The U.S. Occupational Safety & Health Administration’s (OSHA) current regulations for The Control of Hazardous Energy standard (also known as ‘lockout/tagout or LO/TO) means that any piece of equipment being serviced must be completely switched off with all controls prevented from being able to be accidentally turned on.

The SGIA is concerned that whilst the regulations are aimed at keeping operators safe, the regulations risk preventing PSPs from operating equipment safely and efficiently.

According to the SGIA, OSHA has lost several court cases where companies have proven that employees can service and maintain equipment using certain safety systems without the need to turn off the machine completely.

We need to educate OSHA on the ways existing and newly introduced safety systems allow operators to perform more activities in a safe manner, so we don’t lose this ability”

In response to the revisions, the SGIA has organised the collection of data in the form of an ‘industry-wide task force’ comprising of the SGIA and 16 other printing industry trade associations, which it plans to submit to OSHA by August 19th. 

Gary Jones, director of environmental, health and safety affairs at SGIA comments: “The printing industry has been able to work under an interpretation by OSHA that certain production activities done during makeready – some as simple as changing a plate or screen – can be safely accomplished using the ‘inch-safe-service’ method with stop/safe buttons while equipment is energised.

“Without that interpretation, PSPs will add anywhere from minutes to hours to their production cycles. We need to educate OSHA on the ways existing and newly introduced safety systems allow operators to perform more activities in a safe manner, so we don’t lose this ability.”

If you have any news, please email carys@linkpublishing.co.uk or join in with the conversation on Twitter and LinkedIn.

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