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Working at height

Working at height remains one of the biggest causes of fatalities and major injuries. Common cases include falls from ladders and through fragile surfaces. ‘Work at height’ means work in any place where, if there were no precautions in place, a person could fall a distance liable to cause personal injury (for example a fall through a fragile roof). This section shows how employers can take simple, practical measures to reduce the risk of any of their workers falling while working at height.

What do I have to do?

You must make sure work is properly planned, supervised and carried out by competent people with the skills, knowledge and experience to do the job. You must use the right type of equipment for working at height. Take a sensible approach when considering precautions. Low-risk, relatively straightforward tasks will require less effort when it comes to planning and there may be some low-risk situations where common sense tells you no particular precautions are necessary.

Control measures

First assess the risks. Factors to weigh up include the height of the task, the duration and frequency, and the condition of the surface being worked on. Before working at height work through these simple steps:

  • Avoid work at height where it's reasonably practicable to do so.
  • Where work at height cannot be easily avoided, prevent falls using either an existing place of work that is already safe or the right type of equipment
  • Minimize the distance and consequences of a fall, by using the right type of equipment where the risk cannot be eliminated

For each step, always consider measures that protect everyone at risk (collective protection) before measures that only protect the individual (personal protection).

Collective protection is equipment that does not require the person working at height to act for it to be effective. Examples are permanent or temporary guardrails, scissor lifts and tower scaffolds.

Personal protection is equipment that requires the individual to act for it to be effective. An example is putting on a safety harness correctly and connecting it, with an energy-absorbing lanyard, to a suitable anchor point.

Dos and don’ts of working at height

Do….

as much work as possible from the ground

ensure workers can get safely to and from where they work at height

ensure equipment is suitable, stable and strong enough for the job, maintained and checked regularly

take precautions when working on or near fragile surfaces

provide protection from falling objects

consider emergency evacuation and rescue procedures

Don’t…

overload ladders – consider the equipment or materials workers are carrying before working at height. Check the pictogram or label on the ladder for information

overreach on ladders or stepladders

rest a ladder against weak upper surfaces, eg glazing or plastic gutters

use ladders or stepladders for strenuous or heavy tasks, only use them for light work of short duration (a maximum of 30 minutes at a time)

let anyone who is not competent (who doesn’t have the skills, knowledge and experience to do the job) work at height

COSHH - Control of Substances Hazards to Health

COSHH - Control of Substances Hazards to Health
Do you know that “Controlling employee exposure to hazardous substances is a legal requirement on employers and the HSE provides guidance on how control can be achieved?"
Do you handle or work with any Chemicals at your workplace?
Do you know how hazardous it could be?
Do you have any idea about Hazardous substances?
Do you know the effects of hazardous substances?
Are you monitoring or carrying out health surveillance periodically?
Hazardous risk assessment in place?
Get your answers and take your training to safeguard yourself and your team members. Call us on 056 4333826
HSE NEWS: Car dealership Harwoods admitted breaching r 7(1) of the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations at West Hampshire Magistrates’ Court last week. Audi Southampton had been spraying using paints that contained isocyanate. The Worthing-based firm was fined £120,000 and ordered to pay £2,657 costs. Source: ioshmagazine.com
#COSHH #PESC #Safety #Proactive

IOSH Managing Safely course

Are your employees feeling less confident about identifying risks in the workplace?
Do you feel confident that they could identify all risks in the workplace?
If the answers are yes then it means your team is not completed IOSH Managing Safely course, it may be time for Managing Safely.
As someone in a managerial or supervisory role, ensuring that your employees have up to date training, not only safeguards them but it ensures the safety and health of your business, and with these Top 5 delegate benefits it is easy to see how:
Top 5 delegate benefits:
Refreshes knowledge
Builds on existing capabilities
Puts Managing Safely into action
Applies refreshed knowledge to the Plan-Do-Check-Act model and links back to the workplace
Allows for personal reflections on good practice
This internationally recognised certification will not only maintain diligence throughout your business but has excellent benefits including: Enhancing productivity with fewer hours lost to sickness and accidents Improved organisation‑wide safety cultures awareness Refreshed knowledge of the plan‑do‑check‑act model linking back to the workplace.
Call us on 0564333826

FIRST AID TRAINING

FIRST AID TRAINING
Feb 8, 12:00 AM - 11:59 PM
Venue:
Proactive Excel Safety Consultancy
Al Quasis Plaza,
Office no: 212, 2nd Floor,
Damascus Street,
Al Quasis, Dubai, UAE
Call us for more details:  056 4333 826 / 052 5164 865 / 055 4988 303
Approved by: EHS Trakhees/ Dubai Ambulance/ Highfield UK INTERNATIONAL VALID CERTIFICATION CERTIFICATE VALIDITY: 3 YEARS

Incident Investigation

Investigating a worksite incident- a fatality, injury, illness, or close call- provides employers and workers the opportunity to identify hazards in their operations and shortcomings in their safety and health programs. Most importantly, it enables employers and workers to identify and implement the corrective actions necessary to prevent future incidents.

 

Incident investigations that focus on identifying and correcting root causes, not on finding fault or blame, also improve workplace morale and increase productivity, by demonstrating an employer's commitment to a safe and healthful workplace.

Want to know more about incident investigation courses??
Contact us 0564333826 or visit http://proactivexl.com/
#rospa #incidentinvestigation #nebosh #nearmiss #incident #accident #RIDDOR #workplacesafety

Coronavirus

The recent coronavirus outbreak once again puts public health and the safety of international travel in the spotlight. Here Stephen Thomas, Health and Safety Business Partner at IOSH, highlights some key actions that organisations can take to manage traveller health, safety and wellbeing:

1. To effectively manage travel risk you need to ensure you have proportionate and robust policies, procedures and controls in place. Communicate them to all relevant parts of your organisation, providing information, instruction and training as appropriate.

2. Consider whether the travel is absolutely necessary: can you achieve the same result with video conferencing and spare the organisation and traveller the risk, time, cost and environmental impact? Situations such as the coronavirus outbreak in China as well as geopolitical conflicts, terrorism and natural disasters can change rapidly, potentially leaving travellers stranded or quarantined. It is therefore important to make ‘fly/no fly’ decisions based on best available guidance such as government travel advice.
If travel is deemed necessary then you need to effectively but proportionately manage the risk, with controls identified and implemented which reflect the nature and severity of the risk. Such controls should be identified through a travel risk assessment incorporating not only the travel, accommodation and work itself but also the traveller’s physical and mental capabilities. The travellers themselves should be involved in this process.
You will always need to know where your workers are and where they are going. Some travel management systems provide tracking and alert functions, and there are also products utilising GPS in either discrete equipment or smartphone apps which can provide live location tracking.
Should your travellers become involved in an incident or emergency situation, you need to have a means by which to provide support for them. Considering issues such as number of travellers, international time differences and weekend travel it is potentially cost and resource-effective to implement a travel assistance scheme such as those provided by business insurers or commercial organisations such as International SOS, with whom IOSH collaborated on research and guidance on Managing the safety, health and security of mobile workers (2016). Most schemes and business travel insurance packages offer a 24/7 helpline which triggers support services for the traveller, providing assistance with medical treatment and repatriation due to injuries and illness as well as helping with lost documents, stolen money and other common travel-related problems.
You should also provide relevant information, instruction and training to travellers, the nature and extent of which should be identified during the risk assessment process.
Finally, don’t forget your travellers’ wellbeing. Frequent international travel has been shown[1] to have negative effects on both physical and mental health, with situations such as a disease outbreak providing further sources of concern.

Thank you www.iosh.com

 

Work at Height Training

Do you know about Work at Height Training:

 

This Working at Height training course helps you to comply with the Work at Height Regulations 2005 by providing employers and employees with the necessary information needed to be able to successfully deal with working at height risks and control measures. This includes an understanding of how to undertake a working at height risk assessment, how to use access equipment safely and how to ensure that employees can reduce their risk of falls from height.

Call us on 0564333826

Temporary Works Coordinator

This course is for those on site with responsibility for managing all forms of temporary works.

  •  It is designed to give confidence to senior management and those who engage with contractors.
  • The course will provide candidates with a thorough knowledge of the role of a temporary works coordinator
  • The importance of the '4Cs': communications, cooperation, coordination and competency in managing temporary works as a Temporary Works coordinator
  • Understanding the need for, and the duties of, a temporary works coordinator
  • Understanding the roles of others
  • Understanding BS5975, the code of Best Practice for Temporary Structures on Building Sites
  • Statutory aspects of temporary works
  • Risk assessments and method statements
  • Management of the temporary works process.

Call us for more details: 0564333826

#healthandsafety

IOSH Managing Safely

IOSH Managing Safely
Feb 7 - Feb 9
Achieving the IOSH Managing Safely Certificate Enables you to assess and control risks and hazards Provides a full understanding of your responsibilities for safety and health Enables you to investigate incidents Empowers you to measure your own performance against good practice

Do you know about the role of a rigger?

Riggers are responsible for attaching cables or ropes to the load that they intend to lift or hoist. Riggers know which hitches to tie and how much weight they can actually support. They understand where the center of gravity of a load is so the load is correctly balanced and stable.

If you don’t have a trained Riggers, which will end up in accident.

Call us for DAC Scope of Accreditation – ISO/IEC 17024:2012 Certificate. Call us on 0564333826

#healthandsafety

What is safety culture?

 

“The safety culture of an organisation is the product of individual and group values, attitudes, perceptions, competencies, and patterns of behaviour that determine the commitment to, and the style and proficiency
of, an organisation’s health and safety management. Organisations with a positive safety culture are characterised by communications founded on mutual trust, by shared perceptions of the importance of safety
and by confidence in the efficacy of preventive measures.”

Aerial view of a man using computer laptop on wooden table

ACSNI Human Factors Study Group: Third report - Organising for safety HSE Books 1993

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