COMPANY NEWS
TRAINING
When booking courses, all necessary criteria and restrictions will be personally communicated both directly at the time of booking and again through joining instructions ahead of all planned courses. It is vital that these are understood and relevant information clearly passed to candidates.
And do please be sure to inform us ahead of the course date of any candidate who may require assistance in any way, especially with reading or writing; we need advance notice to be able to provide this help.
Please contact Vicki at Wenlock Health & Safety Ltd (WHS) on 01952 885885 or enquiries@wenlockhs.co.uk
or vicki@wenlockhs.co.uk to book places. In addition to those below, please enquire about our other courses available; the full range is also detailed on our website: https://wenlockhealthandsafety.co.uk/
CITB COURSES
It must be noted that CITB attendance rules are very strict; they must be understood and are reiterated here:
- CITB specifies that candidates must be available to attend each session within the course; failure to do so may require a repeat course.
- Attendance is absolutely vital once booked; because of CITB rules, we may be forced to cancel a course on that morning if some candidates fail to take part, to the detriment of all candidates.
- Basic refreshments will be available; however, no lunch is provided and candidates are to make their own provision (bring their own or there are shops nearby and a small café on site).
Candidates must arrive by 8.15*am for registration; all courses start at 8.30am and finish at around 4.30pm.
* Please reiterate to all candidates the absolute need to make their way up to the WHS offices and log their vehicle registration numbers immediately upon arrival in the car park to avoid being charged for parking.
ASBESTOS AWARENESS
CITB Asbestos Awareness
Duration: Half-day
Date: 9 February 2024 (Friday)
Cost: £60 + VAT per person
IOSH MANAGING SAFELY
3-day IOSH Managing Safely course
Dates: 13, 14 & 15 May 2024 (Monday – Wednesday)
Cost: £395 + VAT per person
FIRST AID
1-day Emergency First-Aid at Work course dates are listed below; specific requirements and controls will be advised within the joining instructions.
Dates:
-
- 28 February 2024 (Wednesday)
- 20 March 2024 (Wednesday)
- 29 April 2024 (Monday)
- 22 May 2024 (Wednesday)
- 24 June 2024 (Monday)
- 22 July 2024 (Monday)
Cost: £85 + VAT per person
MENTAL HEALTH FIRST AID
1-day FAA Award in First Aid for Mental Health (Level 2 RQF)
Dates: 1 March 2024 (Friday)
Cost: £85 + VAT per person
WHS IMPORTANT REMINDERS
We would remind all readers of the following issues, all of which relate to our observations and all of which would result in enforcement should the HSE spot them too:
Nail guns:
These are extremely dangerous pieces of equipment and can be lethal if not handled correctly. It is absolutely essential that all users are properly trained and trustworthy, and that they wear the correct classification of high-impact goggles; contact the 3M Helpline or similar for specialist guidance.
It is also essential that all usage of nail-guns is risk assessed for the prevailing circumstances, both the task/s and the environment. Do NOT use generic risk assessments only; they MUST be made task specific.
PUWER inspections:
These MUST be taken seriously; they are a legal requirement and anyone failing to accurately record the findings may be subject to prosecution. Employers must make sure all persons carrying out these inspections are properly trained and know exactly what’s expected of them; they MUST take ownership of their actions.
HSE NEWS
DUSTS
This perennial issue won’t go away – so we repeat, yet again, all contractors and other businesses who produce dusts must by law either suppress or extract those dusts. This has been law for at least 20 years, yet still the HSE picks up the issue time and time again and, in the case of the HSE, frequently still places enforcement on the offenders. For example, recent HSE cases:
Right: Dry sweeping at a refurbishment site in NW London; no suppression in place. Dry sweeping pushes settled dusts back up into the air, and those dusts can then easily be inhaled by anyone nearby.
Left: A table saw at a commercial refurbishment site with the correct M-class extraction system attached but, as can be seen from the photo, it was either not being used or the temporary repair to the hose was totally ineffective.
Both these cases resulted in HSE enforcement.
It makes little difference whether this happens outside – the law says all dusts must be suppressed or extracted in all circumstances for very good reason.
Regular inhalation of construction dusts can cause, amongst other health problems, lung cancer, silicosis, chronic pulmonary disease and asthma. And it is not enough to rely on RPE alone; the law is quite clear that all dusts (and fumes and hazardous vapours, for that matter) must be eliminated or reduced to an acceptable level at source.
All suppression and extraction systems must, again by law, be kept in good working order, checked (and records kept) for damage at very frequent intervals, withdrawn from use when defective and, in the case of extraction systems, subject to thorough examination by competent parties at least every 14 months.
RPE (respiratory protective equipment – face masks) can be used certainly as an additional precaution – but do remember that the use of RPE requires, again by law, face-fit testing and the user to be clean-shaven.
The HSE is not alone in finding these situations – WHS frequently finds the same scenarios. Please, when we highlight such (illegal) situations, do take notice of our advisors’ recommendations – we are here to help prevent both health issues and HSE enforcement. But, better still, for heaven’s sake make sure you abide by the law and establish proper dust control systems!!
METALWORK
In line with the HSE’s ongoing campaign against respiratory harm, it continues to target metalworking and the use of metalworking fluids in machining processes.
For those of you involved with such processes, the HSE’s online quiz is extremely useful to test your knowledge of issues and controls: https://rb.gy/nyyotd
(both logging on and the results are completely anonymous)
And there is a very useful webinar available too which traces an HSE investigation, required control measures and a summary of required fluid quality checks: https://rb.gy/mt5dh3
VIBRATION
The HSE has also updated some of the website content related to vibration, including advice to employers, what’s required by the law, how to effectively use the HSE Vibration Calculator, an updated table for vibration risk assessment purposes and a new page on measurement and monitoring.
Vibration (along with noise) is an issue that’s difficult to avoid in many industries, in particular construction, so it’s very important that all necessary legal requirements and controls are known by everyone involved and followed – for the sake of employees more than voiding enforcement! Go to www.hse.gov.uk or contract WHS on 01952-885885 for further information and guidance.
ASBESTOS
Following on from the HSE’s ‘Asbestos and You’ campaign, it has recently updated advice and guidance on its website, including the duty to manage, asbestos management plan and register templates, examples across many industries (including videos) and advice to workers. Again, do take a look at the wealth of information available on www.hse.gov.uk
There are also updated posters available from:
https://rb.gy/twycex (for industrial premises)
https://rb.gy/a17jox (for residential premises)
And make sure you follow it! If in any doubt at all about anything related to asbestos, do contact WHS as priority. WHS is still finding many projects with no pre-planning for necessary asbestos surveys, with the result that the issue is then ignored – such scenarios will likely result in prosecution if asbestos has then been disturbed.
AND FINALLY
Equipment safety
Applies to everyone!!!
- Garden landscaper, Fernando Araujo, was given a 6-months suspended prison sentence, ordered to undertake 200 hours of unpaid community work and pay £3467 costs after a worker was killed by an unguarded angle grinder. The victim had been cutting sleepers with the equipment which, not only had its guard intentionally removed, but had also been fitted with a circular saw blade larger than the original grinder disc. The angle grinder therefore became a highly dangerous tool, the risk being compounded by the inexperience of the user.
The sleeper had not been secured and was just resting on a skip (as in the photo) with the result that the tool kicked back under power into the victim’s groin, causing fatal lacerations.
Work at height
- Principal contractor, Inco Contracts Ltd, were fined £600,000 plus £58,448 costs and electrical contractor, Prestige Security Installations Ltd, fined £30,000 plus £15,000 costs after a 36 year old father died when he fell from the roof of an office block.
Two workers were installing a lightning protection system to the front of the block during a conversion; the victim had been lowering access equipment to his colleague using a rope attached to a frame, when the frame became detached and it and the victim fell to the ground. Both companies had failed to ensure the work was properly planned, managed and monitored, and safer working methods for work at height should have been established.
Previously, the victim’s employer, PTSG Electrical Services Ltd, had been fined £1120,000 plus costs of £5448 for similar breaches relating to work at height.
- Roofing contractor, Mitie Tilley Roofing Ltd, was fined £575,000 plus £84,940 costs and £306,000 plus £27,410 costs after two workers were seriously injured in two separate incidents.
In the first incident, an employee of RM Scaffolding (working for Mitie Tilley Roofing) fell over 6 metres through a skylight whilst walking on a factory roof and broke his femur.
In this case, Paul Robinson, a partner in RM Scaffolding was also ordered to undertake 120 hours unpaid community work and pay £20,428 costs for similar breaches.
In the second incident, which happened only 5 months later, an employee of Mitie Tilley Roofing fell 7 metres through a factory roof whilst replacing a skylight and fractured his pelvis, left wrist and eye socket.
One such incident is a gross mistake – two in quick succession is totally inexcusable.
- Profascias Ltd was fined £6,000 plus £2,000 costs and its director, John Nolan, ordered to undertake 180 hours unpaid community work and pay £1,000 costs after an employee fell 3 metres from a ladder and suffered serious injuries. The company had been hired to replace gutters and soffits at a primary school but no working platform had been provided; the victim had been expected to work solely from the ladder.
Asbestos
- Contractor, Sean Faulkner, was ordered to undertake 150 hours of unpaid community work, 15 days of rehabilitation and 90 days of monitored alcohol abstinence, and to pay £1,000 costs after removing asbestos from a school when he was not licensed to do so. He had intentionally falsified clearance paperwork, and had apparently carried out similar work months beforehand at a domestic property.
WHS is working for you; help us to help you.
Our aim is to keep people safe and to keep your company working.
To contact WHS, ring: 01952-885885