Safety Note - Issue No 92-03

DOE/EH-0288 --- Issue No. 92-03 --- 12/93

OSH Assistance Visits: A Helping Hand

The Department of Energy (DOE) has created the Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) Assistance Visit Program to facilitate implementation of various OSH initiatives. The Office of Environment, Safety and Health (EH) conducts the 1- to 2-week assistance visits. They are designed to draw DOE and contractor line management together with EH experts and consultants in informal sessions to address possible solutions to broad management-based OSH problems.

Assistance visits combine instruction, discussion, and practical experiences tailored to the needs of each particular site. EH acts as a facilitator rather than a problem-solver and strives to enable line management to take on problems in an effective manner. Assessment actions are strictly excluded, and the only report EH issues is an information memorandum in which EH assesses its own effectiveness as a facilitator.

Program Managers can request an assistance visit in response to deficiencies noted in a Tiger Team Assessment, Progress Assessment, or on their own initiative. A visit can offer help in such areas as recognizing onsite OSH hazards, identifying applicable standards, defining an effective OSH program, or managing contracts.

From past experience, a typical 1-week assistance visit progresses as follows:

PREVISIT BRIEFING

EH and site management staff hold a previsit briefing to work on final details of the assistance visit and to determine the focus of the visit. This meeting is held before the EH team arrives onsite. For example, some issues selected for focus during the visit might include (1) lack of contractor management's technical safety support to and presence at field sites, (2) limited number of OSH experts onsite who have knowledge of standards, requirements, or hazard control and abatement procedures, or (3) a management focus that does not hold OSH programs and abatements to a priority equal to that of environmental and radiation protection.

CLASSROOM OSH TRAINING

If related DOE/contractor sites are widespread geographically, a cross section of the workforce from each site will be selected to attend the training sessions. The cross section will include employees from the supervisory level and the various work disciplines. OSH training is held at a central location, and walkthroughs are conducted at a central site. The emphasis of all training sessions is on acquiring knowledge of OSH requirements and development of hazard recognition skills in workplace settings. In addition, instructors will poll the participants to see if the planned courses need to be fine-tuned. In all cases, they will seek audience participation and on-the-spot critical feedback.

The classroom courses address selected Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) compliance requirements contained in Title 29 of the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) that are applicable to general industry and the construction industry. Requirements that are sound engineering practices, although not addressed by OSHA standards, are also included. Topics will match site-specific activities. General topics will include supervisors' safety responsibilities, job hazard analysis, how to use the 29 CFR books that are provided to each participant, inspection techniques, and hazard abatement procedures.

SITE WALKTHROUGHS

After the classroom courses, participants will form small teams and perform walkthrough inspections. These inspections are illustrative in nature, not for evaluation of compliance. The teams will use these inspections to apply the knowledge they gained in the classroom. Each team will report back and discuss its findings with the rest of the group. The teams will also discuss noteworthy practices observed during the walkthroughs.

VISIT CRITIQUE AND FUTURE PLANS

The visit will conclude with a critique session and discussions of future actions.

EXPERIENCE TO DATE

Assistance visits have been made to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant, and the Naval Petroleum and Oil Shale Reserves sites. While the visits cannot be described as a remedy for OSHA standards compliance problems, they provide a boost to both general awareness of job hazards and the ability to recognize and abate noncompliances.

FOR MORE INFORMATION

For more information or to request an assistance visit, contact John Teske, Office of Safety and Quality Assurance, at (301)903-5607.

This Safety Note is one in a series of publications issued by EH to share occupational safety information throughout the DOE complex. To be added to the Distribution List or to obtain copies of the publication, call (615)576-3482. For additional information regarding the publications, call Barbara Bowers, Safety Performance Indicator Division, Office of Environment, Safety and Health, U.S. Department of Energy, Washington DC 20585, (301)903-3016.