HandS links with SOHSA

Established in 1922, the Sheffield Occupational Health and Safety Association’s mission is to “protect people’s health and safety by ensuring risks in the changing workplace are properly controlled”. The aim of SOHSA is to support local companies and individuals in their quest for improved health and safety performance and thirst for relevant knowledge, offering benefit to members across Sheffield and South Yorkshire.

Present group members include safety professionals in engineering sectors, construction, scientific laboratories and research, heavy industries (including steel and glass manufacture), hospitals and first-aid, local councils, theatre, education and training, retail, legal and office sectors.

The excellent SOHSA website includes Association announcements, downloads, an events diary, e-Newsletter, and health and safety news – the very latest news from a range of sources — Safety Forums and more. SOHSA invites members to ask for advice, share information and offer support with other like-minded occupational health and safety professionals.

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HandS update: Gas/Cylinders/Compressed Gas Safety

HandS UK Health and Safety Resources has been updated today with the inclusion of a new section on compressed gas safety, titled Gas/Cylinders.

Compressed gas cylinders can be extremely hazardous when misused or abused. They present a variety of safety hazards due to their pressure and/or content. Depending on the particular gas, there is a potential for simultaneous exposure to both mechanical and chemical hazards, many of which can be fatal.  Due to their size, shape and weight, there are also hazards from manual handling.

The main hazards of compressed gas cylinders are:
* Impact from the blast of a gas cylinder explosion or rapid release of compressed gas.
* Impact from parts of gas cylinders or valves that fail, or any flying debris.
* Contact with the released gas or fluid.
* Fire resulting from the escape of flammable gas or fluid
* Impact from falling cylinders
* Manual handling injuries.

Careful procedures are necessary for handling the various compressed gases, cylinders, regulators or valves used to control gas flow, and the piping used to confine gases during flow. Anyone who examines, fills or uses gas cylinders should be suitably trained and have the necessary skills to carry out their job safely. They should be aware of the risks associated with gas cylinders and their contents.  In particular, employers should ensure that employees who are required to work with compressed gas cylinders receive adequate training. Employees involved in the handling of compressed gas cylinders should also receive manual handling training.  It is essential, of course, that all activities involving compressed gas cylinders — including their manual movement, or vehicular transport — are suitably risk assessed.

As usual, the new page contains links to the main UK statutes that apply to the use and transport of gas cylinders; links to a number of internet sites containing valuable information on gas cylinders and gas safety; and a long list of downloads that you may collect for your personal information and use.

A live button to the new page can be found in Expanded Topics near the top of the main HandS page, and two links to the page are also available in the Downloads & Links section, as ‘Cylinders – Compressed Gas’ and further down, as ‘Gas/Cylinders/Compressed Gas Safety’.

I hope you’ll find the new page useful in your work.

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HONcode verification for HandS

HandS Health and Safety Resources has been granted a valid and official HONcode certificate of accreditation by the HON Foundation.  The HON Foundation is a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO), internationally known for its pioneering work in the field of health information ethics, notably for the establishment of its code of ethical conduct, the HONcode.

HONcode is the oldest and the most used ethical and trustworthy code for medical and health related information available on Internet.The HONcode is designed for two target audiences: the general public and the web publisher, actively involving the site owner in the process of accreditation.

The HONcode aims to raise the quality of healthcare information available on the Net. It is a voluntary certification system based on an “active seal” concept. While primarily intended for healthcare site developers and publishers, the blue-and-red HONcode seal on subscribing sites also helps users identify sources of reliable information. It addresses, among other things, the authority of the information provided, data confidentiality and privacy, proper attribution of sources, transparency of financial sponsorship and the importance of clearly separating advertising from editorial content.

See: http://www.hon.ch/HONcode/

HandS Verification: HERE

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Clipart Section updated…

The Health & Safety Clipart page is updated today, with a series of thumbnail contact sheets of downloadable clipart on a variety of topics. The clipart images on these pages can be used free of charge. Much of this clipart comes from government and public websites that provide clip art and photos, free of copyright. The images are sorted according to the subject of the image and the name of the file generally reflects the content of the file. Unfortunately, the quality is generally a bit mediocre, but much of it is usable. Click on Clipart to see the new additions.

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August site update…

The HandS homepage is updated for August. Some dead links have been removed and other links have been updated with new urls.  Links to two behavioural safety sites are added.  One of those is provided by the HSE.  The other, while a commercial site, deserves a link by virtue of it’s large, free library of articles on behavioural safety and the provision of a number of good resources and book lists for further research on the subject.  The link to the British Standards list has also been repaired.

The Musculo-Skeletal Disorders/Hand-Arm Vibration page is also updated with a few new links.  This section will be helpful to anyone with an interest in repetitive strain injury, carpal tunnel syndrome, vibration, or the hazardous effects of hand-held power tools, manual handling or office work.

Searches on the site will be fresh, as a re-indexing of the 132 pages of HandS has been completed.  (For the best results in your searches, please make sure that you are spelling your words correctly!  Near-misses and British and American spellings will work, but you want to get pretty close to the correct spelling of a word. The search facility won’t ask you ‘Did you mean?’, like Google does!)

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Update to ‘Prosecution Results’

The Prosecution Results section at HandS, containing news of prosecutions, fines and compensation payouts in a wide range of trades and industries, has been updated this weekend to include a number of new cases from the period of February 2008 to July 2008.  The new additions begin on page 15 of the section.

The Prosecution Results section is provided for your research on related issues. The items may be helpful to you in presentations to safety committee or managerial meetings, or in your efforts to illustrate points and progress issues in your workplace. They could assist you in elaborating the need for thorough risk assessments, or for training that has not taken place. Some cases may also be of interest to solicitors handling cases with similar circumstances. The section is fully searchable on key words.

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New Prosecution Results section

A new section has been added to HandS Health & Safety Resources that may be of interest to you.

Prosecution Results contains examples of prosecutions, fines and compensatory payouts in a number of trades, settings and circumstances, and they are provided as an adjunct to your research on related issues. They may be helpful to you in presentations to safety committee or managerial meetings, or in your efforts to illustrate points and progress issues in your workplace. For example, they could be of help to you in elaborating the need for thorough risk assessments, or for training that has not taken place. More recent cases may also be of interest to solicitors handling similar cases. The section is fully searchable (keywords) and will be updated as often as possible.

The cases have been compiled from issues of Risks newsletter and my thanks go to Rory O’Neill, editor of Hazards magazine, and to Hugh Robertson, Senior Health & Safety Officer for the Trades Union Congress (TUC) for their kind permission to reprint the material.

A new link button to the section is located on the HandS home page, on the left side near the top.

Thank you for your continued interest and support, as HandS approaches it’s 5th year on the Net.

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HandS November update

HandS has been updated today with the addition of a new section on PPE.  The issues covered on this new page are those that some of you may have encountered: no PPE being provided; PPE being provided, but as a substitute for proper controls on hazards; being charged by your employer for PPE; having to share PPE with other people; the imposition of mandatory blanket PPE; and the problem of employees who won’t use their PPE.

Mandatory Blanket PPE is a policy concept that is spreading, causing quite a few problems on job sites, and a fair amount of controversy amongst health and safety professionals. This is where your employer issues everyone with a bundle of PPE and makes it obligatory to wear it all the time, wherever you are in the workplace or on a site. One view credits such employers with being conscientiously pro-active. Another view is that it amounts to little more than lazy health and safety management, because PPE is being distributed and used as the first resort (rather than the last), instead of spending the necessary time and money to carry out proper risk assessments and establish good risk controls, as required by the law.

It’s one thing to be forced to wear PPE that is uncomfortable, makes a job more difficult, or introduces new hazards.  It is quite another for someone to flaunt their total disregard for their own safety and that of people around them. The problem of employees who won’t wear PPE is one that affects Safety Reps as well.  While it is never up to you as a Safety Rep to act as a policeman for management, you may find yourself in the awkward position of having to encourage co-operation with company policy.

PPE is our right, a right that other working people fought to get for us, and one that a lot of people throughout the world wish they had.  In the United States, in 1999, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) finally proposed a rule requiring employers to pay for protective clothing, face shields, gloves and other equipment used by U.S. workers. But before the proposal became a standard, Mr. Bush was elected to office. Since then, the U.S. Department of Labor has neglected to enact the standard. Many workers in America’s most dangerous industries, including meatpacking, poultry, and construction, who have high rates of injury, are still forced by their employers to pay for their own safety gear. According to OSHA’s own figures, 400,000 workers have been injured and 50 have died owing to the lack of the PPE rule. Since only 14% of U.S. workers even belong to a union, we can imagine they’ll be waiting quite a while for PPE that they don’t have to pay for themselves.  (The grass is not always greener on the other side.)

The new PPE page encourages employees to take advantage of that right, and to make good use of PPE, with a lesson ’sorely’ learned (with photographs) by a personal friend and fellow Safety Rep, who now wishes he’d donned a pair of gloves to do some simple engine maintenance on his car at home.

I hope some of you find the page useful. As always, stories, comments, suggestions and contributions for the site are always welcomed.

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Construction/CDM update at HandS

The Construction/CDM section at HandS is updated today with several new additional links and downloads, from sources such as the International Labour Organisation Bookshelf, OSHA and several from the Construction Industry Council.  Included in the new downloads are two sample Risk Assessments — a Crane Lifting Plan Method/Risk Assessment, by Mark Sutton, made available by HSfB; and a Self-erecting Tower Crane Risk Assessment from R&B Construction Logistics, Ltd.

Click Here to receive email updates of HandS. Put ‘List’ in the Subject line and send.

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HandSigns invited to Tigmoo.co.uk

An invitation to have ‘HandSigns’, the HandS blog, included in the UK trade union blog aggregate at Tigmoo is very much appreciated. ‘Hello’ to everyone on the blogs!

HandS is a free, union-orientated and non-commercial health and safety resource site providing links to information, law and downloads on a range of H&S topics, with emphasis on issues affecting employees in the engineering, construction, manufacturing and clerical fields. It offers research assistance to Safety Representatives, shop stewards, H&S professionals and those in studies by providing web links to pages and booklets on topics such as hazardous substances, manual handling, noise, heights, confined spaces, fire safety and many others.

The site offers a collection of sample risk assessments, inspection checklists, PowerPoint presentations, clipart, a guide to HSE publications, links to free publications, and links to all current UK health and safety legislation. HandS also supports the role of workplace representatives with pages on consultation and Safety Representative’s rights and responsibilities.

I began work on the site in 2003 while doing my IOSH course. I was having to roam all over the internet, researching different topics, and it occurred to me that — at the time — there wasn’t one website that centralised all of the links that safety reps could use in researching health and safety issues at work. I began work on the website with a single, one-page listing of useful bookmarks, and the site has evolved and expanded considerably since then, growing to some 66 pages.

The website has drawn the attention of many. It’s received recognition from the Amicus website; the HSE Revitalising Network; Hazards magazine, who published a safety rep profile on me; Rory O’Neill’s Risks newsletter; and the Unionreps website.  In 2005, with the support of Bro Rob Miguel of Amicus and Mr. Terry Aston of the HSE, I was honoured to receive a Ceramics Industry Pledge Award for the work done on HandS.

HandS maintains links with other H&S websites, as well as those of two legal firms who are specialising in H&S matters, and it has also been mentioned and given links on the BP (British Petroleum) Health and Safety page; on the ‘Activist’ page of the Royal College of Nurses website; in newsletter #17 (February 2005) of Hu-tech Ergonomics, and in the February 2005 issue of the Labour Research Department Workplace Report.

Currently, the site is enjoying a greater readership — no doubt due to it’s frequent appearance in Google — and evidenced by the logged visits by over 2,000 people in the last three months. The site is visited by people from all over the world, according to the statistics logged for me by a ‘hit counter’ company. Apart from the majority of UK visits, and those from the US, Ireland and the EU, I’m surprised to see visitors from as far afield as Azerbaijan, Iran (3 visits) and in this past week, even one from the People’s Republic of China (where they could do with a spot of health and safety!).

I hope you’ll drop in on the HandS website and find it useful, for yourself or for colleagues working with you. Please feel free to email me, or use HandSigns, with comments, suggestions or requests.

All the best,
Dennis Mac
handshealthandsafety@gmail.com

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