9 September Deal with it – don’t walk on by It is not unusual for people to walk passed and ignore serious and obvious hazards in the workplace. We can become accustomed, or normalised to seeing situations which are unnecessarily dangerous. These can include: missing fall protection barriers blocked fire exits leaking pipes corroded storage tanks workers taking shortcuts precarious operations cables trailing across … Read More
5 September Company Director jailed following death of a worker Company director jailed for a year following the death of one of his workers. A 51-year-old father-of-three (PW) died on 29 January 2014 when a remote controlled Mobile Elevated Working Platform (MEWP) he was loading onto a truck fell from the ramps and crushed him. Manchester Crown Court heard how PW had not been adequately trained … Read More
1 August Are turban-wearing Sikhs exempt from the need to wear head protection in the workplace? Question – I was recently asked: “I recall some time ago that Sikhs did not need to wear hard hats if they were wearing a turban – Do you know if that is still the case?” Answer: In short the answer is yes, turban-wearing Sikhs exempt are exempt from the need to wear had protection. Longer … Read More
22 June Should you stand or sit? Working on DSE, do you stand or sit? This question has come up several times for our team as we have been assisting some larger organisations with their DSE Assessments. Paul, one of our Health and Safety Consultants, put together an illustrative piece to get people to think about the alternatives. Q: What have Da … Read More
20 June Barbecue Food Safety and Food Hygiene Many of us like a good barbecue, even if this means dodging the rain. That said, we would like to offer you a few points about barbecue food safety. Here are some of our essential food safety tips for barbecues this summer: Make one person responsible for the cooking beforehand remember that alcohol and cooking … Read More
6 June Tyre firm fined £1 Million after a young worker killed A Kent tyre company has been sentenced and fined £1,000,000 (one million pounds) after a young worker killed following for safety failings that resulted in a tyre exploding. Canterbury Crown Court heard how the young employer (MH), an employee of Watling Tyre Service Limited of Kent, was repairing a puncture to the tyre of a ‘dresser … Read More
16 November Cold Weather Forklift truck safety Cold Weather Forklift truck safety – For many businesses, forklifts are an essential piece of material handling equipment that they cannot do without. Whether you work in warehousing, construction, many areas of production, transportation or a myriad of other fields, forklifts trucks can make life safer and easier for both you and your employees. Winter … Read More
5 November Permit to Work – not a bureaucratic nightmare Permit to work systems are excellent tools for controlling any non-routine procedures in any kind of workplace. They can be used effectively to manage the safety of contractors and in house workers. Like any health and safety management system they only work well when they are backed up by a culture of safety with full … Read More
3 November CLP Serious Health Hazards CLP Serious Health hazard – what does this symbol mean? Under the CLP Regulations, there are several new symbols in use. Not everyone is as familiar with them as they should be. A hazard pictogram is an image on a label that includes a warning symbol and specific colours intended to provide information about the damage … Read More
30 October Health and Safety Concepts – Proactive Health and Safety Proactive Health and Safety – what do we mean? With respect to health and safety, are you Proactive or are you Reactive? Do you wait for things to happen and then respond? Is so, you are reactive. Most of us do a mixture of the two. We react to certain things and we try to … Read More