Safety Training Videos Reduce Workplace Accidents with Education

Entering the ranks of “accident free workplace” is often as simple as making sure your staff receives effective education on safety regulations and practices, and one of the most effective ways to accomplish this task is by utilizing safety training videos. There are several reasons why using safety training videos in the workplace can increase your chances of worker compliance and subsequently reduce workplace accidents:

Seeing AND hearing doubles your chances of retaining information: Studies on memory and information retention show that people retain more information when they both see and hear it. While a safety lecture alone may be somewhat effective, a safety training video or DVD combines two sensory elements that will double the chances that the information that is presented will be remembered by staff after they walk out the door and into the factory or industrial area.
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Stretching Your Safety Program’s Budget In A Tight Economy

With the current economy in turmoil, companies are cutting expenses and tightening budgets across the board. Safety programs are certainly not immune from these cutbacks but there are things you can do as a safety trainer to keep from getting the dreaded axe.

When times get tight, there’s no question that a lot of programs within a company can be greatly affected. Some are trimmed down, and some are dropped outright if they don’t appear to help the bottom line of profits and loss in a clear and direct way.

For some executives, safety training can fall into this grey area of necessity and value and it’s often one of the programs with a bullseye on it. But cutting safety programs can be a risky venture.

Being a safety professional, you know perhaps better than anyone, that with the upset in the economy, the threat of job loss, and other distractions, a worker’s ability to stay focused is greatly challenged. Simply put, workers get distracted with all of this chaos around them and distractions often result in accidents.
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The Fundamentals of Chemical Safety

When you think of chemical safety, you probably conjure up images in your head of guys in protective suits and gas masks in nuclear plants or scientists in a chemistry lab. While it’s true that some jobs may involve regular, even daily exposure to potentially hazardous chemicals, chemical safety awareness is important for everyone, wherever they work or live. In fact, more chemical accidents happen in the household than in the workplace, simply because people who don’t work regularly with chemicals are less aware of the hazards that they pose, and may be unfamiliar with proper storage, handling, and disposal methods.
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Laser Safety Training

Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation, better known by its acronym, LASER, is one of the newer technologies that have provided a breakthrough in various fields. A device, which converts energy into a narrow beam of intense light of a precise wavelength has indeed done wonders.

Laser is used mainly in cutting and drilling of various material including steel, fabrics and diamonds. This high-energy optical beam combined with computer feeds, can be used effectively to make very delicate and complicated designs. Even the dental drills come coupled with laser.

Perhaps, it has played the most important part in communications. The fiber optic cable uses filaments of glass for a channel, through which thousands of laser beams passes through. This help thousands of people talk to each other simultaneously. There is no denying that the field of communication has made a giant leap by using laser.

Other areas where lasers are used are medical (in eye surgery, removal of body hair, tattoos, and birthmarks), military (laser guided precision weapons), and entertainment (CDs, DVDs, holograms, illusions, etc).

While laser finds use in all fields, it has to be noted that a high level of safety standard should be met whilst working around this dangerous ray of light. To avoid injury there are a number of laser safety products. Laser safety goggles, laser safety windows (uses polymer, which absorbs laser), and laser safety curtains are a few of them.

Laser safety courses are offered by highly trained officers to educate and enlighten the laser technicians who work very closely with lasers.  Laser Safety Institute of America (LIA), which is an association of people and organizations with common interest in lasers, offers training programs on laser safety. There is a set of guidelines for safety standards, ANSI Z136. These guidelines form the base for any training course.

One of University of Minnesota’s review papers is about Confocal Raman Microscope Laser safety. Under principles of laser exposure, it underlines the importance of avoiding exposure. It brings out the fact how the laser equipment is inspected very often to check for damage. The laser equipment box comes with a seal to avoid the beam from passing through while not in use.

Hazards of Lasers: Visionary loss or visionary damage is the main hazard faced by users. Then it is the exposed skin, which can be burned if a laser beam falls on it. Other than these, inflammable materials can catch fire when the laser beam falls on them or can release toxic fumes and radiation when it falls on some chemicals.

i. The laser safety officers normally insist on the laser beam control. ii. It is always good practice to keep the laser fixed or mounted at one particular place during operation. iii. A user should not try to locate the beam at the eye level; it should be either up or down.
iv. The equipment should never be placed in a position from where the beam can pass through any doors or entrances. v. The laser beam should never be seen with naked eye deliberately even if the laser beam is not very powerful.

One of the standard operating procedures includes wearing safety eyewear, screens, etc. Another aspect is the warning signs that should be placed at appropriate places to warn off strangers. Safety locks and alarms should be placed in labs. All equipments should be clearly labeled. These are just a few of the safety measures, while the courses deal with it detail.

Writer Richard Hermes in one of his articles titled, ‘The Future of Lasers is Bright Blue,’ talks about the experiments to get a blue laser beam that will revolutionize technology. That blue beam could bring about a CD as small as a coin. With future looking bright and things becoming smaller, Lasers will go a long way from here!

Fire Safety Training For Hotels

Fire safety training for hotel and resort staff members is important to protect the life of all who stay at the establishment. If a fire were to break out, it is important that everyone including the guest knows exactly what to do and when. You need to understand the workings of all equipment that may be included in any employee-training program you participate in for fire safety in the hotels and resorts. The rooms should also include safety regulations on the door of every room for every guest to read and understand in case of a fire. A smoke alarm needs to be placed in every room and the hallways as well.

A hotel with restaurant facilities or smoking rooms must have proper guidelines in place in the event a fire would occur. If you have a flame and no fire extinguisher around for the employee to use, they need to know what could result if not properly equipped. The building could continue to burn and the blaze will become uncontrollable, which can burn down an entire building. Proper education with a lesson plan or a video course through a computer based program will ready an employer and employee for an emergency. Teachers are providers for all the necessary coaching needed to aid in the protection of the guest and employees of the establishment.
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