Machine guarding is a basic in anyone's safety education. Even if a person does not work with machinery in an industrial plant, it's important to understand about guards, since these safety devices also prevent contact with the dangerous parts of power tools, landscape equipment and electrical devices. If you plan to discuss machine safety guards with your workers, this safety talk provides a good overview of the subject. A Spanish version of the talk is also available in the Tools section of SafetyXChange.

SAFETY TALK: GUARD AGAINST INJURIES

Machine safety guards have saved many lives and prevented countless injuries by blocking worker contact with moving equipment.

Many industrial machines in use today have safety guards built in by the manufacturer. These guards prevent contact with the point of operation or the mechanical power transmission system.

Sometimes it is necessary to add a guard to the machine if it did not come from the manufacturer with the type of shield required for safe use in a given situation.

Guards prevent worker contact with hazardous machine operations. These operations include the following motions:

• Rotating - such as in-running nip points, spindles, shaft ends and couplings
• Reciprocating - including back-and-forth and up-and-down movements
• Transverse - movement in a continuous straight line

Machine guards are used in operations such as these:

• Cutting with bandsaws, drills, milling machines and lathes
• Punching with punch presses and notching machines
• Shearing with mechanical, compressed air or hydraulic shears
• Bending with tube benders, plate rollers or press brakes

Proper installation and maintenance of machine guards is necessary to ensure they:

• Prevent contact. Guards must prevent the operator or another worker from putting their hands into moving parts.
• Stay secure. Workers shouldn't be able to remove or tamper with a guard easily.
• Protect the machinery from falling objects. Guards should block objects from falling into moving parts.
• Create no new hazards. A machine guard that protects against one hazard but creates another is pointless.
• Cause no serious interference with work. A guard should not create an unacceptable barrier to the worker trying to get the job done.
• Allow for safe maintenance. It should be possible to lubricate the machine without removing the guard.

Point-of-operation guards have numerous designs because of the many types of machines and the many uses for various machines. Sometimes the manufacturer does not provide a machine guard because one can only be designed after the company using it has made a hazard analysis of the work requirements.

User-built guards sometimes must be added to older machinery. They can be designed and built for unique and changing situations, and even installed on individual stock feeding mechanisms and dies. However, user-built machine guards might not be designed or built as well as those which would have been installed by the manufacturer.

A major difference between point-of-operation guards and mechanical transmission guards is that the latter do not need an opening for feeding stock. The only openings required for power transmission guards are those used to lubricate, adjust, repair or inspect equipment.

Conclusion

If you operate machinery in the workplace, you need to know its hazards and how to protect yourself. Proper use of machine guards is part of your protection. Do not use a machine if the guard is missing or if someone has tampered with it to bypass it or make it ineffective. If you think a guard is needed on a machine even though the manufacturer did not make one, talk to your supervisor. A removable metal framework, sheet metal or wire mesh guard, or a guard of plastic or safety glass might be appropriate to prevent you from connecting with moving parts or flying debris.

NATIONAL NON-SMOKING WEEK IN CANADA

Paying Kids to Not Smoke

Mr. Marlboro, Make Way for Daddy Morbucks

By Ted Morrison

Students in Canada are being offered big bucks to bail on butts. A new country-wide program called REWARDS (Rewarding Everyone Who Acts Responsibly and Doesn't Smoke) is proposing to pay out if school-age kids don't smoke through high school.

The organization behind the program bills itself as a life-skills program, supporting program participants with information on nutrition, critical thinking, money management and related topics. Support is provided by publications whose intent is "to educate and inform, not to advertise; therefore the focus will be on meaningful content provided by various corporate sponsors."

The program targets both youth who smoke and those who don't. Participating students sign a pledge to remain smoke-free. They also have to recruit four donors who contribute money toward the program each month. If a student starts in Grade 5, for example, the four sponsors contribute $15 each per month. If the student starts in Grade 8, the sponsors need to throw down $30. At the end of the program, each student who has successfully remained smoke-free will receive $5000.

Confirmation that the student has not smoked is attained through blood tests. For those who fall off the wagon, there is a penalty of $500. However, the student can earn the money back with community service and educational activities.

OSHA & THE CANDIDATES

Mike Huckabee

Mike Huckabee

By Glenn Demby

Bio: Born in Hope, Arkansas, Aug. 24, 1955. Father a firefighter. Mother worked for transit company. Graduated Ouachita Baptist University, 1975. Attended Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary (Ft. Worth, TX) for one year. Minister at Immanuel Baptist Church in Pine Bluff, 1980 to 1986; pastor of Beech Street Baptist Church in Texarkana, 1986 to 1992. Established Beech Street Communications, a UHF TV station. Elected president of Arkansas Baptist Convention, 1989. Ran for U.S. Senate, 1992. Elected Lt. Gov of Arkansas, 1993. Became second Republican Governor in state history after Governor Jim Guy Tucker resigned. Re-elected in 1998 and again in 2002. Left office in 2006 after 10 years.

Position Regarding OSHA: Mike Huckabee is nationally known for being a former pastor with deep seated religious beliefs. But when it comes to workplace health and safety, he's a mystery. His political speeches and campaign literature don't mention OSHA. I was unable to find out where Huckabee stands on the salient OSHA issue: the ergonomics standard.

True, Republicans generally prefer less regulation. But Huckabee is not your typical Republican.

The Indoor Smoking Controversy: Traditional conservatives consider Huckabee to be a wolf in sheep's clothing. Part of the controversy involves, of all things, Huckabee's position on indoor smoking. The brouhaha started last August during a TV interview of Huckabee by Chris Matthews on MSNBC. Here's the key passage:

Matthews: If you are president in 2009 and Congress brings you a bill to outlaw smoking nationwide in public places, would you sign it?

Huckabee: I would, certainly would. In fact, I would, just like I did as Governor of Arkansas, I think there should be no smoking in any indoor area where people have to work. . . [It's a] workplace safety issue. . . the same reason that we regulate that you can't pour radon gas into the workplace is the same reason that we shouldn't allow people to pour the toxic, noxious fumes of a cigarette into a place where people have to work.

[If you want to check out the interview, it's posted on Youtube.com.]

Despite clarifying that the decision should be made by the states rather than the federal government, Huckabee's remarks drew savage criticism from the conservative press. "Huckabee is a nanny stater," according to one columnist, "who believes in using the power of government to remove personal choice in the name of protecting people against themselves."

Record on Safety: I'm not sure what a "true conservative" is, let alone whether Mike Huckabee is an example of one. But I do see things in his background suggesting that OSHA under a Huckabee presidency would be more active than you'd expect from a Republican administration. As Governor of Arkansas, Huckabee:

• Signed a bill banning indoor smoking in public areas and businesses (but not bars and restaurants);
• After losing 100 pounds, created the Healthy Arkansas program, a public relations campaign aimed at promoting "behavioral changes" and "creating a culture of wellness" across the state." (cites are Huckabee's book, Quit Digging Your Grave With a Knife and Fork);
• Signed a law requiring annual body mass index (BMI) measurements of children in public school;
• Started a voluntary program offering government assistance to small businesses so they can buy low-cost health insurance for their employees;
• Established a program that offers extended health insurance to children of low income families; and
• Vetoed a bill that would have allowed public consumption of alcohol in entertainment districts.

Rhetoric: "States have both the authority and duty to enact laws and regulations to advance the public's health. . . . We keep talking about the war on terror. Who's going to fight it if we don't have enough people who are healthy enough to show up and pick up a backpack?"

TOMORROW'S PROFILE: Rudy Giuliani

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