Environmental, Health and Safety Consulting

It is an employer’s responsibility to provide a safe work environment for his/her employees. As such, one of the areas of great safety risk to employees concerns hazardous energy. Subsequently, a well developed and effective program to control hazardous energy through a lockout/tagout (LOTO) program is of utmost importance. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has promulgated rules with regards to this area in 29 CFR 1910.147.

The purpose of a LOTO program is to ensure before an employee performs any servicing or maintenance on machinery or equipment, where the unexpected energizing, startup or release of any type of energy could occur and cause injury, the machine or equipment shall be isolated from the energy source and rendered inoperative. The employer needs to establish a program consisting of energy control procedures, employee training and periodic inspections. One of the most important and time-consuming of these tasks is the development of the energy control procedures. The regulatory standard describes this specific requirement in 29 CFR 1910.147[c](4). Exceptions to the requirement also are noted in this section of the regulation.

To learn more about Lockout/Tagout, click here to read an article written by an Health & Safety Compliance expert at August Mack Environmental.