may arise from the use, storage, and transportation of the chemicals in question. Discussions between employers and employees should take place to find ways in which potential hazards can be reduced or eliminated, taking into account the risks and costs involved. Once a hazard has been identified, the risk of injury or harm needs to be determined and an assessment made as to whether it is practicable to reduce or remove that hazard. Constructive problem solving is the key to successful hazard control in the workplace. The onus is on both the employer and employee to obtain as much information about the hazardous substances used in the workplace as needed to manage the risks. If you're not sure whether you have adequate information, take another look at the MSDS and label, contact the manufacturer, or do some further research. The Workplace Regulations are designed to ensure that ventilation, temperature, lighting, the size of rooms, washing facilities, resting and eating facilities, and the provision of drinking water in the department meet legal requirements. Ventilation Adequate ventilation in working areas is important. This does not mean the installation of expensive equipment, opening a door or window may be all that is necessary. Temperature The working areas must be able to be kept at a comfortable temperature.

Lighting Lighting must be adequate for the tasks being perform in each area; the fittings should be cleaned and well mantained with any broken bulbs, tubes or fittings replaced as soon as possible. Under the Personal Protective Equipment Regulations, the employer must provide free of charge personal protective materials or equipment (PPE). PPE should be used when all other measures are inadequate to control exposure. It protects only the wearer, while being worn. Personal protective equipment (PPE) refers to protective clothing, helmets, goggles, or other garment or equipment designed to protect the wearer's body from injury. The hazards addressed by protective equipment include physical, electrical, heat, chemicals, biohazards, and airbourne particulate matter. Protective equipment may be worn for job-related occupational safety and health purposes, as well as for sports and other recreational activities. "Protective clothing" is applied to traditional categories of clothing, and "protective gear" applies to items such as pads, guards, shields, or masks, and others. The purpose of personal protective equipment is to reduce employee exposure to hazards when engineering and administrative controls are not feasible or effective to reduce these risks to acceptable levels. PPE has the serious limitation that it does not eliminate the hazard at source and may result in employees being exposed to the hazard if the equipment fails.

HAZARDOUS CONVEYOR A conveyor is a machine that transfers material from one area to another by use of stationery framework and rotating or vibrating belts, rollers, chains, etc. Conveyors may or may not be motorized and can be used overhead, underground or at working height. Transfer method may include belts, buckets, or other material-specific carrier. Conveyors can be hazardous due to the nature of the moving parts and transferred material. Caution needs to be used when working with or around them. Conveyors eliminate or reduce manual material handling tasks, but they introduce amputation hazards associated with mechanical motion. Conveyorrelated injuries often involve a workers body parts getting caught in nip points or shear points when:

Cleaning or maintaining a conveyor, especially when it is still operating. Reaching into an ingoing nip point to remove debris or to free jammed material. A cleaning cloth or clothing gets caught in the conveyor and pulls fingers or hands into the conveyor Other conveyorrelated hazards include improperly guarded gears, sprocket and chain drives, horizontal and vertical shafting, belts and pulleys, and power transmission couplings. Workers have been injured or killed while working in areas underneath conveyors and in areas around lubrication fittings, tension adjusters, and other equipment with hazardous energy sources. Because conveyor hazards vary, each conveyor should be evaluated to determine what primary safeguarding methods and energy control (lockout/tagout) practices are required. Some conveyors need mechanical guards to protect workers from nip points, shearpoints, and other moving parts, including powertransmission apparatus. Guards may include barriers, enclosures, grating, fences, or other obstructions that prevent physical contact with operating machine components, such as point of operation areas, belts, gears, sprockets, chains, and other moving parts. Secondary safeguarding methods, work practices, and equipment can be used to supplement primary safeguarding or alone or in combination when primary safeguarding methods are not feasible. Safeguarding by safe distance (by location) where possible, locate unguarded moving parts away from workers or workers away from unguarded moving parts. Management team must use awareness devices on the conveyor such as warning signs or lights. Supervisor must only allow qualified workers to operate or maintain conveyors. He must also visually inspect the entire conveyor and immediate work area prior to startup to ensure that operation will not cause a hazard. Regarding the conveyors belt safety, employer should: 1) Train workers about the guarding and lockout procedures specific to their job 2) Ask workers to report unsafe conditions to their supervisor

3) Identify job related machine hazards and work together to implement solutions 4) Follow up to make sure solutions are working 5) Comply with all of their other duties under the OHSA and applicable regulations In an effort to reduce the possibility of injury to personnel working around conveying equipment, safety labels are placed at various points on the equipment to alert them of potential hazards. They must check equipment and note all safety labels. Make certain that your personnel are alerted to and obey these warnings.

MANUAL MATERIAL HANDLING Manual handling is any transporting or supporting of a load by one or more workers. It includes the following activities: lifting, holding, putting down, pushing, pulling, carrying or moving of a load. Manual handling can result in fatigue, and lead to injuries of the back, neck, shoulders, arms or other body parts. Two groups of injuries may result from manual handling: Cuts, bruises, fractures etc, due to sudden, unexpected events such as accidents Damage to the musculoskeletal system of the body (muscles, tendons, ligaments, bones, joints, bursa, blood vessels and nerves) as a consequence of gradual and cumulative wear and tear through repetitive manual handling. These injuries are called musculoskeletal disorders. Factors that increase the risk of injury include the load being too heavy, large, difficult to grasp or unstable, the task being too strenuous or involving awkward postures or movements, and the working environment lacking sufficient space, having slippery, uneven or unstable floors, having extreme temperatures or poor lighting.

The following characteristics of the work environment may increase the risk of back injury: Space available

A lack of space to carry out manual handling may lead to inappropriate body postures and dangerous imbalance in the loads. Floor Handling loads on different working levels or on floors that are slippery, uneven or unstable (such as working platforms or fishing boats) may increase the risk of accidents and back injury. Climate The physical climate (temperature, humidity and ventilation) may affect the risk of back injury. Heat makes you feel tired, and sweat makes it hard to hold tools, requiring more force. Cold can make your hands numb, making it hard to grip. Lighting Insufficient lighting may increase the risk of accidents when handling loads. It may also make you work in awkward positions to see clearly what you are doing. Employers are required to carry out risk assessments, and take action to protect workers from the risks of manual handling. Prevention measures include: Designing and organising tasks to avoid manual handling completely, or at least restrict it. Using automation and lifting equipment. Organising manual handling tasks in a safe way, with loads split into smaller ones, and proper rest periods provided. Providing information and training to workers on tasks, and the use of equipment and correct handling techniques.

USING HOIST Material hoist is a plant commonly used on construction sites for material transportation. In the past few years, serious accidents did occur during the use of material hoists. The common

scenario of the cases was that the platform/skip of a hoist suddenly moved while loading or unloading was in progress. That caused the worker using the hoist to fall into the hoistway arising from loss of body balance at an unfenced edge, or being trapped by the moving part of the hoist. Analysis of the past accident cases on material hoists reveals that most accidents were attributable to the misinterpreting or misunderstanding of the instructions or signals between the users and the operators of hoists. One of the possible approaches to guard against the sudden movement of a hoist platform/skip is to equip each hoistway gate with interlocking device such that the hoist is operable only when all gates are kept closed. The analysis, however, identifies that Interlocking devices should be so positioned and protected that they are inaccessible to unauthorized persons for the purpose of avoiding interference. Electromechanical interlocking devices should be properly encased and sealed to prevent them from being affected by water, dust and other contaminants. Interlocking devices should be correctly set, regularly checked and adjusted, and properly maintained to ensure that they are always kept in good working order. Among the responsibilities of the management team regarding the safety of hoist are: a) A permit-to-work system that consists of safety checks for a material hoist and interlocking device, and ensures persons using it are aware of its safe operation should be developed and implemented. b) A maintenance programme on daily checks, periodic tests and examinations,etc. of a material hoist, with particular emphasis on the safety devices installed thereon, should be developed and implemented. c) In the event of any break down or mal-functioning of a material hoist, only experienced hoist technicians should be allowed to carry out remedial actions. d) Workers using the hoist should not carry out such work.

e) An operation plan for the safe use of a material hoist, in the light of any changes to site conditions, work activities and/or procedures, should be developed, implemented and constantly reviewed. f) Training for workers on the safe use of a material hoist should be provided. g) Only workers who have received proper training are allowed to work with material hoists; unauthorized use of material hoists is prohibited. h) Records of material hoist users should be kept and access to the operating panels or switches of hoist should be controlled. i) Warning notices reminding workers on safe use of material hoists should be displayed. j) Loading or unloading between upper floors should be discouraged; all goods are as far as practicable to be up-delivered from the floor where control panel of the hoist is provided, and vice versa.

CONCLUSION No single combination of safety equipment can provide the means to the safest environment in all applications. Since your operation is unique, it probably has some unique safety considerations. To improve safety in your operation, you should have an overall safety program that addresses your specific safety problems. Both employers and employees have responsibilities for material handling safety. As an employer, you have a responsibility to provide protection from injury to your employees, even in the simple act of moving materials around the workplace. These are the things that the company should do to protect its employees: Engineering controls are the most common ways to prevent injuries and make the job easier. For example, you can configure material-handling workstations to minimize lifting and reduce stress on workers bodies. You might also be able to reduce the size and weight of objects to be

lifted manually to minimize the risk of back injuries. Perhaps most important of all, you can provide and encourage the use of a variety of effective material-handling aids. Administrative controls can also be used to reduce injuriesfor example, providing regular and adequate rest periods for employees who do a lot of lifting to allow tense muscles to relax or using job rotation to reduce the wear and tear on workers bodies. Work policies and practices intended to reduce the chance of material-handling injuries are also essential. These policies and practices include such things as training in safe lifting and carrying techniques and encouraging employees to keep strong and flexible through physical conditioning and stretching exercises, both of which can help prevent injuries. If these things can be achieved, then it is possible for us to guarantee the workers safety so that they do not have any worries to work in our factory.

REFERENCE

1. Hoist (device). Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoist_%28device%29 on 1

November 2012.

2. Chris Harris, Earl Wilson (2003). Making materials flow: a lean material-handling guide for operations, production-control, and engineering professionals. Lean Enterprise Institute.

3. K. H. E. Kroemer, James D. McGlothlin (1993). Manual Material Handling: Understanding & Preventing Back Trauma. Amer Industrial Hygiene Association.

4. Manual Materials Handling: A Health and Safety Guideline for Your Workplace. Retrieved from www.iapa.ca/pdf/manmat.pdf on 2 November 2012.

5. Best Practices on Conveyor Safety. Retrieved from humanservices.alberta.ca/documents/whs-pub_bp008.pdf on 2 November 2012.

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