Providing a safe and secure workplace for employees and visitors is one of the most important responsibilities of a management team. That is why management must establish and enforce rigorous safety protocols and measures to prevent workplace accidents. Failure to do so can lead not only to injuries and fatalities of the workers caught in the accident, but it can also lead to biohazards in the form of spillage of what we’ll simply refer to as medical waste.
Why Are Biohazards Dangerous?
Biohazards carry harmful germs and bacteria that can infect the people in the contaminated space with chronic and sometimes even untreatable diseases. To make matters worse, one does not necessarily even need to come into contact with any surface or materials tainted with biohazardous substances to become sick. If airborne virus or bacteria enter the air system, they can quickly spread throughout the space or even the entire facility, infecting everyone there.
Moreover, most of the diseases and infections spread through biohazardous substances can be incredibly resilient and can survive for days in the contaminated environment. Hepatitis C, for example, can survive in air for as long as three weeks. Another virus that might spread from biohazardous materials is HIV.
How to Prevent Workplace Injuries
Discourage Risky Behavior
Workplace accidents can sometimes be a consequence of employees pushing themselves too hard or too far in an effort to impress the management. To prevent this, you should discourage such behavior, by introducing penalties for injurious behaviors and actions.
Train Your Employees
A lack of training for handling tools and equipment required used in the job can be a leading cause of workplace accidents and contributor to biohazards in the workplace. For instance, if you’re a manufacturing business relying on heavy machinery to manufacture your products, you should thoroughly and regularly train your employees on using the machines.
Additionally, you should brief them on the safety protocols they need to follow when handling the machine such as maintaining a certain distance from the equipment. Not doing so can lead to the workers sustaining injuries such as lacerations which would also contaminate the machine and the work area with possible biohazardous substances.
Encourage the Use of Safety Gear
When working with machines or sharp tools, it is quite easy to sustain small cuts and scratches. While such an injury may seem insignificant to you, do keep in mind that even a single drop of blood is enough to infect a large portion of your workforce. Therefore, encourage and insist your employees to use the proper safety gear when working such as gloves, googles, boots, etc.
Wrapping It Up
Enforcing the above-mentioned precautions can help prevent workplace accidents. However, sometimes, even the most sure-fire precautions can fall short, leading to workplace injuries. For cases such as these, STOP Restoration of Spokane offers you the most comprehensive and thorough biohazard cleanup services to ensure that one unfortunate event does not lead to another. Our professionals have been fully trained and equipped, ready to tackle even the most complex situations. Call now on (509) 818-7744and make your workplace safe from biohazards!
