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Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety
Health and Safety Guide
for Custodial Workers
Objectives
The guide will help custodial service workers, health
and safety committee members and representatives as
well as supervisors, managers, engineers, and health
and safety professionals to:
鈥? Identify workplace-specific health and safety
concerns;
鈥? Develop and implement prevention programs and
safe work practices to reduce injury and illness;
鈥? Identify, understand and meet legislated health and
safety responsibilities.
鈥? Focus on problem solving through employees鈥? and
managers鈥? involvement; and
鈥? Integrate health and safety in all work practices.
Target Audience
The Custodial Workers鈥? Safety Guide is intended as a
reference for cleaners, caretakers, facilities managers,
and anyone who works full-time, part-time or on
contract in a building鈥檚 custodial department.
- Employers and HR professionals can use the
guide 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 are
aware of workplace hazards and safe work practices.
- Health and safety trainers refer to the guide and
use 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
hazards, and who to contact for further
information or in an emergency.
- Joint health and safety committees refer to the
guide at meetings, and use the sample forms and
charts 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 safety
relating to custodial work. Rather, it is the collaborative
work 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 hazards
and safe work practices can be obtained from the
Inquiries Service of the Canadian Centre for
Occupational Health and Safety (CCOHS).
Table of Contents
Section I Basic Rules of Safety
1. The Law Says . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
2. Safety Tips for New Employees . . . . . . . . . . 6
3. Safety Tips for Supervisors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Section II Accident and Injury Prevention
1. Clearly Defined Responsibilities . . . . . . . . . 10
2. Workplace Inspections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
3. Accident and Incident Investigations . . . . . . 12
4. First Aid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Section III Occupational Health and Safety Hazards
in Custodial Work
1. Safety Hazards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
2. Health Hazards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
3. Ergonomic Hazards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Section IV Health Recognition and Control
1. Recognizing and Evaluating
Workplace Hazards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
2. Reporting Workplace Hazards . . . . . . . . . . . 35
3. Controlling Workplace Hazards . . . . . . . . . . 36
Section V Work Environment
1. Indoor Air Quality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
2. Noise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
3. Lighting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
4. Work in Hot Environments . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
5. Work in Cold Environments . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
6. Ultraviolet Rays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
7. Electromatnetic Radiation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
Section VI Safe Work Practices
1. Cleaning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
2. Mould Prevention . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
3. Asbestos Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
4. Painting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
5. Chemical Safety . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
6. Electrical Safety . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
7. Machine Guarding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
8. Lockout/Tagout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
9. Lifting and Moving . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
10. Ladder Safety . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
11. Grounds Maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
12. Housekeeping:
Preventing Falls from Slips and Trips . . . 112
13. Waste management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
Section VII Working Alone and Violence
1. High Risk Situations
Related to Working Alone . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
2. The Risk of Workplace Violence . . . . . . . . 124
Section VIII Emergency Preparedness
1. Fire Safety . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
2. Spills Response . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
Section IX Personal Protective Equipment
1. Determining the Need for
Personal Protective Equipment . . . . . . . . . 136
2. General Guidelines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
3. Eye Protection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
4. Foot Protection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
5. Hand Protection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
6. Head Protection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
7. Hearing Protection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
8. Respirators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
9. Fall Protection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
Section X Health and Safety Legislation
1. Canada . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
2. USA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
3. Regulations and Standards
Applicable to Building Management . . . . . 154
Section XI Information Sources
1. Canadian Government Departments with
Responsibility for Health and Safety . . . . . 160
2. US Federal Health
and Safety Agencies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166
Section XII Appendices
A. Sample Accident Report Form . . . . . . . . . . 168
B. Safety Training Checklist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
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 as
books, videos, literature etc.
VISIT work areas regularly.
PARTICIPATE in inspections and investigations of
incidents or accidents.
KNOW employees personally.
IMPROVE and simplify safe work practices
continuously.
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2. Health Hazards
Health hazards are caused by exposures to dusts, toxic
chemicals, noise, radiation, etc. Workplace exposures
can cause short-term and long-term illnesses, which
may not be detectable at the time of exposure.
Workplace inspections don鈥檛 always reveal health
hazards; it often takes a qualified health and safety
professional to identify and evaluate them.
Main Types of Health Hazards in the Workplace
Type 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 and
Air 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 and
orientation, overexertion and negative work
environment.
A. Health Effects from Exposure to Biological Agents
Biological agents include bacteria, fungi (yeasts,
moulds), viruses, worms and parasites. Biological
agents can cause infections, allergies, poisoning, and
toxic effects. The following table provides examples
of occupations with possible exposure to biological
agents.
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In many cases less toxic 鈥渁lternative鈥? or
鈥渆co-friendly鈥? products are available for cleaning
tasks. Make sure that alternative products are
effective and do not introduce any new hazards.
See 鈥淐hemical Safety鈥? on pages 68-70 for further
information on working with hazardous substances.
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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:
鈥? Handling construction materials such as wood,
metal, and glass
鈥? Building maintenance work
鈥? Landscaping and groundskeeping.
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