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Posts Tagged ‘health and safety at work’
On the 30th April 2010, the worker on a construction site refurbishing buildings climbed a step ladder to remove a cable. The worker assumed that the cable was dead and so attempted to remove the cable using a hammer and chisel. After the second blow, the worker has no recollection other than waking on the floor with a colleague trying to extinguish flames from the top half of his body. The worker received serious 30 – 35% burns to his body which required skin grafts.
The accident victim was a sub contractor of Pineview Interiors Ltd of Havering, London.
At the time of the incident, a 415v 3-phase temporary electrical supply had been provided to the site, and on that morning the worker explained to his supervisor that the electrical cable needed to be removed to allow plasterboard to be installed. HSE investigation revealed that Pineview undertook what HSE deemed to be ‘very limited’ enquiries as to whether this cable was in fact still live, and its workers proceeded on the false assumption that the cable being described must have been an old redundant cables from the pre-existing installation.
An “entirely foreseeable accident” led to the death of a demolition worker, the Health and Safety Executive has said.
Bernard McCarroll, 68, from Croy, North Lanarkshire, had been dismantling a hydraulic excavator at Whiteinch Demolition yard in Glasgow in May 2008 when a weight from machinery fell on him.
Health and Safety officers found that the firm had not properly risk-assessed the operation.
Whiteinch Demolition Ltd, of Centurion Works, Balmuildy Road, Bishopbriggs, was fined £15,000 over the incident after admitting health and safety breaches.
The court heard that a safe system of work had not been provided to those carrying out the dismantling. Insufficient information was also made available over the assembly of the excavator by the company.
Source: IOSH
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The HSE is to be asked by a Coroner to look at the requirement for longer jump leads or alternative equipment to enable breakdown and recovery personnel to operate more safely.
The recommendations come following the inquest into the death in 2008 of a 58 year old breakdown industry worker who was killed on the road near Ringwood, Hampshire, when a passing motorist hit the vehicle he was working on.
He was positioned between his breakdown vehicle and the vehicle he was working on in order to apply jump leads and he could not place his vehicle in the preferred position some way behind the car he was working on. A verdict of unlawful killing was arrived at.
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SIG Trading Limited of Sheffield have admitted breaching S.2 of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 and have been fined £36,000 after a forklift truck driver twice ran over the leg of a colleague. The operator driver was unaware that 2 other employees were in the warehouse and as he advanced his truck a few metres he became aware of a colleague shouting and indicating to him to reverse. Having just run over another colleague’s leg he then reversed the truck over his leg again. The accident victim now lives with constant pain.
The forklift truck had its load, a large metal coil, supported on its forks which were raised and this restricted the operator’s view. No arrangements were established to separate pedestrians from vehicles operated by 2 companies which shared that part of the site. No employee training on transport issues had been carried out and no high-visibility garments for use in the warehouse were issued.
Ergo Journal regularly publish articles, tips and advice on how to arrange your office workstation in an attempt to raise awareness of basic workstation ergonomics and reduce the stresses we each face on a daily basis.
With laptop computers now firmly outstripping sales of desktop computers around the globe, additional consideration by individuals and employers should be given to workstation ergonomics if the laptop is going to be used for any reasonable amount of time in one place.
I use a laptop myself and make sure I practice what I preach by using a laptop stand to lift the screen height, a dedicated mini keyboard, wrist rest, ergonomic chair and so on as I predominantly use my laptop whilst at my desk in the office.
We recently discovered a highly insightful white paper published by Ergoton, specialists in display mounting technology. The white paper is based on academic research spanning 25 years on the subject of comfortable computing and is entitled: Comfortable Portable Computing: The ergonomic way.
Within any organisation, it tends to be the responsibility of the employer to ensure that employees are provided with the tools and education to carry out their jobs safely.
Working in a manufacturing or construction environment, it is often easy to see evidence of these assessments, high visibility jackets, signage, warning alarms and so on make it easier to appreciate the health and safety risks and considerations for employees and site visitors. But what about the health risks in less ‘dangerous’ working environments, such as the office?
Within any given office the dangers may be less obvious, no heavy machinery for example (vending machines, water coolers and photocopiers excluded) but the apparent calmness of the office does not mean that employees are not at risk from health issues.
What about Workstation ergonomics? Injuries such as Repetitive Strain Injury (RSI) can potentially lead to long term illness and a loss in productivity yet can often be avoided.
One way to ensure that the tools and education are provided to employees to highlight and minimise risk at the workstation, or desk’ is to carry out a risk assessment on each employee and their workstation, and put in place any corrective actions should a risk be identified, thus creating a healthier, more productive working environment.
We were recently forwaded an article that addresses many of the issues we are frequently asked about; what should I look when buying an office chair?
If you are like me who spends a major part of life working on desk, then I suggest doing a little shopping for an ergonomic desk chair. You might argue that you already have a desk chair, so what’s all this “ergonomics”?
Think about your poor back and neck. When you sit for hours together on our desk chair, you give a tough time to your back. This results in backaches and stiff back.
Ergonomic furniture in general and ergonomic desk chair in particular is tailor-made for comfort and ease. You will forget what pain is, once you start using ergonomic desk chairs. Ergonomic products are the best friends for your back and neck because they are designed keeping in mind your body and its contours. Ergonomic chairs keep your spinal chord straight and reduce your fatigue drastically. This, ultimately, enhances your productivity.
In a recent report published in the U.S. We are informed of how ‘Technology has brought huge advances in the power and capability of the machines which support us in our work. The human machine evolves at a somewhat slower pace. The result: workplaces which can at times resemble medieval torture chambers, at least as far as our necks, eyes and hands are concerned! The adaptation of machine to man is the concept of Ergonomics. Ergonomic products seek to enhance the interface between technology and the human form. Ergonomics attempts to identify the physical points of stress, and then minimize or eliminate that stress through superior design of workstations.
The economy of ergonomic improvements is reported in case studies in Swedish companies. Poor workplace ergonomics and related musculoskeletal problems were already known and had caused repeated sick-leave periods at the companies. Expenses associated with certain preventive activities were accounted for the financial effects. When costs were compared to gains, the improvements appeared to be highly profitable. (Kristina Kemmlert, Solna, Sweden)
There are still a lot of people who do not realize that the body pains they bear are often attributed to the bad ergonomics in the office. According to ergonomics, no matter how healthy a person is, once he or she is forced to work using office products with bad ergonomics, he or she can develop a world of medical problems such as upper and lower back pain, leg, hip, and neck pain, as well as severe headaches and migraines. (Tomer Harel, How Ergonomic Office Products can Improve your Life)’
Businesses which actively promote employee wellbeing improve their financial performance, according to new research.
Analysis of FTSE 100 employers by Business in the Community (BITC) found that companies which took steps to improve health and wellbeing of their staff delivered a 10% boost to their financial performance on average in 2009, reports Personnel Today.
The study, carried out in conjunction with Ipsos Mori, found that 37 firms which reported against two or more measures on wellbeing – such as creating a happy and engaging work environment – demonstrated a total shareholder return of 61%. The remaining FTSE 100 had an average return of 51%.