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OSHA regs for gloves while machining?

i_r_machinist

Titanium
Joined
Apr 12, 2007
Location
Dublin Texas
Our plant had a statement in the safety handbook that you do not wear gloves while operating rotating equipment. Something I was taught back in trade school 26 years ago. We have a new "Safety Manager" that changed the handbook without telling anyone and wants us to wear leather gloves while running a lathe or mill or drill.
We are trying to find something in the OSHA codes to back us up on this.
Any Suggestions?
Thanks
i_r_machinist
 
You've got a winner on your hands.

I guess next will be mandatory long hair hanging into the chuck, and standing in a puddle of water while doing electrical work. The safety's on all doors will be reversed so that no machine can run with the doors closed. All electrical boxes will be locked into the on position before working on the machine they are attached to. Gloves and helmets will be banned from all welding areas. Re-breathers and vent hoods will be banned from painting areas. And just to make sure everybody is safe all metal to be welded will be galvanized first.

Oh yeah, and if you don't show up to work drunk, you're fired.
 
Prevention of amputations...

Your Safety Manager may have your best interest in mind, but he really needs to become informed and knowledgable about how amputations occur with rotating equipment. OSHA has plenty to say about wearing gloves near rotating parts of machines. He may actually be in violation of the regulations by requiring gloves under the Duty to Protect. Most of the regs point to machine guards and LOTO/Interlocks that protect workers from contacting moving parts of machines. They even have sample pics of plexiglass type guards...
Check out this link; Milling machines are discussed toward the bottom of the page, but the same applies to lathes or any other equipment where rotating parts are exposed...
They go so far as to state "Instruct operators not to wear gloves"...

My logic would imply that if gloves were acceptable, then where is the argument for not wearing wedding rings and wrist watches...?

in any case here it is straight from OSHA

http://www.osha.gov/Publications/OSHA3170/3170-02R-2007-English.html#Controlling9
 
Pat, you just saved the day!!
If you are ever in Dublin I'l buy you a ice cold DR. Pepper, or cold beer, whichever you desire.
I'm in the book.
THANKS
Kerry Bullard
i_r_machinist
 
If you really want to correct this situation, send a copy of the new book to your local OSHA office and ask them to investigate. It's called a"willful" violation. Commonly good for about a hundred grand.
 
I Don't get up that way too often, but next time I go I'll look you up...

Dublin, The oldest Dr Pepper on the plannet... Sounds good...

Your Safety man is probably just trying to do a good job & is not knowledgable about the work environment he is is... Working around moving/rotating machines is unlike any other industry... Safety folks are really a fairly new concept in many machine shops... They just don't know... It's our job to educate them... Because we do know...
 
I'm a little confused....if he's the 'safety guy' (an assumed position of responsibility) how did he get there with no clue about what he's responsible for?:nutter: Is he related to someone?
 
This is a maintenance shop at a nuke plant. Me and one other machinist. WAY heavy in white shirts and very few blue collars. Safety guy is new to the position and is trying to make a name for himself. Enough said?
thanks again
i_r_machinist
 
This guy sounds like a real idiot. He also sounds like
he's very impressed with his own knowledge which happens
to be simply flat out wrong. This is a *very* dangerous
situation because who knows what other cockamamie idea
he'll spout off with, and insist on implementing.

Jim
 
I read the material at the OSHA link, I would not take that text to mean that OSHA is prohibiting gloves...........the text seems to describe the posting of Safe work procedures, these safe work procedures may in some cases REQUIRE gloves in some situations.


Safe Work Procedures
Safe work procedures are formal, written instructions which describe how a task is to be performed. These procedures should incorporate appropriate safe work practices, such as prohibiting employees from wearing loose clothing or jewelry and requiring the securing of long hair with nets or caps. Clothing, jewelry, long hair, and even gloves can get entangled in moving machine parts.
 
Willbird,

You are correct in your interpretation. OSHA, like a lot of other Gov orgs stop short of making mandates on exact procedures, that's been their stand on many of the smaller issues. for many reasons. What they do say is that each facility Shall develop written operating and safety procedures. These procedures Shall be in accordance with sound engineering and industry accepted practice... The guide section merely points out some of these accepted practices as their recommendations. However if someone were to get hurt while following a practice that is against their recommendations. Well, Just ask BP Texas City Refinery... 3 years afterthe last explosion, they still maintain an office inside the plant...

It's a really bad case of "We told you so"... + the criminal trials haven't even started yet...
 
Apprently this "safety person" has never seen first hand what a large lathe or drill press can do to a human body. It ain't a pretty sight.

A large Monarch, Pacemaker, or radial drill press is fully capable of killing you.

I remember one broke arm, one mangled hand, and one finger with all the flesh pulled off. All 3 accidents were a direct result of wearing gloves and having these gloves caught in a rotating spindle, shaft, or drill bit.The end result is always the same. All three of these people were lucky to have not lost their lives.
 
I think everyone's on the same page here as far as the substance of the discussion.

The REAL question here is, what do you do when your employer's official requires
an unsafe act like wearing gloves around rotating spindles?

In principle the man could make a case to fire, for cause, any worker who does
not obey his wrong-headed world view.

My suggestion might be to draft a letter to your manager or to the head of the
company. Explain that the instructions from the safety officer are at substantial
variance with accepted industry practice and may well violate OSAH rules.

Then go on to say that you are informing them of this hazard in advance and that
any injuries as a result of following those instructions will be result in the corporation
being held strictly liable as you consider the instructions to be neglegent.

If the letter happens to come from a local attorney who specializes in labor law,
it might carry even more influence.

Jim
 
I read the material at the OSHA link, I would not take that text to mean that OSHA is prohibiting gloves...


Yes they do.

Search that document for "gloves" and you'll find these statements in it:

Instruct employees not to wear gloves, jewelry, or loose-fitting clothing while operating a drill press and to secure long hair in a net or cap.

Instruct employees not to wear gloves, jewelry, or loose-fitting clothing while operating a milling machine and to secure long hair in a net or cap.

Do not wear gloves, jewelry, or loose-fitting clothing while operating grinding machines and secure long hair in a net or cap.
 
i r
As soon as you said Nuke plant I knew what you were talking about.
We had that same thing happen at Callaway a few years ago.
New safety guy trying to do the right thing, but did not understand. It was about the time we were starting up our
Union Safety Leadership Team (USLT).
It consists of a rep from every craft some First Line Supervisors and a Manager overseeing the team. The USLT has control over our safety manual and vote on what is in it and how it is interpreted. They also set priorties on what gets the safety attention first.

It's been real good for us and if you look at our safety record, you can really tell when this team started making changes.
I don't know the exact time frame, but we went about three years without a lost time accident, and that included a steam generator/turbine change out.
Now our safety is up there with the top performers.


2-Ton
 
Here's just a few incidents that have happened due to wearing gloves near moving machiners. They should never be worn. Ever.
My approach would be to have a quiet word with him. Tell him to google "glove caught in machinery" or "machinery caught accident". For specific OSHA stuff google "OSHA caught accident".



"A maintenance worker was busy scrubbing and spraying down the extruder intake hopper when his glove became caught in the rotating rolling pins (Photo 1). The rollers slowly sucked in his glove, fingers, hand, and eventually his arm, up to the mid-bicep. The wound was so grave his arm was ultimately amputated."

"A machine operator died when his glove caught in the wire that was being spooled onto a drum of a wire drawing machine. The victim was pulled between the drum and the machine housing. The machine did not have any guarding around the drum. The company had no operating or safety instructions for the safe operation of the machine. The victim reached into the machine while it was running"

"Drilling a pole, drill bit caught leather glove- fracture little finger."
"Using picking tool on sorting table, glove got caught in picker. Amputation right index finger."

"His hand got just a bit too close to the spinning wheel. His glove got caught and his hand got sucked into the chopper. There was no shut off switch close by. A fellow deckhand heard the scream and ran over to shut off the bait chopper. By that time, Brian had lost his thumb and about half of his hand."

"Mays stated he was trying to free the lodged drill steel by twisting the extension with his right hand. He then inadvertently struck the rotation lever with his left hand. He stated that both bones in his right forearm were broken and the first joint of his right little finger which was partially severed had been reattached.
Mays remained off work and began physical therapy after his injuries were sufficiently healed. However, due to pain in his right hand, additional surgery was performed on October 29, 1999 at the Clinch Valley Medical Center. Mays was scheduled to be released from the hospital on October 31, 1999. However, on the morning of October 31, 1999 Mays was found dead in his hospital room. "

"As the plate was fed in a razor sharp, needle pointed shear "spike" (Where the
shears took a double cut) about three inches long, lying close enough to the
edge to escape notice, caught the wrist band of the man's glove.
As I watched from thirty feet away, and in the time it took me to react, and
cross the intervening distance, the plate pulled him in THROUGH the guard and
pull his hand his arm AND the crumpled remains of the guard and it's Angle iron
frame inexorably into the zero gap between the roll and the plate.
I reached him and punched the "Big Red One" as his shoulder and chest started to
crunch and collapse. During all this time he didn't utter a sound and his mate,
around the other side of the plate was totally unaware of any problem until he
came around to see why the machine had stopped!
As I hit the stop I grabbed him to prevent him from falling as he lost
conciousness. My Job, for the next 40 minutes, was to hold him upright as the
millwrights tore the machine apart to free him. For twenty of those minutes I
listened to the crackling, gurgling of his slowing breathing, in and out of his
half crushed chest.
For the remaining twenty minutes I gently cradled a dead man..to stop his face
from getting all dirty."
 
No, my name is not Homer, but there are alot of similarities. Balding, overwieght, 2 girls and a boy, and consume (per my doctor's opinion) way too much beer.
Thanks for the incident reports. I'll copy those and take them to the meeting we are going to have, (just informed).
Thanks again
i_r_machinist (KERRY)
 
Kerry -

Send that "safety guy" down to Fredericksburg, Texas to the Nimitz Museum of the War in the Pacific. Just as you enter, there is a simple outline drawing of Admiral Chester A. Nimitz' left hand, signed by him. His ring finger is completely gone. As a young navy officer, he was inspecting a piece of rotating equipment on a ship, and he had his white dress gloves on. The glove snagged, caught his wedding ring, and pulled off his ring finger.

A.T.
 








 
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