Almost every business has a portable appliance which is required by health and safety legislation to be regularly tested to ensure it meets health and safety standards. The correct terminology for this procedure is Portable Appliance Testing or PAT. Once tested, each appliance must be identified and labelled with a Portable Appliance Test Label or Sticker or PAT labels/stickers. PAT test labels are applied to identify whether or not an appliance has passed a standard portable appliance test as required by health and safety legislation, andsome of these PAT test stickers can even state when the appliance's next test is due. 

Label Source's extensive range of PAT test labels and stickers are extremely durable and though we believe you simply can't put a price on health and safety measures, they are very reasonably-priced indeed! Our range of PAT test labels can be divided into the four following categories:

Electrical Plug Labels 

 
Electrical Cable Wrap Labels Electrical safety tested, failed cable wrap label

 
Portable Appliance Test Record Card Portable appliance test card

 
Electrical Test Equipment Labels Out of compliance, do not use test required label equipment label 

If you're not sure about which of your appliances are required to undergo a PAT test, the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999, the Electricity at Work Regulations 1989, and the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 have detailed portable appliance regulations. 

Some of the appliances which need to be tested and will require PAT test labels (if used on industrial, commercial, distribution or retail premises) are the following:

• Computers, printers and other IT equipment 
• Fridges/Freezers 
• Kettles
• Microwaves/Cookers
• Irons
• Vending Machines
• Table Lamps
• Telephones 
• Cables associated with any of these electrical items 

If you have an appliance which falls under any of these categories, then make sure you get your PAT test labels or stickers from Label Source today. 

If you can't find the PAT testing stickers that you need, simply call one of the Label Source team now on 0800 3761 693.

As suppliers of health and safety labels, signs and tags, it is well within our interest here at Label Source to be on top of health and safety news. In the past few month there's certainly been some questionable 'health and safety' decisions that have made the press! For example, a Grimsby fish and chips establishment was featured in the news for supposedly refusing to allow a customer to put salt on her own fish and chips due to health and safety reasons. Does this seem a little far fetched to you?

Well, that's because it is. In 2012, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) set up a 'myth busting' panel who work to ensure health and safety rules and legislations are not used irrationally, and that health and safety is not to be used as an excuse for decisions made by various establishments. The HSE myth-busters concluded that this was not, in fact, a breach of their health and safety rules - but rather they weren't sure where their customers hands had been! 

The HSE called for 2015 to be the year that we stop 'blaming health and safety for poor or over-the-top decisions'. 

In the press yesterday was the story of Mango, the much-loved tabby cat who lived in the Tesco in Tiverton, Devon for four years before he was apparently 'ejected' and carreid outside in the rain to his new plastic kennel. There are rumours online about Mango having breached Tesco's health and safety regulations, which is why he was removed - but a spokesman for the store has completely denied this claim, stating "Mango is very welcome and much loved by our customers in Tiverton. He is often seen in our foyer and we have invested in a kennel for him to make him feel more comfortable." This is just another example of the health and safety blame game - though Tesco themselves didn't claim Mango breached their health and safety regulations - others were quick to dismiss the decision as another silly health and safety rule. 

As providers of health and safety signs, we must agree with the HSE's plea to cut down on using health and safety as an excuse. After all, health and safety regulations are put in place to help save lives and protect people - not by any stretch of the imagination to stop people living them. Make sure your business is sticking to health and safety regulations without going over the top by having the correct safety signs in place to avoid confusion. What are your thoughts on this situation? We'd love to hear them! Tweet Label Source and let us know.

Where can a non-adhesive hazard tape be used?

When we say 'hazard tape', you probably think of self-adhesive tapes, which are mainly used for floor marking purposes. However, we do sell another type of hazard tape here at Label Source: our non-adhesive barrier tape, suitable for a wide variety of applications and available in many different designs.

Here are some of the ways in which our non-adhesive hazard tapes are most commonly utilised:
 

Caution - Men Working Below

Barrier tape is a common sight in the construction industry. This particular product is designed to warn of underground sites - manholes, dug-up roads, et cetera - but we also stock a variety of non-adhesive hazard tapes for overground construction sites.

Police - Do Not Cross

Police forces and other authorities often use non-adhesive hazard tape to cordon off crime scenes and prevent unauthorised personnel from accessing the site in question.

Security Line - Do Not Cross

A non-policial equivalent of the above. Where the police tape is used to restrict access to crime scenes, this non-adhesive hazard tape can be used for more informal purposes: for example, a security line can be used for crowd control purposes at sporting matches and promotional events.

All of these non adhesive hazard tape products (and many more) can be found in our Printed Barrier Tape section. We also sell plain barrier tapes and chevron barrier tapes.

The Carrick Times - a weekly newspaper covering the town of Carrickfergus in Northern Ireland - ran a story last month that rather struck a chord with the team here at Label Source. The report stated that walkers had been ignoring safety signs that were put in place by the local council to keep people away from a dangerous coastal path that had recently seen a series of rockfalls:

"Signage has been erected to warn the public of the danger and barrier fencing has been installed to physically prevent public access...the path currently represents a very real and present danger"

It is hard to know what goes on in the mind of somebody who ignores warning signs and wanders into such a hazardous area. Standardised safety signs are designed to be as visible as possible, and so - unless the Carrickfergus council are positioning them out of sight - we can only assume that people are wilfully flouting the restrictions and hopping the barrier that would otherwise keep them out of harm's way.

This, sadly, is not the first we've heard of people ignoring safety signs and putting themselves at risk. We as a nation seem to think that health and safety is something we can afford to disregard, but measures like this are designed to keep you safe (whether from rockfalls or other hazards).

It's even worse when you realise that people in other parts of the world are going out of their way to get signs like these put in. Consider the story of the Australian woman whose granddaughter stepped on a venomous stonefish on the shore of a local river; ever since this incident, she has been battling to get a safety sign placed near the river, but the local authorities have so far been of very little help, it seems.

Clearly, we should be thankful for the health and safety laws that get safety signs where they need to be in the UK. Ignoring those signs is foolish and potentially very dangerous - if you've ever walked straight past a hazard warning without taking any notice, make sure it doesn't happen again!

If you work with computers or a range of electronic devices of any kind, then you'll appreciate that occasionally trying to sort, organise and manage all of your cables can be a pretty daunting task indeed! 

For many businesses, cable management is an essential maintenance task to meet health and safety procedures, and for many others it is a welcome organisational tool. Here at Label Source, we have an extensive range of cable management products to appropriately label and manage all of your cables - be it for health and safety purposes, or purely to organise and manage your electrical cables. 

Here are the various types of cable management products available to offer at Label Source: 

1. Cable Marking Wrap Labels 

Cable marking wrap labels can be used for inspection, testing, boltage marking and general health and safety, and are suitable for use with electrical cables, power leads and wiring.

2. Safety Cable Wrap Labels

Safety cable wrap labels are suitable for a variety of electrical appliances, including wiring and power leads, pipework, hoses, tubing and ducting. Our self adhesive markers have a printed section with a clear tail that can wrap around itself to protect the printed section. 

Appliance tested cable wrap label

3. Wire Markers

Our wire marker labels are flexible, self-adhesive polypropylene and are available as individual numbers and letters. These wire markers are suitable for labelling electrical wiring, cables and power leads, and can be purchased in two sizes. 

Cable and wire markers 0

4. Cable Protection Tape 

Cable protection tape is used for a variety of things, including securing loose cabling and preventing injury from trips and falls over trailing wires.

5. Cable Marking Labels

Cable marking labels are write on colour coded blocks which are self-laminated and available in 5 colours. Use these labels to mark cables, wires and electrical leads. 

Cable marking label, 64mm x 48mm

6. Cable Marking Labels (Laser Printable)

Our cable marking labels are supplied in A4 sheet format and can be printed by most laser printers, used through copier machines or even hand written. 

Cable wrap, 21mm x 10mm

7. Cable Tags 

Our cable tags are designed to identify high voltages and electrical hazards. They can also be used to carry out safety checks by electrical inspectors. They are supplied in packs of 50.

To appropriately manage your electrical cables today, grab some of our high-quality cable management products. If you need any help making your order please don't hesitate to contact us on 0800 3761 693.