Most Facilities Underestimate This Key Safety Risk #safetytraining #safety

Does your facility use this tool that creates over-looked safety risks?  

Episode Summary:
In this episode of Safe, Efficient, Profitable: A Worker Safety Podcast, Joe and Jen Allen put a spotlight om an overlooked source of workplace injuries: hose handling. While hoses are a staple tool across manufacturing, sanitation, and agricultural facilities, the hosts reveal practices and conditions that can lead to significant injuries. 

Through real-world examples, the episode breaks down the top hose-handling opportunities, encouraging safety professionals and plant management to evaluate their cleaning processes to see if any of these risks are at their facility.  


Ready to evaluate your facility’s hose risks? Allen Safety offers on-site and virtual coaching for sanitation safety evaluations. Visit AllenSafetyCoaching.com or Allen-Safety.com to connect with our team. Don’t forget to like, share, and subscribe so more teams can eliminate hose hazards before injuries happen.

Key Topics Covered:
⚠️ One of the top underestimated injury sources
🪜 Hose handling at elevation
🔥 Hot water
💪 Ergonomics 
🧼 Partial washdowns and product changeovers
🚫 Training
💡 Storage and transport risks
🧪 Chemical vs. water 
🧤 Nozzle problems
☔ Spray angle 
✅ Practical solutions
🔍 Behavior-based audits

SEO Keywords:
hose handling safety, sanitation injuries, chemical hose risk, ergonomic hazards, workplace water pressure injury, cleaning injury prevention, hose safety training, sanitation safety audits, ladder hose hazard, scissor lift hose use, PPE hose spray, Allen Safety coaching, behavioral safety in sanitation, worker injury prevention, cleaning safety podcast

This video is intended for educational purposes.  Solutions offered are not designed to take the place of an attorney , safety, or medical professional, and should not be taken as legal or medical advice.  It is recommended that viewers consult a safety consultant, medical provider or an occupational safety legal team as applicable to help navigate their specific circumstances.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
All right, welcome back.
Safe, efficient, profitableWorker Safety Podcast.
Today we're going to give youone item.
That is a great indication thatyou can evaluate how often you
use this item, and I think thatthere's a direct correlation
with risk to your facility orinjury.
So all right, let's go.

Speaker 2 (00:18):
One item.
So this thing has what chemicalso?

Speaker 1 (00:30):
we use it with chemical water, it with water,
and we use it a lot of times todo the word clean something.
So whether that's scoop outstuff or wash stuff down or
whatever, we usually use thisand can be elevated and be can
it be stored Yep.

Speaker 2 (00:45):
Can we drove over?

Speaker 1 (00:46):
Yeah, we can drive over.
We have a lot of injuries withthis.
In regards to turning the itemon turning it off and general
use from location to locationalong with.
You said elevation and that isposes All right, woo.
So if you really kind of backup and think, most locations

(01:08):
that manufacture a product haveto clean at some point, and a
lot of times water is used withthat.
So whether that be wash downsat my barns, whether that be
shower washing, whether that be,house keeping down mill we call
it housekeeping at some places,keeping it a mill, obviously
sanitation at the plants.
We use water or we use chemicaland we use hoses and we're

(01:31):
having a lot of injuries aroundor maybe not the best hose
handling, we'll say so these arejust a random list, no
particular order of things tolook for.

Speaker 2 (01:40):
So you should do an evaluation.
These are things to go.
Let me check, see if I havethis, if I have this, and then
that will tell you whether thereare parts of your program, how
much risk you may be having atyour facility.

Speaker 1 (01:50):
We'll give some solutions at the end, so just
hang in there with us and let'sjust dive right in.
Here we go.

Speaker 2 (01:56):
Number one is ladders .

Speaker 1 (01:58):
Yeah, you said elevation.

Speaker 2 (02:00):
If that hose is by somebody and they're standing on
a ladder but the hose goesbetween their legs, somebody
accidentally or under the feet,and someone accidentally pulls
the hose back, air, it throwsthem off the ladder.

Speaker 1 (02:14):
Well, and also just considering things like what
your three points of contactrules are.

Speaker 2 (02:19):
Is it two hands?
How'd you even get up there?
How did you get down?

Speaker 1 (02:21):
Are you requiring them to use two hands?

Speaker 2 (02:23):
Does it have to be running the whole time or can
you turn it off?

Speaker 1 (02:26):
Yep, what's what's going on with that?
And I'll actually throw one inhere too.
And that's used in a scissorlift.

Speaker 2 (02:32):
Absolutely.

Speaker 1 (02:33):
Using hoses in a scissor lift.
I know that there's been somepretty significant events over
that in in history, so thatelevator leftover that elevated
work concept you got to look at.

Speaker 2 (02:43):
So we'll give solutions in the end.
But the point of it is thatelevation?
That's definitely one, whetherit be ladders or any kind of pic
aerial absolutely hot hot hoses, hot water, that's random, not
just daytime, nighttime, becausethere's no word what hot is
yeah so people have differentamounts.
What they call it hot changesduring the day too.

(03:04):
Sometimes it can be cooler andyou're using it.
All of a sudden it gets realhot and you're not ready for it.

Speaker 1 (03:09):
Yeah, so obviously has to do a little bit.
You know, talk to yourutilities, boilers obviously is
a big thing and the watertemperature change.

Speaker 2 (03:16):
you're spraying something that's coming back on
you and you're not ready forthat.

Speaker 1 (03:19):
Well, and again, it really depends how hot are you
running your water using yourboilers and your seams and stuff
?
So also, everybody thinks thatthe water that I use, it melts
the skin off and you know.
If it's anything above lukewarm, my kids feel like they've just
been burned to pieces.
So you know, everybody has adifferent thought process on

(03:41):
what hot is.
So we need to maybe look atevaluating.

Speaker 2 (03:44):
The size hose determines the weight.
Oh so how long it is, how thediameter of it is weight and the
length, because now I'mcarrying this heavy hose up.
You would never carry a firehose somewhere, but people will
have the same way, that'sthrough hallways, through all
yourself.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (04:04):
Maybe now to get to my area.

Speaker 2 (04:05):
Get caught on equipment down here.
Someone's pulling it.

Speaker 1 (04:08):
Yeah, go up a catwalk up, a catwalk down.

Speaker 2 (04:09):
Think of how long the hose, what we expect, where we
go with it.
That's correct, maybe, yeah,shorten it up.

Speaker 1 (04:14):
Evaluate the size, diameter and, like you say,
where are we all storing them?

Speaker 2 (04:18):
There's a big one Because pressure can change
During the night, because thepumps Turn on and off and how
many are being used, or whatroom is being cleaned, in what
order.
The length of the hose Canchange the pressure, diameter of
the hose Can change thepressure.
People don't think about that.
They're doing a job and all ofa sudden it takes off Like power
washers.
They'll be cleaning somethingand it changes on them.

Speaker 1 (04:37):
There's been some too high a pressure.

Speaker 2 (04:40):
Absolutely.

Speaker 1 (04:41):
Or significantly more pressure than the user thought.

Speaker 2 (04:45):
Transport at the end of the job.

Speaker 1 (04:47):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (04:47):
That's when we see a lot of injuries.
The hose weighs a lot, it'sheavy.

Speaker 1 (04:51):
Gets caught on something you kind of tug at it,
yep no-transcript.

Speaker 2 (04:56):
Big, a lot of stuff to carry at one time.
All right, the next one I haveis the weird product changeover.
What that means is maybe weclean the parking lot, maybe we
clean the production line realquick for 30 minutes, but you
don't want to get anything elsewet.
You're just doing one littlearea so you may grab this hose
that doesn't work or that hoseor have to climb over something
or something.

(05:16):
Maybe you run.
It's weird stuff like thatwhere if you do normal
sanitation, we may lockeverything out, but if it's
running during the day and do aproduct changeover, they may.
Should clean one belt andbecause it could be a chemical,
it could be water, and thenyou're looking at where is that
chemical?
You may wear somethingdifferent at night during
sanitation, but use the samechemical during the day and not
wear as much, could you?
Oh, I'm doing it real quick.

Speaker 1 (05:34):
It's only five or ten minutes well, I think the thing
that we also need to keep inmind is depending on how you do
your chemicals right.
So some are foamers, some arehard, and so you're actually
hooking up to an inlinesituation on a wall.

Speaker 2 (05:51):
Yep.

Speaker 1 (05:51):
And depending on if you have the same hose color for
chemical or different for waterdifferentiate.
You know they may grab a hosethat has a whole length of
chemical in it, correct?
And it hasn't been cleaned outwith water and they're not
wearing the right PPE for thator they're not ready for that,
there can be an injury there,absolutely Especially if they're

(06:13):
grabbing one that wassanitation drill quick and
they're using it on day shift,absolutely Like you said, to do
a wash down or something.
Another one is training overallon it, because everybody's like
why do you have training oneverybody else's hose?
Yeah, yeah, yeah, like you know, we used.

Speaker 2 (06:26):
Yeah, it's kind of like the ladder.
Why do you need to train aladder?

Speaker 1 (06:28):
because you do yeah, you know, we also have a
conversation about knifehandling training.
This is kind of the same thing,because it can cause a lot of
not ergonomics, but it can causeergonomic issues but there is a
significant amount of ergoissue.
This is where your ergo stuffof like the weight, the shoulder
, the back, the hand, manygloves I'm wearing, yes, you

(06:51):
know, based on how your nozzlesare, that can be a real problem.
That can be a huge hand issue interms of inflammation in there
and just lots of pain anddiscomfort from an ergo side.

Speaker 2 (07:04):
It can be hot, cold, wet.
I can't hold it.
Well, it's hours, it's pressure.
I'm trying to do it in acertain angle and hold it out
there.

Speaker 1 (07:13):
And sometimes based on, like you said, the pressure
and how large your hand is orwhatever.
You know that changes thecomfort, how you can hold that
nozzle, but there is a littlebit of vibration in there.
So it's all the things, from anergonomic standpoint that you
would say are not great.

Speaker 2 (07:27):
And then and then you decide to spray it overhead.
So now you've got PPE issues.
So maybe it's chemical or maybeit's water.
Yeah, we see people to wearlike a coat like this, like this
shirt here, and they'll just bepouring the chemical water.
Well, that's gross all nightlong or all day, yeah, so you
get.
So, even where you apply, youmay be fine where you're at.

Speaker 1 (07:44):
Now you gotta look, you gotta look at where it's at
or worse, yeah look at whereyou're spraying it at yeah, look
at the angle where they'restanding to actually use the
hose itself.
So maybe they do need to havean elevated platform so that
they can get a different angleon it, and it's not just that's
a solution.

Speaker 2 (08:01):
How about having a different connection point for
them?

Speaker 1 (08:04):
yeah, it's one of your solutions connection points
change where they're able tostand, so it kind of can change
their ppe change the length andthe diameter to make it a little
bit more user-friendly.

Speaker 2 (08:14):
Maybe look at different storage locations so
they're not having to tote itthe length of the host maybe
look at different things, likeLike I can roll this card out.
Maybe I put it in a tote at theend of the day.
Use a forklift or a pile ofjack.
Take it off the floor.

Speaker 1 (08:26):
Yep, absolutely so there's different solutions or
different options.

Speaker 2 (08:30):
So these are our opinions.
Do an evaluation.
Don't take our word for it.
Evaluate your stuff.

Speaker 1 (08:35):
Go, look at what you have, look at your risk and
believe, the more hose handlingat elevation and you start
adding layers, your risk isgoing to go up so that's what
you're really looking for is howoften are we doing cleaning
processes, how often are weusing, what can we do to
eliminate it?
what other layers are we adding,and is there a way that we can
make it a little bit moreuser-friendly?
Absolutely so.

(08:56):
If you want more information,joe and I do uh, and our team
for that matter do sanitationaudits, cleaning audits, things
like that, evaluations, if youwill.
I don't love the word audit,because it's not really what it
is.

Speaker 2 (09:06):
We're there to see how to make your process run
safer.

Speaker 1 (09:09):
Yeah, it's more like a behavior-based safety type
approach.

Speaker 2 (09:13):
What can we do to eliminate the risk?

Speaker 1 (09:19):
I'm not looking at your paperwork in your solutions
.
So if you want, if that soundsawesome, like I said,
allen-safetycom you can reachout over there.
Otherwise,allen-safetycoachingcom has some
really great resources as well.
That's our coaching site andagain, with that you get free
email based coaching.
So really great value if anin-person visit is not in the
budget.
And I think that's it for todaythat.

(09:40):
Thank you for listening to Safe, efficient, profitable a worker
safety podcast.
If you're looking for morein-depth discussions or
step-by-step solutions on all ofthe different safety and
regulatory topics, please visitus at wwwallensafetycoachingcom
for web-based virtual coachingand training or at

(10:01):
wwwallensafetycom to book ourteam for onsite services,
training sessions, to ordermerchandise, to learn more about
our team and what services.
Thank you so much for yoursupport.
Thank you.