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Milder days offer a prime opportunity for spring cleaning and home maintenance. After a long winter, be sure to spend some time on preventive measures that will help maintain your home and property all year long. From cleaning out your gutters and checking for dead trees and branches, to cleaning and inspecting your home mechanical systems such as your heating and air conditioning equipment, we offer ways to help make spring a season of safety. Download our spring home maintenance checklist > Inside Your Home Check your electrical outlets for potential fire hazards, such as frayed wires or loose-fitting plugs. Make sure outlets, fuse boxes and extension cords are not overloaded. Move your multi-purpose fire extinguisher to an accessible place, and make sure it is filled and ready for operation. Have your air-conditioning system inspected by a professional as recommended by the manufacturer. Check your water heater for leaks and corrosion. Clean or replace your furnace filter. Clean the clothes dryer exhaust duct and space under the dryer. Remove all lint, dust, and pieces of material. Inspect your smoke detectors. Make sure there is one on each floor of your home. Test them monthly, and change the batteries annually or as needed. Check the light bulbs in all your fixtures. Be sure they are the correct wattage as recommended by the manufacturer. Replace all high-intensity bulbs with fluorescent bulbs. Other types of bulbs, like incandescent, produce more heat than fluorescent bulbs. Outside Your Home Check for damage to your roof. Clean gutters and downspouts to keep debris from accumulating. Remove dead trees in your yard. Keep healthy trees and bushes trimmed and away from utility wires. Safely store oil and gas for lawn equipment and tools in a vented, locked area. Repair cracked, broken or uneven driveways and walkways to provide a level walking surface.

Many companies use "lean manufacturing" procedures to streamline production by reducing wasted time and motion. Although these changes often show up in the bottom line as black, their long term repercussions on workplace safety – higher accident rates and workers comp premiums –could put a business back in the red. "Approximately 65% of workers compensation claims are for musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs)," says Chris Shulenberger, Technical Director for Ergonomics with Bureau Veritas North America Shulenberger. However, many employers might not make the connection between their lean manufacturing procedures and high rates of sprains and strains, overexertion injuries, and cumulative trauma MSDs among their employees. If you streamline your manufacturing, beware of these potential pitfalls that could turn "leaner" into just plain "meaner:" Excessive Overtime. Lean manufacturing depends on a smooth supply chain. When there are glitches, workers need to pick up the slack with increased production and longer hours, both of which contribute to MSDs. Hyper-efficiency. For some employers, the drive to improve employee productivity ignores human limitations. Removing the waste from jobs eliminates essential time for workers' bodies to restore themselves, which can reduce disabling MSDs. Working through pain. Some supervisors in lean manufacturing facilities are slow to respond to worker reports of fatigue, discomfort, and/or pain: the earliest symptoms of an MSD. In other cases, there’s "working through pain" culture which encourages employees, like high-performing athletes, to ignore early symptoms – which can easily lead to a MSD. Make sure that your workers report any MSD symptoms and supervisors know how to respond to these complaints. Micromanagement. Increasing the intensity of work reduces employees’ control about how they do their job – a proven risk factor for MSDs. Our risk management professionals would be happy to review the potential impact of your manufacturing procedures on workplace safety.

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