3.2 Facility, Playing Surface & OSHA Safety

Task 0102 is not only exercise programs. The athletic trainer also reduces risk by making the venue survivable: posted emergency plans, working defibrillators, inspected fields, anchored goals, and an athletic training room that meets Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) rules. Critical-incident algorithms live in Domain III (Chapter 9+); this section stays on prevention and environment.

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Emergency Action Plan and AED as Facility Documents

An emergency action plan (EAP) is a written, venue-specific (and, in the 2024 NATA update, often sport-specific) document that names roles, communication, equipment location, and EMS access. Prevention duties you will see on the exam:

• Post the venue EAP where staff can grab it (often on the AED cabinet).
• Rehearse it at least annually with coaches, administrators, and EMS—tabletop plus a walk-through of the actual gate, cart path, and elevator.
• Share it with visiting medical staff before events.

Automated external defibrillator (AED) placement is a facility decision. NATA’s 2024 EAP position statement: an AED should be on site or retrievable for use within 3 minutes at all sport venues. Practical checklist: visible signage, unobstructed access, pads and battery not expired, manufacturer-recommended inspection (typically a daily/weekly visual plus documented monthly check), and a spare set of pads. An AED locked in an office across campus fails the 3-minute standard as surely as a missing EAP.

Lightning and heat policies belong in the same facility binder as the EAP even though the clinical algorithms are Chapter 4. Coaches should be able to point to the written threshold (for example, wet-bulb globe temperature practice modifications; lightning: suspend and wait) without calling the AT’s cell phone.

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Lightning-Safe Structures Versus Sheds (Preview)

Per the NATA 2013 lightning position statement and National Weather Service guidance, a lightning-safe location is:

1. A substantial, fully enclosed building with wiring and plumbing (school, field house, concrete restroom building with four walls and a roof), or
2. A fully enclosed metal vehicle (bus, van, car) with windows up—not a convertible, golf cart, or gator.

Not safe: baseball/softball dugouts, picnic pavilions, park shelters, sun/rain shelters, storage sheds, tents, press boxes that are not fully enclosed, bleachers, and standing under a tree. Dugouts have open fronts and metal benches; picnic shelters have open sides. Neither is a Faraday cage. Exam trap: assuming a dugout or picnic shelter is lightning-safe because it has a roof. When thunder is heard or lightning is seen (or a reliable detection system hits the venue’s distance threshold, often about 8 miles), move to a true safe structure. Full return-to-play timing (commonly 30 minutes after the last thunder/lightning) is Chapter 4.

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Playing Surface Inspection

Walk the venue before activity. High-yield findings:

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) has documented at least 36 deaths since 1979 from soccer goals falling over, often when children climbed unattended or homemade frames. CPSC publication 5118 and the older Guidelines for Movable Soccer Goal Safety: securely anchor or counterweight movable goals at all times; never climb the frame; remove nets when not in use; chain unused goals to a fence or place them face-down; use sandbags/counterweights on hard surfaces such as artificial turf. ASTM F1938 / F2950 address safer use and performance. National Federation of State High School Associations soccer rules require goals to be anchored. Homemade shop-class goals are over-represented in fatal events. “It looks heavy” is not an anchor.

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Athletic Training Room: Electrical, Wet Area, and Infection Control

Water plus electricity is a preventable killer. Hydrocollators and whirlpools must be on ground-fault circuit interrupter (GFCI) circuits, inspected, and kept so cords and the unit cannot be pulled into the water. Test GFCIs on a schedule; a dead outlet is a closed station. Hydrocollator water is hot enough to scald (units are commonly held near 160–170°F / 71–77°C—follow the manufacturer). Keep the lid managed so athletes cannot fall in. Whirlpool turbines need intact guards. Do not run extension cords across wet floors.

Infection control: treat blood and other potentially infectious materials (OPIM) as infectious (standard/universal precautions). Clean treatment tables and whirlpools with an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)–registered disinfectant per contact time. Dedicated towels; no shared water bottles during known outbreaks. Skin infections (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) spread on turf, mats, and unwashed whirlpools—surface hygiene is prevention, not just a Domain IV wound skill.

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OSHA Bloodborne Pathogens Standard (29 CFR 1910.1030)

Athletic trainers who provide care have occupational exposure. The employer (school, clinic, college) must:

1. Write an Exposure Control Plan (ECP) identifying job classes and tasks with exposure, methods of compliance, hepatitis B vaccination and post-exposure procedures, communication of hazards, and recordkeeping. Review and update the ECP at least annually and when tasks change. Solicit input from non-managerial employees who use sharps (Needlestick Safety and Prevention Act).
2. Observe standard (universal) precautions: all blood and specified body fluids are treated as infectious for hepatitis B virus (HBV), hepatitis C virus, and human immunodeficiency virus.
3. Use engineering and work-practice controls first: puncture-resistant sharps containers, safer devices, handwashing, no bending/breaking needles, no two-handed recapping (one-handed scoop only if no alternative is feasible).
4. Offer the hepatitis B vaccine series at no cost, after the required training, within 10 working days of initial assignment, unless the employee is already vaccinated, immune, or medically contraindicated. Declination requires the OSHA appendix A signature; the employee may accept later.
5. Provide confidential post-exposure evaluation and follow-up at no cost: immediate care, source testing where permitted, employee baseline/follow-up testing, prophylaxis as indicated, counseling.
6. Train at initial assignment and at least annually thereafter.

PPE for AT staff: gloves for blood/OPIM, gowns/masks/eye protection when splash is reasonably anticipated, and immediate glove changes between patients. PPE is OSHA, not optional courtesy.

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Hazard Communication, SDS, Eyewash, Weight Room

OSHA Hazard Communication Standard 29 CFR 1910.1200 (the “right to know” rule): every hazardous chemical in the athletic training room (whirlpool additives, disinfectants, tap-adhesive removers, hydrocollator cleaner, fuel for ice machines) needs a Safety Data Sheet (SDS) that is readily accessible on every shift, container labels, and staff training on physical/health hazards and protective measures. If a student-AT cannot produce the SDS for the whirlpool chemical in 60 seconds, the program is noncompliant.

29 CFR 1910.151(c): where eyes or body may be exposed to injurious corrosives, suitable eyewash/drench facilities must be in the work area for immediate use. That includes many disinfectant and pH-adjusting chemicals. Know where the eyewash is and that it is unobstructed.

Weight room: prevention is supervision and space. A competent supervisor must be present for high-school and collegiate lifting; collars on bars; floor clear of plates in walkways; machines and racks spaced so a missed lift or rolling plate cannot strike another athlete; emergency stop access and a posted EAP/AED. Close a rack with cracked welds or frayed cables. Heat and lightning policies apply to outdoor weight yards the same as to fields.

Facility documents that must exist, not just “be in someone’s head”: venue EAPs, AED logs, lightning policy, heat/WBGT policy, bloodborne ECP, SDS binder or electronic equivalent, and a surface/goal inspection log. If it is not written and rehearsed, the exam (and a plaintiff) will treat it as missing.