3 Lockout tagout facts every company should know

It was a typical October morning at the Bumblebee Tuna plant in Santa Fe Springs, California. Just before 5 a.m., maintenance employee Jose Melena was instructed to repair a chain inside one of the 54” by 36’ tuna ovens. Not long after he was inside and the repair was underway, a second employee began loading the oven with 12,000 pounds of tuna. Assuming Melena was in the restroom at the time, the employee switched on the oven, and the tuna began to cook.

A supervisor soon noticed Melena was missing, setting off a search throughout the facility and the parking lot, where Melena’s car was found untouched. After searching for an hour and a half, the boiler operator suggested checking the last oven that had been loaded, which had reached 270 degrees. Employees waited an additional half an hour to let the oven cool down before they could open it. Sadly, Melena was indeed found inside near the exit, having suffered a terrible fate.

Employees across America service machines every day, which can be dangerous if the correct procedures aren’t followed, as was the case with the Bumblebee Tuna tragedy. Many serious injuries, even fatalities, have occurred when workers thought a machine they were servicing, or its power source, was turned off. Machines can unexpectedly start up because of stored energy that wasn’t properly released or because another employee didn’t realize it wasn’t safe to turn on. These types of incidents can be avoided by lockout/tagout (LOTO), which disables the equipment and prevents the release of hazardous energy while service and maintenance are performed.

According to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), compliance with LOTO procedures prevents 50,000 injuries and 120 fatalities every year. Here are three critical points every company needs to remember about LOTO to keep employees safe.

1. Employers are responsible for protecting employees by implementing LOTO procedures

All employees have the right to a safe workplace. It’s up to employers to follow the OSHA requirements when their employees are servicing or maintaining equipment and machines. OSHA requires that all employers develop and enforce an energy control program and ensure all equipment is capable of being locked out. If there are machines or equipment that can’t be locked out, it’s the employer’s responsibility to develop and enforce a LOTO program.

Employers should inspect their equipment and energy control procedures at least once a year to verify that all procedures are up to date and their equipment is working properly.

2. Employees are responsible for knowing and following LOTO procedures

Safety training that includes LOTO procedures should be included in new employee training and ongoing training to ensure all employees are aware of the correct protocols. All employees working with equipment and machinery should know and understand the procedures and be expected to follow hazardous energy protocol to avoid danger to themselves or others.

LOTO training should include an overview of the employer’s energy control program, specific details on how the energy control program relates to employee duties, and OSHA’s LOTO requirements. Employees should understand that they’re subject to fines, losing their job, and even criminal charges for failing to comply with these standards.

3. OSHA is responsible for enforcing LOTO procedures

OSHA was established in part to ensure employees are guaranteed a safe working environment. OSHA provides education and training to employers and employees and will step in to handle safety issues as they occur. Both employers and employees have the responsibility to report serious LOTO situations. OSHA fully investigates these incidents to ensure they aren’t repeated.

OSHA also can perform an on-site inspection if a complaint is filed to determine any health and safety hazards in the workplace.

Inspectors will need as much information as possible, including:

• The type of equipment and its condition
• The type of training employees has received on its use
• How often and for how long employees work with the equipment
• The types of hazards present in the workplace
• What’s being done to prevent any hazards

Managing hazardous energy with LOTO procedures is a vital part of workplace safety. Keeping track of all the moving parts can be challenging, especially at a large company, so it’s a good idea to automate these processes as much as possible.

EHS Hero® offers a LOTO management solution that allows your company to seamlessly implement the necessary protocols and maintain a safe workplace.