Sanitation's Top Danger Zones (And What To Do About Them)

In this episode we dive into what we believe to be sanitation's top risks.  As always, these are one take, so they're raw with no scripts, and no idea what the other host will say.  We hope you enjoy, including the brief detour into Joe's fear of heights and Glacier National Park... If it helped you, please like and share, it truly does help!  Full episode description/summary below: 

In this episode of Safe. Efficient. Profitable, the hosts dig into what sanitation safety really looks like when the plant shuts down, production leaves, and the “normal rules” quietly change. This isn’t a textbook discussion of OSHA buzzwords — it’s a hard-earned, experience-driven breakdown of the risks that actually hurt people during sanitation.

Rather than rattling off every possible hazard, the conversation focuses on the top three sanitation safety risks the hosts see over and over again in real facilities — plus one bonus risk that often gets ignored entirely.

1. Elevated Work: 
The number one risk? Elevated work during sanitation. Not the clean, planned kind with proper lifts and fall protection — but the improvised kind that happens when equipment was never designed to be cleaned.

2. Lockout/Tagout Isn’t Simple 

Sanitation introduces multiple risks at the same time, and lockout procedures that work during the day don’t always hold up at night. The hosts stress the importance of evaluating how lockout is actually performed, not just whether a policy exists.

3. Training: The Control That Fails Quietly

Why didn’t they pick confined space or ladder safety as a top risk? Because in their experience, training is the real control behind all of it.
Training needs to address the job function, not just the task. Workers need to know what to do when things don't go as planned or the unexpected happens. 

Bonus Risk: Sleep, Fatigue, and Real Life
The hosts feel that fatigue has to be treated as a real safety variable, not an afterthought. Night-shift sanitation can’t be managed exactly like day-shift production — buffers and controls need to reflect human limits.

The Bottom Line

Sanitation is a different animal. Different risks. Different timing.  If you want safer outcomes, you have to evaluate sanitation on its own terms.

As always, the hosts encourage listeners to take what’s helpful, leave the rest, and share the episode with anyone who might benefit — especially those who haven’t had these experiences yet.

Key Takeaways

Elevated work during sanitation is often improvised and underestimated

Lockout/tagout becomes more complex at night with multiple energy sources

Most sanitation incidents trace back to training gaps, not rule-breaking

Training must cover job function, not just task steps

Fatigue and sleep deprivation are real, measurable sanitation risks

Sanitation cannot be managed like production — it requires its own lens

This episode is intended for educational purposes.  Solutions offered are not designed to take the place of an attorney 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_01 (00:00):
Welcome back, everybody.
We haven't done we did like prosand cons of sanitation some
chemical and SDS.
This one's existing.

SPEAKER_00 (00:07):
I wasn't, but that was you by yourself before my
awesome.

SPEAKER_01 (00:12):
So now we're doing a couple of maybe top three, we'll
call it that.
But basically, we may have abonus, maybe four.
Who knows?
All right, top three uh risk ofsanitation safety.
One elevated work.

SPEAKER_00 (00:28):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (00:29):
So I have been to some plants where it seems like
everything somehow is elevatedto clean.
And you're like, how does thishappen?
You know, and then you go tosome plants where you're like,
how we get to how do we even getto it?
Yeah.
So that's why that's my firstone.
I'm not saying there's not otherthings that people talk about,
but we spend so much timeworking locations trying to

(00:49):
figure out how to clean thatspot over there that was really
never made to go to.

SPEAKER_00 (00:55):
Yeah.
So there are conveyors way uphigh in the ceiling.
They're conveyors down low, butthey're hard to access because
of what's around there.

SPEAKER_01 (01:05):
So you'll have people standing on them, walking
on them to clean up a bunch ofpiece of equipment trying to get
up there, standing on motors,you know, one ladder, one foot
on the equipment because that'sthe only way to reach it for to
spray the hose where I need tospray it.

SPEAKER_00 (01:17):
Yeah.
So when we're talking elevatedwork, it's not necessarily I'm
wearing a fall protectionharness.

SPEAKER_01 (01:23):
In a nice scissor lift, where it's all open and
pretty.

SPEAKER_00 (01:27):
Yeah, which that's that's another one.
So are you gonna allow people tohave hoses draped over the side
of lifts that could potentiallypull them down?
So elevated work's a big one.
And I think my answer to thatwould be an elevated work
assessment.
Someone's gotta have it.

SPEAKER_01 (01:45):
Like someone, I'm I'm gonna but we do for a
living.
Okay.
Someone who does sanitation andsomeone that knows safety and
someone who's afraid of heights.

SPEAKER_00 (01:54):
Oh, well, that's you.
That's you.

SPEAKER_01 (01:57):
That's why I look at it the way I do.
So when I do elevated work, Idon't look out like everybody
else.
I don't want to do that.
So I'm always thinking of adifferent way.

SPEAKER_00 (02:04):
So just to take a quick detour here.
So we went to Glacier NationalPark recently over the summer.
Right.
And I'm gonna tell you rightnow, I did not know he was so
afraid of heights.
Oh, yeah.
I'm not at all.
And I was a passenger.
And what's the road called?
What's the road that you took tothe sun?

(02:25):
The road to the sun.

SPEAKER_01 (02:26):
And there's a reason.

SPEAKER_00 (02:28):
You gotta do it if you go there.
Um, but I did not realize thatit was gonna be so
nerve-wracking for some peoplein our group.
It wasn't for me, and I'm justhaving a grand old time drinking
my coffee, and he's over herejust white knuckling it at 20
around these S-curves.

SPEAKER_01 (02:44):
And that is why I'm good at those because I look at
them like you would not havebeen happy with me driving.

SPEAKER_00 (02:49):
I can tell you that right now.

SPEAKER_01 (02:51):
We wouldn't.
The point of it is, everyone,that's why elevator works, my
top right off the side of themountain.
I'm not saying lockouts notboring, I'm saying from my
world, elevator works is themost extreme.
So that so we do that servicebecause I'm looking at how I
feel.
I look literally about I don'twant to climb up that ladder or
lean way off to the left.
How the row is gonna push meback.

(03:13):
Don't worry about all that.

SPEAKER_00 (03:14):
One foot on the equipment, which maintenance
hates, and they're always like,How is this always broken?
We all know now.
So to the point where I have ashirt on the website about that
moment, honestly.
So check out Alan Safety.com'smerch page.
Merch.
Here's our plug because we haveno sponsors.
Um, check that out.
There is a sanitation safetyone, and if you're in

(03:35):
maintenance, it'll probably makeyou laugh.
So you can check it out onAmazon or, like I said,
AlanSafety.com's uh merch page.

SPEAKER_01 (03:42):
All right, so that's my first elevated work.

SPEAKER_00 (03:44):
Elevated work, yeah.
It's gotta be an assessment.

SPEAKER_01 (03:49):
I do a lot of nights.
Well, I'm not gonna be able todo that.

SPEAKER_00 (03:51):
That's what I was just gonna say.
It's gotta be at night.
It's gotta be at night.

SPEAKER_01 (03:58):
Because that's the only way I can figure out a way
to make it better.
Yeah.
I have to see all, even if it'sbad, I have to see how bad bad
is to give them a good plan tomake it less.

SPEAKER_00 (04:09):
Gotta have a baseline first.
Also, the one-offs likeintensified sanitation or hand
scrubbing or whatever you could.

SPEAKER_01 (04:18):
You've got different stuff.

SPEAKER_00 (04:19):
Yeah, whatever you would do in your food safety
plan if you had some kind ofswabs pop positive, and you had
to do extra cleaning, handscrubbing, where and how?
Because those two questions arewhat you want to have answers to
if that ever happens, and not befiguring out how are we gonna

(04:41):
get these people safely to beable to clean at elevation,
because I've been there, donethat, and it's a bummer.

SPEAKER_01 (04:46):
So number two is pretty easy, it's like I tag
out.

SPEAKER_00 (04:49):
Yep.

SPEAKER_01 (04:49):
And and the reason about it is we have another
episode to talk about like alittle bit and some others, but
because I have an evaporatorSaturday, I'm gonna do elevated
work, says a lift, then I've gotto do like a tag out.
Yeah, then I've got fans, I mayhave ammonia, I may have glycol,
I may have other stuff.
The reason that's important tome is I may start tying multiple
risks together that people don'tthink about.

(05:12):
They would never do during theweek normal plant.
Yeah only sanitation would havethat variable like that.

SPEAKER_00 (05:18):
Well, I also want to say in regards to the lockout
piece, we're forgetting it's weput on the lock, remove the
guard next, put the guard backon, then take the lock off.
Normally, that's how we want toapproach it.
And sometimes at some of ourplants, there's this weird

(05:38):
transition period wheresanitation's done cleaning in
this room, but production hasn'tcome in.
We haven't done the the swabs oranything.
Food safety hasn't checkedeverything and inspected.
There may not be a guard there.
Yeah, we haven't done pre-op,and so we're sitting here
waiting for pre-op to happen andpeople to come in and the guards
are not on, and everybody justleft it in open until all these

(06:01):
people start coming out to thefloor.
Right.
You gotta have a guard on whenyou have all these people coming
out out to the, I mean, to thefloor.
That's weird.

SPEAKER_01 (06:09):
But that lockout is is they're not working on it.
So people will interpret that,well, it's a different category.
Well, it's kind of machineguarding, but you change that
variable by taking the lock off.
Lock the tag out for this.
We were good.
Leave the lock on it.
We're never doing the work, butso you gotta look at your
lockout for sanitation.
And for those you don't know,have spent so much zillions of
hours over the years on lockouttag out for sanitation.

(06:31):
So much, but but you gotta lookat all the different control
variables.

SPEAKER_00 (06:35):
I am sorry every time we do these, I have a
cough, but I guess that's whatyou get when you have young
kids.
I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 (06:40):
So, but the point of it is you gotta you gotta look
at all the variables, look atwhere you're gonna, and then my
other part about lockout isyou've got to make those logs
accessible.
Yeah, because it's it's it'sreally, really hard to even get
to the disc in it.
Yeah, and they're wet.

SPEAKER_00 (06:54):
That's what I was just gonna say.
Let's consider what they'rewearing.

SPEAKER_01 (06:56):
Maybe we're throwing a ladder, and now they're reach
out.
You've added so many wristvariables.
Let's help them out and get itsomewhere else.

SPEAKER_00 (07:04):
Yeah, not to mention uh based on how our air changes
are, could be foggy in the road.
Yeah, so so now we it's foggybecause we've got the cold with
the hot water, the ventilation'sweird.
They've got goggles on, they mayhave a face shield on it,
they've got all this stuff.
Like, why are we making themnightly use a ladder to go do

(07:26):
something?
Let's just drop it down.

SPEAKER_01 (07:29):
My third one, my third one is training.
Yeah, why did I why did I notpick confined space?
Why did I not pick posthandling?
Why did I not pick laddersafety?
Because the we worked multipleevents, the training was more
the control than the actualactivity.
Training, did we train themcorrectly how to do the task?

(07:50):
Yeah, did we train him correctlyof how to handle a problem when
the task has a problem?
For example, you use an A-frameladder and put a hose.
Where's the hose going to be inposition of your body?
We we may tell them to use thehose, but if that hose goes
around the door and someone elsepulls it, it can pull that
person off the ladder or pullthe ladder.

SPEAKER_00 (08:09):
Three points of contact, too.

SPEAKER_01 (08:11):
Yeah, it's going up and down with the hose running.
So the training function ofthat, the confined space wrist,
that that elevated work wrist,that lockout, though that
section itself is where I spenda lot of my time because I think
that's one of the biggest gaps.

SPEAKER_00 (08:24):
Because well, it's even if you go back to the
elevated work piece, uh, shouldwe be using a harness or is a
positioning belt okay?

SPEAKER_01 (08:32):
That's correct.
And and so as you go throughthose sectors when you're
looking at the differentfunctions of your organization,
look at the training piece.
I'm not saying your training isgood or bad.
What I'm saying is your trainingis not handling the job
function, it's handling just thetask.
Carrying the ladder through thejob, I get just as many injuries

(08:55):
as I do on the ladder.
And you know, pulling the hosethe wrong way, you know, taking
the guard off.
So it's it's a process of howyou do that.
We have more issues than we dowhen they get to that.
Putting the PP the correct PPEon is a training issue.
Once I get it on, fine.
Mixing the chemicals a trainingissue.
Mixing the chemical, I get it,it's fine.
It's not when it's fine, it'swhen these one-offs occur, and

(09:17):
then how do you manage it also?
That's what I want you to know.

SPEAKER_00 (09:19):
Yeah, yeah.
So I think part of it isunderstanding and recognizing
there's not a lot of sanitationspecific that was created for
sanitation and data out there.
It is created for production,right?
And then like we can kind of tryand make it work for sanitation

(09:41):
if we make that change at all.

SPEAKER_01 (09:43):
Right.

SPEAKER_00 (09:44):
And so we're relying on our our location and area
managers in a lot of aspects tofill in the gaps.

SPEAKER_01 (09:52):
Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 (09:53):
But if they're new or we've seen turnover there, or
they don't they don't have a lotof tenure in that specific plant
industry with that equipment,they may not have seen it, they
may not know it's a thing.

SPEAKER_01 (10:04):
So and sanitation is one of those areas that
sometimes you get hired becauseit because you know, maybe less
hours or fits your schedulebetter, you're going to school,
whatever.
Yeah.
So you so you you don't havesome of that background
knowledge because it could beyour first job at that plant.

SPEAKER_00 (10:18):
You may not, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (10:19):
And and then you take we did the SDS episode the
other day.
I mean, if you take an SDS andgive it to somebody who's even
going to college and you say,All right, now we're the PPE
based on this, and they look atthe SDS and look at the PPE,
they're like, How does thisassociate?
I mean, there's so many weirdthings like that that have
sanitation, you wouldn't thinkanything.

SPEAKER_00 (10:35):
It is such a completely different animal for
production, not to andincluding, you know, where how
we have guardrails in theplants.
We sort of need something forthe leading edge piece on
sanitation, but we don't duringthe day because there's
production, there's an animalthere.
Yeah, or equipment moves.
Or equipment, yeah.

(10:55):
So, you know, you really have tobreak down and evaluate, I
think, not only the content ofthe training to your point, but
also who is delivering thatmessage to make sure that they
really know sanitation justbecause there's so much gray
area and so many one-offs and somuch dynamic change during the

(11:16):
night as you progress throughthe different steps of dry
pickup to wash down to foamingand then back to pre-op in the
morning and trying to peep putthings together while other
people are trying to assembleequipment and they're in the
room and let's not shower themwith chemical.
I mean, there's just so muchgoing on that is different where
once production gets going, it'skind of going and we're good.

SPEAKER_01 (11:37):
Right.
Like I said, so so that's whytraining is my thumb because
that that if we if you reallyback up and look at some of the
events in history we've beenball with, it was a training
function.

SPEAKER_00 (11:48):
Yeah, and yeah, guess what?
Confined space is significant,yeah, but if we train it's not
on the right things, it's it's anon-event.

SPEAKER_01 (11:55):
Elevated work, not if you train right.

SPEAKER_00 (11:57):
Yeah, it should be a non-event.

SPEAKER_01 (11:58):
Walk out tagged better if you train right.
So and the reason we bring uptraining for Santa, it is.
It's kind of that that othertime period, that other thing
that we have it and we know wehave it, but it just has its
own.

SPEAKER_00 (12:10):
Well, it's it's also difficult because a lot of the
time it's at night, and that's ahard sell for people to want to
go and work nights.
And so, you know, generally thethe progression is when I get to
tenure, I don't want to worknights anymore.
You know what I mean?
And so having the experience,you don't want to do that shift

(12:31):
sometimes based on what yourat-home life looks like.
So it's really, really hard tokeep knowledge sometimes on that
specific shift.
And so that's where you want toreally start evaluating who are
those critical people or yourorganization or your company, or
if you need to bring in a thirdparty.

SPEAKER_01 (12:47):
Um and I will tell you, as a third party, um, the
years I've had this company, Idid more of this before the kids
are around.

SPEAKER_00 (12:54):
Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (12:54):
So as the kids are getting older, I am looking at
how many nights am I doing?
I mean, yeah, we do, yeah.
I didn't mind so much.
Now I'm like, okay, now I gottabe on soccer tomorrow.

SPEAKER_00 (13:04):
That's right.

SPEAKER_01 (13:06):
And and then my last uh thing, my bonus is bonus.
All right, here we go.
Um, is just the concept of sleepand family responsibility.

SPEAKER_00 (13:16):
Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (13:17):
Because I came in last night at nine o'clock and I
managed it all night, but now Igotta stay till 8:30 morning
meeting and I get home at 10.
Maybe I get home and the kidsare off today and they want to
do everything, so I don't sleep.
See, you whether you like it ornot for that job to have
sanitate, you have to calculatea sleep function and calculate
errors may occur because peoplearen't really clicking.

SPEAKER_00 (13:39):
Yeah, the sleep deprivation piece the switch I
feel it when I'm switching.
The switching back and forthshifts from weekends to
especially a three-day weekend.

SPEAKER_01 (13:48):
Oh, it's terrible.

unknown (13:48):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (13:49):
But I because I did that a few weeks ago, I did a
three-day weekend that I wassupposed to do nights one night,
and I was like, I'm tired.

SPEAKER_00 (13:54):
Yeah, well, or they end up staying up with their
family and then trying to take anap later on.
I mean, like, it's reallyanybody who switched shifts
knows it's rough when you've gotfamily up during the day and
you're trying to get away.
You want to be part of theactivity.

SPEAKER_01 (14:07):
There's no football game at night all during the
day.
Yeah.
So you want to be part of it.
So what you have to do from asafety side is calculate that
they're not always gonna beperfect, and you got to put
different buffers in place.
It can't be the same lockout orelevator, even as day shift,
because on you've got that sleepvariable coming in all nights,
and you got to know that peopleare like that, and that's part

(14:28):
of your risk out of evaluation.

SPEAKER_00 (14:30):
Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 (14:31):
So that's mine for today.

SPEAKER_00 (14:32):
All right, so that's our opinion.
So take what is helpful, leavethe rest.
If it did help you at all,again, this is kind of a
community service thing that Joeand I are doing.
So we just asked that if it washelpful, please share it.
Please help us, you know, get itto the people that need to see
it, that need the information,haven't had the experiences yet,
but would find it helpful.

(14:52):
And um leave a like, leave acomment, engage with the
channel.
It really does help thealgorithm.
And again, if you do want tosay, hey, thanks, we support
you, um, the Allen DashSafety.com merchandise page or
on Amazon is a reallyappreciated way that you could
do that.
So that's another method.
Um, if you want to go beyondjust liking, sharing,
commenting, all that good stuff.
So all right.
Take care.

(15:13):
We'll see you next time.
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(15:37):
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(15:59):
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