Yes, OSHA requires annual assessments of a company’s hazards in all of its work environments at least annually. The actual requirement for the evaluation comes from OSHA’s 29 CFR 1910 Subpart I:

1910.132(d)

Hazard assessment and equipment selection.

1910.132(d)(1)

The employer shall assess the workplace to determine if hazards are present, or are likely to be present, which necessitate the use of personal protective equipment (PPE). If such hazards are present, or likely to be present, the employer shall:

1910.132(d)(1)(i)

Select, and have each affected employee use, the types of PPE that will protect the affected employee from the hazards identified in the hazard assessment;

1910.132(d)(1)(ii)

Communicate selection decisions to each affected employee; and,

1910.132(d)(1)(iii)

Select PPE that properly fits each affected employee. Note: Non-mandatory Appendix B contains an example of procedures that would comply with the requirement for a hazard assessment.

1910.132(d)(2)

The employer shall verify that the required workplace hazard assessment has been performed through a written certification that identifies the workplace evaluated; the person certifying that the evaluation has been performed; the date(s) of the hazard assessment; and, which identifies the document as a certification of hazard assessment.

This mandates that Personal Protective Equipment must be reevaluated annually. The need for the entire assessment comes from a blanket statement made by OSHA regarding specific standards. Various standards, such as Bloodborne Pathogens, Lead, Hexavalent Chromium, and Occupational Noise Exposure, have statements that mandate that all feasible engineering and administrative controls are attempted before personal protective equipment is utilized. OSHA has blanketed that requirement into all hazards. Based on this blanket, all employers must evaluate the hazards for feasible engineering and administrative controls before they can evaluate hazards for personal protective equipment controls.

Additional information on hazard assessments can be found here.

 

*Unless specific citations are shown, all answers are based on interpretations provided by authorized officials. As such, all information is deemed reliable, but not guaranteed.

The level of training an employee needs is dependent upon their level of involvement with hazards. All employees must be trained in all the hazards they might be exposed to in the course of their work and in the safety devices or policies designed to protect them from those hazards. If an employee’s worst case exposure to a hazard is to be around the hazard, they would most likely need “Awareness” level. If they might be expected to work in or on the hazard, they would need “Authorized” or “Qualified” level training depending on their involvement with the hazard. Typically “Competent” level training is reserved for those evaluating the hazards for protective device or policy needs.

A good example of this is Fall Protection. If a company has an office and a shop together and there are unprotected elevated working areas in the shop, office personnel might need “Awareness” level training to know how to identify the hazardous areas and to avoid them. Those working up on the elevated areas would need “Authorized” level training to use personal fall arrest systems or other devices. The person evaluating anchor points and doing annual equipment inspections would need “Competent” level training.

Some topics specify exactly what different levels of training can do. OSHA’s Hazwoper standard separates training into Awareness, Operations, Technician, On Scene Incident Commander, and Specialist levels. Looking at the standard, you can see that it spells out exactly what each level can do. Some topics do not have this level of specifics, but a few do.

 

*Unless specific citations are shown, all answers are based on interpretations provided by authorized officials. As such, all information is deemed reliable, but not guaranteed.

Contrary to popular belief, a certificate and a certification are not the same. Every single class we off is eligible for a certificate. This certificate is basically documentation that students actually did attend the course and passed any oral or written competency test. Certificates are the results of an educational process and demonstrate knowledge of the content of the course at that time.

Certifications, however, go beyond the level of certificates. A certification is the result of an assessment process and demonstrates the application of skills and knowledge in real-life scenarios. In addition to oral or written testing covered in a certification process, practical skills must be completed successfully in order to obtain the certification.

Equipment and site inspections are a large part of our field services. We can develop inspection plans to match the needs of your company. Some of the inspections we perform are:

• Fire Extinguishers: monthly, annually, 6 year, and hydro testing
• Respirators: monthly and flow testing
• Well sites
• Rigs
• First aid kits
• Eyewash stations
• Tools
• Personal protective equipment
• Lifting equipment

We can work with your company to figure out what inspections need to be done and at what frequency in order to make sure your equipment and facilities are always in good condition.

We do offer Hydrogen Sulfide (H₂S) training in order to meet the industry standard annual training requirement. Our H₂S training is designed to meet ANSI Z390.1 2006 standard as per American Petroleum Institute’s requirements.

GetYouThinking, LLC offers varying levels of H₂S training. Our basic level of training is designed only to meet the ANSI standard and consists of typically about 2-3 hours of classroom discussion. We can also add on additional modules to the basic training or do the modules separate from the basic class as needed. These modules include emergency respirator use and H₂S rescue practices.

The emergency respirator use module is designed for those who might work while wearing a respirator or who might need a respirator in order to safely escape from a contaminated area. This training would be a thorough familiarization into how to use an employee’s respirator and drills to ensure they can quickly and successfully don and doff respirators.

The H₂S rescue practices module would be a follow-up module to the respirator use. In order to do this training, employees would have to have proof that they were already thoroughly trained in the use of respirators, since they will be using them in the class. The content of this class will be a brief discussion of basic rescue techniques and rescuer safety, followed by extensive drills in which all employees will quickly don respirators and actually rescue “unconscious victims” from hazard areas.