Workers who use chemicals on a daily basis often find themselves putting their personal health and the sustainability of their organizations at risk if they aren’t taking the relevant precautions.
There are serious risks here and it only takes one mistake to create a disaster situation that can have real consequences.
Here are some of the key principles that all workers should be implementing if they are working with chemicals:
1. Choose the correct protective equipment.
Every organization is going to have slightly different needs depending on its specific chemical use and you want to ensure that you have the right gloves and other equipment for your unique situation.
There is plenty of variation in the industry and the nuances between products can make all the difference.
Spend the time needed to identify what’s going to work for you and don’t just make decisions based on price.
2. Undertake regular on-site safety training.
When you’re thinking about hand safety, you want to instill good habits into the minds of your employees so they are empowered to protect themselves as best they can.
This can be achieved through regular safety briefings and exercises that train and upskill your team members to understand the importance of these best practices – and it’s especially crucial as cutting-edge research changes.
You want to be on top of things and be continually distributing this safety knowledge throughout your workforce.
3. Observe your workers doing their jobs.
To complement the training, you also want to observe how your team is working with chemicals to be able to enforce the safety protocols that you put in place as an organization.
Ideally, this observation should be objective and not overt – so as not to influence those who are being observed.
If you pick up areas for concern, address them tactfully and appropriately so as to maintain morale but emphasize how important these things are.
4.Understand the useful life of your safety equipment.
Nothing is built to last forever and when you invest in safety equipment such as gloves, you should know how long those products are designed to last and what to look for as they begin to go through wear and tear.
Has the material gotten brittle? Is there a hole? Do they not fit as tightly as they once did? Etc.
By keeping a close eye on this, you can avoid using equipment that is not up to standard anymore and ensure that you’re always taking good care of your workers who are dealing with harmful substances day in and day out.
Conclusion
This only scratches the surface of what a robust hand safety program should include, but hopefully, it gives you a sense of what some of the best practices are for protecting those all-important hands of your chemical workers.
Here at Nastah, we produce a range of different safety gloves, with many of them having applications for chemical protection. If this is something you’re looking into, get in touch today as we will be able to help you identify what you need for your situation and how to get the most out of the products themselves.
