Remarkable Results Radio Podcast

Making Safety A Priority: Safety Inspection Walkthrough [RR 984]

Thanks to our Partner, NAPA Auto Care Join Tracy Capriotto and Tom Herrmann as they conduct a comprehensive safety inspection at a local shop in Buffalo, NY. Tom demonstrates the importance of regular safety checks, covering fire extinguishers, eyewash stations, electrical panels, and more. He emphasizes the need for compliance with OSHA standards and the collaborative nature of workplace safety. Tracy and Tom discuss the significance of safety education for both employers and employees, highlighting practical tips for maintaining a safe work environment. Tom Herrmann, Small Business Safety & Compliance Company, LLC. tom@sbsafety.com. Tom's previous episodes HERE Show Notes

Watch Full Video Episode
Safety Inspection Demonstration (00:00:06) Tracy introduces Tom and the purpose of the safety inspection demonstration.
Mock OSHA Inspection Overview (00:00:28) Tom explains the checklist and key safety items to inspect during the demonstration.
Checklist and OSHA Standards (00:01:37) Tom describes the importance of OSHA standards in the inspection process.
Fire Extinguisher Inspection (00:02:31) Tom walks through checking fire extinguishers for compliance and accessibility.
Eyewash Station Compliance (00:04:39) Inspection of the eyewash station and identification of non-compliance issues.
Personal Protective Equipment (00:06:16) Discussion on the necessity of safety glasses and PPE evaluations.
Electrical Panel Safety (00:06:41) Importance of keeping electrical panel boxes clear and properly marked.
Safety Signage Importance (00:08:10) The value of safety signage in maintaining a safe work environment.
Bench Grinder Safety Standards (00:09:41) Tom explains the safety standards for bench grinders and necessary adjustments.
Electrical Cord Inspection (00:11:44) Tom highlights the importance of checking electrical cords for safety.
Employee Responsibility in Safety (00:12:35) Tracy highlights the need for both employees and owners to be educated on safety protocols.
Inspection of Floor Jacks (00:13:47) Tom inspects floor jacks, noting the importance of visible weight capacity markings for safety.
Ground Fault Circuit Interrupters (00:15:00) Tom explains testing ground fault circuit interrupters to ensure safety around water sources.
Keeping Fire Extinguishers Accessible (00:16:38) Tom stresses the importance of maintaining clear access to fire extinguishers for emergency situations.
Annual Lift Inspections (00:19:21) Tom discusses the necessity of annual inspections for mobile lifts by qualified technicians.
Mobile Ladder Safety (00:23:25) Tom highlights the importance of rubber feet on mobile ladders for stability and safety.
Safety Glasses Standards (00:25:45) Explanation of the importance of safety glasses meeting the Z87 standard for employee protection.
Emergency Lighting Functionality (00:27:33) Importance of emergency lighting and its inspection every 30 days to ensure proper function.
Voltage Detector Usage (00:28:54) Demonstration of a voltage detector for checking electrical outlets and ensuring safety.
Parts Washer Safety (00:30:20) Discussion on maintaining parts washers and the importance of safety mechanisms....

Broadcast on:: 27 Aug 2024
Audio Format:: other

(upbeat music) - This is the Aftermarket Radio Network. (upbeat music) - Hi everyone, it's Tracy Capriato. We are here at BFS in Buffalo, New York. We are going to be doing a safety inspection demonstration. I am here with Tom Herman. Hi Tom, how are you? - Good morning, Tracy. How are you? - I am good. Tom is with small business safety and compliance. - Company. - Company, I got it. So what are we gonna be doing today, Tom? - Today we're gonna do a mock ocean inspection. We're gonna take our checklist that we've developed over a number of years. We're gonna walk through the building and ensure that everything that would be safe is safe. So we're gonna look for things like exit signs and we're gonna check the eyewash, we're gonna check the path to the exits, those kind of things. And we're gonna use our checklist to document everything and provide that to the owner. So if there are any what we call flagged items or issues that are discovered, we'll be able to report that to the owner if he can go back and correct those. - Now how often should a safety inspection be occurring? - Well there's two choices, what we recommend and what should be done is a monthly inspection, a mini version of what we're doing, which is a one-page document, checking the things we check at real quick, extension cords, the exit signs and the settling tanks, those kind of things. But a full-scale safety and mock inspection, we try to do those twice a year for our clients. - Okay, awesome. All right, let's get to it. - Great, looking forward to it. - Hey, take your AutoCare Center to the next level, the Gold level with the Napa AutoCare Gold Certified program. This program is for the best of the best who can provide a consistent consumer experience and earn the trust of returning and new customers. Talk to your Napa sales representative about how you can become a gold certified shop. - So what we're gonna do is we're gonna walk around the building and do a visual inspection of everything and answering the questions on our checklist. - Okay. - And these questions have been developed using the 29CFR 1910 and general industry standards for OSHA, okay? As we walk along, we're gonna look for things in our checklist. One of the things we first see here is the Fire Extinguisher. And our question says our extinguisher is readily accessible, mounted, identified with signs and expected every 30 days. So as a reminder, a number of things we're gonna find today, we have put in place. This is not actually happening. We put these in place for demonstration purposes. So the folks who watch the podcast can take this information and go out and look at their facility and do a similar inspection, okay? So the first we're looking at is the sign above it. - Okay. - Very good. And it actually is too, which is great. So if you're looking around the shop, you can see that, nice and high. We're gonna make sure that the tag is on it. This is called the pin lock. We're gonna make sure this lock is in place for the pin. So if we pick up the unit, there's a square in our shoes. We don't wanna do that 'cause we wanna make sure it's able to use. So the unit's in good shape. We check the bell housing, nothing inside, no dents or damages. And we're gonna check the back and you'll note there are 12 blocks on here that's a date and buy. So today's date is May 16th. I'm gonna take out my pen. This is ABC dry chemical. It was inspected of August of '23, so it's due August of '24. So every 30 days, there's October, November, December, January, February, March, April, May. We're gonna do five, 16, and my initials are TJH. Every 30 days, you can document that to make sure everything's in good, including fully charged. You wanna make sure that little yellow needle is in the green. Overcharged and undercharged are both bad. And again, when we talk about extinguishers, we have a couple options. We have a good evacuation plan. You don't need these extinguishers for OSHA. But if you have the extinguishers, we didn't train people. We recommend that once a year to do it. Training on extinguisher use. First small first. Anything that's above and beyond always, always ejaculate and call the fire department. The first thing you do. But these are here for their use. Make sure everything's in good shape and we'll check those throughout the building. - How long does this fire extinguisher, how long will it last? - Well, it depends on the size, you know, again, and what happens to hear a lot of times is, think of this like a box of cereal or a bag of chips. Over time, you open that bag of chips, it's half empty like, wait, where's all my chips? This powder will settle to the bottom. If you're a super nerd like me, every six months you'll take it off, flip it over, and give it a quick hit. And the powder that's been condensed to the bottom will kind of back up to the top again and expand, giving you the full timeframe for use in the powder. I always recommend reaching out to your local fire company, asking them for some training or some help in that department. If you're a small business owner, we talk to that local company many times as a volunteer, but you have to have an invite to them, come in and see your friend. - I love how you said that evacuate and call when there is a fire. - Absolutely. - And that's why you mentioned it, it is good to have a relationship with their local fire department. So they are used to your building and they have already been possibly in your building. - Yes, absolutely. Eye wash station. So this is an anti-standard, and this is the old version of an eye wash. This does not meet the standard anymore. So we will look at the 358, this is the anti-standard. I'll go up to that section here and first aid. In my checklist, and I'll document this, does not meet the requirement and I'd have him get a new one. Okay, so I want to say no to the eye wash. I'm gonna take a quick picture of that for our guy. - So you can take pictures and-- - Yes, this is a great app. Safety culture out of Australia. So the standard calls for one hand, one second operation, 10 seconds or 55 feet of travel time. So the problem here is two hands. - To turn on the water. - You're gonna turn the water on and pull this little button, which is the wrong place anyways. So the eye wash comes out and it gets both eyes. You would take your hands physically and open your eyes. You look at eye wash, get in, and it's a 15 minute continuous flow of water. So for 15 minutes, you should be flushing those eyes out. And if you look at most of the safety data sheets now, they will reference the 15 minutes. So we look at this, we can't do that what the standard calls for. This is a great location, signage is good the whole bit, but you need to have a plumbed in unit. It's just similar to this. - Would this be a whole different nozzle on the pocket? - Actually, it's a separate unit from the sink. This was good probably 15, 20 years ago maybe, but does not meet the new standard anymore. With OSHA, a lot of times it's not what OSHA recommends, but they will reference a standard like the American National Standards Institute, ANSI. Eye glasses are a big one, lift a safety, another one. So safety glasses have to meet the standard for ANSI, okay? So again, we'll document this, which is done. We'll know all about that. - Should I have safety glasses while I'm in the shop? - Never a bad idea, Tracy, but what happens first is you do a personal protective equipment hazard evaluation. We are not doing anything that's hazardous right now, and we're avoiding anywhere that there's any work going on, purposely for this example, but always it's up to the shop owner to do a hazard assessment and determine when glasses are required, or any type of PPE. So in our case, we're avoiding all those suits, so we don't really need them. Never a bad idea though, you can always go bum beyond. So the next thing we come across, I see Tracy's electrical panel boxes, and you'll note on the panel box, he has a great sign. A warning sign indicating that there needs to be 36 inches of clear space. - Okay. - And that's important because if there's something going on, we need to turn it off. I don't have to walk across something, step over, something, step around, so you can get to the box. So in this case, I can walk right up, push the button, open the box and turn off a breaker. There's electrical hazard going on. And you'll note on the side, if you can see it, they're all identified with per the code as well. So every breaker is identified with what it does. So again, things like chairs, not a big deal, but again, the sign is a great reminder to keep everything out of this area. A lot of folks will take some paint and mark a box in yellow, or they'll stripe it, and nothing goes in that area, that box area. So we always do an inspection, as we open the door, couple things, make sure it's there, make sure all the breakers are there, and if there's not a breaker, we have a blank in place. So there's no openings in the panel box, so we can get hurt by it. So that's okay, we're good to go there. - Now, if you didn't have a sign on it, would it not pass inspection? - No, I don't believe the sign's required, but it's a great idea. When you look at the OSHA standards, the important thing to note is, it's the least allowable by law. You can always go above and beyond, like your iClass question, which is a great one. You can always do more. That's what, again, the box is another great idea, it does more. A visual reminder to employees, don't set things in front of the box. - Well, when it comes to safety, I feel like you should take it to the maximum level. - Absolutely. - Full send on safety. - Yeah. - Absolutely. So if you again, we'll check every panel box and note again, all the breakers are in place, the blanks are in place, and it is documented of what each of them does. - Nice. - Same with over here. So we're good there. I'll check that box. Yes, on our checklist, we'll go to the last one. Everything's documented, everything's in place. And again, we'll note that that's the issue, but again, nothing in front of the box that's we're looking for, which is great. So if you walk along there, we're looking for things that just don't make sense or seem out of place. And it's kind of a, a lot of it's really common sense. And again, if you're a shop owner, every 30 days, there's many versions that should be performed. So, we're not covering every single thing in our walkthrough, but to do as much as we can. So we're going to a bench grinder here, another standard, so mounted to the bench, work rest, eight things from the wheel. You'll see this is more than eight things from the wheel. So this would be in violation of the code. And this is called a spark arrestor or tongue guard. This is a quarter inch from the wheel. So if the wheel spins, eighth inch, quarter inch, and a big piece of folklore is that these are required. They're not PPEs required. Safety glasses, face shield, goggles, something of that for the employee to wear. Again, above and beyond, great. But a lot of people want to say these are required and replace them, always a good idea, but not required by the standard. So we'll document this on our report. And there's a simple adjustment. So a little wrench over here, push this in eighth an inch, that's so that if you use your tool, it can't get caught in the wheel and shatter. - Oh, okay. - Same with this tongue guard, quarter inch. If the wheel should shatter, this is just glue. All those pieces are going to get caught by this guard instead of coming out and taking you in the stomach. It's 3,000 or more RPM, it's going very fast. You don't want that to hit you, so that needs to be in place. So we'll take it. - So this would need to be adjusted. - Yep, we'll actually, there's two bolts on the side, and there's one to adjust the actual work rest. And that's so you lay your tool on it like this to do your grinding. - Now, would if you adjust this and it complies, and then someone at the shop has to readjust it, then it wouldn't then. - Different tool would be used for that instance, and we would want to remind all the employees of you a good coaching moment that the guards need to be in place at the proper measurements. Okay, again, eighth inch, quarter inch. And then mounted, securely mounted too, so it can't walk and you want to be getting hurt by that. And then we'd also check the core to make sure it's a grounded, if it's grounded, which it should be, the three prong all of them are in place. But this is very common. This is very common not having these on or thinking they need to be, which again, you don't. - And as a reminder, we did bug best a little. - Yeah, we always do it. - Bugged a little demo. - Actually, our shop owner is very good about compliance, so we had to go through the shop a little bit and make some things up, if you would. - Just for, again, the idea is we want people to learn, and a lot of people are visual learners. They see it, it makes a difference. So I'm already a reporter, if you'll notice, this is right from the OSHA Code of Federal Relations on machine guarding. So it tells you the distances, and if you also know it here on the right, I see it optional. And if you look, there's a reference here, so when I send this checklist back to our building owner, he can actually, if he has a question or she, tap on that link and it'll take them right to that section on the OSHA regulations. - Yeah, kind of a reference point. So we'll check that, it's all good. And then one final point on the eye grinder is, if there was a sign above that just said, reminding employees to wear their eye protection because they're using the grinder, which is great. - Okay, so I noticed a cord here, so we'll take a quick look at the cord, any cuts or damage, tears, whatever. Also that the end is completely covered, so we're looking at this. If you look here, there's a minor tear. - Oh, okay. - So we have exposed wiring on the cord. Couple options, we can throw the cord away, buy a new cord, or we could actually make a repair, cut this off, buy a UL-approved end and rewire it. Okay, again, we wanna make sure it's the same gauge wire and this three prong out, like, ground outlet. So we will note this on our report for our owner. - If this was missing one of the prongs that would not be compliant, right? - Very often, great question. If you'll find this, the ground is very small. Occasionally, I'll find those actually in the outlets though. So I have to turn the power off, take it right out with a pair of pliers and notify that, but again, this is a great thing to be done on a monthly checklist. Also, when you look at the OSHA regulations, it's not all about the employer. This is an employee thing in my mind. An employee would have noticed this and should have brought this detention of their supervisor, the shop owner, whoever, to say, look, I've got a bad cord. I have never in my 30 plus years had someone say, "Oh, I'm sorry, Tracy, I can't get your cord." You always get a cord, or you ask to replace it. If you're skilled and knowledgeable how to do that properly, you can do that as well. But I've never had someone say, "No, I'm not giving you one 'cause it's damaged." All right, so we'll go back to our report and mark that down so he has it under electrical. Again, we kind of divide it by department and activity, if you will. So we'll go back here under electrical safety. So I'm gonna say no for not in good condition, and I'll just note green for north wall. So now our owner can come right back, grab that cord, he's good to go. So Tracy, one of the great things about doing having someone like me come in is I'll actually take the owner around the building. - Okay. - In addition to showing him the report, and emailing it to him, I'll take this home today, and I'll add to my notes. So it's no more comprehensive, but I'll actually walk him around and say, this is the court I'm talking about. - I like how you said that if an employee saw that court, it should be their responsibility to bring that to attention. So it is important to not only educate the shop owner, but also the employees about safety and what things to notice and to bring to attention. - That's a great point. There's ownership on both sides. - Right. - And the same thing at home, you wouldn't have that at home. So here we have a couple of floor jacks, and I'm gonna roll it out. And what I'm looking for here is the capacity. I don't see it readily. So I'm making note under machine section of my report, that I did not clearly see or easily see that the capacity, every jack and jack stand has to have its capacity to allegedly mark on the unit. - Oh, how much weight? - Yup. - 'Cause think about it. We talk a lot about in our meetings about having young people come into our business. They want to make sure that they're picking up a three pound, a three ton vehicle. They have a three ton or a larger capacity jack. We don't want to take a one ton jack out for a three ton vehicle. - Okay. - Unsafe. So it's all documented? - So would this need a new sticker? - Yep. - Then, okay. - You want to label it? Oh, go on. I might just clean it up or look check the sides. Again, again, very visible. We're looking for easy visuals. So we'll document that. Couple of things I always do too is put, when I'm done, I try to put things back right on them. The guys used to look at that in here. So I'm looking at this yellow extension cord. Real quick on the floor. No cuts, I don't see anything invisible. It jumps out at me. It's plugged in there fine. There's two different ones here. So I see, if it's not plugged in any right now, I'll unplug it to make sure the grounding is there. But it looks like they're using it, so I'm not going to bother. I don't interrupt activities. Or if I have a question, I'll ask a technician. - Okay. - I don't take liberties if possible. If it was not being used, I would actually unplug it and check that end again, like you said, 'cause they could cut a lot. So, what you notice here is, they have a ground fault circuit rupture. Like you'd have it home, bathroom, kitchen, laundry area. And that has the test and reset buttons on it. So what we would do is, again, I'm not doing it today because our items plugged into it, but we would test and reset that. And to do that a lot of times, I will take this device. - Oh. - Circuit tester. So what I'll do is actually plug this in, and you'll notice there's one, two, three, four, five, six different ways it can light up. One is good and four are bad. So we'll plug it in real quick. We're looking for this to show that we have two orange lights. That means the circuit is properly wired. - Okay. - And I don't do this every single time, but I will randomly check the circuit to make sure it's properly wired. And probably out of every four inspections, I'll find one that is improperly wired. And I'll bring that to attention of the building owner. This also has a button to actually put to press this. We'll actually trip the circuit. The idea is here, like it's your home in the bathroom. Again, situate your kitchen. A lot of wet areas anywhere there's water nearby, a ground will protect you from being electrocuted. The it measures the electric on both sides and it shut it off in one 40th of a second. So it's a small tinkle, but not really a big thing. So periodically we'll use this to test the circuit. Another one, we move this box down a little bit to block the extinguisher, same thing. So we want to make sure all those extinguishers are accessible. You see all the items in front of the extinguisher. We put in place there to let this be a good example of what not to do. - So you would want this cleared out. - You want to get, yep. We kind of use the same three foot of clear space we use. I use it a lot of ways, doors. If you have a doorway leaving the building, you'd like, if the door is three foot wide, three foot of clear space to the door. So if you have to evacuate an emergency, you get right out. We're not stepping over the broom or the garden hose or whatever. Same thing, if you have people who are trained to use extinguishers, a lot of folks use the pass system. I think your dad mixed it earlier. P-A-S-S, pull the pin, aim extinguisher, squeeze the handle and sweep the base of the fire. - Okay. - That's kind of the basic of your annual extinguisher training. So again, real quickly, the tag is there. The sign is there, both of them. In this case, the pin lock is in place. That the needle is in the yellow, in the green rather. The yellow needle in the green, so we're good to go. And it's not damage men in the way you can shape or form. So I'll come back, I'll check the documentation. - Okay, great. - And again, we'll just put this back in place once we're done with our demonstration today. So here I mentioned the ground again. I know if this is not being used, I can pull this out and I see clearly the ground is in place. Other ground fault, okay, I'll conduit there. So I see another, so now I see only two, but this is a grounded tool. This is made by rigid to be this way. It is already grounded. So the two prongs are there. We're good shape and the cord is in good shape, including the end. Nothing to worry about, no damage, we're good to go. So, but same with this situation. A grounded vacuum, so we have a good cord, no damage, we're gonna move on right along. - Checking the cords is a very easy visual tool to do, but it's very important because would you say a lot of fires come from electrical? - Sure, and also your employee injury, electrical issue. Wanna make sure, especially if there's any water around that water gets on the cord. Wanna make sure, again, these are simple things to do. A walk around in a building like this would take 30, 35 minutes a month. Very inexpensive way to keep your folks safe, keep your equipment in good shape, and avoid any hazards, injuries. - Okay. - So the mobile lifts will be a more in depth inspection. We're not gonna go that way. We're gonna look on these real quickly though, to make sure they've been inspected every year by a qualified technician, lift servicing technician. Not an automobile technician, but a lift servicing technician. Someone who's been trained by the automotive lift institute out of Courland, New York, to provide a competent inspection on that lift. Although at least in this case, all the mobile lifts. And we look for a label on that. Make sure they're all there. Label's on this one, so he's got it right here. - Oh, okay. January 18, 2025. Great visual. And so that's when the inspection will have to occur again. - Yup, ANC standard again on all your lift, 12 months. Annual inspection. - Okay. - The Napa Now event is a national ownership workshop for our valued AutoCare members, centered around business building training from industry leaders. Now it's not just about owning a shop, it's about owning your future. 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There are many incentive opportunities to offset the cost of this trip, including AutoCare program earnbacks and beginning in October, earn up to $1,500 with pre-show supplier training to prepare for the supplier studio training sessions. The Napa Now event is a national ownership workshop for our valued AutoCare members centered around business building training from industry leaders. Now it's not just about owning a shop, it's about owning your future. Join Napa, April 15th through the 17th, 2025 at the Venetian Resort in the heart of Las Vegas, known for its vibrancy, energy and entrepreneurial spirit. Get ready to grow, connect and celebrate. This is an exclusive event limited to the first 2,000 AutoCare members. Packages are going fast. If you're interested in attending Contact Your Servicing Napa Store or Napa Sales Person. Battery charge over here. No smoking stick on top, perfect. Now we're in an area. There's no smokey lot of any building, but that's a nice reminder. And if I notice that I see the cord on the floor, looks in good shape, quick pick up, look. Boarding is good, and I also check the vacuum machine. I'll note this because it's not that little grommet is not in place. Just a quick picture of that under our electrical section. So I'll say no here. I'll take a photograph of that for our owner. The nice thing about this app is I can do this. You know what a little other pencil here? - Oh, nice. - I'm gonna do that. I'm gonna put in here. I'm gonna go with an arrow. That makes the most sense I think. I'm gonna just put an arrow in. - Nice. - And I'll save that, save that. It's not in my question. I asked about let go appliances and outlets. I said no, and I'm here that photograph there. It'll show them right where the problem is. - Okay. And this kind of looks like a DVI. You're sending the shop owner. - Yes, this is, if I were to print this out, it would be 66 pages long. So we don't print anymore. Thank goodness for electronics now. I will email this, and the nice thing about this is many of the owners want a to-do list. They don't want all 66 pages. So in my case, all the folks I work with are on the flagged items owner report from me. - A filter, yep. - A filter of the out, so they get the question, the red no, the note, and the photograph, or video, whatever it might be, or the action item. So now they've got a good to-do list. They can go right down this and check everything out that I've identified as a flagged item. We call them. These are called failed items. Now we're a little softer of a look-inder. It's a flagged item. So this'll be a flagged item, simple fix. This is a great one, mobile ladders. So in mobile ladders, a couple things are important. One is, see the rubber feet at the bottom down here? We want to make sure they're in place. These rubber pieces, when I engage the ladder to lock it in place, I have a nice base for the rubber on the concrete. It won't skitter across the floor or slide. I don't know if it's, if it reaches a certain number of stairs, you did have a handrail, which we have both in good shape here. If I can move the ladder, then once I depress it, that rubber grips the floor again. So if this could be a small two-step ladder or larger, always ensure you have those rubber tips. A lot of times you can replace them with a rubber crutch tip from a local hardware store or a drug store, but always hit the bottom out so that you're moving the ladder and stepping on it, that grip is there with the rubber on the concrete. - Okay. - That's a great thing. It's on our checklist as well. So I mentioned the capacity labeled. If you'll note right here. - Oh, okay. - Nine ton capacity. So again, if we're using one or more of these, I've got nine tons I could work with there. And it's again in good shape. So as you see, I'm walking along, just checking things. I'm looking at the fan cord again, the fully guardedness again. It's in good shape. I check the end of the cord, good view. And as you can see, it's not a lot of time I'm spending, but I'm ensuring I'm a much safer workplace. So here's another example of our grinder. So if you'll note this one now, here's your work rest. How far is that apart you think? - The correct amount, or is it too close? - Oh, eight to an inch, that's about eight. - Okay. - And we take a little bit of liberty here, you know. The tongue guard again is in the quarter inch. And you'll note this is a nice one because it has these slots so I can take the screwdriver and loosen these screws as the wheel gets smaller from use. I just slide it right down. - To keep adjusting. - Yeah, and as you mentioned a great point earlier, going above and beyond those requires, we have our guards. Don't need them, we have them in place though. And again, this wheel can adjust this real quick. I can shoot. If we need to adjust it, we can put it in or out, up and down, whatever. So again, make that one eighth inch and tighten it up. And we're in good shape. Tool can't get caught inside there, hopefully. Another extinguisher, so we brought those cards in again. So I'm gonna go back through. - How many fire extinguishers should a shop have? Is it based on square footage? - Great question, it's based on the hazard. What we do is, much like OSHA relies on other people for some of the standards they use, references, we're gonna reference our provider. We're gonna call this company and ask them to bring our extinguishers in and we wanna meet the code. So whatever, that's their profession. They know based on this situation, how many and where they should be located are. So great question though. Again, use the resource at your disposal. They have that person do it. Here's our great pair of safety glasses. So what are we looking for? Side shields, okay. Adjustableness, you wanna make sure the employee has something comfortable to wear. You can't just say to employee, hey, come here's your glasses. Hey, come here are three pairs of glasses. Which one fits the best for you? Which is most comfortable? What we're looking for is right here, it's kind of hard to see it. Right there, it's a Z87. Now if you can make that out or not, that's the standard for eyeglasses. Okay, safety glasses. So if you have a pair of glasses without the Z87 or Z87.1, they did not meet the standard. They don't wanna say improve, but they don't meet the standard. 'Cause that's the agency OSHA under the federal government, does not have the authority to approve anything. A lot of people will come in or some people should, they should say come in and say, they have an OSHA approved first aid kit, there's no such thing. You have a kit made by a company that meets the OSHA standard. - Okay. - Okay. So again, safety glasses, Z87, Z87.1. And the important part is when you do your assessment, you make sure that the person who's wearing these has a pair that fits comfortably. So they do in fact wear them. So put those back where they were. Look for the Z87. That's also on our checklist. So if we keep walking along, I see here the lift wiring. I notice everything's in good shape. Everything's tied up, nice and tight. I see the inspection certificate here, 12, 28, 24. So it's been inspected in the last 12 months. But that company, everything's in good shape here, no leaking, no movement. And we check all those lifts each time. - Nice. - So this is about 14 on this shop I think or more. - What about this sign up here is this fire extinguisher, but there's not a fire extinguisher. - So I think that was relocated. We put that in place. - Okay. - So we're gonna take that one and move it over there, bug the other one. And also you'll know it above the emergency lighting. Every 30 days as well. So with that as designed, that there's a reason the power goes out in the evening and it's dark in the building. Those lights will come on. You'll see they're pointed down to identify any hazards. A floor jacking away, a tiger in the way. Get to that nearest exit. And if you look back toward the open door, you'll see the exit light over there with the emergency lights on the side of it. Those will also the power fail, those will light up. In this shop, they're all tied to the same breaker, two-way breaker. And if you snap that breaker off, killing the power, those will come on, so there's your monthly check. Every 30 days, you check them a lot of times. If they're low enough, you use a device like this. This is used for smoke detectors, emergency lighting, those things. And if you're old, like myself, in the old days of car antennas, it just extends out. And I can take and actually push the button to test the light to make sure the battery's working. And again, every 30 days. This has a magnet tip on the end of it, if you need it. But it's great if you wanna check smoke detector, it's above your reach, ready to get a ladder. I can use this and push it. That's a little above my light height though, but most shops are a little bit lower. So this is a great tool for that. - What else do you have in your pockets, Tom? Are you gonna be pulling out an umbrella or something next? - Yeah, Mr. Gadget, no. Just one more thing, voltage detector. But great question. So this one has a little flashlight in it. And also it checks your voltage. So I can go to outlet. Again, much like the GFCI checker. I will check periodically if I find it open wires, open boxes, this makes your power. When I'm identified that to the owners, they get open box here, let's get that taken care of. - I know with the exit sign that you had mentioned by the door, it is important to have the lights working behind it, right? - Yes. - So illuminate the exit. - Same situation, what we do is we, it's powered electrically, but use the tester, push the button and cancels the electrical power and puts the battery on. And that's, many times it'll be like a cordized phone battery, with a couple of batteries plastic together with the wire going to the unit. So when the power goes out, that still luminates and that's a standard. So parts washers, many shops have a parts washer with mineral spirits as our solvent. Couple of things we want to make sure is, this is a lead link. In the event of a fire, this will melt. It will cause the cover to come down. Hopefully extinguish the fire. It lessens the action getting the fire, in no case. So the standard says, keep them closed, we're not in use. Make sure nothing's in the way they can impede that from closing, if I had this boom in the way let's say, so it wouldn't close up. Not good. So keep everything out of the way. Make sure the lead leak is good and keep it closed. - What are you washing in there? - Many times I'll break parts perhaps or other engine parts. I have grease or oil on them, need to clean them, see if they're what the problem is. They'll wash it, they have the brush and the hose where the food will come out. - Does this drain, how do you drain this out then? - It has a tank below it and everyone's while you service it depending on how much you use it. It's kind of difficult to determine the servicing interval but how much it's used, that's the trouble. But again, keeping it closed, make sure the lead link is there. A lot of folks will disable the lead link in cases or they'll prop the door up. Pass the point that gravity will make it to fall. We want to make sure that this does melt and I hope it'll never happen, but if it does, we want that to occur. - Okay. - We'll make the cord, make sure it's a grounded cord. So cylinders, many shops have oxygen acetylene tanks, they have spare cylinders, a couple of things important. Covers on, you notice the chain, have you do the chain? Preventing them from tipping and falling. - Okay. - Very, very dangerous. If you ever get time to look up Mythbusters, a tank cylinder on YouTube, if this cover we're not on here and this valve we're gonna knock off, this will take off like a mistle or torpedo. It'll go away through a black wall. - Whoa! - Yeah, very dangerous. And a very high fine promotion if you've caught doing this. So in this case, it's great. He has them all chained up, secured so like they won't fall in addition to covers on this boat to be. Also important, we don't mix oxygen acetylene. We're gonna keep them 20 feet apart or a five foot non-combustible wall. Okay, keep them secured. So again, many places will have at least one set of on the tank, it's on the cart and they have spares as a backup. Make sure they're secured and separated properly stored. Very important. - Through a brick wall. - Oh yeah, check out that mist bus. It's pretty impressive. So let's just do the exit door thing and we're good to go, right? Okay, so we talked about emergency lighting before. Here's a classic design of emergency lighting. The red lights on says should be working. I'm gonna push that button and I see the rod. I usually give it a four or five second test. And once you're, you should test them for 90 minutes. And what that does is it drains the battery completely and puts it back up again. Kind of cycles through the battery. So again, just a quick check to make sure it's working. So now we have this hallway here. Couple things in the way. So I wanna make sure that he's speaking them up now and we put a couple in place just for this demonstration. Gets us out the exit sign right there. If we go, we'll check the same thing. On the side, I'm gonna push that button and you know how it went out for a split second watch. Why it's the exit part. Notice how it went out for a split second? That was me turning off the electrical power and make sure the battery, which is on either side of this, kicks on. So this is a combo unit. So now, give it a, you know, a quick five count. I know that the battery is working. So the power goes out, it's pointed down the hallway and pointing toward the door. - Now you said to cycle through a 90 minute drain. - Once you hear. - How would you do that? - Well, I don't do it as a rule, but the trick that they tell me is you get, bring a drywall screw in, depress the button, put this drywall screw there to hold it depressed. Go do your checks. Watch your watch at your timer on your cell phone. And then miss it back and take the, that will recycle itself. - Okay. - So it's a great question. And again, it goes back to our evacuation plan. If you have a love and a more folks in the building, we have an evacuation plan, we practice the plan. And then I'll cycle back to my discussion earlier with you about home too. You know, you've got kids at home, grandma, grandpa, and uncle's living with you stay overnight. Where's your meeting place? - Right. - We're gonna go to Tom's house or Tom's house. We're not gonna cross the street. We're gonna go over that. We're not gonna call from our house. We're gonna call from Tom or Tom's. We're gonna ban the door at four in the morning. I said, there's a fire at the house. Use the phone next to call. Please use our cell phone. Don't call from there. And an important thing is with the kids, the little ones especially, you wouldn't remind them. Don't worry about the dog. Don't worry about the fish, the cat, whatever. You get out of the house first. We're gonna call the fire department, call the professionals to come in and fight the fire. Houses can be replaced. People can't. So that's it. That's kind of our quick tour of a safety inspection. There's got a mini version again. What we wanna do is if you go to my website, there's checklists available all through the websites anywhere in town, if you do a search. All right, so here in New York, there's a carbon monoxide law. You have a carbon monoxide detector. So here's the detector. You see zero and there's a test button. You'll get a beep, four beeps and a beep. It's cycling through. You see the lights color and changing. One more beep. (beep) And we're good to go. - Cool. - So again, homes, not to get home. Make sure you have these in home and in place and when there's a fossil fuel burning device. Furnaces and so on and so forth. Okay, fire place, gas, fire place. Have it and check it once. It's probably a checklist. Another set of emergency lighting real quick, works. I mentioned really about this clear space. So here we have a door, 36 inch larger door. Look, if you notice the space, is that clear? And if I walk out, no step, the door fully open and there's nothing in my way. So I have a clear access to our meeting place, which I believe is the sign out front. - Thank you so much, Tom, for giving us this little walk through of a safety inspection demonstration. We really hope that the viewers will take this back to their shop to ensure that they have a safe working environment for their employees. So thank you so much for this tour. I really, I learned a lot and I hope our listeners and viewers learned a lot as well. - Well, Tracy, thank you. It was a pleasure working with you. And again, safety is a great foundation for workplace. When you go to a shop like this and you have everything in place, it attracts a better caliber of employee. And again, we can remind them that when you ask who's in charge of safety, the answer should be everyone. - Right. - Not just that person who's designated as a safety person. So we all have an ownership in the building safety, making sure those cords are in good shape, the lights are working and there's no trip edges, those kind of things. It's just better all the way around. - Awesome, well, thank you so much, Tom. - Thank you, my pleasure. - Thanks for being on board to listen and learn from the Premier Automotive Aftermarket podcast. Until next time. (upbeat music) [BLANK_AUDIO]

Watch Full Video Episode
Safety Inspection Demonstration (00:00:06) Tracy introduces Tom and the purpose of the safety inspection demonstration.
Mock OSHA Inspection Overview (00:00:28) Tom explains the checklist and key safety items to inspect during the demonstration.
Checklist and OSHA Standards (00:01:37) Tom describes the importance of OSHA standards in the inspection process.
Fire Extinguisher Inspection (00:02:31) Tom walks through checking fire extinguishers for compliance and accessibility.
Eyewash Station Compliance (00:04:39) Inspection of the eyewash station and identification of non-compliance issues.
Personal Protective Equipment (00:06:16) Discussion on the necessity of safety glasses and PPE evaluations.
Electrical Panel Safety (00:06:41) Importance of keeping electrical panel boxes clear and properly marked.
Safety Signage Importance (00:08:10) The value of safety signage in maintaining a safe work environment.
Bench Grinder Safety Standards (00:09:41) Tom explains the safety standards for bench grinders and necessary adjustments.
Electrical Cord Inspection (00:11:44) Tom highlights the importance of checking electrical cords for safety.
Employee Responsibility in Safety (00:12:35) Tracy highlights the need for both employees and owners to be educated on safety protocols.
Inspection of Floor Jacks (00:13:47) Tom inspects floor jacks, noting the importance of visible weight capacity markings for safety.
Ground Fault Circuit Interrupters (00:15:00) Tom explains testing ground fault circuit interrupters to ensure safety around water sources.
Keeping Fire Extinguishers Accessible (00:16:38) Tom stresses the importance of maintaining clear access to fire extinguishers for emergency situations.
Annual Lift Inspections (00:19:21) Tom discusses the necessity of annual inspections for mobile lifts by qualified technicians.
Mobile Ladder Safety (00:23:25) Tom highlights the importance of rubber feet on mobile ladders for stability and safety.
Safety Glasses Standards (00:25:45) Explanation of the importance of safety glasses meeting the Z87 standard for employee protection.
Emergency Lighting Functionality (00:27:33) Importance of emergency lighting and its inspection every 30 days to ensure proper function.
Voltage Detector Usage (00:28:54) Demonstration of a voltage detector for checking electrical outlets and ensuring safety.
Parts Washer Safety (00:30:20) Discussion on maintaining parts washers and the importance of safety mechanisms....