Being prepared to handle accidents will limit their severity and shop impact

All accidents can be prevented, many industry safety experts contend. While this may be an arguable point, shops should have a plan in place to deal with them if they do occur.

Like many industries that use heavy equipment, the collision repair and refinishing trade is subject to potential hazards at every turn. Just some of these include hydraulic pulling machines; broken glass; ripped, exposed sharp steel edges; spills of all types (Fig 1); high-voltage welders (and now high-voltage cars); damaged batteries, which could have either alkaline or acidic toxins; chemicals that can potentially damage blood, liver, lungs and nerves; and irritants that expose workers to allergic reactions, lung damage or even cancer.

Exposure to some of the above hazards can result in an acute and immediate emergency. Such a situation requires quick responses from either in-shop trained employees or first respondents, such as ambulance or fire department personnel – and sometimes both. Other exposures may result in the slow onset of symptoms, but can cause long-term and sometimes permanent disabilities. Acute emergencies may result from just one exposure, such as being cut by ripped steel and needing stitches. Long-term exposure causes other situations, such as needing a thumb joint replacement after many years (30+, in my case) using a DA and other such tools. Hearing loss also is gradual, and most technicians don't notice this slow deterioration until they find that they need to ask others to repeat themselves often.

Accidents regularly occur during normal daily shop activities. Accidents that lead to emergencies can often be prevented – or at least have their severity lessened – if a shop has a well thought-out emergency plan. Also, in this post-9/11 environment, shops need to plan for emergencies that could be caused by outside forces as well. We often spend a great deal of time making production procedures and policies; we should also spend the time to produce an emergency response plan for our shops.

Having a written emergency plan with prevention as its goal is essential. Making sure that all safety guards are on tools and being used, safety glasses are being worn and that all personal protective equipment is in good working order and being used are the types of details that can prevent or minimize mishaps.

The emergency plan

The written plan should designate individuals to take on specific responsibilities, such as regularly checking the business's safety and emergency equipment to be assured that items are operative and available. Fire extinguishers, eye wash stations (Fig 2), spill kits, first aid kits and fire blankets should be stocked and functioning. The person or persons designated should also check that the material safety data sheets (MSDS) are up-to-date and available. A scheduled checking routine should make sure that all signs and labels are in place and operating, that all equipment and material labels are in place and that emergency equipment access has not been blocked.

There should be written policies regarding preventive measures such as personal protective devices (PPD) – items including safety glasses, gloves, respirators and protective clothing – proper labeling and storage of potentially hazardous materials, as well as using bonding straps with flammable items. A specific person should also be responsible for making sure that these preventive measures are observed. That person could be trained to teach new employees both the proper use of respirators, and how they should be put on and stored when removed. As well, this individual should know how to administer the yearly respirator testing (Fig 3).

The emergency plan should designate a primary person and an alternate as the "first responder," or the person responsible for such things as first aid, personal injury care, evacuation, fire response, electrical accidents and chemical spills, among other problems. These individuals should be trained to respond to acute injury – that is, they should be able to administer first aid until Emergency Medical Services (EMS) has arrived. The first aid kit should be readily available.

A second person, designated to call for EMS aid and inform management of the emergency, should follow a planned call procedure. Most U.S. locations now use 911 for calling fire, EMS and police assistance; if this differs in your area, a list of necessary phone numbers should be created.

Staff should know in advance what hospital to contact; employee emergency contact information should be available to consult as needed. If chemicals or other hazardous materials are involved, a specific individual should be designated to get the appropriate MSDS to accompany the injured to the emergency room. If blood or other bodily fluids have been spilled, a plan to clean and disinfect any contaminated area for possible blood-borne pathogens should be in place. Blood Borne Pathogens cleanup instructions are available online.

Care should be taken when assigning these responsibilities so one person is not responsible for multiple tasks that may occur together. The person responsible for administering first aid, for example, could not also direct an evacuation.

Some of the easiest measures to implement to prevent accidents may seem to be common sense, but they are easily overlooked during a busy day. Reducing shop clutter by having technicians use mobile tool carts to store tools when not in use is one example. Parts carts (Fig 4), which help organize the work area, not only make a technician more efficient, but also safer; tools spread on the floor are very dangerous. Empty boxes should regularly be removed from the workplace. A waste canister should be available for each technician for non-hazardous materials instead of placing them on the floor; there should also be a covered waste container for contaminated waste for each technician. It has been well established that the more clutter (Fig 5) in which technicians work, the more likely they are to have a workplace accident.

Although an argument is sometimes made that taking the time to clean the work area reduces productivity, long-term studies have shown that the cleaner the workplace, the more productive, profitable and safe it is. Paint rooms, which are notorious for being a cluttered and dirty environment, are one of the areas that can benefit the most from being kept clean and clutter free (Fig 6).

Labeling

Workplace labels (Fig 7.1 & 7.2) should be on all unmarked containers. MSDS' must accompany any hazardous material sent to a workplace. These sheets contain a great deal of information regarding the hazardous materials that are being used; they must be available to all employees (Fig 8) and should accompany anyone transported to an emergency room by EMS if hazardous materials were involved.

MSDS documents provided by the manufacturer must be divided into at least nine sections:

1. Product information

2. Hazardous ingredients

3. Physical data

4. Fire and explosion hazards

5. Reactive data

6. Health hazard data, or toxic properties

7. Preventive measures

8. First aid measures

9. MSDS preparation information

The information of specific sections is useful for knowing how to respond to that hazard. In section 7, for example, technicians and companies will find information relating to the personal protection devices that should be used when working with the particular product. In section 8, the person providing first aid will find the treatments for that product. Firefighters may need to refer to section 4, and a treating physician will be interested in sections 2 and 6. Having up-to-date and quickly available MSDS information is vitally important.

Other precautions should also be followed. No food or drink should be in areas where it can become contaminated, and smoking should be restricted to non-hazardous areas. Exit signs and fire extinguisher signs should be working and in place (Fig 9); safety guards and bonding straps should be used; and lighting should be sufficient and regularly maintained for a safe working environment.

Shops should also develop written policies (Fig 10) regarding booth filters, safety glasses, welding masks, respirators, dust/particle masks and air supply respirators to assure that they are in working order and are used. Technicians should be fit-tested regularly. "Both United States and Canadian workplace safety and health rules require that workers who must wear a respirator receive a medical evaluation to determine the employees' ability to use a respirator." (I-CAR, 2007)

Protective gloves of varying types should be available to workers in the areas where they are needed. Gloves such as nitrile gloves are needed for guarding against splashes of chemicals. Heavier chemical-resistant gloves for cleaning, or for jobs where a worker's hands are submerged in solvents should be available and used. Welding gloves are necessary to protect technicians from UV rays and acute burns (Fig 11).

The workers cleaning up spills should protect themselves from harm. To do this, they must know what type of spill has occurred, and should be trained in both acid and alkaline cleanup and neutralization.

Flammable materials and supplies should be stored either in a specifically designed area with containers grounded using bonding straps (Fig 13) to reduce sparks, or in a specifically designed storage cabinet. Static electricity can build in and around electrically driven equipment. This electrical charge, if discharged as a spark, can cause serious damage, potentially igniting flammable liquids, such as paint thinner. To guard against this happening, a grounding system should connect all potentially flammable liquids. Though most workers see the logic of this safety step, not all use the grounding straps in a shop. All potentially explosive storage containers should be grounded at all times. If static electricity builds on a container, the ground will drain it off and no spark is likely to occur.

The storage cabinets and areas should meet the local, state and federal requirements for your area. Typical are requirements such as storage away from excess heat and sunlight; having a door that can be (and is) closed and secured; good ventilation; signs identifying hazardous materials storage areas; an up-to-date inventory list to aid firefighters; and a location away from electrical fuse boxes and panels. Staff should check storage containers periodically to be assured that they are not leaking or damaged. With the storage area equipped with a spill dam, any spillage will be contained inside for cleanup.

Electrical

With the abundance of water in the body shop, especially in the paint department, electrical shock is a potential hazard. Because of this, many paint shops rely on air-powered tools, greatly reducing the risk of electrical hazards.

Some of the safest shops are the ones that plan ahead and provide protective devices such as ground fault circuit interrupters panic buttons and banding, just to name a few. These are as important as safety glasses and respirators in a collision shop.

All of us need to realize that the most valuable tool in a shop is the worker. None of us want to see a fellow worker hurt. Additionally, from a production standpoint, a worker off on sick leave affects shop productivity.

Body shops are notorious for having wet floors, particularly in the paint department. And though the majority of the tools are driven by air and do not pose a risk when operated in those wet areas, some tools are driven by electricity, namely buffing and polishing equipment. If electrical tools must be used around wet areas, the outlet should be equipped with a ground fault circuit interrupter (Fig 14), or GFCI, which might also be called a GFI. This safety device will trip if it detects a ground fault of very low amperes (for a class A GFCI, a ground fault of 0.004 to 0.006 ampere). This protects workers from dangerous shocks. Though electrical equipment should not be used in wet areas, a GFCI will protect workers in those situations. In most areas, GFCI's are required by code. (The one shown in Fig. 14 is 20A – notice the sideways T.)

Another electrical precaution is an emergency shut-off button, often called panic buttons. When these buttons are pushed, all electrical power is shut off (except lights, so someone suffering from an electrical accident can be treated by the first responder). If no panic buttons are available, someone should be responsible for turning off the power before any one touches the victim.

Hybrids and electric vehicles

With the increase of electric hybrid vehicles, body shops must be prepared for electrical emergencies. Preventive measures should be observed, such as disconnecting the high voltage battery whenever possible when working on a hybrid or EV. Have technicians trained to work safely on hybrid vehicles and have the needed safety equipment (Fig 15) available for the technicians, along with their taking the normal safety precautions.

It could be argued that when working with automotive high voltage, the most important PPD is a set of rubber-insulated lineman's gloves. The gloves should be rated at 1000V AC (class 0) and tested before each use. Some simple but vital cautions should be observed when using lineman's gloves. Because they are rubber and they will be used around metal, they could become damaged – and even a pinhole could allow high voltage in. So each time before they are used, they should be checked for leaks by rolling them up from the cuff and inflating them (Fig 16). Also, if they get wet or your hands are damp when using them, they may not provide the protection that is needed. I have even seen a recommendation that after the lineman's gloves are put on, a second pair of work gloves should be worn over them, to protect against damage to the rubber gloves while they are in use.

Training

All of the business' employees should be trained in emergency response. A list of primary and secondary responders should be posted. Emergency contacts such as police, fire, hospital and insurance provider telephone numbers should also be posted. The emergency plan should be reviewed regularly to make sure that all are aware of their responsibilities. An evacuation plan should be posted with a specific meeting place in a safe area, so someone can make sure that everyone is accounted for. A plan for emergencies such as earthquake, tornado, flood, etc., should be pre-planned, reviewed and posted. The business also should have a warning system that is tested periodically with test drills so all employees know what to do when the alarm sounds.

A safety class for all employees, such as I-CAR's "Hazardous Materials, Personal Safety and Refinish Safety" (WKR01), is a useful asset to a company safety plan. No matter how a business creates its shop emergency plan, the shop that has specific written plans that are posted, practiced and reviewed on a regular basis is better equipped to correctly and effectively respond in case of an emergency.