Many work environments can pose potential risks to vision, demonstrated by the 800,000 eye injuries that occur in workplaces around the world every year.
The Covid-19 pandemic has changed the way we work in many ways.
Government guidance for well over a year has advised that those who can work from home, should work from home. However, despite the pandemic, life still has to go on – and with this comes the need for in-home workers, such as maintenance staff and support workers.
This article provides guidance on the flood risk to your property or site when applying for planning permission. The content is neither exhaustive nor prescriptive, but you must demonstrate to your Local Planning Authority (LPA) that you have considered and taken steps to manage flood risk as part of your development proposal. By the end of this concise guide, you’ll be able to carry out a simple flood risk assessment yourself.
As COVID-19 lockdown measures ease across the country, employers must plan how employees can safely return to work. There are two main considerations to make: adhering to the latest government guidelines on COVID-19 and taking the correct steps to ensure that employees maintain social distancing in the workplace at all times.
This article explains how employees can maintain social distancing in the workplace, ensuring a safe, COVID-secure return to work.
Many work environments can pose potential risks to vision, demonstrated by the 800,000 eye injuries that occur in workplaces around the world every year. Risks can come in many forms and settings, from irritation caused by metal shavings on a construction site to over-exposure to a screen in an office.
Particularly in high-risk environments, our eyes can be damaged irreparably by machines and chemicals, among other hazards. Safety eyewear is usually employed in these environments, but too often protective prescription eyewear is forgotten – potentially leaving workers vulnerable to injury.
When someone uses the word ‘cost,’ you immediately think about monetary value. Cost is generally directly linked to financial worth of something, and so it is often used in those contexts. However, when it comes to the cost of illness and injuries resulting from accidents or incidents in the workplace, the word takes on a far deeper and more significant meaning.
As well as the financial losses faced by both employers and employees, there is also the emotional cost in terms of suffering and grief. This comes alongside the loss of confidence, safety reviews, investigations, and other time consuming but wholly necessary safety measures.
There is, of course, a substantial financial impact of injuries at work, and it is a good place to start when assessing cost. The monetary costs of injuries can be separated between three distinct groups: the individual, the employer and the government.
It’s fair to say that not all gloves are created equally. In our everyday lives, whether we work as surgeons or just use them for the washing up, we’ve experienced the vast differences between the various kinds of gloves – and we definitely know that having the wrong kind of gloves can make a difference.
Why safety gloves are important
Our hands are our primary tools; the majority of employees use them all day every day, no matter their role. It’s really important in this respect that our hands are adequately protected – especially considering that many occupational injuries are hand-related. You need to make sure you have the right gloves for the job at hand, and it’s important to understand their safety ratings.
Gloves make up a really large proportion of all protective equipment, and they are a particularly crucial piece of uniform – especially when you work around sharp objects, chemicals, or abrasive surfaces. Gloves can actually be really cost effective when you know how to choose them.
If you own or manage a non-domestic property, it is your legal responsibility to protect everyone who works, lives, or visits there from the potential threat of fire. To do this properly, you must carry out, and regularly review, a fire risk assessment.
What is a fire risk assessment?
A fire risk assessment is a protocol that has been developed to aid fire risk reduction and fire prevention. It is stipulated in the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order of 2005 that every workplace must have a thorough assessment carried out.
It’s really important that no matter the job, we’re properly protected when we’re at work. No one wants to sustain a serious injury, especially when they can be easily avoided by wearing the appropriate protective clothing.
Lots of jobs are dangerous, but this danger can be mitigated through the use of protective workwear, or PPE. We have compiled a list of jobs that require you to wear protective clothing – some of these jobs may surprise you, but there are lots of potential dangers in any workplace.
It should be noted that this list is extensive but not exhaustive. Lots of jobs require protective clothing, and you should always check with your employer how best to protect yourself on the job.
As an employer, you are responsible for providing your employees with adequate personal protective equipment (PPE), and training them to use and maintain it properly. This article explains your responsibilities for providing your staff with PPE in line with the UK government’s official PPE regulations (Personal Protective Equipment At Work Regulations 1992).
Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) is equipment that protects the user against health or safety risks at work. You can find examples of PPE in the ‘types of PPE’ section below.
Cleaning is crucial to health, safety, and hygiene, and can be categorised into two main groups: domestic cleaning and commercial cleaning. Both can be done domestically by an individual or by a professional cleaning company.
But what is domestic cleaning exactly, how does it differ from commercial cleaning? This blog distinguishes the main differences between the two and explains what materials, equipment, and standards are unique to each.
Road safety is important – not just to drivers, but also to pedestrians and local communities. Danger on the roads can be rapidly reduced massively if everyone sticks to the rules of the road. Whilst most drivers are law abiding and cautious, others take risks that can prove fatal. Sadly, often victims of road accidents suffer from a case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
According to RoSPA, the UK is proud to have one of the best road safety records in the world. But that doesn’t mean that our roads are a safe place to be – there are still significant risks to be aware of, with the stats showing that someone is killed or seriously injured on UK roads every 20 minutes on average
Just as drivers and cyclists should stay alert, so should pedestrians. Here are our top road safety tips to keep in mind to stay safe.