Category Archives: Health and Safety

Under the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974, all employers have a duty to protect the health and safety of persons not in their employment, which includes members of the public. It’s vital that companies consider how the public could come to harm within their work environment – be that children at play who may touch things within their reach, or anyone who may be unaware of the work surroundings and associated hazards.

6 Tips to Help Keep Visitors Safe on Your Premises

1. Complete a risk assessment to identify anything that could cause harm to someone not familiar with your premises. Walk through your site with a view to looking with a ‘fresh pair of eyes’ – take newer members of staff with you as they too may be able to point things out that perhaps might have been overlooked.
2. Think about how visitors could slip or trip on the premises. Check nothing protrudes from your door surrounds that could trip someone, and that steps are not slippery (coat with anti-slip paint if they are). Make sure you have a good housekeeping schedule in place, and that boxes and other items are not left lying around. Check the car park for potholes and repair them.
3. Consider how someone could be hurt by a falling item. Check that stored items which visitors can access are placed correctly – use racking that is securely fixed to the wall, and where feasible don’t store things above head height. Regularly check internal partition walls and false walls to ensure they are in good repair.
4. Keep your vehicles away from pedestrians by providing segregated walkways inside and outside buildings.
5. Prevent anyone being able to fall from height. Fit window restrictors and guard rails on walkways.
6. Stop anyone being hurt by electricity. Use socket covers in accessible areas to prevent little fingers entering sockets. Don’t leave any tools lying around – I once found a knife in the milk aisle of a supermarket which an employee had been using to unwrap packaging, and had forgotten to remove.

Make sure that all areas which the public can access are regularly inspected, and that control measures are implemented for any identified hazards.

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1^st – 30^th September 2016, throughout the month, location the Fork Lift Truck Association  website.

Event overview

Safetember is the FLTA’s annual month-long fork lift truck safety campaign that runs throughout September, starting on 1^st and ending on the 30^th.

As an Association, they have been working closely with media outlets, training companies, partner organisations and trade associations to launch a range of initiatives and resources designed to help reduce the severity and frequency of lift truck accidents in the United Kingdom.

This year, they are particularly pleased to be working in close collaboration with the United Kingdom Warehousing Association (UKWA). Their 650+ members are collectively responsible for ensuring the safety of tens of thousands of workers who come into contact with forklift trucks during the course of their workday. Because of this, their commitment is crucial to influencing behaviours and attitudes towards lifting equipment.

To find out more information follow this link: http://fork-truck.org.uk/fork-lift-safety/safetember

Contact us if you require further information.

Fires can take hold quickly, and can cause serious burns or fatalities when people are engulfed by them. Make sure you have identified all of your process fire risks, and take steps to eliminate them where possible.

1. Carry out a risk assessment to identify where your fire hazards exist in relation to the use or storage of flammable substances such as petrol, solvents or chemicals – use the safety data sheet from the supplier/manufacturer to help you with this. Consider how your processes could go wrong, for example, if substances are spilt or knocked over. To avoid this, keep containers sealed when not in use, and design the process so that flammables do not need to be carried long distances. Only store the amounts that you need.
2. Train workers to work safely near fire, and to follow your safe systems of work. Make sure employees know how to use your fire extinguishers, and where the escape routes are should a fire break out.
3. Keep activities involving fire, such as a naked flame, away from other work involving flammable materials by locating them in a different room. Maintain good housekeeping to avoid a build-up of flammable substances, particularly on the floor where they may go undetected.
4. Consider the risks when working with oxygen. Clothing that is contaminated with oxygen – even that which is fire-retardant – can catch fire easily.
5. If you have welding drums or tanks that formerly contained flammable substances, make sure your employees know that small amounts of the substance could still be in the bottom of the container or within cracks or crevices. Do not use an oxy/fuel gas blowpipe on a container that has contained something flammable, unless you know it is safe to proceed.

Contact us if you require assistance.

Planning Work Activities: 5 Important Tips

1. Carry out a risk assessment for every activity, with a view to finding where the hazards are and working out a way to remove them or limit the possibility of them causing harm.
2. Make sure everyone involved in the work activity understands their role, and the safe system of work that applies. Remember that sometimes you may need to state the obvious – what you may know or understand can differ from others, particularly those new to the job or the work environment.
3. Confirm before work starts that the work equipment to be used is the most appropriate. For example, your risk assessment might state that a work platform needs to be used due to the length of the job, so in this scenario no one should be using a ladder instead.
4. Ensure that you plan ahead so that workers wear suitable personal protective equipment (PPE) as required by the job, and use the right tools. Too often I hear someone say that they used a certain tool ‘just because it was there’, and not because it was the best tool to do that particular task safely.
5. Keep an eye out for complacency. It’s human nature for people to switch off sometimes if they are very familiar with a job – yet problems can then arise when factors within that job change. Train workers to look for new hazards, and introduce toolbox talks on new and old subjects to keep the focus on health and safety.

Sometimes, it only takes a split second for someone to make the wrong decision. As an employer, it’s vital to plan ahead to try to control the likelihood of an accident occurring – make sure you review your systems to ensure they are fit for purpose.

Contact us if you require further advice.

Falls from ladders are common across all industries, and they can have devastating effects on the lives of those that are injured. Serious injuries have even occurred when workers have fallen from the bottom rungs of a ladder – make sure you take steps today to check your ladders and train workers to use them properly.

5 Top Tips to Ensure Safe Ladder Use

1. Make sure your risk assessments for work at height activities cover the use of ladders, and whether they are the most suitable item to use to access places at height. Ladders can be a good option for low-risk, short duration work of roughly 30 minutes.
2. Where possible, attach leaning ladders to items being accessed to prevent them from slipping, or have them be footed by another person. Ladders should be of a suitable height – not too long and not too short for the area being accessed.
3. Label ladders so that you can keep an inventory of those that you own to ensure they are regularly checked. Every three to four months is a good baseline.
4. Train workers in the correct method of using a ladder, and ensure they maintain three points of contact at all times. Teach them to check the ground environment first – this should be flat and free from contaminants like water or oil.
5. Ensure that workers undertake a pre-use check of the ladder before they use it, looking for any defects in the stiles or rungs, and checking that the platform and feet are in a good condition.

Contact us should you require support.