The Toolbox Talks materials provide support for brief presentations and discussions about a series of safety and health hazards. For each topic, there is information that can first be read to the audience.
Each topic also includes several questions that can be used to guide brief discussions. During the discussions, workers are encouraged to relate the hazard covered to their own work environments.
The Toolbox Talks can be used one at a time for short safety or Toolbox Talks. Or they can be used as modules in a longer training session, such as annual refresher training. No training expertise is needed by the presenter to run sessions with the guidance of this material.
Each Toolbox Talk contains these sections:
What we heard about hazard or risk. The first section describes something a worker said about the hazards or risks at their job. During interviews, researchers wrote down what workers identified as critical hazards and risks. The thoughts and stories presented in the talks were taken from those notes.
Is it really a risk? The hazard or risk is explored by analyzing data from the MSHA accident and injury database. Fatal and nonfatal data are presented in order to show that mine workers’ thoughts and experiences are consistent with the realities of accidents, injuries, and fatalities.
The statistics are taken from MSHA [2015]. Accident, illness and injury and employment self extracting files (part 50 data), 20092014. Denver, CO: U.S.
Department of Labor, Mine Safety and Health Administration, Office of Injury and Employment Information. http://www.msha.gov/STATS/PART50/p50y2k/p50y2k.HTM.
Data included are from the following: years 2009 through 2014, Canvass 5 & 6 (Stone, sand and gravel) which includes contractors, SIC 14460 (nonmetal canvass), sand, industrial, ground silica, quartz, and Subunits 3 (surface), 6 (dredge), & 30 (mills). Date accessed: September 2015.
It really happens.
A specific fatality, injury, or near miss is presented as an example to highlight an actual event that took place at a mine site. In order to provide the most appropriate example, NIOSH researchers discussed accidents and near misses with mine workers during the interviews and read MSHA reports of fatalities that occurred at SSG&A mines from 2009 through 2014.
Think about it.
Each talk ends with questions that help those participating ties the hazard or risk information to their work site. The person conducting the talk can use these questions to start a discussion that will make the information relevant to participating employees.