Contaminated land poses a number of safety issues ranging from impact on human and animal health, infection of soil, plants and fauna, and pollution of surface water or groundwater.
These sites of former industrial activity such as steelworks, refineries, mines or factories leaving residues of heavy metals, such as lead and cadmium; or mines and landfill sites producing methane gas; or special sites blighted with asbestos, radioactive substances or explosives.
These site pose dangers to workers, contractors and the general public from exposure to carcinogen and mutagenic elements through breathing or skin contact; from the ingestion of plants or vegetation ; damage to aquatic stock through soil contamination leaching into water courses, as well as other risks from corrosive, explosive or flammable waste; or asphyxiation from gases.
These zones need to be clearly marked to deter entry, and to warn of the hazards and dangers from entry into designated contaminated land sites.
Over the past year or so, it appears that the health and safety culture has been heavily scrutinised both in the press and by the public. Health and safety is being blamed for questionable decisions in the workplace left right and centre, which has called for the Health and Safety Executive to call for putting a stop on the health and safety blame game. We recently wrote a blog post about this titled 'Is Health and Safety Taking the Blame' discussing all these points, and since then it appears health and safety have come under fire yet again.
This time, the focus is around health and safety ruining childhood. In this piece in The Telegraph Judith Hackitt, head of the Health and Safety Executive called for children not to be wrapped in cotton wool, stating that they must be allowed to hurt themselves during play to avoid them becoming 'risk naive' in later life.
In another Telegraph piece, TV personality Bear Grylls has claimed that the health and safety culture is ruining childhood. He argues that children should be banned from playing computer games and should take more risks in the outdoors.
Indeed, both articles make good points about the digital world we live in. It's undeniable that spending too much time in front of a laptop of TV screens is detrimental to children - and we completely agree that there is such a wealth of experience and knowledge gained by playing outdoors and actually engaging face to face with your peers. Children should go out and play whilst still taking advantage of the incredible and educational technological developments we're fortunate enough to experience. They should be allowed to experience things first hand in the great outdoors...But is health and safety culture ruining childhood? We certainly don't think so.
On the contrary, in fact. The importance of health and safety legislations should be ingrained in our children from a young age. It's very important we don't turn children against the health and safety culture because it will be so dramatically important for them in life. Indeed, whether you work on a construction site or in an office - every business establishment has set health and safety legislations which are put in place to protect our lives, and indeed the lives of others.
It is far too often that we hear of tragic accidents in the workplace due to breaches of health and safety - either resulting in serious injury or at the worst case, death. Companies are being sued for thousands of pounds weekly due to not complying with health and safety - though we completely agree occasionally people will use health and safety as an excuse for a bad decision - it is vital that legislations are respected and followed.
We think that children should be allowed to be children and encouraged to grow and play outdoors, but they should be urged to respect the health and safety rules and legislations put in place to protect them. What do you think? We'd love to hear your views! Tweet us @LabelSourceUK to continue the discussion.
The GHS (Globally Harmonised System) of Classification and Labelling of Chemicals becomes fully effective in the UK at the end of May 2015, and replaces the previous standards for marking of dangerous or hazardous substances and mixtures. So are you ready for the changes?
The GHS standards form part of the CLP Regulations, which make the regulations legally binding throughout the EU. The standards are aimed at protecting human health and safeguarding the environment by preventing chemical-related incidents or accidents where multiple classification systems previously existed and by streamlining health and safety training to reduce the level of injuries or illness.
While many of the GHS pictograms may be familiar to you, since they are closely based on the old EU classifications, there are some subtle changes plus the introduction of health hazards to humans (such as carcinogenic or mutagenic). Therefore, the new classifications replace the longstanding black on orange format classification structure, and these become legally binding on the 31st May.
Click here to purchase your new GHS labels and stay up-to-date with the latest regulations.
If you thought asbestos was a thing of the past, think again. Before the turn of the millennium, asbestos was used in all types of building for its insulative and fireproof properties, and while we now know how harmful it can be to human health, asbestos is still commonly found in homes, offices, schools, hospitals, and other buildings.
Here are some sobering facts from the Health and Safety Executive:
- 20 tradespeople die every week as a result of previous exposure to asbestos
- 5,000 workers are killed by asbestos-related diseases every year - fewer people are killed in road accidents each year
- Asbestos can be responsible for many life-threatening lung problems, including lung cancer, mesothelioma, asbestosis and pleural thickening
The HSE is currently running a #BewareAsbestos campaign to raise awareness of asbestos, the dangers associated with it, and the fact that it is still very common in the present day. Any building that was constructed before the year 2000 could potentially contain asbestos, and if it does, this poses a risk to everybody, especially any tradespeople (electricians, plumbers, contractors, etc.) who carry out work in the building.
Here at Label Source, we sell a wide range of asbestos warning signs that can be used to warn workers and the general public of asbestos problems on your premises. Here are some of the signs we can provide:
Click here to see the rest of Label Source's asbestos signs.
'Corporate manslaughter' is a phrase that we hear all too often in the health and safety industry. It feels like we see a new report about fatal negligence every week, and if you've been reading these stories as regularly as we have, you're no doubt wondering exactly what 'corporate manslaughter' is.
In a nutshell, 'corporate manslaughter' is a crime of which companies and organisations may be convicted if they are found to have caused (or failed to prevent) the death of a worker. If your company fails to follow health and safety regulations, and this negligence leads to the death of one of your colleagues, then your company may well be charged with corporate manslaughter.
One recent example (reported earlier this week on the HSE website) is the case of Jason Pennington, a 42-year-old construction worker from Lancashire who died after falling through a skylight onto a concrete floor. His employer, Peter Mawson, has been sentenced to eight months in prison, 200 hours of unpaid work, and two years' suspension. He must also pay costs of £31,504.77, and he is legally obliged to advertise the accident on his company's website for a set period of time, as well as taking out a half-page spread in the local newspaper. Furthermore, Mawson's company (Peter Mawson Ltd) has itself been fined a total of £220,200.
Corporate manslaughter has been part of UK law since 2008, and the above story demonstrates just how serious the penalties can be. Of course, as we've pointed out before, the risk of death alone should be incentive enough for business owners - if you don't put up the right safety signs and make sure everyone is working safely, you are putting human lives at risk. Don't let your company's name be sullied by corporate manslaughter charges!
