January 09
Gas Appliance Testing
Every year there are 20 – 30 deaths from Carbon Monoxide poisoning due to faulty gas appliances. There are also explosions - demolishing properties and causing deaths and serious injury due to faulty gas appliances and installations. This is obviously most common in winter conditions when heating is used.
Gas appliances and installations should be checked annually by a registered gas contractor. Most gas suppliers can arrange this for you or you may access a local CORGI gas engineer.
Protective Gloves
See the reference library for an update on HSE advice on selection of protective gloves for handling hazardous substances. Some workshop gloves are inappropriate for handling solvents.
Check you have the appropriate type for the range of hazardous substances you utilise or maybe exposed to.
Lighting
We are all aware of the need to use low energy light bulbs. Whilst considering replacements, it may also be the right time to consider if we have sufficient light in the workplace.
More is better than ‘just enough’!
Having more than the minimum also means you have a little resilience or spare capacity, so that if one bulb fails it does not create a problem for people working in that area.
As a further consequence – long life luminaries (light bulbs & tubes) means fewer replacement operations which is a good thing – reducing the frequency for hazardous ‘work at height’ to change them (see Risk Assessment).
Turning lights off when not in use saves even more money.