Essay: Personal Protective Equipment at Work Regulations 1992

The Personal Protective Equipment at Work are an established rules under the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974. The guidelines place a responsibility on employers to make sure that appropriate personal protective equipment is given to the workers who may come in contact to a risk while being in the workplace.
Personal Protective Equipment is defined in the guidelines as ‘all equipment (including clothing affording protection against the weather) which is intended to be worn or held by a person at work which protects them against one or more risks to their health and safety’ PPE includes protective gear for instances eye protection (goggles), safety harness, hard hats, footwear and life jackets.
http://www.hse.gov.uk/ppe.htm
Chemicals Reach:
REACH is a European Union regulation regarding the Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and restraint of dangerous substances. The purposes of this legislation is to give a level of security of human health and the setting from the use of substances. To also make the people who place chemical on the market accountable for understanding and handling the hazards related with their use.
The REACH regulations sets responsibilities on workplaces to control the hazards/risks from dangerous chemicals and to give any safety information on the chemical. Manufactures and traders are obligated to retrieve enough information on the possessions of their hazardous materials which will permit their safe handling.
http://www.echa.europa.eu/regulations/reach
Manual Handling Operations Regulations 1992:
The Manual Handling Operations Regulations apply to a variety of manual handing actions including lifting, lowering, pushing, pulling or carrying, the load can be either animate which is a person or an animal or inanimate for example a box or trolley.
Workers have obligations to take sensible care of their own health and safety and that of other workers who can be affected by their activities, they must communicate with their employees so that they too are able to meet their health and safety duties. Employees have general health and safety duties to follow appropriate systems of work laid down for their safety, make proper use of equipment provided for their safety, inform they employer if they have identified hazardous handling activities.
The guidance on the Manual Handling Regulations includes a risk assessment filter and checklist to help employers assess manual handling tasks.
http://www.healthyworkinglives.com/advice/work-equipment/manual-handling
Recording of accidents and dangerous occurrences
Many injuries, unsafe incidences are compulsory by law to be stated to the enforcing authority, in the agreement with the Reporting of Injuries, Dangerous Occurrences regulations (RIDDOR). It is however, company policy to examine all accidents and incidents, to find the instant and fundamental causes, and where reasonable practicable recommend measures to prevent reoccurrence. All accidents whether it is small or big must be reported and details entered in the workplace accident records.
Handover and taking over a shift
Uncontrolled shift exchanging can increase the risk of fatigue associated difficulties including ill health, errors and accidents, particularly if employees do double shifts or do not have enough time to rest in-between shifts. Shift changing should be observed and recorded by supervisors, it is significant to review a workers scheduled work and rest periods before agreeing to a swap to avoid excessive hours being worked.
Cleaning Task
Cleaning is an essential task in all workplaces, it is important to keep buildings and equipment’s safe and well maintained to not cause any accidents/incidents. Cleaners must at all times wear protective uniform when carrying out these tasks for example gloves, mask if needed, apron etc. cleaning staff must clean up spillages immediately and keep work areas tidy, while cleaning certain places staff must display appropriate safety signs for example wet floor signs, by not putting any signs individuals who come in contact with the area that needs cleaning might be harmed/injured as they were not aware.
Cooking Process
The usual installations used in cooking processes include deep fryers, ovens, grills, surface cookers etc. regular cleaning should be done to reduce the risk of any safety hazards, also monitoring heat oil levels, insulation of ducts to avoid ignition of nearby combustible wall and ceiling materials, a regular plan for inspection and cleaning. When cooking individuals must wear a hair net, glove for touching an object that is hot and apron etc. a risk assessment should be carried out including temperature logs, cleaning schedules and completed documentation. Many kitchen workplaces have signs to show what equipment is used on different types of food this is to stop cross contamination and to ensure food safety hazards are minimised.
Wound care task
In many cases individuals are hurt and need first aid assistance, if there is a first aider nearby they would need to act immediately and prevent further effects, in order to do this the first aider will need to apply pressure if needed and wipe away any blood and put a pad and bandage it in place if this is wound is severe the person will need to call an ambulance. First aiders are too make sure they wear disposable gloves to reduce the risk of any infection being passed on.
The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999
The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 outlines what employees ae requires to do to control health and safety under the Health and Safety Work Act. In the regulations the owner must evaluate all substantial risk to their workers or to other persons. They will also need to make preparations for effective planning, organisation, control, maintaining and review of health and safety.
Employers must develop procedures to deal with circumstances of serious or imminent danger, they must tell workers who are exposed to serious or imminent danger of the hazards involved and guidelines to follow. They must deliver complete and appropriate training to all employees on health and safety, also provide information to workers on the risks involved, the preventive and protective measures, the emergency procedures and the identity of competent persons accountable for health and safety or for evacuation procedures.
http://www.hseni.gov.uk/l21_management_of_health_and_safety_at_work.pdf
http://www.hse.gov.uk/involvement/
Communication
Many issues arise in health and safety because of bad communication, there are three basic approaches of communication in health and safety which include: Verbal communication, written communication and Graphic communication.
Verbal communication:
This type of communication is the most common when working within health and safety it is message by word of mouth or speech. Verbal communication should be used for moderately simple bits of information or instructions, however there are server issues related with verbal communication for example the speaker needs to carefully prepare what they are saying so there is no confusion about the message there have been many accidents that have occurred because a verbal instruction was not understood. Induction training is a way of verbal communication.
Induction Training
Many companies carry out some form of induction training, which is usually an introduction to the company, often this is not a formal meeting but there is a need for all staff to understand the structure and main roles of the organisation they work for, particularly with regard to health and safety. Every organisation has its individual hazards as well as those general to all workplaces for example the location of fire escape routes and exits, alarm, fire extinguishers must be described, how to contact a first aider and the items of personal protective equipment to be worn and explained. However in some cases employers have an induction training but don’t properly explain what to do in an event of a hazard.
Written communication
Written communication has different ways from the simple memo to a detailed report. A memo should enclose a simple message with the title describing what the contents are of the memo, the advantages of having memo and emails is that there is a record of the message after it has been delivered however in some cases the message is hard to recognise or misplaced in the system. Reports are often written in detail but because of the time restraints on managers it is sometimes not read properly. Another method of written communication is a notice board where regular reviews and notices are put up for both employers and employees to see.
Graphic communication
This is a communication by the use of drawing, DVDs or signs and posters which is used to communicate health and safety information e.g. fire exits, first aid etc. both posters or signs can be used efficiently as training aids and they use a simple message. Any signs that are used within the work place should be easily seen and understood as well as they should be put somewhere for everyone to see.
Signs
According to the Health and Safety Regulations 1996 managers are required to give health and safety signs if there is no way to control a specific danger, some safety signs instruct the workforce to take certain protective action such as wearing types of PPE, others ban dangerous acts which could lead to an accident such as smoking in the area where flammable materials are stored or used.