Hearing Health and Safety Tips

The UK has over 9 million people with some type of hearing loss. The reason for hearing loss amongst those varies from age related hearing loss to a medical condition related hearing loss. Some however have lost their hearing either fully or partially due to poor hearing health and safety practices. Loud noise is part of everyday life and it’s hard to escape from, however prolonged exposure to noise such as at the work place can lead to permanent damage. Here is a selection of hearing health and safety tips to help you reduce the likelihood of hearing loss.

Hearing Health and Safety Tips:

1. Prevention – Do not put yourself in extreme noisy situations if you can avoid it. For example, if riding a motorcycle is part of your work, consider wearing a full faced helmet as apposed to any other type as it will reduce the extreme noise generated by the wind at high speeds.

2. Wear hearing protection – If you are given hearing protection and trained on how to use them, be it muffs or ear plugs always wear them. This protection should be warn at all times while at work and removed only at safe areas as designated by the health and safety team or by the employer.

3. Care for the hearing protection – Products are only as good as the condition at which they are kept. Treat your hearing protection with great care, it will help you save your hearing. If you are unsure how to care  and maintain the protection which you are given then your employer will help explain.

4. Share your concerns – If you feel you are placed in a situation which exposes your hearing to loud noise without the appropriate protection, you must flag it up immediately. It pays to be proactive when it comes to your wellbeing.

5. Pay attention to instructions – Make sure you understand what is required from you and how you are meant to deal with loud noise. Follow any working methods that are put in place.

6. Test your hearing – If you suspect your hearing might be impaired consider seeing your GP for a hearing test. You might also consider taking an online hearing check, though this check does not replace an audiologist or GP hearing test

If you still have any unanswered questions about your hearing health and safety you can speak with a health and safety consultant, your health and safely team or your employer.

Tips by the team at Hearing Direct which offers a range of hearing protection as well as a wide range of hearing aids for those with a hearing disability.

Why is Health and Safety so important?

Year after year over 3000 people die on the roads. So why is the construction industry so concerned?

Firstly, as a caring society, we are surely all concerned at any death or injury. We do not categorise deaths, some being more important than others. The Government does in fact have a policy for reducing deaths from whatever source but the means, and ease of achieving this inevitably varies. One of the biggest changes to driving habits that has brought about a reduction in death is the use of seat belts. This has come about not just through a change to the law, but more fundamentally through a change in culture. A similar case can be made in respect of drink driving. The issue of culture is very relevant to the construction industry which historically has suffered from a rather macho culture.

Secondly, the major difference between death on the roads and those in the construction industry is that most of those that occur in construction are of persons at work. ( some members of the public are also unfortunately killed as a consequence of work activities however). The law pays specific attention to persons at work, recognising that they are more prone to exposure to risk and that this can be further exacerbated by employers who neglect to treat health and safety seriously, The very first examples of health and safety legislation made in 1802 were to protect children at work in the mines and mills during the industrial revolution. The primary source of protection now to persons at work in the UK is the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974. (Northern Ireland is in fact governed by a different Act, but the requirements are essentially the same).

Thirdly, construction is now the most dangerous industry there is in terms of deaths per annum.
Finally, although the law is framed primarily to protect people from a humanist viewpoint, there is another very important reason for controlling both health and safety risks. This is that the cost to the nation of work related accidents and ill health is estimated at £18bn per year. (Revitalising Health and Safety Strategy Statement published by DETR in June 2000)

This is a cost which the nation ie UK plc, cannot afford; in the same way companies and other organisations cannot afford to bear their proportionate cost. As the saying goes, there is no such thing as a free lunch, and someone is paying the price for this in higher cost, insurance premiums, or in other ways. If we are to improve the standing of the industry, as a competitive world class player, we must tackle the causes of ill health and accidents.

The ‘business argument’ for strong health and safety management, integrated with other aspects of business management such as finance or environmental controls, is very strong and is increasingly recognised as a key element in corporate affairs.

So, in summary, the health, safety and welfare of persons at work is important from a moral perspective, a legislative viewpoint ie we must work within the law, and also from a commercial aspect ie the cost of accidents and ill health is unsustainable in a competitive market place.

Another great article from the Health and Safety Consultants

Driving whilst on the phone what do you think?

What do think about Driving at work whilst on a mobile phone?

Do you think mobile phones in cars should be banned?

Do you think better control over their use while driving could be explored?

have your say here.

Health and Safety Audits – manage safety objectively

To manage safety objectively, Line Managers need arrangements to enable them to monitor implementation of systems against the defined standards.

Often, managers assume that because the written procedures are in place and staff are trained to use them compliance is automatic – this has been proven to be a dangerously erroneous assumption in many cases, for example Kings Cross, Piper Alpha, Clapham Junction, the Herald of Free Enterprise, etc. There is always the danger of the ‘short-cut’ or ‘custom and practice’ being established and very often this is only identified in public enquiries following serious accidents rather than by routine monitoring before the accident occurs.

To manage any aspect of an organisation’s activity the manager must have targets and regular feedback of information on performance. Safety management is no exception, the performance feedback comes from monitoring and incident/accident information.

There are varying levels of monitoring activities, and companies adopting best practice in safety management will have in-house procedures for all of the following:

Health and Safety Audit

Health and Safety Audit is the part of a safety management system which subjects each area of company activity to a systematic critical examination. Each component of the total system is included: management policy, features of the process and design, operating procedures, emergency procedures, training, etc. The aim is to disclose the strengths and weaknesses and the main areas of vulnerability and risk, with the objective of minimising loss through accident and/or plant damage.

The outcome of the audit will be a report, followed by an action plan agreed with local management. The implementation of the action plan must be monitored. A Safety Audit will be carried out by a team of people who are competent and with a satisfactory degree of independence from the plant or unit under audit.
The frequency of the audit will be dependent on management policy.

For example, some companies may audit on an annual basis and use a scoring system to monitor improvements. Others may consider that a full safety audit is only necessary at five yearly intervals. The frequency of future audits is decided by weighing the benefits gained against the more frequent checks of compliance offered by an inspection program following the initial audit.

Some companies prefer to carry out integrated audits, which include not only safety but also environment, quality and other business improvement processes. These audits can only be conducted using the integrated approach when the management systems have already been integrated.
All audits should be pre-planned and a documented checklist of the audit content prepared.

Health and Safety Surveys

These are an in-depth critical examination of one particular aspect of a company activity. These in-depth surveys will be used in response to a concern over safety or the adequacy of a particular activity and may be initiated as the result of an incident, or following analysis of the results of an audit. The survey can be carried out by one or more appropriately qualified persons who will produce a report and action plan with local management. As in the case of audits, follow-up in terms of monitoring is essential.

Health and Safety Inspections

Good safety management demands a structured system of inspections, carried out by different levels of supervisory and managerial staff.

Front Line Supervisors’ Inspections:

The Front Line Supervisor, because of his detailed knowledge of the work and his position as the manager closest to the workforce is a key person in any Safety Management programme. It is a part of the supervisor’s responsibilities to be constantly aware of the safe working in his area of responsibility and he should, as an integral part of his duties, correct any unsafe acts or conditions on a daily basis. In addition, it is good safety management practice for a supervisor to allocate a proportion of his working time to carrying out safety inspections.

These inspections should be pre-planned and an inspection checklist produced, covering all tasks and areas under his responsibility, in turn, and can include “hardware”, i.e. machinery or conditions inspections and “software”, i.e. procedural compliance inspections.

Any of the workforce found to be in breach of the safety requirements should be counselled and advised or retrained as required. Persistent transgressors should be disciplined. Where these breaches are caused by non-existent, inadequate, or out-of-date information, this must be reviewed and updated.

Line Management Inspections:

A vital element of Safety Management is for the Line Manager to be seen to be actively involved and committed to safe working. He must take time to get into the workplace, personally check that the safety requirements are being implemented and communicate with his staff on the job regarding their safety concerns.

“It is the Line Manager’s attitude towards safety which will largely determine the attitude of his workforce”

These Line Management Inspections should be planned and documented and the outcome communicated to the workforce and action taken to rectify inadequacies.

Senior Management Inspections:

The Health and Safety Policy Statement will be issued by the managing director of the organisation, who must demonstrate his commitment to the safety policy by personal involvement and communications with the workforce. Senior management safety inspections are an ideal vehicle for demonstrating commitment between workforce and senior managers.

Incident/Accident Investigation

In any activity in life human beings learn from past mistakes. The quality of the Incident/Accident investigation system is very important to aid continued improvement in safety performance and ensure there is no recurrence of the incident. The incident/accident investigation should contain a number of elements:

• All accidents/incidents should be communicated and all of them with potential to cause personal injury or property damage should be investigated.

• All conditions that could cause injuries or damages should be investigated.

• The outcome of any incident/accident investigation should be communicated to everyone in the organisation.

• Recommendations from incident/accident investigations should be implemented as quickly as possible.

• Investigators should be trained and competent.

• Incident/Accident investigation recommendations should be fed back into improving procedures and training where necessary.

Accidents are not caused simply by human error. There will always be a number of fundamental or root causes.

Investigations should seek these out and not stop at the superficial. For example, an accident apparently caused by a failure to observe working procedures might have more fundamental causes such as: inadequate training; impractical procedures; excessive production pressures; or a working group culture of ignoring formal methods.

Safety monitoring and Incident/Accident Investigation are vital constituents of good practice in safety management.

For a Health and Safety Audit for your business get in touch today

Health and Safety is not Monkey Business

Negative attitudes perpetrated over time can squelch workplace innovation.

You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to know that innovative new ideas are the lifeblood of any business. In today’s rapidly changing competitive business world, if you’re not steadily moving ahead, you are, in fact, falling behind. It won’t be long before your competitors leave you in the dust. However, it also doesn’t take a rocket scientist to observe the numerous obstacles business put in the way of getting the very innovative new ideas they need.

Think about it for a second.

How many times recently have you heard someone (or even yourself!) say, in response to the suggestion of a new and innovative idea, any of the following: “We don’t do things that way around here.” “We tried something like that a while back and it didn’t fly.” “That’s a really interesting idea, but you’ll first have to satisfy Policy S, Y and Z before we can even consider it.”

If you’ve worked in a large business (which includes government) you’ve heard more than your share of these statements, and a plethora more like them. They all reflect a simple truth about how business policies begin and get perpetrated that, as the story below points out, even monkeys can understand.

Start with a cage containing five monkeys.

Inside the cage, hang a banana on a string and place a set of stairs under it. Before long, a monkey will go to the stairs and start to climb toward the banana. As soon as he touches the stairs, spray all of the other monkeys with cold water. After a while, another monkey makes an attempt to get the banana with the same result – all the other monkeys are sprayed with cold water. Pretty soon, when another monkey tries to climb the stairs, the other monkeys will try to prevent it.

Now, put away the cold water.

Remove one monkey from the cage and replace it with a new one. (Even monkeys experience turnover!) The new monkey sees the banana and wants to climb the stairs. To her surprise and horror, all of the other monkeys attack her. After a second attempt and attack, she knows that if she tries to climb the stairs, she’ll be assaulted.

Now, remove another of the original five monkeys and replace it with a new one. The newcomer goes straight to the stairs and is attacked. (The previous newcomer takes part in this hazing with enthusiasm!) Continue this turnover process (after all, new blood is a supposed good!) and watch as all the newcomers get the same treatment from their teammates (most of whom are not really all that sure why they were not permitted to climb the stairs in the first place or even why they are making life equally difficult for the newest monkey.)

Now, here is the real kicker.

After replacing all of the original monkeys, none of the remaining monkeys have ever personally been sprayed with cold water. Nevertheless, no monkey ever again approaches the stairs to try for the banana. Why? Because as far as they know, “that’s they way it’s always been done around here.”

So, if your business seems not to be getting the variety and number of truly new and innovative ideas it needs to stay ahead of the competition, here’s a few simple questions you might want to ask yourself.

Q.1 When is the last time you did a thorough and rigorously honest assessment of all your business’s Health and Safety Policy Risk Assessments and procedures to see which ones have become outdated?

Q.2 In what subtle (and not so subtle) ways do people’s new and different ideas get “doused” by you and or your colleagues?

Q.3 When you do bring some new blood on board, how long does it take for those people to look and act just like everyone else?

Why are these questions so vital? Because when it comes to human behavior in businesss, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know the power of “monkey see, monkey do.”

Modern Day Health and Safety Advisers

The traditional `policing’ role of the Health and safety adviser has changed. No longer a mere safety officer, the safety adviser role is now that of a high-level internal consultant.

Employers expect them offer independent advice to senior management on the development of the organisation’s safety policies and their short, medium and long term strategic objectives for creating and maintaining a positive safety culture within their organisation.

In addition, they are expected to advise Directors, line-managers on both the development and implementation of appropriate control and monitoring systems and the review of ongoing safety performance, while at the same time conducting independent reviews of the whole safety management system.

To fulfil these functions in an effective manner, it is self evident that Health and safety advisers must be authoritative all rounders. While possessing an awareness of all aspects of safety per se, he or she will also need to:

• have an up-to-date and in-depth appreciation of all aspects of management and
management systems
• be experienced in problem-solving and decision-making
• be highly aware of the effects organisational change and development issues (e.g. project management, team-working, downsizing, contracting out, etc.) exert on safety.

Only when Health and Safety Advisers are armed with all this knowledge will safety advisers be in a position to recognise the need for change, and be able to positively influence unfolding events to help create an optimal safety culture throughout the organisation.

Thus, because of their new consulting role, and the need to ensure that their recommendations accord with business needs, modern Health and Safety advisers must be as familiar with all aspects of management as those advisers from other disciplines (such as finance, human resources, production, etc.) who comprise the senior management team.

Although the safety profession is making great strides to address these issues, it is still too often the case that many Health and safety advisers lack knowledge of the most basic management tools and techniques and, therefore, lack an understanding of how they might be used to good effect.

Tips for Writing Method Statements

Method Statements or System of Work is a requirement of the Health and Safety at Work Etc Act 1974 and is intended to provide both the client and the individuals that are carrying out the work, the necessary information to undertake the job safely.

It is essential that a copy of the Method Statements is kept available for inspection by all personnel. In addition, it is the responsibility of Management to ensure that all operatives are aware of their role in the job which is outlined within the Method Statement.

It is pointed out that this check list is not exhaustive and just gives outlined details of the type of information that should be provided.

Method Statements will depend on the complexity and size of the job and is intended to show how the work will be executed safely.

Method Statements should give details of the following:

1. Details of supervisory personnel on site who will be responsible for the work to be undertaken.

2. Details of Health and Safety Consultants providing advice and their name and telephone number.

3. Details of any personnel not involved on site but who can be contacted regarding design or other specialist information if necessary.

4. Work sequences.

5. Stabilisation of the works during their progress e.g., any temporary props, struts or supports that are required.

6. The method of executing the works which will include methods of lifting, fixing, holding or bolting. Slinging and unslinging practice where necessary.

7. Methods to prevent any falls from heights. Full details should be given ie, working,” platforms, handrails, safety harnesses or other means of preventing falling.

8. Access and egress to the job, ie, by ladders, mobile work access platforms, hoists etc. Location of any ladders or other means of access.

9. Methods of protecting materials falling from heights i.e., toe boards, debris/brick guards, boarding on platforms etc.

10. The description of plant to be used in the execution of the work its safe working load and details of any tests, certificates, inspections/registers which are applicable.

11. Details of what to do in case of emergency. This would include details of first aid and names of qualified first aiders.

12. Details of storage and stacking of items on site together with any delivery procedures and any assembly work that is going to be carried out.

13. Detailed calculations for any loading platforms, props, temporary works or supports that are to be provided during the progress of the job.

14. Personal protective equipment to be provided for employees and sub-contractors in particular, safety helmets etc.

15. Details of any confined space hazards and where necessary, atmospheric monitoring procedures and emergency equipment to be provided.

16. Details of any shoring to be provided in excavations, means of entry and barriers or secure coverings to be provided.

17. Details of certification of personnel on site i.e., Construction Industry Training Board Certification Scheme for Scaffolding, Steel Erectors, Plant Operators, Demolition Operatives etc. Details of any certification such as Mounting of Abrasive Wheels, Cartridge Operated Tools etc.

18. The training of operatives on site i.e., induction training and any details regarding their part to be played within the Work Method Statement.

19. Details on what Impacts are likely on the environment.

20. Details on the proposed waste management and waste streams to be used onsite.

For further advice or information please contact Veritas Consulting on 0121 249 1281