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November 28, 2019When accidents happen, the blame game is never far behind. That’s according to GRITIT CEO, Jason Petsch.
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November 28, 2019Fires can happen pretty much anywhere but are particularly common in the workplace. In the UK, there are approximately 16,000 non-residential fires reported each year, and a large proportion of these are found to take place at work.
While the cause of these fires can be for any number of reasons, the vast majority of cases simply come down to human negligence and a lack of care and attention. Therefore, to keep businesses protected, it is important to pay particularly close attention to specific areas of the office known to cause a potential fire risk.
From waste bins to plug sockets, unless you have effective countermeasures like fire doors, extinguishers or concrete barriers in place, you could be putting your office at risk. Listed below are some of the most common workplace fire hazards that you should keep an eye on, to minimise the risk of fire.
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November 28, 2019Statistics show occupational skin disease to be one of the most common causes of occupational ill health. Given that in addition to skin disease we must consider systemic toxic effects on body organs and systems due to skin uptake, perhaps it is time to consider whether our traditional approach to managing skin exposure in the working environment properly reflects the latest scientific knowledge about the skin and how it interacts with our immediate environment.
This interaction is almost unimaginably complex. There is also much we do not yet fully understand about how this works. This article takes a brief look concentrating on some of the factors that we need to include in our approach to creating and maintaining a ‘skin safe’ workplace.
Workplace exposure to chemicals
Basically, there are three main routes by which human exposure to chemicals in a workplace can occur. These are inhalation, ingestion and dermal. Each has its own particular -
November 28, 2019SATRA hearing specialist John-Mark Edmundson explains the different standards that apply for each aspect of protection for the eyes, ears and head.
People in the workplace often face multiple hazards at the same time. A tree surgeon using a chainsaw, for example, needs to be protected from impacts to the head from falling debris; the effect of sawdust and small particles flying towards the eye; and from the noise of the chainsaw.
Protection can be provided by multiple components, each satisfying their own standard, or it can be delivered by a single product. There are different European standards that apply for each aspect of protection.
This article will look at three standards that could be combined to provide appropriate protection to the head. One option is for a worker to wear a combined system; that is, helmet, eye protection, and hearing protection. The helmet should satisfy EN 397:2012 + A1:2012 and will be fitted with eye protection that meets EN -
November 24, 2019ISO 45001 is the world’s first occupational health and safety international standard and is currently being developed to assist organisations to provide a safe and healthy workplace for your workers and other people, prevent deaths, work-related injury and ill-health as well as continually improving OHS performance.
ISO 45001 provides requirements for an effective occupational health and safety management system. ISO 45001 is one of the world’s most anticipated standards for occupational health and safety (OHS) systems. It is aligned with ISO 9001 (Quality Management), ISO 14001 (Environment Management and builds on OHSAS 18001, which is a framework aimed at controlling risks.
The system is designed to work with any organisation, a one size fits all approach. There has been considerable collaboration between more than 70 countries. The whitepaper by the BSI Group explains: “the framework identifies and controls health and safety risks, reduces potential accidents, -
November 24, 2019The profitability of an industrial organization often hinges on its ability to optimize safety, compliance and productivity. Regardless of the circumstances, the human factor plays a greater role than any other factor in business success.
Industrial facilities of all sizes are often concerned with the management of employees, contractors and visitors. To this end, they’re faced with challenges that include the growing scale of operations; changing safety, security and regulatory standards; demanding worker readiness and compliance management issues, and operational efficiency requirements.
Introduction
Industrial facilities around the world face challenges to manage their workforce efficiently. They need tools, insights and know-how to make plant and personnel safer, operations more productive, resources more effective, businesses more compliant, and labor costs more controllable.
In particular, plant owners/operators must -
November 24, 2019What do you think are the most common causes of non-fatal workplace injuries in the UK? I’ll tell you: it’s slips, trips and falls on the same level. Statistics show that around 100,000 reported injuries are attributable to slips, trips and falls every year. That’s bad news for the workers involved, obviously, but it’s also not great for businesses or the economy, either. Yet workplace slips are preventable.
Equipping employees with the footwear that performs best in their particular working environment can make all the difference. Here are two real-world examples from the Health and Safety Executive’s (HSE) experience.
In the first example, a utilities company had reported 74 long term slip/trip injuries among their door-to-door sales team (that’s those folk who come around asking you to change your energy provider). This became such a problem that they stood their workers down during the worst of the winter weather. Following the utility company’s introduction of -
November 24, 2019This article looks not just at the types of clothing to keep us safe from arc flash, welding, and electrical hazards, among others, but takes a moment to look in detail at the physiology of what we’re protecting – our skin.
The primary reason, although certainly not the only one, for wearing protective clothing is to protect your body’s integumentary system. But what is the integumentary system and why should you protect it? Well, I’ll give you a hint: it contains the body’s largest organ, and while it is only a few inches thick it covers your entire body. Give up? It is your skin, hair, nails, and endocrine glands.
According to Dr Tim Barclay, Senior Editor of Inner Body1: “The integumentary system is an organ system consisting of the skin, hair, nails, and exocrine glands. The skin is only a few millimetres thick yet is by far the largest organ in the body. The average person’s skin weighs 10 pounds and has a surface area of almost 20 square feet. Skin forms the -
November 16, 2019
The EN388 Standard Explained
The development of standards to compare the performance of PPE products has significantly improved the ability of safety managers to select appropriate PPE.
- What is EN388?
- Summary of Tests Involved in EN388
From chemical resistance to fire and flame resistance, the standards have helped us determine the appropriate product for a given application. However, the standards cannot be solely relied on when making a decision. An adequate assessment must be made of how the standard should apply to the specific use. In other words, we need to use common sense. Nowhere is this more relevant than in the blade cut and the puncture tests associated with EN388.
Let’s briefly review the European EN 388 standard which is designed to assess the performance of a fabric or layers of fabric for their ability to resist heavy rubbing, cutting by a blade or sharp object, tearing, and puncture by a pointed object. The test - What is EN388?
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November 16, 2019
Fundamental elements of fall prevention
Working at height remains one of the biggest causes of occupational fatalities and major injuries. Cases commonly involve over-reaching, over-balancing or the failure of a fragile surface. Falls from height can also be due to unguarded holes in floors such as hatchways, inspection holes and pits, and from falls into process tanks and machinery.
- Hierarchy of control measures
- Prioritising collective measures
- A safe place of work
- Recent cases
Falls from Height Risk Assessment Guide
Other significant hazards associated with working at height include falling objects and the potential for a working platform to collapse or overturn as well as contact with overhead electrical services.
The exact height at which employers have to implement controls will vary from country to country, but generally, work at height can be taken to mean any work where, - Hierarchy of control measures
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