Winter Is Coming to Your Plant: A Safety Checklist Before the First Freeze

1. Walking surfaces: ice, snow and wet floors

Slips and falls are the classic winter injury, and most of them happen in the same few places: parking lots, building entrances, loading docks and the first 20 feet inside the door, where snow melts off boots.

• Line up snow removal and de-icing before you need it, including who does it on weekends and early shifts
• Stock ice melt at every entrance and dock
• Put down absorbent mats inside entrances and replace them when they're saturated
• Check that roof drains and gutters don't dump water onto walkways, where it refreezes overnight

OSHA's walking-working surfaces rule, 29 CFR 1910.22, specifically lists snow and ice among the hazards employers need to keep surfaces free of.

2. Carbon monoxide in closed-up buildings

This is the one that catches people off guard. In summer, dock doors stay open and the building breathes. In winter, everything gets closed up, but the propane forklifts, floor sweepers and portable heaters keep running.

• Get forklift engines tuned and emissions checked before the doors close for the season
• Put CO monitoring in areas with fuel-burning equipment, and know what your alarm levels mean
• Train supervisors on the symptoms: headaches, dizziness and nausea that show up across a whole area are a warning sign, not the flu
• Have a plan to ventilate if readings climb

3. Emergency eyewash and showers

An eyewash station that's frozen, or that sprays water cold enough to make someone stop flushing early, doesn't do its job. The ANSI Z358.1 standard calls for tepid flushing fluid, which it defines as roughly 60 to 100°F.

• Check every station in unheated areas, docks and outdoor locations
• Make sure heat tracing and tempering valves work, and test them now
• Keep up the weekly activation checks through the winter

4. Space heaters and fire risk

When it gets cold, portable heaters start showing up under desks and in break rooms, often plugged into power strips and parked next to boxes.

• Set a clear rule on which heaters are allowed and where
• No heaters on extension cords or power strips
• Keep at least three feet of clearance from anything that burns
• Check that fire extinguishers in unheated areas are a type rated for freezing temperatures

5. Docks, trailers and yard work

• Inspect dock plates and levelers, since ice and road salt make them slick
• Confirm trailer restraints and wheel chocks are being used every time
• Check yard and dock lighting. With shorter days, a lot more work happens in the dark

6. Cold stress for people who work outside

OSHA doesn't have a specific cold stress standard, but employers are still expected to protect workers from recognized hazards, and cold is one of them.

• Have warm break areas for yard, shipping and maintenance crews
• Provide insulated gloves and layers that still let people do their jobs
• Train on the early signs of frostbite and hypothermia
• Pay extra attention to new and returning workers, who aren't used to the cold yet

7. Freeze protection for fire and process systems

• Check dry pipe sprinkler systems and drain low points as your fire protection contractor recommends
• Look at heat tracing on exposed water, process and safety shower lines
• Walk unheated areas where a burst pipe could cause a spill or take a system down