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Pulp & Paper

From loading and unloading timber to working around chippers and conveyors, the Pulp and Paper industry poses significant risks to employees and potential fines to employers.

With a value of nearly $100 billion, the pulp and paper industry is among the most vital in the world. America’s paper manufacturers employ more than 355,000 workers, making them global leaders in this industry.

OSHA requires that certain safeguards are in place for workers in the industry, and SafeRack can help your business meet them. We offer custom specialty platforms that help improve worker safety, ergonomics, and productivity. SafeRack representatives will come to your site and help you with railcar or truck loading/unloading applications. We’ll visit your site to better understand your particular challenges and to make sure we provide you with exactly what you need to get your job done safely, efficiently, and cost-effectively. It’s simple: our job is to make your job easy.

Employee safety should always come first, and addressing the potential hazards within the industry is crucial for reducing the number of injuries and fatalities that occur each year at pulp and paper companies.

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10 Minute Tips: Pulp and Paper Mill Safety Reminders

How Paper is Made — From timber to wood pellets as raw material to paper production

Here are the four leading areas of concern regarding pulp and paper mill safety:

Noise Hazard Reduction

Noise-induced hearing loss is one of the most prevalent occupational health hazards facing American workers, affecting approximately 30 million people at their worksites each day. Papermill employees are among those workers regularly exposed to extremely harmful levels of noise for prolonged periods of time.

While noise-induced hearing loss is irreversible, it is preventable and its risk can be reduced via the application of noise controls and occupational hearing loss prevention programs.

In addition to frequently monitoring your plant’s noise levels, you should also utilize low-noise machinery and noise barriers. You must also provide effective ear protection for your workers, implement a safety program focused on PPE compliance, and keep abreast on all emerging noise-reduction solutions.

Chemical Hazard Prevention

The paper and pulp industry consumes a huge amount of wood, water, and other resources each year, creating significant amounts of solid waste and wastewater that must be treated.

Paper mills also use a wide range of substances that are hazardous to employees’ health, as well as dangerous to your surrounding communities. The substances include sulfuric acid, chlorine, chlorine dioxide, and other gaseous sulfur compounds.

These chemical hazards should be handled in multiple ways.

For starters, proper labeling and storage are essential, as is the use of spill berms and spill containment pallets. Properly marked shower and eyewash locations should also be located in each employee workstation

Workers must not handle any chemicals without appropriate PPE. The PPE must be in good condition and fit properly in order to provide appropriate protection. Employees must also be provided with replacement PPE as its condition deteriorates.

from wood pellets to toilet paper — From wood pellets to paper: Saferack’s MAUI truck mobile loading platform in action in the industrial processing of wood pellets to toilet paper.

Mechanical Equipment Hazard Mitigation

Equipment-related hazards can pose significant risks to your employees, as well as considerable fines for your company.

Workers may be struck or crushed by falling, rolling, or sliding pulpwood loads or suffer lacerations, amputations, or worse from the misuse of equipment — especially if it’s used improperly or without proper safeguards.

Employees should not work on machines lacking proper safeguards. All guards must be inspected on a regular basis so that issues can be spotted and worked stopped until safety problems can be resolved.

Also, strict protocols should be followed for shutting down equipment during maintenance and repairs. Proper lockout/tagout processes must also be employed in order to control hazardous energy when traditional controls have been removed or briefly disabled.

OSHA-compliant fall protection must be used when loading and unloading flatbed trailers, and other safety enhancements like customized work platforms, durable guardrails, and metal handrail systems that can further bolster the safety of your mill by improving stability, ergonomics, and productivity in and around equipment.

Human Error Prevention

While your employees don’t try to become injured on the job, human factors like fatigue, distraction, and working on auto-pilot can significantly increase the likelihood and risk of accidents.

Training your workers to be aware of these conditions and counteract them will help them prevent mistakes, such as overlooking lockout/tagout steps and other vital procedures before, during, or at the end of their shifts.

These training programs will also help them identify and report unsafe work conditions, as well as help keep each other safe in the event coworkers forget to follow safe work practices.

Top Loading Arm

Black Liquor Handling

Top Loading Arm

White Liquor Handling

metal gangway for chemical loading

Green Liquor (Spent Pulping Liquor) Handling

Is your plant or facility compliant with ANSI, OSHA, and local safety codes? We can help!

EMERGENCY EYEWASHES / SHOWER EQUIPMENT AND THE ANSI/ISEA Z358.1 – 2014 STANDARD

Following eye contact, you must start washing with water immediately to prevent permanent damage. In the event of skin contact, you must start washing with water immediately to prevent slow-healing chemical burns.

Are you aware that ANSI guidelines state that Eye Wash/Drench Showers need to be located 10 seconds or 55′ from contaminates or hazardous materials and located on the same horizontal plane, with no obstructions? If bottom loading/unloading, an additional shower should be located at grade as well. SafeRack provides the above equipment plus much more needed to keep employees safe and expedite bulk chemical loading and unloading.

OSHA Regulation Experts – Does your existing chemical safety equipment or chemical loading systems meet OSHA’s latest requirements? SafeRack’s professional technical sales consultants are available to meet with your team to make recommendations to keep your facility in front of OSHA’s ever-changing country and region-specific standards and regulations, including lifeline and trolley beam fall arrest systems, metal stairs, and access platforms.

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