Prevent Falling Storage Items: 6 Key Tips
Many serious and sometimes fatal injuries occur every year when something falls onto a worker. Make sure you secure your stacked items to prevent this happening in your workplace.
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Manual handling is the cause of over a third of all workplace injuries, with the health and social care sector having the highest incident rate of all employment types!
Most of these injuries are musculoskeletal in nature with the back being the site injured in the majority of cases. Back injuries are extremely painful and can have long reaching consequences, so prevention is definitely better than cure. Manual handling is simply not seen as a high risk task by those involved in this type of work, so is seldom given the attention it requires from a health and safety point of view, hence the high incidence rate. The good news is that with a little thought and limited expense many of these injuries can be avoided.
In the first instance it is important to state that the law requires only the tasks that carry a significant risk of injury need to be risk assessed.
These are tasks where loads are heavy, perhaps they have to be carried over long distances or are repetitive.
The best control measure is to eliminate the need to carry out the task in the first instance through use of mechanical lifting aids such as fork lift trucks. However this is not always possible. You may be able to provide manual lifting aids such as sack trucks or trolleys, but remember using this type of equipment does not remove the manual handling element and a risk assessment may still be required.
A manual handling risk assessment looks at four key areas, also known as the TILE factors:
This makes it easier to assess the activity properly.
The “Task” element is an oversight of the activity as a whole.
Questions you need to ask are things such as:
For the “Individual” you must employ somebody who is physically capable of carrying out the work.
Those with pre-existing medical conditions and injuries, pregnant women, young people and those with learning difficulties may need extra control measures or it simply may not be safe for them to carry out the task. Other questions to include are:
The obvious question about the “Load” itself is “how heavy is it?”
However you also need to consider:
Finally with regards to the “Environment” you need to know:
Once you have covered the TILE factors you can then identify the conditions that are going to cause the highest risk. It is these elements that you need to provide control measures for. Control measures can include reducing the size of the load, locating delivery vans as close to the final destination of the load as possible, carrying out the work at quieter times of the day, identifying where lifts can be used rather than taking the stairs and buying stock or materials in smaller sizes that are easier to lift.
There is no set format for this assessment, but lots of examples are available online or contact us for help compiling your own form. If you employ over five people then legally you must keep a record of these assessments and review them if any of the TILE factors change.
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After the residents became concerned that the man was removing asbestos, they contacted the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) who subsequently investigated the incident. The Inspector found that the engineer had ignored the resident’s concerns and continued to carry out the removal. He had also stored the material in his yard rather than disposing of it as asbestos waste. In all, this was a very unsafe act and could potentially have serious implications for anyone in the property at the time.
Gas Work:
5 Key Tips to Keep Staff and Others Safe
You have a duty to protect everyone on the premises – always discuss the job with your intended contractor, and satisfy yourself beforehand that they are competent to do the work.
Contact us should you require advice.
It’s said that happy and healthy employees tend to be more motivated at work, but with little sunlight and credit card bills few of us feel cheerful and motivated!
So, how can you encourage positivity and productivity at work?
A healthy working environment
Start with your working environment. We’re not talking about group Yoga classes during your lunch break, just small changes to energise the team and help you all make healthier choices.
Engaging your team
Engaging your team is essential to bringing out the best in them. Convince them that there are opportunities to progress at work, and you’ll motivate them to work hard for you.
Reward hard work
Everyone needs to feel valued. Remember to thank the staff who go the extra mile to get the job done well. After all, if an employee doesn’t feel appreciated they’ll find employment elsewhere – and you don’t want to lose your best team members.
On the other hand, employees who are happy at work will recommend the company to friends and family. Don’t underestimate their power to influence potential future recruits! Your reputation as an employer is hugely important to your company’s success.
Occasionally treating your team to lunch or a fun evening out is another great way of reminding them that their hard work doesn’t go unnoticed. And this brings us to our next, and final point…
Spending time out of the office/off-site as a team is a great way to improve relationships and get to know each other’s true personalities.
To encourage this, create a social calendar of activities which appeals to everyone. It doesn’t need to be expensive. Bowling, mini golf or team-building games are all great options, but going to the pub after work doesn’t count!
We hope you feel inspired to make some positive changes. Remember your team are your most valuable asset. Taking care of their wellbeing will mean you’ll reap the rewards further down the line.
Contact us for further advice on wellbeing.
Do you know the difference between a safety data sheet and a COSSH assessment, and why both are necessary to assess the risks involved when working with a hazardous substance.
SDS stands for Safety data sheets. They provide information on chemical products that help users of those chemicals to make a risk assessment. They describe the hazards the chemical presents and give information on handling, storage and emergency measures in case of an accident.
Many people may still be familiar with Material Data sheets or MSDS. The old MSDSs could follow any number of different formats, and could include different kinds of information with different levels of detail. The SDS format is much stricter, it is made up of sixteen sections, and each section includes specific information using a standardized classification method.
