Health and Safety

Dangerous Substances - Fire and Explosion

Posted on August 20, 2013

Explosive atmospheres can be caused by flammable gases, mists, vapours or combustible dusts. If there is enough of a substance that is mixed with the air, then all it needs is a source of ignition to cause an explosion. Each year, hundreds of people are injured at work by flammable substances accidentally catching fire or exploding. Companies and businesses who are involved with using or creating chemicals, vapours, liquids, gases, solids or dusts that can readily burn or explode is hazardous. The effects of an explosion or a fire in the workplace can have devastating affects upon the employees and employer including, lost of lives, injuries, damage to the property and environment. If the workplace deals with the use or creation of these dangerous substances correctly, most fires and explosions are preventable. Employers and management have the responsibility for workplaces or other non-domestic premises to which any member of the public has access to, to be safe...

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How to Create A Better Office Environment

Posted on August 19, 2013

Creating a better office environment doesn’t necessarily mean that you should have an in-house gym or a designer interior. Ordering lunch or snacks for your employees and taking them on fun-trips is fine, as long as you are doing the basics right. How a person perceives the environment depends to a large extent upon his or her mental state. On the other hand, it is also a fact that improvements in surroundings do help people's productivity. As a manager, it is your job to nurture and build an office environment where everybody feels motivated and happy to work. Even the slightest disturbances at workplace can make people hold back their best efforts, which will affect the organisational performance. While your ultimate goal is to enhance and maintain productivity, there's no direct route to that destination. You have to take a number of small steps and take everybody along. In order to be successful with creating a better office environment, you need to work on two fronts s...

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Manual Handling - 6 FAQs

Posted on August 14, 2013

Manual handling relates to the moving of items either by lifting, carrying, pushing or pulling. Pulling something may not be the case when it comes to the injuries, you can cause an injury by lifting, carrying or pushing an item. These injuries can be a result of, the amount of times you lift or carry an item, the distance you are carrying it, the height you are picking the item up from or putting it down i.e ground level and above shoulder height. Any awkward positioning whilst carrying out these tasks such as twisting, bending and stretching may cause injury also. Manual handling injuries are the most common kind of injuries covering over a third of all workplace injuries. These injuries include Musculoskelatal Disorder (MSDs) such as upper and lower limb pain/disorders, joint and repetitive strain injuries. These injuries can occur almost anywhere in the workplace. Heavy manual labour, awkward postures and previous or existing injury can increase the risk. Manual...

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Using Chemicals at Work - Control Measures

Posted on August 01, 2013

You can find chemicals in most workplaces and are used in different ways. Factories, shops, laboratories, offices and farms are just some of the places you would find chemicals in some form. The chemicals we use in our workplace may include products you buy to use in your core business, maintaining equipment or in general cleaning equipment. The term chemical could also refer to hazardous substances you create as part of your work processes for example, dust created by cutting wood or stone. A user of chemicals could be: - a farmer - a hairdresser - a cleaner - a worker in a chemical plant - a technician in a laboratory - a pest control operator As an employer the law requires you to control the use of chemicals at work. You will need to assess the risks in your workplace, then implement and maintain effective control measures. What is COSHH for? COSHH stands for Control of Substances hazardous to health...

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Safety in the Workplace

Posted on July 29, 2013

There are many health & safety rules and regulations that every workplace has to follow, but every workplace will need some tools to help them enforce these laws. Whether it's to prevent an accident from happening or just following the health and safety regulations, this equipment will help you in your quest to make your workplace, a safer workplace. Slips and trips After the cleaner has been and mopped all the floors, or a member of staff has accidentally spilt something on the floor, you will need to warn your fellow colleagues of the danger of potentially slipping over. Wet floor signs are the best thing for highlighting any slippery surface. In a warehouse or workshop, chemicals and hazardous liquids are spilt then you can buy hazardous...

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Good Food Hygiene in Business

Posted on July 25, 2013

Good food hygiene is essential if you intend to make, process or sell food. It is vital that you and your employees understand what good, safe food hygiene is. What is 'Good food hygiene'? Good food hygiene is about how you control harmful bacteria, which can easily cause serious illness. There are four things to remember when it comes to hygiene: - Cross-contamination - Cleaning - Chilling - Cooking These are known as the 4 C's. If you remember these, you will help to prevent most safety problems. Cross-contamination ...

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Top 10 Worst Health and Safety Myths

Posted on July 22, 2013

We all know that health and safety can be a bit OTT at times and there is no doubt of many silly decisions. Over the past few years, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has dealt some incredible myths about what health and safety bans or laws people follow. Most of the baffling myths have one thing in common – they are not required by health and safety law. As part of HSE's Myth Busters Challenge Panel, they have published its top ten worst myths. 1. Children being banned from playing conkers unless they are wearing goggles Brought up in September 2007, this old chestnut is a classic myth. A headteacher decided that the children of the school should wear safety goggles to play conkers. So then a trend started and some schools banned conkers or made children wear goggles and padded gloves, on 'health and safety' grounds. In reality, the risk of injury from playing conkers is very low and just not worth the hassle. If children are deliberately hit each o...

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The Risks of Construction Dust

Posted on July 19, 2013

Construction Dust Construction dust can cause serious damage to your health and some types of dust can eventually kill you. Regularly breathing in these harmful dusts over a long period of time can cause a life threatening disease on your lungs. The dangers of asbestos dust is well documented elsewhere (see Asbestos health and safety on the HSE website) so we are focusing here on other types of dust which have harmful side-effects. What is construction dust? Construction dust is generally used to describe different types of dusts that you may find on a construction site. There are three main types of construction dust: ...

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The Age of the DIY Festival

Posted on July 11, 2013

The last few years has witnessed the rise and rise of big music festivals and an explosion of 'DIY' festivals. As well as specialist and local music events there has also been growth in festivals for food, wine, beer, comedy, films, books, theatre, religion... the list goes on. Nearly every town these days has a 'festival' of some sort plus there are festivals for subjects as diverse as balloons, 'fire', ice carving, water, peanuts, ribs and oysters - over 20 Oyster festivals in the USA alone! Small, niche festivals are popping up everywhere. There are plenty of great resources about how to organise a festival, some of which are listed at the end of this article; we wanted here to outline many of the no nonsense products that the Workplace Depot can supply the busy festival organiser. Festival Discount Code If you are a festival organiser you can receive a 10% discount on any item by using the FEST discount code in the shopping cart. Barriers...

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5 Steps to a Risk Assessment

Posted on April 29, 2013

1. Identify the hazards Identifying the hazards within your workplace is the first step that you should take. When you are working in the same place, day in, day out, you can overlook many of the hazards, here are a few tips to help you identify the hazards: - Walking around the workplace looking for potential hazards that could harm your employees. - The people who are most likely to bump into many of the hazards are your employees. Ask the staff about any health and safety risks that they know of. - Check the manufacturers' instructions or data sheets for chemicals and equipment. These can help in identifying any hazards and highlighting them. -Your accident log book will help you with finding the hazards. Any repetitive accidents and illnesses will help identify the less obvious hazards. - Remember to think about the long-term risks. These could potentially be the most damaging to someone’s health. 2. Think about who could be h...

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COSHH - How to Control Substances Hazardous to our Health

Posted on April 26, 2013

What is a substance hazardous to health? Control of Substances Hazardous to Health (COSHH) covers substances that are hazardous to health. Substances can take many forms and include: - chemicals - products containing chemicals - fumes - dusts - vapours - mists - nanotechnology - gases and asphyxiating gases - biological agents (germs) What is COSHH for? COSHH's objective it to prevent, or to adequately control exposure of substances that are hazardous to health. This can be done by: - Using control equipment such as total enclosure, partial enclosure or local exhaust ventilation (LEV); -Controlling procedures, e.g. ways of working, supervision and training to reduce exposure, maintenance, examination and testing of control measures; -Worker behaviour, making sure employees follow the control measures. COSHH Assessment Before your start your COSHH...

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Which one are you? First-Aider, Employer or Employee?

Posted on April 24, 2013

When you think of first-aiders, what do you think of? High-vis jackets, highly qualified personnel? What about the person sitting next you in the office? Many people do not realise that a first-aider can be one of your colleagues within your workplace. Training courses are provided to those who would like to become a part-time first-aider, which is safer and less time consuming than ringing a paramedic or visiting the doctors. There are three roles within a the workplace, first-aider, employers and employees. Which one are you? Are you a...? First-aider A first-aider is a person who has undertaken training and has a qualification that the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) approves of. They should hold a valid certificate of competence in either: - First aid at work, issued by a training organisation approved by the HSE - Emergency first aid at work, issued by a training organisation approved by the HSE or a recognised Awarding Body of Ofqual/Scottish...

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