Blog posts : "health and safety"
Face fit testing - what you need to know
Ill-fitting clothing is unflattering. Ill-fitting shoes are uncomfortable and ill-fitting protective equipment is unfit for purpose and therefore unsafe. This fact is recognized in law.
For example, the law requires that almost all protective masks be face-fit tested to ensure that they provide e…
Health and safety & security threats in retail businesses and how to remedy them
Health and safety and security threats are often either the same or very closely related. This means that by practicing good health and safety, you will often improve your security - and vice versa. Here are some tips to help.
Conduct regular assessments of your premises
Risk assessments are m…
Common office health and safety risks and how to avoid them
Even though the average office is a whole lot safer than say, the average construction site, there are still a fair number of health and safety risks that need to be managed. Here are some of the most common and how to avoid them.
Slips, trips, and falls
These tend to be the number one health …
What is a 'Competent Person' and does my business need one?
Even the smallest businesses have the legal responsibility to manage health and safety at work and are mandated to appoint a competent person to take ownership of fulfilling this obligation.
The definition of a competent person
A competent person does not have to be a qualified and dedicated h…
Health > safety: how to improve workplace wellbeing
Modern day employees can receive training for site safety, fire safety, construction safety, food safety, and a million subjects besides. In short, safety is a pretty tightly controlled and well understood discipline. Yet many of the industries where health & safety training and protocols are most p…
New Design Innovations in Disposable Respirators
Respiratory innovation is happening but in baby steps. Personal protective equipment is traditionally a low innovation area, but new advances in technology in the area of materials, fabrics and overall design have dramatically improved worker protection and user comfort. Disposable respirators have …
6 Easy Ways to Reduce VOC Exposure in the Workplace
What are VOCs?
VOCs, or volatile organic compounds, are a family of chemicals that readily evaporate and turn into gases and vapour. Put simply, this means they give off odorous fumes and increase the concentration of potentially harmful chemicals in the air.
And in the modern age, they can be…
On the lookout for occupational asthma
People who develop asthma because of the type of work they do have what's known as occupational asthma. It's actually referred to as adult-onset asthma and accounts for up to 15% of asthma cases in adults. What's more, it's believed that in certain industries, as many as 10% of workers develop o…
11 ways to boost your health and safety culture
Promoting a strong health and safety (H&S) culture is not rocket science, but it takes time, effort and resources!
The overall culture in a company has a tremendous effect on the health and safety performance of employees. Culture is a notoriously tricky concept to pin down and fully unders…
Are you taking safety seriously or do you continue to gamble with your employees' lives?
Unfortunately, there are still a high percentage of employers who don't take safety seriously enough and are yet to embrace and appreciate the importance of occupational safety.
There is also by some a belief that providing a safe working environment is too expensive, they cannot justify the …
What employers need to know about workplace temperature
Now that the nights are drawing in and we’re all starting to think about turning the central heating on, the subject of workplace temperature becomes ever more important.
The relevant laws that govern indoor workplace temperature are set out by the Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Reg…
Dos and don’ts for working at height
Workplace injuries can pose very real dangers in our daily jobs, particularly when the task involves working high up on a building or other structure. Safety statistics make for grim reading, with accidents on building sites responsible for more than their proportionate share of all fatal injuries a…
How does H&S legislation compare across Europe?
Despite the European Union having a solid framework covering health and safety regulations at work, actual legislation and how it is enforced varies significantly between European countries.
Various bodies and people are held accountable differently in different countries, and some might appear t…
How to focus on completing your NEBOSH National General Certificate
Achieving the appropriate qualifications for your job is challenging. You may have to study and train, while you’re working. Finding the time to balance both can leave you stressed out and, in general, tired.
But it is worth the investment, especially when your job requires health and safety kn…
Addition to the Jobs page
A new link has been added to the Health and Safety Jobs page of the site; SafetyJobsOnline.com is linked to HealthandSafetyforBeginners.
SafetyJobsOnline offers jobseekers the opportunity to tap into a very different service from others you will find. As a jobseeker you can register on the site a…
Chessington fined £150,000 for four-year-old girl's injuries
Chessington World of Adventures has been sentenced for safety failings that led to a four-year-old girl suffering life-changing head injuries when she fell from a raised walkway while queuing for a ride.
The youngster, from Kent, fell nearly four metres while waiting in line for the Tomb Blaster ri…
The 7 most visited pages
Over the last 30 days, the seven most visited pages on HealthSafetyNews.co.uk were:
- 2,519 views Littleborough firm in court after employee badly burned in factory fire
- 1,839 views The Guest Bloggers Page
- 1,235 views Worker's fall lands two Kent businesses in court
- 1,138 views Why competency an…
What are employers' fire safety duties?
Employers, building owners and other people responsible for commercial buildings have a duty to put necessary fire safety precautions in place to all reasonable and practicable extents. This is seen in health law under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, which applies to all non-domestic…
CSCS tests: Why construction site health and safety is important
Between April 2010 and March 2011, 50 workers were killed on UK construction sites. The construction industry accounts for just 5% of employees in Britain, but 27% of fatal injuries happen on construction sites.
When you look at the figures, it’s clear that construction sites are some of the most d…