OSHA Guidelines for Woodworkers

Personal Protective Equipment for a Woodworking Shop

A modern woodworking shop is replete with a wide range of hazards that must be taken into account in their design and operation, including the need for appropriate personal protective equipment for individual employees (Tizard, 2009). Using Subpart I, Appendix B of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration's (OSHA) Personal Protective Equipment Standard as a guide, this paper provides an assessment of a woodworking shop to determine what hazards are present that necessitate the use of personal protective equipment. Based on this assessment, appropriate personal protective equipment are identified and recommended for use by affected employees. Finally, a summary of the research and important findings concerning workplace hazard assessments are presented in the conclusion.

Workplace Assessment. Although every woodworking shop is unique in some fashion, it is possible to conduct a hazard assessment that can identify potential hazards that are specific to the workplace environment, which should include the following items:

Impact

Penetration

Compression (roll-over)

Chemicals

Heat

Harmful dust

Light (optical) radiation (Personal protective equipment standards, 2014).

Following the completion of the hazard assessment, appropriate personal protective equipment should be selected based on the general and specific requirements for a woodworking shop as noted below (employees purchasing and using their own equipment are required to use the same criteria as the employer):

General Requirements for a Woodworking Shop. Any industrial working environment can be a dangerous place, but this is especially the case with modern woodworking shops. For example, according to OSHA, "Woodworking operations can be hazardous, particularly when machines are used improperly or without proper safeguards" (OSHA woodworking, 2014, para. 2). In response to this need, Appendix B of OSHA's PPE standard requires protective equipment (including personal protective equipment for eyes, face, head, and extremities, protective clothing, respiratory devices, and protective shields and barriers) in all workplaces. In addition, the standard requires that all protective equipment shall be maintained in appropriate condition in those cases where it is required for hazardous types of work, including toxic chemical and mechanical irritants that can harm humans through physical contact, through inhalation or via absorption through the skin. Furthermore, employers are required to provide employees with the training that is necessary to use protective equipment properly and to keep such training up-to-date when protective equipment changes are made.

Specific Requirements for a Woodworking Shop.

Eye and face protections such as face shields or spectacles with side protectors (see Figure 1 below), as appropriate, are mandated by Appendix B, and provisions must be made for employees who were prescription glasses.

Figure 1. OSHA-approved safety glasses with side shields

Source: http://img.directindustry.com/images_di/photo-g/-112127-4046494.jpg

In addition, head protections such as hardhats and foot protections such as steel-toed- or bottomed-boots may be needed. Likewise, some woodworking shop employees may also require hearing protection such as industrial earmuffs (see Figure 2 below) because of the noisy work environment.

Figure 2. OSHA-approved ear protection

Source: http://www.caulfieldindustrial.com/product_images/32bda22a-2ec4-4965-9cac-b75e246468b0/22-238W_L.jpg

For instance, the editors of the Journal of Environmental Health emphasize that because of the numerous table saws, circular saws, routers and other woodworking equipment used today, noise represents a particularly troublesome problem in the woodworking industry: "In the woodworking industry, the sound levels of saws can be as high as 106 dB. Average sound levels range between 92 and 96 dB. The recorded peak values are between 117 and 136 dB" (Occupational and community noise, 2001, p. 48).

Because woodworking shops can also be highly dusty working environments that also contain toxic fumes or vapors, workers may require respirators are part of their personal protective equipment. Finally, appropriate guards and hand protections must be provided by workers that use potentially hazardous woodworking equipment except in those cases where their use would interfere with their safe operation (Woodworking and personal protective equipment, 2014).