b'OPERATIONS AND SAFETYSAFETY MYTHS VERSUS TRUTHSBy Bob Poutre of Roof Tech Inc.D uring the Safety and Operationsensure(guarantee)thatWHATEVERwalkingorworking CommitteemeetinginAprilsurface our employees might have to work on has the structural thatwereheldinOmahainintegrity to support them and their equipment. This should be preparation for our 2018 Conference anddone EVERY time anything is done to the surface on which our EXPO, it was determined that we shouldemployees might be WALKING or WORKING is changed or touch on some Safety Myths versus Truths.altered in any way by their actions or be the actions of anyone Ourdiscussionwasnarroweddowntoelse. How many of you make the determination every day of these three topics, Tie Off / Fall Protection within the workthe integrity of the roof on which your employees are going to zone, Hazard Recognition Training and Fires brought about bywork before work begins? How many of you make a written Hot Air Welders.record of that determination? This is especially necessary when ThefirsttopicaroseinadiscussionthatsomestateOSHAwe are engaged in tear-offs, but also needs to be done each day planshavegonebeyondtheFederalOSHAinterpretationon a reroof. requiring a safety monitor with the use of warning lines only.The third myth is that only open torches used in the application We learned, for example, North Carolina OSHA interprets thisof roofing products can cause fires on the roof. The CERTA OSHA standard, in North Carolina to require a safety monitorTraining Program helps ensure we are all aware of the dangers whenever warning lines are employed as fall protection even ifassociated with an open flame used in roofing if the proper no employees are working outside the warning lines. We shouldequipment and proper training is not used (Hazard recognition). all be aware of the proper use and training involved with theManyinsurancelossesandclaimsovertheyearshavebeen use of a warning line system. But does it only matter when wedocumentedtotheseveryissues.MRCAhastrainedmany have employees working on the outside of the flagged line area?applicators over the years in the safe handling and techniques A related fall protection myth is that your only fall hazard isneeded to apply these products safely. But the myth that Hot the edge of the roof. Keep in mind that many fall hazards stemAir Welding cannot start a fire certainlyneeds to be looked not only from known deck openings but also unseen surface/ at. I remember the very first time I saw a demonstration of deck conditions. We know that all holes should be covered anda hand held welder from a manufacture of a PVC membrane marked, and skylights and all other openings that could pose athatwasbeingappliedbackintheearly1980s.TheTech hazard need to be guarded. The lesson here is that we should allRep that demonstrated the welder let it warm up to operating confirm the OSHA safety standards that may apply to us in thetemperature,andwithtwopiecesofPVCmembranein state in which we will be working, if a state OSHA plan is infrontofhim,wethoughthewasgoingtodemonstratethe effect. Perhaps the myth here is that Federal OSHA standardsproper welding technique. What he did next caught all of us are all we have to comply with, no matter in which state we areby surprise as he reached into his shirt pocket, pulled out a working.Marlboro cigarette, stuck it in his mouth and proceeded to light The second safety myth is training for true Hazard Recognition.it with the air from the hand welder. Needless to say that vision Most of us believe that hazard recognition training only requiresinstantly made an impression on us. How could this be, we that we train our employees to be aware of the hazards thatsaw no flame emitting from the welder. It was apparent that it could arise as part of the task they are completing. But, hazardwould certainly be possible to ignite any combustible material recognitiontraininggoeswellbeyondthatlimit.Wemustif certain precautions werent followed. train our employees to be completely aware of the entire workTheMRCASafetyCommitteeisalwayslookingfornew environment. IN other words they should be trained to alwaysways to bust industry myths about safety and help make our be aware of what other employees of our company on the sitemembers safer every day. Dont forget our Annual Conference are doing as well as the employees of other subs, the general and/ will be held October 24th26th at the Omaha Convention or the owner are doing that could affect our employees safety.Centre. Please come join us and see the latest offerings from Our employees must also ALWAYS be fully aware of where themajor manufacturers of roofing materials, application methods job they are doing is headed; what unanticipated hazards mightand safety products. There will be many education seminars develop as they do their job, even though such a hazard wasduring the conference that are sure to very worthwhile. See you never anticipated. in Omaha!Anotherconcernthattiesintohazardrecognitionisthe requirementfoundin1926.501(a)(2)thatrequiresthatwe www.mrca.orgMidwest Roofer 33'