Development of Selected Safety Indicators for Breweries in North America
Jaime Thissen, MInstP, MEIT, Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Jaime Thissen is a Ph.D. candidate and a former SURGE Fellow in the Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. His research focuses on occupational health and safety for indoor and controlled environment agriculture.
Learning objective:
Participants will be able to identify various examples of safety hazards in breweries.
Discuss this presentation with the author on Friday, November 20 from noon – 12:30 on the Zoom Live-stream
The establishment of breweries have become an emerging trend in the United States. This trend is occurring in urban, suburban and even rural areas. However, there is a very limited assessment of health and safety practices in current facilities beyond legally required inspections. The purpose of this study was to determine safety and health hazards and develop a single safety score for each facility with suggestions for improvement. The score was determined by equations which considered struck-by, slip, trip and fall hazards, electrical safety and other miscellaneous safety and health factors such as the presence and accessibility of fire extinguishers. Twenty-five breweries in North America participated in this study. Each brewery was assigned a region: Canada, Northeast, and Midwest. Key safety and health issues observed at the breweries included slip and trip hazards as well as a lack of marking of confined spaces. Larger facilities tended to perform better due to the presence of tours and better engagement with regulatory agencies. However, smaller facilities had an advantage due to less space to manage. All facilities required improvement in at least one category.
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