Health and Safety, how's your H&S game?
Discussion
Definitely better than I was. I think getting plaster in my eye was the wake up call, but kids and age help too.
Re chainsaws and trainers, I have done it many times but I now have a pair of safety boots with a scuff on them where I let the still spinning saw brush on it in a momentary lapse of concentration. And 5 toes on that foot! Had I been wearing trainers it could have been very different.
Re chainsaws and trainers, I have done it many times but I now have a pair of safety boots with a scuff on them where I let the still spinning saw brush on it in a momentary lapse of concentration. And 5 toes on that foot! Had I been wearing trainers it could have been very different.
H&S chap at a previous automotive related employer was also an ex-banger racer - he was great to work with and often supported a well considered risk assessment for some interesting activities.
With age I’ve grown from ‘safety squint’ to the ‘why take the risk’ mentality for most things.
With age I’ve grown from ‘safety squint’ to the ‘why take the risk’ mentality for most things.
JMGS4 said:
J4CKO said:
So, has it gone mad, or is it for our own good ?
Yes, gone absolutely bonkers... I've friends who are archeologists. Imagine sitting in the middle of a field in middle England, miles from nowhere, no diggers or any earth-moving eqpt. within 3 miles, 30°+ heat, excavation depth no more than1 foot, and have to wear... steel capped boots, helmet, full orange reflective jumpsuit, flame retardant naturally, etc etc.... Needless to say heat exhaustion was present...
as well as a busybody H&S twerp who arrived to check on the H&S issues.......
Naturally not bothered at all that 3 people had heat exhaustion.... must abide by the rules as... "Rules Is Rules" F'ing idiocy!!!!
JMGS4 said:
Yes, gone absolutely bonkers...
I've friends who are archeologists. Imagine sitting in the middle of a field in middle England, miles from nowhere, no diggers or any earth-moving eqpt. within 3 miles, 30°+ heat, excavation depth no more than1 foot, and have to wear... steel capped boots, helmet, full orange reflective jumpsuit, flame retardant naturally, etc etc.... Needless to say heat exhaustion was present...
as well as a busybody H&S twerp who arrived to check on the H&S issues.......
Naturally not bothered at all that 3 people had heat exhaustion.... must abide by the rules as... "Rules Is Rules" F'ing idiocy!!!!
I've noticed this on Digging for Britain tv show ,all wearing hard hats , there is NOTHING overhead ,madness!I've friends who are archeologists. Imagine sitting in the middle of a field in middle England, miles from nowhere, no diggers or any earth-moving eqpt. within 3 miles, 30°+ heat, excavation depth no more than1 foot, and have to wear... steel capped boots, helmet, full orange reflective jumpsuit, flame retardant naturally, etc etc.... Needless to say heat exhaustion was present...
as well as a busybody H&S twerp who arrived to check on the H&S issues.......
Naturally not bothered at all that 3 people had heat exhaustion.... must abide by the rules as... "Rules Is Rules" F'ing idiocy!!!!
They are carefully scraping earth from ancient structures just below the surface ,not using a chain saw .
I spent 25 years as a Surveyor, firstly working for someone else, then running my own company. The attitude to H&S changed massively over that time from me being given no training when I first started to some companies going completely over the top where you were expected to wear full ppe stood on your own in the middle of a field. At times it was hard getting some of the young guys who worked for me to fully understand the risks involved with some of what we did and with some of the sites we worked on. The thing I stressed to them was I want you to go home safely to your family at the end of the day, and if that means saying "no" to a client then that's what I want you to do and I will back you 100%.
I am certainly a lot more aware of risks these days. It still surprises me how little understanding some companies still have of H&S, I did some work for a local brewery and they were thrilled that I knew about it, but I was horrified at some of the things they did and how little understanding they had of the risks involved. I suspect many don't even think about it until they have an accident.
The best training day I ever went on involved a man who worked for Coke, he had been blinded in an industrial accident, but had only survived because someone had noticed the emergency shower was broken and had gone out of his way to get it fixed. They had shown a film about it, but then he walked in the room with his guide dog, he was a really good presenter and very funny, but it hit home really hard seeing him.
I am certainly a lot more aware of risks these days. It still surprises me how little understanding some companies still have of H&S, I did some work for a local brewery and they were thrilled that I knew about it, but I was horrified at some of the things they did and how little understanding they had of the risks involved. I suspect many don't even think about it until they have an accident.
The best training day I ever went on involved a man who worked for Coke, he had been blinded in an industrial accident, but had only survived because someone had noticed the emergency shower was broken and had gone out of his way to get it fixed. They had shown a film about it, but then he walked in the room with his guide dog, he was a really good presenter and very funny, but it hit home really hard seeing him.
it hits home when you work in places that do not give a toss mainly because they dont have to and you see countless things that they will probably fall over on. It actually makes me think again about working in a place to be honest
There are a lot of aspects of H&S that annoy me, but only really in the way it affects the stuff you do in leisure and mainly the insurance companies that back it up and are often the reason it is policed so ridiculously at times.
There are a lot of aspects of H&S that annoy me, but only really in the way it affects the stuff you do in leisure and mainly the insurance companies that back it up and are often the reason it is policed so ridiculously at times.
Alpacaman said:
I spent 25 years as a Surveyor, firstly working for someone else, then running my own company. The attitude to H&S changed massively over that time from me being given no training when I first started to some companies going completely over the top where you were expected to wear full ppe stood on your own in the middle of a field. At times it was hard getting some of the young guys who worked for me to fully understand the risks involved with some of what we did and with some of the sites we worked on. The thing I stressed to them was I want you to go home safely to your family at the end of the day, and if that means saying "no" to a client then that's what I want you to do and I will back you 100%.
I am certainly a lot more aware of risks these days. It still surprises me how little understanding some companies still have of H&S, I did some work for a local brewery and they were thrilled that I knew about it, but I was horrified at some of the things they did and how little understanding they had of the risks involved. I suspect many don't even think about it until they have an accident.
The best training day I ever went on involved a man who worked for Coke, he had been blinded in an industrial accident, but had only survived because someone had noticed the emergency shower was broken and had gone out of his way to get it fixed. They had shown a film about it, but then he walked in the room with his guide dog, he was a really good presenter and very funny, but it hit home really hard seeing him.
Ken Woodward is his name, his story is very sad but has had a big impact.I am certainly a lot more aware of risks these days. It still surprises me how little understanding some companies still have of H&S, I did some work for a local brewery and they were thrilled that I knew about it, but I was horrified at some of the things they did and how little understanding they had of the risks involved. I suspect many don't even think about it until they have an accident.
The best training day I ever went on involved a man who worked for Coke, he had been blinded in an industrial accident, but had only survived because someone had noticed the emergency shower was broken and had gone out of his way to get it fixed. They had shown a film about it, but then he walked in the room with his guide dog, he was a really good presenter and very funny, but it hit home really hard seeing him.
BlindedByTheLights said:
Alpacaman said:
I spent 25 years as a Surveyor, firstly working for someone else, then running my own company. The attitude to H&S changed massively over that time from me being given no training when I first started to some companies going completely over the top where you were expected to wear full ppe stood on your own in the middle of a field. At times it was hard getting some of the young guys who worked for me to fully understand the risks involved with some of what we did and with some of the sites we worked on. The thing I stressed to them was I want you to go home safely to your family at the end of the day, and if that means saying "no" to a client then that's what I want you to do and I will back you 100%.
I am certainly a lot more aware of risks these days. It still surprises me how little understanding some companies still have of H&S, I did some work for a local brewery and they were thrilled that I knew about it, but I was horrified at some of the things they did and how little understanding they had of the risks involved. I suspect many don't even think about it until they have an accident.
The best training day I ever went on involved a man who worked for Coke, he had been blinded in an industrial accident, but had only survived because someone had noticed the emergency shower was broken and had gone out of his way to get it fixed. They had shown a film about it, but then he walked in the room with his guide dog, he was a really good presenter and very funny, but it hit home really hard seeing him.
Ken Woodward is his name, his story is very sad but has had a big impact.I am certainly a lot more aware of risks these days. It still surprises me how little understanding some companies still have of H&S, I did some work for a local brewery and they were thrilled that I knew about it, but I was horrified at some of the things they did and how little understanding they had of the risks involved. I suspect many don't even think about it until they have an accident.
The best training day I ever went on involved a man who worked for Coke, he had been blinded in an industrial accident, but had only survived because someone had noticed the emergency shower was broken and had gone out of his way to get it fixed. They had shown a film about it, but then he walked in the room with his guide dog, he was a really good presenter and very funny, but it hit home really hard seeing him.
I think it was at Stephen’s Croft power station, we had a safety talk presented by a paraplegic bloke, he had fallen from a ladder and broken his back.
While I was at S
horpe steelworks there was a young electrician nearly cut in half when he went to repair an overhead crane, he hadn’t followed procedure.
Stuff like hard hats while digging a shallow hole is usually just laziness. The person assessing the risk has not done their job, but you also get blanket policies around stuff like that, when there really is no need.
While I was at S
horpe steelworks there was a young electrician nearly cut in half when he went to repair an overhead crane, he hadn’t followed procedure.Stuff like hard hats while digging a shallow hole is usually just laziness. The person assessing the risk has not done their job, but you also get blanket policies around stuff like that, when there really is no need.
I like watching car restoration and fabricating videos on youtube. People wearing gloves working on a pillar drills and the amount of people that dont wear any eye or ear protection when using angle grinders is worrying. Personally when angle grinding i always wear eye and ear protection and a mask since rust dust cant be good for the old lungs.
KP328 said:
I like watching car restoration and fabricating videos on youtube. People wearing gloves working on a pillar drills and the amount of people that dont wear any eye or ear protection when using angle grinders is worrying. Personally when angle grinding i always wear eye and ear protection and a mask since rust dust cant be good for the old lungs.
Yup, I tend to take what I think is the ‘obvious’ route on stuff like this - eye/ear/breathing protection when needed. It’ll always be that one time you need to quickly buzz off a burr or something when the disc will shatter and take your eye out.
If I’m doing anything that could start a fire or a major spill problem I make sure the doors are all unlocked etc
An old employer never really went down the hard hat high-viz route, instead they decided on windsocks, chlorine alarms, reverse parking and a mix of either tarp or other ‘blow off’ roofs
ETA and Halon, lots and lots of Halon…
Edited by Random Account No6 on Sunday 4th February 06:59
I worked as a car development engineer in the uk, got stopped (very) regularly as I entered the car workshop and was told I need to wear steel toe cap safety shoes. My task was to walk to the car with my laptop and drive away.
Moved to Germany. Silence. Still haven’t dropped my laptop on my toes.
Not a fan of safety first culture.
Moved to Germany. Silence. Still haven’t dropped my laptop on my toes.
Not a fan of safety first culture.
My H&S person at work is an absolute dictator with it. We can't go up ladders without a day long course and forget using any hand tools without doing some form of training. He even wears safety goggles to make his dinner in the microwave and recommends we all do the same (he did almost blind himself with a curry once)
I work for a construction company who are very H&S conscious. Every year I must do a H&S risk assessment because I work from home (IT) and I don't visit sites.
Chair - Properly adjusted
Desk - Correct height
Cables / trip hazards - Apart from the mouse / headset everything goes through conduits or is tied back and suspended under the desk
Monitor heights - Correct height
Keyboard - Correct positioning and height
Electrical load - All on trip switches
So the office is fine.
My commute however is bloody dangerous. Varnished wooden stairs and the guardrail was put in about 50 years before Document K existed and is therefore a little illegal.
Gardening risk is based on what I'm doing. Cutting stuff is gloves / glasses. Using machinery is gloves / goggles / boots.
Chair - Properly adjusted
Desk - Correct height
Cables / trip hazards - Apart from the mouse / headset everything goes through conduits or is tied back and suspended under the desk
Monitor heights - Correct height
Keyboard - Correct positioning and height
Electrical load - All on trip switches
So the office is fine.
My commute however is bloody dangerous. Varnished wooden stairs and the guardrail was put in about 50 years before Document K existed and is therefore a little illegal.
Gardening risk is based on what I'm doing. Cutting stuff is gloves / glasses. Using machinery is gloves / goggles / boots.
CanAm said:
Someone posted on here years ago that they had been reprimanded by the office H&S person for walking down the stairs without holding the handrail.
Happened to me in an office, one of the execs saw me walking down the stairs with a cup in my hand - it was empty, but yep, does happen.(oil and gas)
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