Taking Good Work Practices Home - Top Tips for the summer...

1. Health, Safety and Environment
Weekly Safety Review 16 SIMS awaiting
First Aid Recordable
Managers Comments
No. injuries ytd 7 0
Injury rate ytd 0 0
No. days worked since 191 Injury
last OSHA recordable (2/11/10) Performance
Issue Date : 10 / 5 / 2011 1
No. days worked since 191 INJURY
First Aid Eye Injury last RIDDOR injury (2/11/10) THS
WEEK
A fabrication technician felt a foreign object enter his eye as he was grinding.
Our ambulance technicians irrigated his eye and the f.b. was washed out. Correct
action was taken by calling for medical assistance. In a second incident a cleaners
eye was irrigated as a precaution following a substance splash.
Taking good work practices home ……
About 300,000 people are hurt in their gardens each year seriously enough to go to
hospital - 110,000 of them are children. Around 87,000 are injured actively
gardening or carrying out DIY jobs in the garden.
RoSPA’s top ten list of most dangerous garden items is:
1. Lawnmowers (6,500 accidents in the UK each year)
2. Flowerpots (5,300)
3. Secateurs and pruners (4,400)
4. Spades (3,600)
5. Electric hedgetrimmers (3,100)
6. Plant tubs and troughs (2,800)
7. Shears (2,100)
8. Garden forks (2,000)
9. Hoses and sprinklers (1,900)
10. Garden canes and sticks (1,800).
As summer now seems to be upon us, many of us will be tackling those
garden tasks we all love…... lawns will be getting cut, hedges, shrubs and
trees will be trimmed.
As with any task or job, there are inherent hazards associated with these
activities. Consider the following list, and don’t start tasks until you have the
right tools and equipment for the job.
P.T.O.

2. Task Hazard Controls
Use grass or Cut through electric Use RCD, take care with cable routing, consider
hedge trimmer cable – electrocution buying battery or petrol powered items
Ejected cuttings – Use eye protection (not ordinary sun glasses made of
eye injury normal glass)
Dig – using Foot injury or Use robust footwear and stout garden gloves
spade or fork blisters on hand
Trim growth at Fall - injury Use steps or ladder on firm ground, get the ladder
height footed, tie the ladder off at the top, or use a
robust platform
Work outside Sunburn or glare Protect your skin - Use long sleeves, sun hat, sun
screen or sun block, Etc.. and sun glasses
Apply wood Harmful substance Use impervious gloves, long sleeves Etc. Wash
preservative on skin skin thoroughly on task completion
The list is not all inclusive ……… If we carried out these tasks at work we
would conduct or consult a Risk or COSHH Assessment – the Hazards at
home are the same, so make sure you apply the same Control Measures at
home
At work we have Management Procedures to identify the safe work processes
we follow to keep ourselves safe. At home we have instruction books and
owners manuals to provide information – do you follow them to ensure the
right servicing and pre use inspections have been carried out ? …… is the
cable undamaged, is the blade sharp, has the joint or chain been lubricated ?
BBQ Safety
9 Shelter your BBQ from the wind
9 Place your BBQ on level ground away from the garage, wooden fences, sheds,
hedges and long grass, and away from the house (upvc windows and conservatories !)
9 Have water to hand
9 Use firelighters or fluids fit for purpose
9 Your BBQ should never be left unattended
9 When you are tending to a BBQ never wear loose
clothing and tie long hair back
9 Keep children away from the BBQ
9 Alcohol and cooking don't mix
9 Allow embers to cool completely before disposal