Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety

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Health and Safety Guidefor Custodial Workers

Objectives

The guide will help custodial service workers, healthand safety committee members and representatives aswell as supervisors, managers, engineers, and healthand safety professionals to:

• Identify workplace-specific health and safety concerns;

• Develop and implement prevention programs andsafe work practices to reduce injury and illness;

• Identify, understand and meet legislated health andsafety responsibilities.

• Focus on problem solving through employees’ andmanagers’ involvement; and

• Integrate health and safety in all work practices.

Target Audience

The Custodial Workers’ Safety Guide is intended as areference for cleaners, caretakers, facilities managers,and anyone who works full-time, part-time or on contract in a building’s custodial department.

- Employers and HR professionals can use theguide for safety orientation of new employees,to ensure they understand their rights and responsibilities under health and safety law.

- Managers and supervisors review the contents of the guide with employees, to ensure they areaware of workplace hazards and safe work practices.

- Health and safety trainers refer to the guide anduse it to create course handouts.

- Workers keep a copy on hand for reference. The guide outlines safe work practices, ways to address and/or eliminate health and safety

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hazards, and who to contact for further information or in an emergency.

- Joint health and safety committees refer to theguide at meetings, and use the sample forms andcharts as guidelines for creating their own, tailored to the work environment.

Scope

This pocket-sized guide is not intended to be an all-encompassing source on workplace health and safetyrelating to custodial work. Rather, it is the collaborativework of occupational health and safety experts, peer-reviewed by government health and safety authorities, representatives of workers and employers,and specialists in the field of custodial work.

Detailed information on specific workplace hazardsand safe work practices can be obtained from theInquiries Service of the Canadian Centre forOccupational Health and Safety (CCOHS).

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Table of ContentsSection I Basic Rules of Safety

1. The Law Says . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22. Safety Tips for New Employees . . . . . . . . . . 63. Safety Tips for Supervisors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Section II Accident and Injury Prevention1. Clearly Defined Responsibilities . . . . . . . . . 102. Workplace Inspections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103. Accident and Incident Investigations . . . . . . 124. First Aid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Section III Occupational Health and Safety Hazardsin Custodial Work

1. Safety Hazards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202. Health Hazards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223. Ergonomic Hazards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

Section IV Health Recognition and Control1. Recognizing and Evaluating

Workplace Hazards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 322. Reporting Workplace Hazards . . . . . . . . . . . 353. Controlling Workplace Hazards . . . . . . . . . . 36

Section V Work Environment1. Indoor Air Quality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 402. Noise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 443. Lighting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 454. Work in Hot Environments . . . . . . . . . . . . . 475. Work in Cold Environments . . . . . . . . . . . . 496. Ultraviolet Rays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 517. Electromatnetic Radiation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

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Section VI Safe Work Practices1. Cleaning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 562. Mould Prevention . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 583. Asbestos Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 614. Painting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 635. Chemical Safety . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 686. Electrical Safety . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 717. Machine Guarding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 758. Lockout/Tagout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 769. Lifting and Moving . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80

10. Ladder Safety . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9011. Grounds Maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9412. Housekeeping:

Preventing Falls from Slips and Trips . . . 11213. Waste management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115

Section VII Working Alone and Violence 1. High Risk Situations

Related to Working Alone . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1202. The Risk of Workplace Violence . . . . . . . . 124

Section VIII Emergency Preparedness1. Fire Safety . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1302. Spills Response . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134

Section IX Personal Protective Equipment1. Determining the Need for

Personal Protective Equipment . . . . . . . . . 1362. General Guidelines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1373. Eye Protection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1384. Foot Protection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1405. Hand Protection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1416. Head Protection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1427. Hearing Protection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1438. Respirators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1469. Fall Protection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147

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Section X Health and Safety Legislation1. Canada . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1502. USA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1513. Regulations and Standards

Applicable to Building Management . . . . . 154

Section XI Information Sources1. Canadian Government Departments with

Responsibility for Health and Safety . . . . . 1602. US Federal Health

and Safety Agencies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166

Section XII AppendicesA. Sample Accident Report Form . . . . . . . . . . 168B. Safety Training Checklist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169

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EXPLAIN the importance of safety to employees.

IMPLEMENT safe work practices.

GIVE praise for safe behaviour.

ENCOURAGE participation in JHSC activities.

FOLLOW safety rules yourself and set an example.

PROMOTE safety by providing information such asbooks, videos, literature etc.

VISIT work areas regularly.

PARTICIPATE in inspections and investigations ofincidents or accidents.

KNOW employees personally.

IMPROVE and simplify safe work practices continuously.

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2. Health HazardsHealth hazards are caused by exposures to dusts, toxicchemicals, noise, radiation, etc. Workplace exposurescan cause short-term and long-term illnesses, whichmay not be detectable at the time of exposure.Workplace inspections don’t always reveal health hazards; it often takes a qualified health and safetyprofessional to identify and evaluate them.

Main Types of Health Hazards in the WorkplaceType of Hazards Examples

A. Biological Infectious bacteria and viruses; toxic moulds, Hazards fungi, and bacteria.

B. Toxic Toxic liquids, solids, dusts, fumes, mists,Chemicals vapours, and gases.

C. Physical Noise, vibration, heat, sunlight, radiation.Agents

D. Poor Indoor Inadequate ventilation, temperature andAir Quality humidity. Toxic air contaminants and moulds.

Emissions from furniture and flooring materials.

E. Psychological Stress caused by lack of training and commu-Stress nication, poor work organization, technological

changes with out appropriate staff training andorientation, overexertion and negative work environment.

A. Health Effects from Exposure to Biological AgentsBiological agents include bacteria, fungi (yeasts,moulds), viruses, worms and parasites. Biologicalagents can cause infections, allergies, poisoning, andtoxic effects. The following table provides examplesof occupations with possible exposure to biologicalagents.

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In many cases less toxic “alternative” or “eco-friendly” products are available for cleaningtasks. Make sure that alternative products are effective and do not introduce any new hazards.

See “Chemical Safety” on pages 68-70 for furtherinformation on working with hazardous substances.

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WATCH

YOUR STEP

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1. Determining the Need for Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)

Certain tasks may require the use of personal protec-tive equipment (PPE). This includes:

• Handling construction materials such as wood,metal, and glass

• Building maintenance work

• Landscaping and groundskeeping.

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