What is Lockout/Tagout?
Lockout/tagout" (LOTO) refers to specific practices and procedures to safeguard employees from the unexpected energization or startup of machinery and equipment, or the release of hazardous energy during service or maintenance activities.
What is Lockout/Tagout
The standard requires, in part, that a designated individual turns off and disconnects the machinery or equipment from its energy source(s) before performing service or maintenance. It also requires that an authorized employee(s) either lock or tag the energy-isolating device(s) to prevent the release of hazardous energy and take steps to verify that the energy has been isolated effectively.
If the potential exists for the release of hazardous stored energy or for the reaccumulation of stored energy to a hazardous level, the employer must ensure that the employee(s) take steps to prevent injury that may result from the release of the stored energy.
Real Life Scenario
OSHA cites facility after 16-year-old worker pulled into machine, suffers fatal injuries.
A young worker was performing a deep clean of the deboning area. While sanitizing the still-energized machine, the teen was caught in the rotating shaft and sprockets and pulled in, sustaining fatal injuries. Investigators found that lockout/tagout procedures were not used to disconnect power to the machine and a lockout/tagout device was not used.
OSHA cited the company with 14 serious and three other-than-serious violations after finding the company failed to:
- Ensure energy control procedures were used to prevent the unexpected start-up of machines while employees performed sanitation, exposing workers to caught-in hazards.
- Ensure employees used lockout/tagout devices on machinery when performing cleaning.
- Ensure an energy control procedure included specific steps for blocking and securing portions of the machinery while workers performed cleaning.
- Ensure the machinery retained guarding to prevent employees from entering danger zones while machinery was in operation.
- Cover open holes in 480-volt electrical cabinets, exposing workers to electrical hazards.
- Prevent workers from using portable ladders incorrectly to gain access to elevated work surfaces, exposing workers to fall hazards.
OSHA has proposed $212,646 in penalties, an amount set by federal statute. OSHA previously cited a fatal incident about 2 years earlier in which an employee's shirt sleeve was caught in a machine pinning the body against the support and the machine's carousel. Following the first fatal incident the employer should have enforced strict safety standards in its facility.
Knowledge Check Choose the best answer for the question.
1-3. The purpose of lockout/tagout is to prevent injury due to the _____ start-up of machines and equipment, or release of stored energy.
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