Workers in the food and beverage industry are constantly exposed to numerous risks and hazards thanks to high-speed machinery, wet and slippery surfaces, worker fatigue, and human error. According to OSHA statistics, falls are the leading cause of work-related injuries, not just in the food and beverage processing plants, but across all industries. All eyes are now on owners, facility managers, safety managers, and other stakeholders to design workplaces that protect workers from all kinds of fall hazards.
Eliminating Fall Hazards
Safety managers should know and stay on top of OSHA’s standards for fall protection in the food and beverage industry to protect their employees from dangerous falls. Your protection efforts should range from safety training to increased use of OSHA-compliant protective equipment such as a swinging safety gate, a modular guardrail system, and machine guarding equipment such as a modular railing for machinery.
Consider the following OSHA recommendations to protect workers from fall accidents:
- Installing a modular guardrail system to protect employees from fall accidents. These systems prevent falls by creating a barrier, blocking access, and by drawing special attention to dangerous areas. Moreover, modular railing for machinery can be used to mark a clear pathway to help with keeping employees from accidentally getting to close or bumping into dangerous equipment.
- Utilizing a safety gate at guardrail openings, ladderways, staircases and other high-risk areas in your facility. A swinging safety gate that self closes after each use adds extra protection for your busy workers as they move around elevated platforms or through a stairway opening.
- Install guardrails around every overhead platform, elevated workstation, floor, or runway 4 feet or more above the lower level.
- If an employee can fall onto or into dangerous equipment or machines (such as pulpers, meat grinders, conveyor belts, vats of acids, etc.), install machine guarding systems to prevent employees from getting injured, regardless of height.
- Guard every floor hole into which a worker can accidentally walk (using railing and toe-board or floor hole cover).
Common Machinery and Fall Hazards in a Food and Beverage Processing Facility
A full analysis of the industry-specific fall hazards and conditions that exist in your facility is critical to keep workers safe and stay ahead of compliance. Here are some of the different types of regularly operating machinery in a food & beverage facility that pose a risk to employees and some ways to protect them from falls around this equipment:
1.) Conveyors
Although conveyor belts are very useful in bulk material handling applications, there are many hazards associated with working at or near them. Moving components of a conveyor belt (such as drive shafts, idlers, pulleys, and couplings) pose the risk of entrapment or entanglement.
If a worker falls on a conveyor belt, they may sustain pinch, crush, shear, nip, or abrasion injuries. As such, ensure that all conveyors and conveyor moving parts are properly guarded with well-designed, properly installed, and functional machine guarding to minimize risks. A modular guardrail system is an excellent way to eliminate fall hazards around conveyors.
2.) Boilers and Furnaces
Boilers, furnaces, and ovens are essential to the food and beverage industry. However, the high-temperature operation and the heated surfaces around this equipment expose employees to burns, scalds, and heat stress, among other hazards. Slip, trip, and fall accidents are not uncommon around boilers and furnaces.
A modular guardrail system will prevent employees from falling on extremely hot surfaces or from coming into contact with heated surfaces and pipes around boilers and furnaces.
3.) Palletizing Equipment
Packing machines bring speed, efficiency, and precision to packing operations, helping food and beverage manufacturers respond to growing demand. Even so, working with pallets and palletizing equipment can present fall hazards for workers.
Workers may accidentally stumble upon pallets or bump into an operating palletizing robot. You can use safety gates and modular railing for machinery to control entry into restricted packing areas. Guardrails provide a barrier between employees and the robotic palletizers, as well as draw special attention away from dangerous sites, while a swinging safety gate allows access for work and maintenance.
4.) Milling Equipment
Different milling equipment—including hammer mills, pin mills, colloid mills, jet mills, and ball mills— are largely used in food and beverage processing applications. Mills also present a serious hazard since workers’ clothing, gloves, jewelry, or loose hair can be caught and body parts drawn into the machine.
Also, employees may slip/trip and fall into running machines leading to serious injuries such as burns, abrasions, cuts, or worse. All mills in food and beverage processing plants need to have appropriate machine guarding to prevent employee exposure. Consider erecting a modular guardrail system around mills to prevent employees from slipping and falling into the machinery as it’s running.
5.) Vats, Tanks, and Vessels
Vats, vessels, and tanks are commonly used in food processing, especially in the dairy, edible oil, and beverages industries. These, too, present significant fall risks as workers working near or around them may slip or fall into vats, vessels, and tanks.
In addition, the floor near vats, tanks and vessels is mostly wet and slippery, which renders employees working around this equipment extra vulnerable to fall hazards. For your employees working around open tanks, vats and vessels, ensure that they have OSHA-compliant protective equipment such as safety lanyards, non-slip closed shoes, safety harnesses, and guardrails for enhanced protection against falls.
6.) Washing Systems
Employees working with or near wet washing systems in food and beverage processing facilities are also exposed to fall hazards. Workers may trip and fall into washing systems or slip and fall on wet and slippery surfaces near the washing areas.
To protect your employees working near washing systems from fall hazards, provide them with OSHA-compliant protective equipment including non-slip shoes, helmets, and guardrails.
How We Can Help
Fabenco’s safety rail systems are all highly versatile and effective fall protection solutions designed to be installed quickly and easily in virtually any industrial environment. All allowing you to create a permanent, durable OSHA-compliant barrier using nothing more than a hex key. For more information on fall hazards and how an effective modular guardrail system can help, feel free to Contact Us, and we will be more than willing to assist.
