Bringing workplace safety home: Essential lessons for a safer household
Workplace safety protocols are essential for protecting employees and ensuring operational efficiency, but their benefits are not limited to business hours. While they’re often associated with professional environments, workplace practices like lean principles and the use of safety visuals can be applied at home to reduce the risk of household accidents.
By implementing workplace safety protocols in your home, you can protect your family from potential injuries and property damage. Additionally, applying these protocols in a wider range of settings will help spread useful knowledge, giving more people the ability to protect themselves from common household hazards.
Why workplace safety protocols matter at home
Home accidents are a common occurrence, with nearly 60% of parents reporting a history of home accidents among their children. Among the most commonly reported home accidents are falls/impacts, burns, asphyxia and poisoning. Fortunately, many of these accidents can be prevented through proper action.
Though every home is different, many common household safety hazards are similar to dangers found in the workplace. These can include electrical hazards, tripping hazards, toxic chemicals found in cleaning and gardening products, as well as fire hazards from cooking equipment.
Along with protecting your family’s health and giving you peace of mind, proactively investing in accident prevention can save you money by reducing the risk of injuries and damage to your home. There are several important workplace safety protocols to consider implementing in your home, including proper handling of dangerous equipment and hazardous materials.
Proper use of equipment and tools
You won't find any industrial machinery in most peoples’ homes. That said, many types of common household equipment can be dangerous if handled improperly, including heaters, stoves, ovens, grills, power tools and landscaping equipment like lawnmowers and weed whackers. Potential hazards are everywhere, but accidents can be prevented through proper equipment handling.
To reduce the risk of equipment misuse, you should consider instituting lockout/tagout procedures for the handling of heavy equipment and carefully reviewing these procedures with the other members of your household. As is done in many workplaces, you can place electrical lockouts on fuses, circuit breakers and other types of dangerous equipment to ensure everyone’s following the rules.
Reading and following instructions
In many cases, household accidents can be prevented simply by reading and following the manufacturer’s guidelines before using any hazardous equipment. Deviating from these instructions even slightly, such as by not wearing eye protection when using power tools, can result in easily avoidable injuries or property damage.
Just about any piece of hazardous equipment you can buy will come with an instruction manual. Reading manuals and following the manufacturers’ guidelines can help ensure the proper setup and operation of your equipment, reducing the risk of accidents and injuries. Anyone in your household who plans on using a potentially hazardous piece of equipment should thoroughly understand the associated guidelines for setup and use.
Regular maintenance and inspection
Regular maintenance of your household tools and appliances is essential in preventing sudden failures and accidents as it ensures that this equipment operates at optimal performance levels. Routine inspections can uncover subtle signs of wear and tear, enabling timely repairs or replacements.
Sometimes, problems with equipment can arise unexpectedly, but consistent scheduled maintenance and inspections can help prevent this. By implementing a routine maintenance schedule, you can identify and address potential issues with your equipment before they lead to significant malfunctions and compromise the safety of your household.
Hazard communication in the household
Many household products contain harmful substances (cleaning products, pesticides, insect repellent) that can pose health risks if they aren’t handled properly. Hazard communication can help you make sure that everyone in your household can recognize and properly handle the dangerous substances in your home.
Hazard communication is a system designed to inform people about the potential hazards associated with chemicals and substances in their environment. Following the Hazard Communication Standard is required for employers, but it can also be highly beneficial in residential households.
By understanding hazard communication, individuals become aware of the labels used to denote hazardous materials and the precautionary measures necessary to safely use, store and dispose of these products. This knowledge helps prevent accidents — such as chemical burns or poisoning — and enhances overall safety for all members of the household, especially children and pets who may be more vulnerable to exposure.
Labeling hazardous materials
Clear labels help everyone in your household easily identify products that contain harmful substances, reducing the risk of misuse or accidental ingestion. Additionally, proper labeling aids in emergencies, allowing individuals to quickly recognize dangerous materials and respond appropriately, whether that means calling poison control or following specific handling procedures.
Along with product information, hazardous materials should be labeled with a signal word such as “warning” or “danger” and a hazard statement that details the possible dangers posed by the hazardous material in question. They should also display a pictogram, a symbol that denotes the specific type of hazard. Examples of pictograms include skulls and crossbones, flames or explosions.
In addition to being clearly labeled, hazardous materials should be stored securely to prevent accidental exposure. This is particularly important if you have children and pets in your household. Overall, effective labeling and storage of dangerous materials fosters a safer home environment and enhances awareness of potential hazards.
Educating family members
Some people may not even be aware of all the hazards that exist in their homes, and this can increase the risk those hazards pose. Hazard education is essential for maintaining the safety of any household or work environment. Hazard training is required in many workplaces, but it can also be an effective way to keep your family safe at home.
Along with proper labeling, parents should review the dangers posed by hazardous products with their children. They should demonstrate proper use of potentially hazardous equipment, such as kitchen appliances, and explain the risks of misusing this equipment.
You should also establish and enforce clear rules for the use of electricity, such as never using electrical appliances or touching outlets with wet hands and always unplugging electrical appliances when they’re not in use. It may also be helpful to use visual aids to demonstrate the dangers of touching a live wire or sticking something in a wall outlet.
Emergency preparedness for the home
There are a wide variety of emergencies that can pose a threat to your household, including fires, floods, extreme storms and other natural disasters. When events like these occur, a quick and well-coordinated response can help minimize the risk of harm to your family.
You can help protect your household by establishing a clear emergency plan. By developing and reviewing this plan ahead of time, you can avoid confusion and miscommunications during high-pressure situations.
Creating a family emergency plan
When accidents occur, a well-thought-out emergency response plan can be a literal lifesaver. This will allow your family to act quickly and minimize the potential damage that can be caused. There are several things to consider when devising an emergency response plan for your household:
- Background information: Gather input from all members of your household on their emergency-related concerns and suggestions for the plan.
- Assignments: Establish clear roles and responsibilities for each family member, ensuring everyone knows what to do in case of different types of emergencies.
- Escape routes: Create and practice escape routes and designate spots to meet up if separated.
- Communication: Develop a communication plan detailing how members of your household will contact each other if separated.
Like any workplace or household leader, you’ll want to be sure that your emergency response plan is well-understood by everyone who needs to know it. Once you have an emergency plan in place, conducting regular drills can help ensure that everyone in your household will know exactly what to do in the event of an accident.
Safety equipment installation and maintenance
Along with developing a response plan, you’ll also want to make sure to install safety equipment like fire extinguishers, smoke detectors and first aid kits in your home. Make sure this equipment is functional and accessible to minimize the potential damage caused by emergencies.
If you have safety equipment in your home, you should inspect it regularly to make sure it’s working optimally. Fire extinguishers generally last about 10-12 years, but they should be replaced earlier if they show signs of damage or wear. Smoke detectors should be tested monthly, and batteries should be replaced yearly.
When we think of workplace safety practices like lockout/tagout and equipment inspections, our minds often drift to traditional work environments like warehouses, factories and construction sites. However, these carefully developed rules and practices can be applied anywhere risks are present.
By implementing workplace safety practices in your home, and educating the members of your household about hazard communication, proper equipment use and emergency preparedness, you can reduce the risk of accidents and minimize the potential damage caused by natural disasters and other unexpected events.