Poultry Processing Industry » Follow-up Checklists

Carrying out these suggestions for follow-up will give you a head start on implementing employee involvement, worksite analysis, and hazard control; these are all elements of an effective occupational injury and illness prevention program.

  1. Decide the scope of your follow-up. You may choose either an entire processing area, or one or more single tasks within a processing area. (For plant-wide follow-up, select all processing areas individually.)
  2. Review the Hazardous Situations and Possible Solutions for the area or task(s) selected. OSHA has chosen the Possible Solutions from those known to be successful in many situations. In some cases, a single Possible Solution may not be enough to completely eliminate a Hazardous Situation.

    (NOTE: Not all of the Possible Solutions suggested are requirements of OSHA regulations. Some solutions are good practices which have been recognized over time to reduce hazards. To determine which actions are required by OSHA standards, consult the Code of Federal Regulations, 29 CFR Parts 1900 through 1928.)

  3. Print out one or more follow-up checklists.
  4. Discuss Possible Solutions with managers and affected employees. Ask for other suggestions for solutions that would work in your plant.
  5. Select one or more solutions and develop an action plan to implement them in your workplace.
  6. Evaluate the solution to see whether it has eliminated or significantly reduced the Hazardous Situation.

Hazardous Situations and
Possible Solutions

In keeping with OSHA's policy of using plain language, we have attempted to describe the Hazardous Situations and Possible Solutions in words that will be recognized readily by both employers and employees in this industry. OSHA officials and other safety and health professionals may use different terms.

For example:

"Blood on employee" could be referred to as "exposure to contaminants"

"Standing for a long time" could be referred to as "ergonomic fatigue"

"Hands/fingers getting caught by rollers" could be referred to as "unguarded machines"

"Reaching across high and/or wide work surfaces," "repetitive pinch grips," "wrist deflection," and "bending at the waist" could all be referred to as "repetitive ergonomic hazards."