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May 09, 2022Personal Protective Equipment (or PPE as it is more commonly referred to), is a key part of managing health and safety within a variety of organisations, but it is important to understand what makes up PPE and where it fits within the bigger Health and Safety picture to ensure that it is as effective as possible.
What is PPE?
PPE is a term used to group together any equipment which is issued to an individual to protect them against risks which can be found. PPE can take the form of hard hats, goggles, gloves, overalls, trousers, ear defenders and many other things. For the purposes of this however, we are going to focus on PPE which protects the head.
The Hierarchy of Controls
In the health and safety world, it is important to understand how to control risk (defined as the likelihood of a hazard causing a “loss event” or near miss, alongside the severity of this), and how -
May 09, 2022The subject of Safety Footwear has been widely written about and discussed. I am sure that we all know about safety footwear, yet we still get it wrong. So, let us refresh our memory of the importance of safety footwear and how best to maximise its use as Personal Protective Footwear.
A little over seven years ago, my friends and I decided to climb Mount Kilimanjaro; well with hindsight, I can say with all honestly it was more of a trek than a climb, but nevertheless a very challenging trek. Besides fitness level and mental preparation there were a lot of other considerations albeit, mainly equipment preparation. The right clothing, sleeping bag, wet wipes and trekking shoes. Although in this case the trekking shoes were not ‘work equipment’ they were part of my Personal Protective Equipment (PPE). They were there to serve several purposes, such as protecting me from slipping in wet and icy conditions, keep my feet dry and warm, protect my feet from large stones, and keep -
May 06, 2022Workplace power outages can become more than inconveniences. They can also pose safety risks to the people affected. Here’s how to minimize the associated threats.
Understand the company’s power outage risk
A good starting point is for business leaders to learn what factors are most likely to cause future power outages. One recent study of the electricity supply on the west coast of the United States found that climate change and associated severe weather will likely put the electrical grid under more strain.
Beyond that study, some areas of the country are particularly likely to experience hurricanes and ice storms depending on the season and the amount of local preparedness for dealing with those events. Company decision-makers should assess how they have historically dealt with power outages. Did any safety issues arise during those instances? What lessons did the business learn from them?
Compiling that information can -
May 05, 2022The number of people who have died as a result of contracting an asbestos-related illness has reached new heights in recent years, following widespread use of the material between the 1950s and 1970s. Due to the latency period of illnesses such as mesothelioma sometimes occurring up to 50 years after exposure, it is thought that deaths caused by the harmful fibres are now reaching their peak.
Figures released earlier this year by the Health and Safety Executive revealed there were 2,523 deaths from mesothelioma in 2017, which is a cancer of the lining of the organs that is predominantly caused by inhalation of asbestos fibres. While the figure was found to be similar to the five previous years, rates of mesothelioma have nearly doubled since 1995 – when there were 1,317 cases. The figures also revealed that more than half of the deaths from mesothelioma were among individuals aged over 75, and 82% of these were men.
Any industrial building constructed prior to the -
May 05, 2022Why Rope Access? Today, more than ever, operational costs of companies in industries such as; (petro) chemical, oil and gas, power and energy, nuclear, civil or construction are more scrutinised than at any time in the past 10 years.
As a result of either, the economic down turn or fluctuating oil prices, all budgets, let alone preventative maintenance budgets are frequently being reduced or delayed entirely. The impact of course of delaying preventative maintenance is that it ceases to become preventative, and unavoidably escalates eventually into full scale reactionary maintenance at inevitably higher costs. The epitome therefore of a false economy is the postponement of preventative maintenance because of budget.
Often the largest part of a maintenance budget will be apportioned to how to access the areas in question for maintenance to commence. Traditionally scaffolding would have been a time consuming and extremely costly way to start any job, with excessive -
May 05, 2022Firefighter turnout gear, heat protection suits and protective suits for welders act as vital insurance for the life and safety of their users. To ensure protection, Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) manufacturers and users must adhere to relevant legal regulations and testing requirements as well as numerous functional requirements. Hohenstein, a global leader in textile testing and research, has long been concerned with quality standards for fire and heat resistant protective clothing, including test parameters and legal requirements, as well as optimum product performance and high wear comfort.
Protection
Depending on the hazard potential, the European market distinguishes between three categories of PPE:
● PPE category I – minor risks – examples include protective clothing against rain or gloves for gardening
● PPE category II – neither category I nor category III – examples include high visibility clothing or protective gloves -
May 05, 2022No matter what hustle culture might try to teach us, people are not machines. They get tired when overworked, and fatigue can create a safety hazard. This is especially true in industrial settings, where the presence of heavy machinery and other potential workplace hazards make alertness more critical for employees.
Fatigue is a problem that can’t be solved with technological innovation alone. Industrial managers will always be responsible for creating a safety culture and setting workplace standards that emphasize human needs.
However, human efforts at good management can work together with technology to combat fatigue in the workplace. Read on to learn more about strategies for a comprehensive fatigue management plan.
Risks of fatigue in the workplace
Working to the point of exhaustion has long been a staple of unhealthy work cultures. Japan has even coined a word for the most extreme cases, karoshi, which translates to “death from
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