An eight-year-old Occupational Safety and Health Administration standard (29 CFR 1910.147) regulating lockout/tagout requires employers to prevent injuries from the unexpected motion of machines or equipment, which sometimes occurs through the release of stored energy.

So just what is lockout/tagout? Lockout is a way of preventing a machine or piece of equipment from starting up while an authorized person is repairing or servicing it. Typically, the person servicing a machine locks it out by attaching a padlock on the drive mechanism or the electrical control box so the machine can’t physically be turned on. Tagout is another way of controlling a machine’s energy source. An authorized worker prominently displays a warning tag on the machine’s control panel. Other employees know that while the machine is being serviced, they should not turn it on.

At a minimum, the OSHA standard requires newspapers to document a list of each specific servicing and maintenance activity in the plant for printing presses, bindery and finishing systems, and any related equipment; maintain records of written energy procedures for each activity and list which employees they apply to; and train and retrain those employees at least annually.

Among the newspaper industry’s top lockout/tagout imperatives:

Training. Employees who routinely repair and service machines typically know where machine controls and cutoffs are located and tend to understand the importance of safety. But it’s easy for temporary employees to forget safety procedures, says Mark Anderson, environmental health and safety manager at The Orlando Sentinel. “To maintain our lockout/tagout program, we have to do much more frequent training than required by law to keep these things fresh in the mind.”

Celia Booth, Gannett Co.’s manager of safety and loss prevention, agrees. “Make sure your machine operators, such as inserters and bindery operators, are well trained. Especially in the mailroom, where there’s high turnover, sometimes language barriers, and all the other problems of part-time provisional help. These employees often work at newspapers as second jobs at night, which could impact their performance when they’re fatigued.”

Also remember to retrain your employees any time a piece of equipment is replaced or added, advises Elizabeth Miller, the Houston Chronicle’s safety manager. “Check the procedure and make sure it still works, even if the new product is only slightly different from its predecessor.”

Coordinating with contractors. When you hire an outside contractor, make sure both companies inform each other of their respective lockout/tagout procedures and resolve any differences. It is up to the newspaper’s management to keep its employees informed of contractor procedures.

Differentiating between minor servicing and maintenance procedures. Minor tool changes and adjustments, and other minor servicing activities that take place during normal operations, are not covered by the standard “if they are routine, repetitive, and integral to the use of the equipment for production, provided that the work is performed using alternative measures which provide effective protection.” Minor servicing includes tasks like clearing minor paper jams, webbing paper, changing paper rolls, minor cleaning, plating up, cleaning blankets, and lubricating and adjusting operations. One effective alternative to lockout/tagout in such cases is engaging a stop-safe button if available.

If you aren’t sure where to draw the distinction between minor servicing and maintenance, or if you aren’t sure whether the stop-safe option is enough, don’t take any chances. Make sure you reinforce to your employees that it is worth the extra time to use safety precautions.

For more information, four major graphic-arts trade associations have jointly produced a videotape, OSHA’s Lockout/ Tagout Regulation and the Printing Industry, that applies to all commercial printing facilities. The tape is available through NPES for $95; call (703) 264-7200. To receive a free NAA information kit on lockout/tagout, including strategies for setting up a model program, call Allen Cooley at (703) 902-1834. NAA also offers customized on-site training.

Supriya Nayalkar is a free-lance writer based in Washington, D.C. E-mail, SupriyaN@aol.com.

• Adequate and reliable illumination should be provided for all exits.
• Most buildings should have at least two means of egress, remote from each other, “arranged as to minimize any possibility that both may be blocked by any one fire or other emergency conditions.”
• Exit doors should be of the side-hinged, swinging type, and should swing with exit travel when the room or floor is occupied by more than 50 persons.
• Hangings or draperies should not be placed over exit doors or otherwise located so as to conceal or obscure exits.
• Mirrors should not be placed on or near exit doors since they can confuse the direction of exit.
• The minimum width of any exit should be 28 inches.
• Where snow or ice can accumulate, a roof should protect the exit exterior.
• An exterior exit should have no dead ends in excess of 20 feet.
• All exits should discharge directly into a street, yard, court, or open space that provides safe access to public space.
• All doors or passageways that are not exits should be identified by a sign reading “Not an Exit.”
• All exit signs should be illuminated to at least 5 foot-candles.
• Every exit sign should display the word “Exit” in plainly legible letters not less than 6 inches high.
• An exit’s separation from other parts of the building should have at least a one-hour fire-resistance rating when the exit connects three or fewer stories, and at least a two-hour fire-resistance rating when the exit connects four or more stories.

Cooley is an NAA industrial hygienist. E-mail, coola@naa.org; phone, (703) 902-1834; fax, (703) 902-1857.

TechNews Volume 4, Number 6: November/December 1998

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