The State of North Carolina has designated May and June as a special time to identify and recognize the importance of having a safe workplace. This program goes hand-in-hand with the National Safety Council’s June is National Safety Month which focuses on reducing leading causes of injury and death at work, on the roads, and in our homes and communities.
Safety is no accident. It’s a choice we need to make throughout our entire lives. As part of the program, we encourage all employees to take the time to identify any unsafe conditions in the workplace and report them to the EHS department. Please take a few moments to read the safety information below. We welcome your feedback to make our campus a safer and healthier place.
If you have any questions about this effort, you may contact me at mbkoza@ehs.unc.edu, or by phone at 919-843-5943.
Mary Beth Koza
Director, Environment, Health and Safety
Workplace Hazards Program Recommendations
Employees should have the knowledge and tools to understand how to identify hazards that could cause injury. Supervisors should review this list and add site or job-specific hazards to the list.
Employees should report:
- Anything that has the potential to cause an injury.
- Near hits that they have observed or experienced that have causes that have not been corrected.
- Injuries that they have observed or experienced that have causes that have not been eliminated.
- Absence of proper tools, working tools or effective controls.
- Absence of personal protective equipment.
- Absence of equipment guards.
- Absence of safe procedures.
- Coworkers who blatantly fail to follow safe procedures. (Turn in anonymously (if needed))
Questions employees should consider:
- Does our workplace have any of the hazard types that have not had a job-safety analysis to determine proper procedures or proper personal protective equipment?
- Do we have areas that need guarding, where procedures are not in place to prevent injury, where no training has been conducted?
Hazard types
The following hazard types are taken directly from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
- Slips and trips without falls, falls on the same level, falls to lower level.
- Struck against object or equipment when the motion producing the contact is primarily that of the injured person, including bumping into objects, stepping on objects, kicking objects, and being pushed or thrown into or against objects, or the worker strikes repeatedly.
- Struck by a moving object, transportation vehicle, person or animal, or when the source of injury is falling or freely flying, or collapsing.
- Caught in or compressed by equipment or objects when a person, or part of a person’s body was squeezed, pinched, compressed, or crushed in operating equipment, between other meshing or shifting objects, between two stationary objects, or in wire or rope or when trying to get free after being caught in an object or machine.
- Puncture wounds result in the piercing or puncturing of the body and includes: stab or impaling wounds; piercing from a sharp object; splinters; or animal bites.
- Exposure to harmful substances or environments such at heat or cold environments or equipment, chemicals, or electric current.
- Overexertion and bodily reaction caused from lifting.
- Repetitive motion and bodily reaction.