Heavy lifting can be dangerous, frequently resulting in injuries and accidents when done improperly. Here, courtest of the experts at SafetyLiftinGear, are some tips to help you stay safe next time you're lifting heavy objects:

• Plan your actions. Don't jump head-first into lifting a heavy item - think about what you're doing first. What route are you planning to take? Would it be possible to push or slide the load instead of lifting it? Can you lift it alone without putting yourself in harm's way, or do you need to call for help?
  
  
• Bend your knees. When you bend down to pick up the object in question, make sure you bend at the knees instead of at the waist. This will put the weight on your legs, rather than putting your back at risk.
  
  
• Get a good grip. Before you rise to a standing position, ensure that you have a good hold on the load that will not slip as you move.
  
  
• Keep it close. Don't hold the load at arm's length; instead, hug it close to your body (especially as you rise from picking it up).
  
  
• Take it slowly. Never rush when lifting and moving a heavy load - that's how accidents happen!
  
  
• Don't twist your spine. Twisting your body while carrying a heavy item can do a lot of damage - ensure that you're facing in the same direction as your feet at all times.
  
  
• Put it down properly. Don't simply drop the load when you reach your destination - find a suitable space to deposit the item, then bend at the knee and place it down gently.

One final tip: know when you're beaten! Some loads are simply too heavy to be lifted by manpower alone, and in situations like these, you may need to use specialist lifting equipment (e.g. slings, hoists, chains) to get the job done. Don't try to show off by lifting something that could get you hurt!

It's easy to ignore health and safety regulations, especially when every newspaper in the country is printing stories about "elf and safety" and how it's ruining everybody's fun for no particular reason. In the past few months alone, we've seen selfie sticks, Christmas decorations, wedding rings, and sorts of other things banned by business owners and local authorities who cite health and safety as an excuse.

But these stories are absurd, and they should not be taken as a reflection of real H&S laws, which are in place to save lives and prevent injuries. These laws are tremendously important, and a few farcical news stories shouldn't permit you and your employees to ignore genuine H&S measures like safety harnesses and fall arrest systems.

Here, then, are three excellent reasons to abide by health and safety regulations (and height safety regulations in particular):

1. You could be prosecuted. An engineering company in South Wales was recently fined £20,000 after a welder fell two metres and ended up on crutches for nine weeks. And it won't necessarily stop with a fine; other offenders have served time in prison.
   
   
2. You could be prosecuted, even if no accidents occur. In a previous blog post, we told you about a Berkshire firm who received a £10,000 fine after somebody took a photograph of their unsafe work. Nobody was hurt, and no accidents occurred, but the company was fined anyway because they had endangered people's lives. Which brings us to reason #3...
   
   
3. People could die. Really, this should be the only reason you need. If you don't observe basic health and safety laws - which, as we mentioned above, are simply there to protect people - then people could lose their lives, and you'll be responsible for it.

Visit SafetyLiftinGear's Height Safety department now and make sure you have all the safety equipment you need.

Health and safety regulations can sometimes seem like they were designed just to inconvenience people, rather than to save their lives. This impression isn't helped by the journalists who seem to take great pleasure in writing about absurd 'elf and safety' stories that make the whole practice look like a joke - trees being cut down for no good reason, people being ordered to remove their Christmas decorations, and so forth.

But, in spite of all this, health and safety is there for a crucial purpose: to keep people safe from harm. It isn't hard to quantify the importance of this; for every cringeworthy story about 'health and safety gone mad', there are half a dozen about somebody who was seriously injured or even killed by H&S oversights. If, for example, you were to Google height safety (something of a speciality for the SafetyLiftinGear team), you'd be rewarded with the following horror stories (all of which are from the last week or so):

• A man in Kettering punctured a lung and broke several bones after falling more than 13 feet from a recycling cabin onto a concrete floor. His employers were fined £9,000.
  
  
• A construction firm in Berkshire was recently fined £10,000 after a local resident photographed the firm's employees working on a roof without anything standing between them and a fall of almost 20 feet.
  
  
• Another £10,000 fine was handed out to a Cheshire-based homebuilder last week after a plasterer fell through an unguarded opening and fell nearly 10 feet to the floor below, cracking two vertebrae.

As you can see, poor health and safety practices really are everywhere, and it's high time for businesses like those mentioned above to sort it out.

For starters, then: if you or your employees are ever carrying out any work at height, ensure that the correct height safety equipment is in place. As we've seen, this could prevent some serious injuries, not to mention some major fines.