Education, training, key in preventing accidents on the jobsite

Training

Training in the field is one of the only ways to ensure safe working practices are established and followed. This includes safety training courses such as Workplace Hazardous Materials Information System (WHMIS), which teaches proper handling of hazardous chemicals. Further, understanding and providing material safety data sheets (MSDS) for any products a worker can come into contact with is also required.

Field training is generally where employee habits, good or bad, will be developed. Implementing a standard and creating a culture of health and safety within a company are essential in actually enforcing this behaviour in the field. A zero-tolerance attitude towards willfully ignoring safety measures should be required and communicated strongly to all employees. In addition to field training, manuals that reiterate field training processes should be made available to all employees.

Leading by example

A great deal of company resources can be spent establishing and implementing safety standards. If the field team does not adhere to these standards, then the resources are wasted, and the company is still exposed to an increased potential for an accident in the workplace.

A successful risk mitigation plan is one that starts from the top down. It is critical for company owners, managers, supervisors, and crew leaders to follow the safety guidelines by the letter, which will have a net positive result on employees working under these people. Failure to engage senior-level workers to adopt a strict adherence to safety will ultimately be the failure of most well-intentioned companies in this regard.

Working safe is a mindset more than anything else. Making the conscious decision to not skip any safety protocols regardless of any project deadline pressure is the most important aspect when it comes to a safe jobsite. Adopting an attitude of safety is easier said than done and ultimately each person is responsible for their own actions. This means a responsible business needs to identify any person within the company who chronically does not follow safety protocols and resolve the situation.

Commonly overlooked areas of safety on the jobsite

It is not realistic to have a comprehensive set of safety standards in a single article that would cover the full spectrum of potential concerns working in the pool and spa/hot tub industry. Instead, consider these five basic safety steps that should be part of any safe job site:

1. A ground fault circuit interrupter (GFCI) must be used at all times when working with electricity around water. It takes less than 0.1 amps to stop the heart if the path of current is flowing in the wrong orientation. A GFCI prevents the potential for electrocution by tripping the circuit breaker any time a current spike begins as a result of a ground fault. Most outdoor receptacles in the home are protected through a GFCI in the electrical panel, or more commonly, one outdoor plug will be a GFCI with the remaining plugs on the circuit being installed on the ‘load’ side of the GFCI. For this reason, it is not always immediately clear to a pool worker whether their power source is GFCI protected or not. Carrying a GFCI tester, which is a small and inexpensive plug-in tool, is a must for any service technician. Equally as important is carrying an external GFCI that can be used to make any non-GFCI protected line safe. Working on or around pools using non-GFCI electrical supplies is unacceptable from a safety perspective.
2. Tools, equipment, and electrical cords must be in perfect working condition. Any deficiencies in tools or equipment should be dealt with before using them. Frayed cords, broken ground pins on electrical plugs and equipment with safety guards removed or broken should all be serviced or replaced prior to use. In the heat of a busy pool season, it can be very easy to overlook these items—especially if an employee is working daily—from sun up to sun down—just to keep up. Nothing other than a dedication to safety will ensure that this type of maintenance work gets done during these busy periods.
3. Every pool company should have a large selection of safety equipment, goggles, gloves, respirators, and hearing protection. Unfortunately, the people who pay for this equipment are usually different than those who actually use it and, as a result, they tend to get abused, broken, lost, or in some cases, not used at all. Making employees accountable for the safety equipment assigned to them, and the proper use of the equipment, is a great way to help enforce the proper care of this gear. Equally important is enforcing the safety equipment is actually used on every occasion for which it was purchased.
4. Working in the pool and spa/hot tub industry exposes workers to many different hazardous chemicals. It is critical for anyone working with or around dangerous chemicals that they understand how to properly protect themselves and how to respond to an emergency situation. Not only can the individual chemicals be dangerous, more importantly, employees should understand how chemical interaction can be an extreme danger. Complacency around pool and spa/hot tub chemicals is one of the biggest dangers to workers in this industry that is easy to avoid. When it comes to safety equipment and working with pool chemicals, a borrowed acronym from the motorcycle industry is quite relevant: ATGATT (All the Gear All the Time).
5. The average work truck is one of the biggest concerns for potential accidents on the job. The nature of the tools, equipment, materials, and chemicals that are needed to transport to and from jobsites is such that accidents can, and will happen. Dangers involving work vehicles can be avoided in multiple ways.