Office Safety
Office, Corridors and Emergency Egress
In order to provide a safe and orderly environment for all of the
University community and to meet the requirements of the Maryland State
Fire Prevention Code, EHS conducts annual inspections of all occupied
University facilities. These walk-throughs are used to identify
potential areas of concern relating to fire and general safety. It is
the goal of EHS to provide and maintain safe work areas and means of
egress. The survey looks for the following items:
- exit doors unobstructed
- no storage in corridors and exits
- stairs not blocked
- fire extinguishers and fire alarm pull stations accessible
- stairways and corridors adequately lighted
- tripping hazards
- blockage of fire extinguishing equipment
- overloading of electrical duplex outlets
- use of electrical extension cords
Once deficiencies are noted, EHS works with the department head or
custodian of the area towards remediation.
Office Ergonomics
Our campus, like any other large organization, requires an ergonomics
program. This program responds to requests for analysis and evaluation
of the workplace design, accident investigation, preventive measures and
training.
Ergonomics is the study of the design of requirements of work in
relation to the physical and psychological capabilities and limitations
of people: that is, ergonomics seeks to fit the job to the person rather
than the person to the job. The aim of the discipline is to prevent the
development of occupational disorders and to reduce the potential for
fatigue, error, or unsafe acts through the evaluation and design of
facilities, environments, jobs, tasks, tools, equipment, processes, and
training methods to match the capabilities of specific workers. It is
also known as human factors engineering.
Although there is no current OSHA standard for ergonomics, California
has come out with their own ergonomics regulation adopted November 14,
1996 by the California Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board.
Also the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) is working on a
comprehensive ergonomics standard which is due for review any day now.
With a new director, OSHA should again bring up the ergonomics standard
sometime in 1998. With the number of work place injuries rising with
ergonomic related causes, increased attention needs to be paid to
developing methods to identify causes, adapt the process to the person,
and then monitor.
Some Ergonomics Web sites are:
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