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Workplace Safety

SMRP Workplace Health & Safety Working Group 

Maintaining a safe workplace is a vital and fundamental responsibility of all employers in the United States. In addition, SMRP recognizes that employee accidents create lost production. Loss of any employee creates cost due to employee overtime coverage, medical bills, workers compensation and additional training. Safety and downtime risk increases while employees learn new workplace skills. Emergency repairs caused by unplanned equipment downtime increases costs due to expedition of repair materials, temporary repairs that repeat downtime and workforce stress that increases the probability for injury or failure. 

SMRP is engaged with the Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA) to ensure the maintenance, reliability, and physical asset management profession is following safety best practices and guidelines. OSHA QuickTakes, a bi-monthly e-newsletter featuring information about workplace safety and health, is emailed free to nearly 71,000 subscribers. To receive updates and sign up for the QuickTakes Newsletter, click here.

  • Policy Documents
  • Resources

Enhance workplace safety in the maintenance, reliability, and physical asset management profession

SMRP is committed to providing the maintenance, reliability, and physical asset management profession with information, guidance, and access to training resources that will help protect the health and safety of workers and understand the rights of workers and the responsibilities of employers under the Occupational Safety and Health Act. SMRP supports the following OSHA Alliance Program safety and health initiatives:

  • Increase awareness of OSHA’s rulemaking and enforcement initiatives
  • Provides outreach and communication to SMRP members
  • Expands access to training and education resources
  • Promotes the national dialogue on workplace safety and health

To read SMRP's full workplace safety policy, click here

SMRP Certificate of Recognition - OSHA Safe + Sound Week - Download it here

The Society for Maintenance & Reliability Professionals (SMRP) is proud to have partnered with the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) on  Safe + Sound Week, June 12–18. The week was part of a nationwide effort to raise awareness and understanding of the value of safety and health programs including management leadership, worker participation and a systematic approach to finding and fixing hazards in workplaces. Click here to find out more. 

SMRP + OSHA Webinar: Recommended Practices for Health & Safety Programs - Download it here

This webinarprovides an overview of OSHA’s new Recommended Practices for Safety and Health Programs, as well as OSHA’s ongoing campaign for safety and health programs. 

Why Safety is a Win-Win for SMRP - by Carl Schultz, CMRP, Advanced Technology Solutions, and SMRP Outreach Director  -  Download it here

Partnering in Safe + Sound Week can help us learn more and connect with others to improve health and safety programs while reducing injuries and illnesses in our industries. If you want to find out more about SMRP’s commitment to health and safety read Carl's #SafeandSound recomendation. 

OSHA Toolkit - Download it here 

SMRP workplace health and safety expert members have worked with OSHA to create a one-page tool that identifies top citations and hazards in the maintenance, reliability and physical asset management profession. It includes data from OSHA and the U.S. Bureau of Labor, as well as educational resources that help members of SMRP find and fix workplace hazards and provide information for how to control these hazards. 

OSHA Alliance Presentation - Download it here

To strengthen our relationship with OSHA and to demonstrate our commitment to workplace safety, SMRP has entered into a pre-OSHA Alliance Program partnership. This means that SMRP has agreed to assist in raising awareness of OSHA’s rulemaking and enforcement initiatives, provide outreach and communications to our members on health and safety best practices, and conduct training and educational sessions to ensure both our members and OSHA have the skills needed to execute a comprehensive health and safety management program. To view an overview of the program, please click here. 

OSHA Safety & Health Management Program Recommended Practices Download it here

In October 2016, OSHA published their updated recommended practices for safety and health programs, taking SMRP's guidence by stressing the importance of preventive maintenance activities within any safety and health management program. OSHA has created a dedicated webpage for additional information on the recommended practices for safety and health programs. One of the educational and training programs highlighted within the additional resources section is the Certified Maintenance & Reliability Professional (CMRP) certification program. This is a great achievement for SMRP’s certification program to be one of the resources featured within on the OSHA webpage. 

OSHA’s Silica Rule

In March 2016, OSHA announced a final rule to protect workers by reducing their exposure to respirable silica dust. The rule will curb lung cancer, silicosis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and kidney disease in America's workers.

The final rule contains two standards, one for construction and one for general industry and maritime. Both standards reduce the permissible exposure limit for crystalline silica and include employer requirements to protect workers, such as by limiting worker exposure through work practices and engineering controls; training workers; limiting their access to high exposure areas and providing medical exams to highly exposed workers.

About 2.3 million men and women face exposure to respirable crystalline silica in their workplaces, including two million construction workers who drill and cut materials such as concrete and stone, and 300,000 workers in operations such as brick manufacturing, foundries and hydraulic fracturing. OSHA estimates that when the final rule becomes fully effective, it will save more than 600 lives annually and prevent more than 900 new cases of silicosis – an incurable and progressive disease – each year. The agency also estimates the final rule will provide net benefits of about $7.7 billion per year.

For questions on OSHA’s silica rule and updates, please visit OSHA's silica rule webpage for factsheets on the rule.

OSHA Accident Prevention Standard for Eye and Face Protection

OSHA issued proposed revisions to its 2009 eye and face protection standards to reflect the most recent edition of the ANSI/ISEA eye and face protection standard. The preventative revisions allow employers to continue to follow the existing ANSI standards referenced or allow employers to follow the latest version of the same ANSI/ISEA standard. Employers are encouraged to use this standard for guidance to update or replace protection devices, and practices for eye and face protection. The final rule becomes effective as of April 25, 2016.

To review the OSHA’s Federal Register Notice for Eye and Face Protection Standards, click here

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