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Q: How do you protect yourself, your employees, and your business from a workplace emergency?
A workplace emergency is an unforeseen situation that threatens your employees, customers, or the public; disrupts or shuts down your operations; or causes physical or environmental damage. Emergencies may be natural or manmade and can include the following: Floods,
Hurricanes, Tornadoes, Fires, Toxic gas releases, Chemical spills, Radiological accidents, Explosions, Civil disturbances, and Workplace violence.
The best way is to prepare to respond to an emergency is before it happens. Few people can think clearly and logically in a crisis, so it is important to do so in advance, when you have time to be thorough.
1. Brainstorm the worst-case scenarios. Ask yourself what you would do if the worst
happened. What if a fire broke out in your boiler room? Or a tornado hit your building
head-on? Or a train carrying hazardous waste derailed while passing your loading dock?
Once you have identified potential emergencies, consider how they would affect you and
your workers and how you would respond.
2. Develop an emergency action plan: An emergency action plan covers designated
actions employers and employees must take to ensure employee safety from fire and
other emergencies.
At a minimum, your emergency action plan must include the following:
- A preferred method for reporting fires and other emergencies
- An evacuation policy and procedure
- Emergency escape procedures and route assignments
- Names, titles, departments, and telephone numbers of individuals both within and outside your company to contact for additional information or explanation of duties and responsibilities under the emergency plan
- Procedures for employees who remain to perform or shut down critical plant operations,
- Rescue and medical duties for any workers designated to perform them
- Designated assembly location and procedures to account for all employees
- Consider OSHA’s e-tool if you are starting from scratch
3. Perform Drills – practice and see where you need to improve.
No matter what kind of business you run, you could potentially face an emergency. The source
of the emergency could be external, such as a local chemical plant that catches on fire or an oil
truck that overturns on a nearby freeway. The source may be within your physical plant.
Regardless of the source, these events could have a direct impact on your employees and your
business and should be addressed by your emergency action plan.
If you are looking for more information attend the Emergency Preparedness Planning class in
North Canton BWC office on April 25
Cari Gray is an Industrial Safety Consultant Specialist with the Ohio Bureau of Workers Compensation (BWC).
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