SPI, OSHA launch online safety course

The alliance between the Society of the Plastics Industry Inc. and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration has developed an online injection molding machine safety course and launched a Web site that spells out proper machine guarding for horizontal injection presses.

The course is a ``train-the-trainer'' class that can be accessed directly from the Web or downloaded as a Power Point presentation. Included are machine guarding and special lockout/tag-out modules. The course also describes the types of injuries seen in injection molding and addresses possible causes of those injuries.

The Web site for the courses is: www.osha.gov/dcsp/alliances/spi/ imm_ppts.html.

Washington-based SPI and OSHA also offer an interactive machine guarding "eTool,'' which explains the guidelines and safety measures for horizontal presses. It includes a detailed safety tour, listing of hazards and their solutions, lockout/tag-out procedures and other safety measures. The site is: www.osha.gov/SLTC/etools/ machineguarding/plastics.html.