Carbon Monoxide Safety

carbon-monoxide-safety.pdf
What is carbon monoxide?
*Carbon monoxide (CO) is a colorless, odorless, poisonous gas, that is produced by incomplete burning of carbon-based fuels, including fuel gas. When CO gets into the body, it prevents the blood from bringing oxygen to cells, tissues, and organs.
*HSE strongly recommends the use of audible carbon monoxide (CO) detectors as a useful back-up precaution but they must not be regarded as a substitute for proper installation and maintenance of gas appliances by a registered installer. CO detectors should be installed, checked and serviced in line with the manufacturer’s instructions.
*You can be particularly at risk from CO poisoning when you are asleep, because you may not be aware of early CO symptoms until it is too late. Having an audible CO detector could wake you and save your life.
What are the symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning?
Early symptoms of carbon monoxide (CO) poisoning can mimic many common ailments and may easily be confused with flu or simple tiredness. Symptoms to look out for include:
*tiredness / *drowsiness / *headaches / *giddiness / *nausea / *vomiting / *pains in the chest / *breathlessness / *stomach pains / *erratic behavior / *visual problems
*If you or your family experience any of the above symptoms and you believe CO may be involved, call 911. Your doctor will need to test you for a blood or breath sample. Be aware, CO quickly leaves the blood and tests may be inaccurate if taken more than four hours after exposure has ceased.

* From Health and Safety Executive

Electrical Safety

How can I tell if it is damaged?
By looking! This is the most important maintenance precaution. Around 95% of faults or damage can be found just by looking (visual inspection).
First, identify your equipment and where and how it is used. The things you are looking for on the equipment, the cable and plug (after disconnecting it) are signs of:
◆damage, eg cuts, abrasion (apart from light scuffing) to the cable covering;
◆damage to the plug, eg the casing is cracked or the pins are bent;
◆non-standard joints including taped joints in the cable;
◆the outer covering (sheath) of the cable not being gripped where it enters the plug or the equipment. Look to see if the colored insulation of the internal wires is showing;
◆equipment that has been used in conditions where it is not suitable, eg a wet or dusty workplace;
◆damage to the outer cover of the equipment or obvious loose parts or screws; and
◆overheating (burn marks or staining).

* From Health and Safety Executive

Asthma

Asthma is a serious health problem. Symptoms include severe shortness of breath that can stop you from doing the simplest tasks. Other symptoms include wheezing, coughing, or chest tightness. The symptoms can develop right after exposure to a workplace substance. But sometimes symptoms appear several hours later, possibly at night. This can make any link with workplace activities unclear.
Other associated conditions include rhinitis (sneezing/runny nose) and conjunctivitis (itchy and inflamed red eyes).

Occupational asthma
Occupational asthma is an allergic reaction that can occur in some people when they are exposed to substances, for example flour or wood dust in the workplace.
These substances are called ‘respiratory sensitisers’ or asthmagens. They can cause a change in people’s airways, known as the ‘hypersensitive state’.
Not everyone who becomes sensitised goes on to get asthma. But once the lungs become hypersensitive, further exposure to the substance, even at quite low levels, may trigger an attack.

Work-related asthma
Work-related asthma or asthma made worse by work is broader and includes substances in the workplace that irritate the airways of individuals with pre-existing asthma. This includes people who have had asthma since childhood. Respiratory irritants may trigger attacks in those with occupational asthma or pre-existing asthma.

Examples include chlorine, general dust and even cold air.

* From Health and Safety Executive

Risk Assessment

A risk assessment is a careful examination of what could cause harm to people in the workplace. Doing a risk assessment will help employers identify the significant risks in their workplace, and avoid wasted effort by effectively targeting these. A good risk assessment will help avoid accidents and ill health, which cannot only ruin lives, but can also increase costs to business through lost output, compensation claims and higher insurance premiums.

Risk assessment is a five stage process and involves:

* Looking for the hazards.
* Deciding who might be harmed and how.
* Evaluating the risks and deciding whether the existing precautions are adequate or whether more should be done.
* Recording your findings and telling your employees about them.
* Reviewing your assessment and revising it if necessary, for example:
- if the work changes significantly.
- if there is an accident.
- when someone returns to work after sickness or injury, or suffers a change in their health, that could affect or be affected by their work.

* From Health and Safety Executive

Temperature Changes

There are a number of things that you can do to improve thermal comfort in your workplace:

* Add or remove layers of clothing depending on how hot or cold you are;
* Use a desk or pedestal fan to increase air movement;
* Use window blinds (if available) to cut down on the heating effects of the sun;
* In warm situations, drink plenty of water (avoid caffeinated or carbonated drinks);
* If possible, work away from direct sunlight or sources of radiant heat;
* Take regular breaks to cool down in warm situations and heat up in cold situations.
Raise the issue with your manager if it becomes a problem.

From Health and Safety Executive

PPE at Work

What is PPE?
PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) is defined in the Regulations as ‘all equipment including clothing affording protection against the weather) which is intended to be worn or held by a person at work and which protects him against one or more risks to his health or safety’, eg safety helmets, gloves, eye protection, high-visibility clothing, safety footwear and safety harnesses.

The hazards and types of PPE
Eyes
Hazards: chemical or metal splash, dust, projectiles, gas and vapour, radiation.
Options: safety spectacles, goggles, faceshields, visors.
Head
Hazards: impact from falling or flying objects, risk of head bumping, air entanglement.
Options: a range of helmets and bump caps.
Breathing
Hazards: dust, vapour, gas, oxygen-deficient atmospheres.
Options: disposable filtering facepiece or respirator, half- or full-face respirators, air-fed helmets, breathing apparatus.
Protecting the body
Hazards: temperature extremes, adverse weather, chemical or metal splash, spray from pressure leaks or spray guns, impact or penetration, contaminated dust, excessive wear or entanglement of own clothing.
Options: conventional or disposable overalls, boiler suits, specialist protective clothing, eg chain-mail aprons, high-visibility clothing.
Hands and arms
Hazards: abrasion, temperature extremes, cuts and punctures, impact, chemicals, electric shock, skin infection, disease or contamination.
Options: gloves, gauntlets, mitts, wristcuffs, armlets.
Feet and legs
Hazards: wet, electrostatic build-up, slipping, cuts and punctures, falling objects, metal and chemical splash, abrasion.
Options: safety boots and shoes with protective toe caps and penetration-resistant mid-sole, gaiters, leggings, spats.

From Health and Safety Executive

Identifying & Preventing Hazards at Work

Step 1 - Identify the hazards
*Walk around your workplace and look at what could reasonably be expected to cause harm.
*Ask your employees or their representatives what they think. They may have noticed things that are not immediately obvious to you.
*Check manufacturers’ instructions or data sheets for chemicals and equipment as they can be very helpful in spelling out the hazards and putting them in their true perspective.
Step 2 - Decide who might be harmed and how
*For each hazard you need to be clear about who might be harmed; it will help you identify the best way of managing the risk. That doesn’t mean listing everyone by name, but rather identifying groups of people (eg ‘people working in the storeroom’ or ‘passers-by’).
Step 3 - Evaluate the risks and decide on precautions
*Having spotted the hazards, you then have to decide what to do about them. The law requires you to do everything ‘reasonably practicable’ to protect people from harm. You can work this out for yourself, but the easiest way is to compare what you are doing with good practice.
*Improving health and safety need not cost a lot. For instance, placing a mirror on a dangerous blind corner to help prevent vehicle accidents is a low-cost precaution considering the risks. Failure to take simple precautions can cost you a lot more if an accident does happen.
Step 4 - Record your findings and implement them
*When writing down your results, keep it simple, for example ‘Tripping over rubbish: bins provided, staff instructed, weekly housekeeping checks’, or ‘Fume from welding: local exhaust ventilation used and regularly checked’.
*If, like many businesses, you find that there are quite a lot of improvements that you could make, big and small, don’t try to do everything at once. Make a plan of action to deal with the most important things first. Health and safety inspectors acknowledge the efforts of businesses that are clearly trying to make improvements.
Step 5 - Review your risk assessment and update if necessary
*Few workplaces stay the same. Sooner or later, you will bring in new equipment, substances and procedures that could lead to new hazards. It makes sense, therefore, to review what you are doing on an ongoing basis. Every year or so formally review where you are, to make sure you are still improving, or at least not sliding back.
*During the year, if there is a significant change, don’t wait. Check your risk assessment and, where necessary, amend it. If possible, it is best to think about the risk assessment when you’re planning your change – that way you leave yourself more flexibility.

* From Health and Safety Executive

Safe work in confined spaces

Avoid entering confined spaces
You need to check if the work can be done another way so that entry or work in
confined spaces is avoided. Better work-planning or a different approach can
reduce the need for confined space working.
Ask yourself if the intended work is really necessary, or could you:
■ modify the confined space itself so that entry is not necessary;
■ have the work done from outside, for example:
■ blockages can be cleared in silos by use of remotely operated rotating flail
devices, vibrators or air purgers;
■ inspection, sampling and cleaning operations can often be done from outside
the space using appropriate equipment and tools;
■ remote cameras can be used for internal inspection of vessels.

Safe systems of work
If you cannot avoid entry into a confined space make sure you have a safe system
for working inside the space.
Use the results of your risk assessment to help identify the necessary precautions
to reduce the risk of injury. These will depend on the nature of the confined space,
the associated risk and the work involved.
Make sure that the safe system of work, including the precautions identified, is
developed and put into practice. Everyone involved will need to be properly trained
and instructed to make sure they know what to do and how to do it safely.

* From Health and Safety Executive

Noise Problems

Do you have a noise problem at work?
This will depend on how loud the noise is and how long people are exposed to it. As a simple guide you will probably need to do something about the noise if any of the following apply:
• Is the noise intrusive - like a busy street, a vacuum cleaner or a crowded restaurant - for most of the working day?
• Do your employees have to raise their voices to carry out a normal conversation when about 2 m apart for at least part of the day?
• Do your employees use noisy powered tools or machinery for more than half an hour each day?
• Do you work in a noisy industry, eg construction, demolition or road repair; woodworking; plastics processing; engineering; textile manufacture; general fabrication; forging, pressing or stamping; paper or board making; canning or bottling; foundries?
• Are there noises due to impacts (such as hammering, drop forging, pneumatic impact tools etc), explosive sources such as cartridge operated tools or detonators, or guns?

How do I protect myself?
Co-operate. Help your employer to do what is needed to protect your hearing. Make sure you use properly any noise control devices (eg noise enclosures), and follow any working methods that are put in place. Also attend hearing checks. This means you need to take some responsibility for your hearing.
Wear any hearing protection you are given. Wear it properly (you should be trained how to do this), and make sure you wear it all the time when you are doing noisy work, and when you are in hearing protection areas. Taking it off even for a short while means that your hearing could still be damaged. Remember that there is no cure for deafness.
Look after your hearing protection. Your employer should tell you how to look after it and where you can get it from. Make sure you understand what you need to do.
Report any problems with your hearing protection or noise control devices straight away. Let your employer or safety representative know. If you have any ear trouble, let your employer know.

* From Health and Safety Executive

What should I do if I’m becoming stressed?

Try to identify the causes and what you can do to make things better.
Ideally, tell your manager at an early stage. If your stress is work-
related, this will give them the chance to help and prevent the situation from
getting worse. Even if it isn’t work-related, they may be able to do
something to reduce some of your pressure.

If the source of pressure is your Manager, find out what procedures
are in place to deal with this. If there aren’t any, talk to your employee
representative, HR department or Employee Assistance Program /
counseling service (if you have one). Alternatively, talk to your safety representative
who can also provide advice on a range of work-related topics.

Many employees are reluctant to talk about stress at work, due to the
stigma attached to it. They fear they will be seen as weak. But stress is
not a weakness, and can happen to anyone. Remember: no employer
should subject their employees to work-related stress, and this is an
issue both you and employer should take seriously.

* From Health and Safety Executive