Plumbing Health and Safety
Plumbers face unique and challenging hazards each and everyday on the job. For this reason, health and safety for plumbing contractors is very important. Ignoring the risks associated with plumbing work can increase your work comp premiums, trigger a lawsuit, cause an OSHA citation among other things.
Plumbing Accidents
The type, frequency and severity of plumbing accidents varies depending upon what type of sites employees work on, the number of employees working, the number and type of adjacent contractors working on the site, and more. Some of the most common plumbing accidents include:
- Cuts and abrasions
- Slips, trips, and falls
- Flying particles into eyes
- Heat and cold illnesses
- Motor vehicle accidents
Of course, there are others but these are the most commom ones we hear about.
Job Hazard Analysis Plumbing
A plumbing job hazard analysis (JHA or JSA) is a process used to identify the hazards related to a specific plumbing related job or procedure employees will be performing. Unfortunately, there aren't any "plumbing" specific JHA's that we're aware of. But a quick search on Google for a JHA should turn up several options which you could derive insights from to generate your own.
Plumbing Safety Procedures
Plumbing safety procedures will vary depending on your company's type of work and size of the plumbing projects. But here are some general ones you could begin with:
- Use personal protective equipment (PPE) such as protective gloves and safety glasses at all times when cutting pipe
- Ensure guards are in place on all electrical equipment used
- Visually inspect all machines prior to operation and on a daily basis
- Always wear a seatbelt while operating or riding in a motor vehicle
- Never operate vehicles or machinery while intoxicated or medicated
These should give you a great starting point. If you need more, you can always just use the provided safety procedures in our plumbing safety manual template which we have linked to below in the "plumbing safety manual" section of this article.
Plumbing Safety Topics
You will be hard pressed to find "plumbing" specifif safety topics. This is because most safety products and content are written to align with the OSHA standards; which addresses safety by looking at the hazards associated with plumbers. Examples include PPE, Falls, Heat Illness, Bloodborne Pathogens, etc. Our suggestion is to utilize the safety topics included in our
plumbing safety bundle (includes the plumbing safety manual and other important items) which can be instantly downloaded.
Plumbing Safety Manual
Plumbing companies operating in the U.S. are required to address safety by havinbg written policies, procedures and programs that deal with hazards that are present in the plumbing trade. The actual requirements are quite difficult to derive from the OSHA standards or your state's equivalent. For this reason, we offer a plumbing safety manual which allows you to shorten the time it takes to have a
plumbing safety manual up and running. Download it and get a massive jump start on many plumbing compliance issues right from the start.
