Health & Safety

09May2017

Working at Height Risk Assessment

mike health & safety

Working at height is one of the main causes of major injuries and fatalities in the construction industry; and common cases include falls from ladders, rooftops and fragile surfaces. HSE defines work at height as "work in any place where, if there were no precautions in place, a person could fall a distance liable to cause personal injury".

To prevent any major or fatal injuries from happening when working at height, it's important that a risk assessment is put in place. A risk assessment is an examination of what in your workplace could cause harm, so you're able to put the right precautions in place to make sure that any work at height is properly planned, supervised and carried out in a safe manner. By law you're required to assess the risks in the workplace so that you can put a plan in place to control the risks.

With that in mind. If you're starting to create a risk assessment, here are some steps you should follow in order to ensure your assessment is accurate and as thorough as possible:

Step 1: Identifying the Potential Hazards

This is arguably one of the most important steps for creating your your risk assessment. When identifying the hazards in your workplace, it's important to think about the activities, processes and/or substances that are used in your workplace that could injure or harm your employees' health. Here are some tips to help you identify potential hazards:

Observe the workplace.
Check manufacturers' instructions.
Look through your accident book.
Think about long-term hazards to health - for example: exposure to a high level of noise or harmful substances.
Gather feedback from employees.

The Work at Height Regulations 2005 state that the following need to be considered in your risk assessment:

The distance and effects of any potential falls.
The duration and frequency of use of work equipment, and whether the work equipment is appropriate for the work that is about to be performed.
Does the work equipment allow passage without risks.
The need for easy and safe evacuation in case of an emergency .
The working condition and the risks to people where work equipment is to be used.

Step 2: Deciding who may be harmed and how

It's important when conducting a risk assessment that you think about which people are at risk, and how they might be harmed. For each hazard you need make sure it is clear which group of people might be harmed, as this will help you identify the best way of controlling the risks. It's important to make sure you consider every person in the work area:

Employees.
Visitors.
Contractors.
Maintenance workers.
Members of the public.
If you share a workplace with another business, consider how each of your work affects yours, and their workers.

Step 3: Evaluate the Risks

Having identified the potential hazards, you now have to identify the level of the risk and what precautions you need to put in place. You are not expected to eliminate all risks; but you need to make sure you're aware of them, and the things you must do to manage and prevent them. Your risk assessment should only include what you're expected to know - you are not responsible for anticipating unforeseeable risks.

Look at what you're already doing, and what control measures you have in place - and evaluate if it's possible to get rid of the hazard? And if not; how can you control the risks to reduce the chances of it doing any harm.

Some practical steps you should consider when preventing the risks of hazards:

Issue the correct personal protective equipment.
Preventing access to the hazards.
Ensuring that all workers are trained to ensure that they understand the hazards and the precautions to be taken.
Trying a less risky option.
Organising work to reduce any exposure to the hazard.
Providing welfare facilities such as first aid and washing facilities.

Step 4: Record Your Findings

When you're recording your findings it's important that you keep it simple and that it's easy to read. An accurate risk assessment should show the following:

A proper check has been made.
You have shown who might be affected.
You have dealt with the hazards and have taken in account who might of been affected.
The precautions are sensible and that the remaining risk is low.
You have involved all your employees during this process.

To prevent any confusion, it's important that you use a new risk assessment sheet for each work place and assessment you complete. You must ensure that you have dated the risk assessment; that you have recorded details of the person who took the assessment, and that you have recorded any action due-dates and completion dates.

Step 5: Review & Update Your Assessment

Workplaces are always changing and bringing in new equipment, substances and procedures that could possibly lead to new hazards. So, it's important that you review what your risk assessments every 6-12 months. It's important to check the following:

Any significant changes at your workplace?
Are there any improvements you need to make?
Have your workers noticed a problem?
Have you learnt anything from recent accidents?

When working with height it's always important that the correct safety measures are put in place. That's why we supply a comprehensive range of Height Safety Equipment that are designed to ensure the maximum level of protection, while also providing an assuring level of comfort too. To view our range of height safety equipment, please click here.

21Apr2017

Endless Lifting Slings From SafetyLiftinGear

mike health & safety

Heavy lifting operations require the use of equipment that is highly reliable and secure, which is why we supply a variety of specially designed endless lifting slings here at SafetyLiftinGear. Each sling is made from high-quality polyester webbing which is flexible yet strong, making them an ideal alternative to lifting wires and chains, especially when the operation involves more fragile items.

In order to ensure that your sling is tailored to the demands of your operation, we also supply our endless lifting slings in a variety of lengths and weight limits, allowing you to select an item that meets the exact needs of your application. These range from slings for applications between and 1 and 6 tonne, to those which are suitable for heavy-duty applications, with a lifting ability of between 10 and 50 tonne!

Here's a closer look at one of our endless lifting slings, which is suitable for 5 tonne applications:

In addition to our slings, we also supply additional accessories to be used during the lifting process, including hooks which can be used to lift or join two slings together.

Benefits of using our slings:

Each sling comes with an ID label which highlights all the relevant information for performing a safe and stable lift.
Slings are available in a choice of lengths depending on your requirements, stating from as small as 0.5m through to 6m.
All of our endless lifting slings have a safety factor of 7:1.
LiftinGear slings are designed to offer excellent value for money, without sacrificing the quality of the product.

To see our full selection of endless lifting slings, click here!

18Apr2017

Ladder Security: Safe Work Procedures for Ladders

mike health & safety

When working at heights, ensuring your ladder is secure is a vital requirement. Simple checks and precautions taken before using a ladder can help reduce the risk when using it and help keep you safe. With over 6,000 deaths and 30,000 injuries caused by falling from ladders every year, safe work procedures for ladders are more important than ever before. Here are just a few tips on how you can keep secure when working at heights.

More...

23Mar2017

Three People Jailed for Attempting to Cover Up Height Safety Failings

mike health & safety

Last week, a judge at Manchester Crown Court sent three people to jail. Why? Because they failed to follow the rules for working safely at height, and because they attempted to cover up their negligence after disaster struck.

Back in 2014, two men - Benjamin Edge and Peter Heap - were working on the roof of a shed in wet and windy conditions. There were no height safety measures in place to prevent Edge and Heap from falling and injuring themselves; they weren't wearing safety harnesses, and no other safeguards had been provided for their protection. During the job, Benjamin Edge fell from the roof and sustained severe head injuries. He was pronounced dead at Salford Royal Hospital that night.

If this were the end of the story, Mr Edge's employer - SR and RJ Brown Ltd - would still have been in very hot water indeed. Companies who commit corporate manslaughter by failing to identify and address on-the-job hazards are routinely punished with large fines and even jail time in some cases. In this particular case, however, the firm's wrongdoing did not end with Mr Edge's death.

After the accident, Mr Heap was ordered to bring a set of safety harnesses to the work site to make it look as though proper safety precautions had been taken. Furthermore, James Brown - one of the directors of SR and RJ Brown Ltd - created fake risk assessment forms and handed these to the authorities investigating the incident. All of this was done to create the impression that the firm had followed the rules and that they were not at fault for Mr Edge's death.

Eventually, the cover-up was revealed and the two company directors were sentenced to 20 months in jail, plus a fine of £300,000. Mark Aspin, who contracted the job to SR and RJ Brown Ltd, has been jailed for 12 months.

Why risk breaching safety regulations?

When preparing to carry out a routine task, it can sometimes be tempting to ignore health and safety law and just get it done as quickly as possible. However, as the story above demonstrates, any time you save by skipping the safety precautions will pale in comparison to the possible consequences. Not only can you face hefty fines and jail sentences for putting your employees in danger, you also risk ending lives, wrecking families, and causing damage that can never be undone.

Stay safe at work - if you're an employer, it is your legal responsibility to carry out a risk assessment and put the necessary safeguards in place to protect your workers!

07Dec2016

Do 'Safe' Construction Sites Exist? A Reflection on the Risks of Heavy Lifting

mike health & safety

Last week, a headline published in the Northen Echo captured our attention, as it was announced that a construction firm had been ordered to pay £45,000, as a result of an on-site injury. Initially, this struck us as the same neglectful safety story that we've grown used to reading about, whereby a firm or supervisor is found to have been using unsafe working practices, or unsuitable equipment, and is punished accordingly. This story, however, was distinctly different from previous cases that we have examined, as it lacked the obvious signs of neglect often present in cases such as these. As a result, this got us thinking about the way in which we discuss health and safety in construction, and how, at times, we may be guilty of forgetting the grey areas that surround workplace safety measures.

In the case mentioned, project manager Paul Powton was injured whilst working on a spa expansion for Walter Thompson Ltd, a family-run firm of contractors. Whilst laying two concrete slabs, Mr Powton was injured as the crow bar he was using to lever the slabs into place flew up and hit him in the face, after the top slab fell from the chain block being used to lift it. On inspection, it was found that this incident occurred due to poor planning, time pressure, and a lack of proper risk assessment procedures, with blame falling primarily on the firm, but also on Mr Powton himself.

Just two week prior to the incident, the site had passed its monthly health and safety audit, and during proceedings the company was praised for their 'exemplary' health and safety record. In addition, this was also the company's first prosecution in almost a 100 years of working in the industry. This illustrates the true scale of health and safety risks in the construction industry, by showing that heavy lifting incidents can easily occur, even in the most safety-conscious workplaces. Health and safety cannot be maintained on a monthly or even weekly basis, but must be properly assessed and executed as part of daily working practices.

In order to avoid these incidents, companies and employees should:

Plan ahead with plenty of time, to properly asses each element of the job at hand.
Use the correct lifting and handling equipment, which has been safety checked and approved.
Double check the equipment, and run through safety measures before going ahead with the work.
Clearly communicate health and safety procedures throughout the work force, for a unified approach to safety.
If incidents do occur, the situation should be properly scrutinised in order to ensure that a repeat in never allowed to occur.

For more health and safety news and advice, click here!

31Aug2016

Company Fined £30,000 for Unsafe Lifting Practices

mike health & safety

Lifting large objects can be dangerous business, and it's critically important to carry out the right safety measures in order to minimise the risk of an accident. Failure to adhere to the lifting safety regulations can lead to serious injuries (or worse), and the responsible parties may face prosecution, hefty fines, and even imprisonment.

To see just what can happen when lifting safety guidelines are ignored, you need look no further than the example of Knowsley Engineering Services Ltd, a Merseyside firm that was hit with a £30,000 fine this week after pleading guilty to a breach of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974.

What happened?

On the 30th of June, 2014, two workers were moving a structure using a forklift truck. Their goal was to lift the structure from its trestles and manoeuvre it away, but as the structure was being raised up, it twisted around and swung into the cabin of the forklift truck, striking its driver.

That forklift driver, a 46-year-old man from West Lancashire, came away from this incident with serious flesh wounds and a broken arm. This week, his employer (Knowsley Engineering Services Ltd) plead guilty to workplace safety violations at Liverpool Crown Court, resulting in a £30,000 fine (plus costs of £7,670).

How could this have been prevented?

Speaking after the court hearing, a representative from the Health & Safety Executive issued the following statement:

"Had the company taken basic steps, such as providing suitable training so that those undertaking the lift were in a more informed position to assess and then adequately manage the risks, this incident would have been avoided."

With that in mind, here's a breakdown of how this unfortunate incident and the subsequent court hearing could have been prevented:

Employee training. Workers who are required to undertake tasks such as this one should be fully trained to identify risks and take any necessary safety precautions in order to ensure the safe completion of the job at hand.
Risk assessment. Trained workers should know how to carry out a full risk assessment ahead of commencing a lifting/handling job. In an ideal version of this scenario, someone would have completed a risk assessment and spotted the possibility that the structure might twist towards the forklift.
Use of the correct equipment and safety measures. Preventing accidents means taking the right precautions and select the right tools/equipment for the job. In this case, it seems likely that a forklift was entirely the wrong solution for the task at hand, and a different piece of lifting equipment should have been utilised instead.

Source: SHP Online

04Aug2016

More Height Safety Disasters!

mike health & safety

As we've noticed so many terrible examples of poor, or even non-existent height safety during the past few weeks, we decided it was about time that we created a post to highlight our concerns, and show just how common these idiotic actions can be! Just try to look at these photographs without feeling a little bit ill...

(Pinterest)

Lesson #1: The material lift equivalent of giving your mate a boost is never a good idea...

(Pinterest)

In fact, getting your work mates to hold you up is probably one of the worst ideas when it comes to height safety, which is why lesson #2 is to avoid a dizzying situation like the one pictured above!

(Stupid Humans)

Lesson #3: Your workplace probably isn't the best place to practise your tightrope skills. Stick on a harness, and learn how use a scissor lift properly!

(Pinterest)

Lesson #4: If you really want to be air lifted, just keep working like this! The emergency services will soon have you sorted...

(Pinterest)

Lesson #5: For goodness' sake, use the right ladder! It will save you the hassle of improvising this contraption, as well as a few dozen broken bones...

We hope that our latest disaster round-up inspired you to avoid any improvised shortcuts and crazy solutions in the workplace! If you'll excuse the pun, working at height is dangerous on all levels, which is why you should always have the proper safety measures in place, and ensure that you're making full use of the correct height safety equipment!

Get in touch to learn more about our training courses!