Coronavirus Safety for Arborists

by | Mar 16, 2020 | Safety | 0 comments

Coronavirus Safety for Arborists

By now, everyone has been inundated with information from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) regarding the Coronavirus, however, I have yet to see an article directly relating to the unique exposures that a tree care company has to the virus.

Unfortunately, many arborists are not that concerned with contracting the virus because they work outside and do not have much exposure to other people.

This can be a very dangerous attitude to take especially in an industry with a labor shortage, so I wanted to outline a few areas to consider within your tree care company to limit the spread of any illness throughout your entire team. These are, of course, in addition to the guidelines already posted by the CDC.

Are your company issued PPE’s actually personal? – If your safety equipment (specifically, helmets, eye protection, face shields, chaps, respirators) is not being assigned to a specific employee, now is the time to get out the Sharpie and start writing someone’s name on each piece.

Trucks – Place a container of sanitizing wipes in each truck and make a thorough wipe down of the interior of the cab (including the door handles, steering wheel, gear shifter, radio controls, door locks and window controls) part of your pre and post trip inspections.

Chainsaws and other Handheld Equipment – Just like the trucks, sanitize any hand held equipment after each new person uses the equipment and at the end of each day.

Video Conferencing – Utilize technology like Zoom or Webex to deliver your safety meetings and the morning crew duties and assignments to limit the amount of face to face interaction.

Electronic Proposal Delivery – Just like using technology to talk with your team members, implementing an electronic proposal delivery system helps minimize spreading germs directly to and from customers. It also has the added benefit of streamlining paper processing time for you office crew.

Remote Office – Speaking of your office crew, using a cloud based remote desktop server, your office team can be fully operational anywhere in the world. If you are not yet using a cloud server, hopefully the current situation we are in will give you added incentive to get one in place. It also will double as information security in case of a large loss at your office, like a fire or tornado.

By no means is this list all-inclusive, so take a few moments and think about every aspect of a team member’s day and how you can limit their exposure to germs inside your shop and out on the jobsite. Doing this will certainly reduce the risk of your employees contracting the virus at work.

Written by: Eric Petersen

1 Storm – 4 lives

by | Nov 26, 2019 | Safety | 0 comments

1 Storm – 4 Lives. When will enough be enough?

Storms ripped through northern Wisconsin on July 19th and 20th, 2019 toppling thousands of trees and causing a tremendously dangerous cleanup effort, which in turn ended in tragedy for 4 individuals. Four separate deaths have been reported from tree cleanup activities related to this storm. Four!!

While the details about each of these events are still under investigation, multiple factors played a role in these four families being changed forever.

Were these individuals Certified Arborists or have any training in professional tree care? Were they getting paid to do the storm cleanup work or just helping out a friend or neighbor? I don’t know those answers and not to sound crass, frankly I don’t care. They died and they shouldn’t have.

How can we as an industry still allow this to happen? How can we as human beings still allow this to happen?

After attending my first ANSI Z133 meeting this past April as a guest, I made a commitment to myself and the people that I work with both on my team and my clients that I would read every one of the Accident Briefs in the TCIA Magazine to learn even more about what is happening every day in the tree care industry. Reading these small articles does one major thing for me, it pisses me off. It pisses me off that people are still dying and severely injuring themselves almost daily.

It’s said that the pain of change is only acceptable when the pain of remaining stagnant is unbearable. Well I’ve hit that point. One storm and four deaths is unacceptable.

While traveling home from the second Z meeting that I have attended I could not help but write this article as I feel responsible that four of my fellow Wisconsinites won’t be celebrating Christmas this year. They won’t be able to enjoy another Green Bay Packer Super Bowl victory or be able to choose to retire when they want. Their fate was sealed and now all that is left are a bunch of “what if’s”.

So where are you going with this Eric? Every one of us has a responsibility to ourselves and our community (family members, neighbors, employees, coworkers) to help put an end to this mayhem. Pick up a copy of the Z133. Study it. Ask questions about it. Talk to everyone you can about it. But most importantly, follow it! These safety standards were written in blood. Don’t let the next one be written about your blood or someone’s that you love.

Join me in the fight that together we can make a difference and help every arborist get home safe each night.

Written by: Eric Petersen

Peer to Peer Gear Inspection

by | Nov 4, 2019 | Safety | 0 comments

Peer to Peer Gear Inspection

By Peggy Drescher

The first step to an accident involves the false belief that experience makes you invulnerable. Seventy-five percent (75%) of all work-related fatalities in the United States come from making a mistake while doing routine work.

Every year at the International Society of Arboriculture International Tree Climbing Championship – World Championship, they hold a gear inspection for climbers and volunteers. Guidelines are maintained regarding competition gear and all competitors and all volunteers who will be working aloft during a competition or its set-up must submit to an inspection of all equipment and equipment systems before entering an event safety zone. This is one of the most important aspects of this competition. If your gear does not pass inspection, you do not participate unless it is corrected and passed by the head judge.

Why not take this routine and build it into your safety program? Although employees should be checking their gear on a daily basis, thoughts like, “I checked it yesterday, my gear is all right, I’ve climbed on it a hundred times, nothings gone wrong, etc.” normalizing and complacency can get in the way.

One way to combat this issue is to do a peer to peer gear inspection on a monthly basis. Some tips to get this going in your company.

You need commitment if you want to establish and sustain an effective new program so make sure you and your management/safety team are on board. You are steering the ship!
Write it into your safety policy. For example, we will perform a peer to peer gear inspection every month on the first Wednesday after dispatch.

Explain it to your crew why this is important and that this is to support the idea of helping each other out. It is not to bust people – it is because you care about each other and another set of eyes is always helpful. It is to correct a conflict with equipment that could cause an accident.
This can be a great way to mentor new employees. Have a veteran employee paired up with a newer employee. Hopefully this will help to invite questions from your crew as to why someone may think the gear is lacking in some way. It is imperative that your employees feel comfortable asking questions and bringing issues up to each other. Or perhaps you can have the crew that is working together that day check each other’s gear out.

Always have a specific area designated for this inspection. Whether this is outside or in a corner of your shop, a dedicated space brings validity to the importance of the gear check and eliminates an excuse for not doing it.

If something has to be taken out of service you must have a backup inventory so there isn’t temptation to ask or allow someone to use the flawed gear for the sake of production.

Train employees on how to properly inspect equipment. Explain it is your duty as part of the Z-133 safety requirements.

Gear inspection should be a dialog, a safe place for employees and management to talk to each other. Encourage your team to take not only responsibility for themselves but others too!

Here are some other helpful links surrounding safety and gear checks…

https://www.itcc-isa.com/Portals/0/Docs/2018-ITCC-Gear-Check-Form.pdf

https://www.itcc-isa.com/Portals/0/docs/rules_Equipment_2016GearCheckInstructions.pdf

Who Your Safety Director is Matters

by | Oct 29, 2019 | Safety | 0 comments

Who Your Safety Director Is Matters

A Safety Director is an important position in your company. But why do we just put any person available in this position? We, as an industry, must put a person in the Safety Director’s position that is fully equipped for the job. We sometimes give this position the last thought when hiring people. Why is that? Safety is the most important part of our job; yet we do not want to spend the resources into hiring the right person to fill the Safety Director position. A proper Safety Director can make or break your tree care business. Improper handling of the staff can create chaos in your company; proper handling of the staff will create a culture in your business where safety flourishes.

To fill the Safety Director position, you must find a person who is fluent with climbing skills, grounds person skills, equipment guidelines, PHC guidelines and MSDS rules, ANSI Z and OSHA Standards, computer skills, record keeping, training skills, middle management skills, etc. He or she must be familiar with all these skills – excellent at some, good at others, but able to perform all of them. He or she must be a strong personality that can handle safety infractions and incidents with a calm manner. This may include things such as a consequence schedule established for safety infractions – first offense warning, second offense suspension, third offense termination. At all times, the Safety Director should be seeking out information to help educate themselves and then educate their crews.

All these actions are hard on the Safety Director – to take disciplinary actions and apply them to crew members, and at times what used to be fellow crew members. They need to establish a culture that promotes safety. They need to be available to have safety talks with each crew or individually. They need to be understanding and firm at the same time.

Make sure you choose a level headed person for this position. Do extensive interviews, ask the right questions, have the person applying for the position do a performance test such as climb the tree, run the chipper, or PHC treatments. There is nothing wrong in testing their knowledge. After all, your crew’s safety and your money are on the line.

Make sure as a company owner you fill the position with a qualified person for the Safety Director position. Make sure they have enough well-rounded experience; your crews will recognize a Safety Director that is trying too hard to convince the crews of his knowledge in some area or acts like an expert – and in all truth is not an expert. Choose someone that the company can trust and is a welcome help rather than a hindrance.

For more help with your hiring and recruiting needs, contact an ArboRisk crew member today!

Written by: Dawn Thierbach

Know Your Crew

by | Oct 15, 2019 | Safety | 0 comments

Importance of Knowing Your Crew

Written by Margaret Hebert

If one of your employees acted dizzy, shaky, and confused, would you just assume they had a few too many the night before and tell them to work it off?

However, if you knew this employee is diabetic and knew that these are symptoms of low blood sugar, you’d be much more concerned and would take appropriate action.

This is just one example of the importance of knowing your crew when it comes to serious health concerns.

Although most non-fatal tree worker incidents are due to trauma, there are also incidents related to illnesses and medical conditions. It’s important that you and your crew members are not only aware of any serious medical conditions fellow workers have, but also know how to properly respond to emergencies that may arise as a result.

Two common chronic medical conditions are diabetes and allergies. Both conditions can require prescription medications, so it’s important to know about the condition and make sure they carry the medication with them.

A person with diabetes may exhibit symptoms of high blood sugar or low blood sugar. Since low blood sugar occurs when the person doesn’t eat enough food for the energy they are exerting, this is likely to be what happens with tree workers. Symptoms of low blood sugar include shakiness, confusion, dizziness, headache, excess sweating, excess hunger, irritability, and pale skin.

Diabetics should always carry with them sugary food and/or drinks in case they experience low blood sugar. They may even carry glucose tablets that are made specifically for treating this condition. Co-workers should know where these are in case the person needs help getting them. If the person becomes unconscious, call 911 immediately and do not force food or drink.

Someone with severe allergies can experience anaphylaxis, or anaphylactic shock, when exposed to an allergen such as certain foods, insect stings, or plants like poison ivy. Anaphylaxis includes swelling of the airway and a sudden drop in blood pressure, both which are life threatening. Always make sure anyone who has been prescribed an epinephrine auto-injector has it with them, that crew members are aware of the allergy(ies), and that crew members know where the auto-injector is kept and how to use it.

Because of the critical nature of anaphylactic shock and because a second reaction called biphasic reaction can occur as long as 12 hours after the initial reaction, you should call 911 and get to the nearest emergency facility even if epinephrine has been administered and the person seems “fine.”

These and other conditions and how to respond to them are covered in your first aid/CPR training that is required by ANSI Z133 – 2017 Safety Requirements, section 3.2.5. Keep current with your training and “Know Your Crew!”

Your Role Before the Paramedics Get There!

by | Sep 24, 2019 | Safety | 0 comments

Your Role Before the Paramedics Get There!

The accident happens, the victim is rescued and down from the tree. Now, you are waiting for the ambulance to arrive; you have already gone to the truck to get the First Aid kit. Upon opening the First Aid kit you discover there is nothing in there to help your victim.

We, as an industry, need to re-think how the First Aid kit is stocked. This article is meant to help guide you when setting up your First Aid kit to ensure you have the right pieces to save a life before the paramedics get to the scene.

In addition to the traditional bandages, gauze and medical tape, your First Aid kit should also contain:

At least two tourniquets
Israeli Bandages
Compressed Bandages
Nasal Trumpet (nasopharyngeal airway)
SAM Splint

All First Aid kits on the truck should have these materials, however, it is also a good idea for a climber and a ground person to carry a small personal First Aid pouch with them whether in the tree or on the ground. The climber can carry it attached to his climbing harness with a carabiner and the ground person can carry one hooked to his belt with a Velcro strap.

The aforementioned tourniquet can be used with one hand for the climber to apply. It will take practice, but when you sever an artery, you will be glad you learned how to use it. With a severed artery, you have less than four minutes to survive. You know it is going to take longer for a rescuer to climb up the tree to retrieve you and descend with you than four minutes. Carrying a tourniquet as a climber could possibly save your life!

For the ground person, saving a crew member, having the tourniquet on your person rather than running back to the truck to retrieve the first aid kit saves time and possibly a life.

The Israeli Bandage and compression bandages are another great item to have in your First Aid kit on the ground person’s kit. They can be used as a tourniquet or compressed bandages for the head, chest, arms and legs. Compressed bandages can be used to help stop bleeding for gaping wounds.

The nasal trumpet can be used to create ease of breathing. All you must do is cut the tube of the nasal trumpet to the person’s nose length and then firmly insert.

The SAM splint is used to treat broken bones and possibly create a neck brace to lessen mobility so the rescuer can bring the victim down.

Personalizing your own First Aid kit to include anything that you think might be an advantage for saving your crew member’s life is an important part of taking safety seriously. Remember you are the first responder and if you are well prepared it might save your or your crew member’s life.

Because training is required for most of these life-saving methods, we would encourage you to contact our ArboRisk Thrive Consultants, Dawn Thierbach or Margaret Spencer, to sign up for one of their upcoming Trauma Classes.

Written by: Dawn Thierbach