It is common knowledge that electricity can be dangerous, but the hazards are multiplied when the electrical supply is high voltage. Direct contact with, or being in close proximity of, high voltage infrastructure can pose potential health threats.
Accidents involving sources of high voltage electricity can range from death through electrocution, to electric shock injuries from electrical arcs, internal flash burns, flame burns from ignition of clothing, or injuries from losing body control and falling off equipment.
The overwhelming majority of accidents occur when installing, operating, repairing, inspecting or maintaining power generating plants, power transmission equipment (both overhead power lines or underground cables), at substations, on electrified rail networks, or at oil and gas facilities.
However, the minority can be linked to contact with overhead lines by ladders, antenna, cranes and telescopic overhead plant during construction or maintenance, tree trimming or clearance, and even entangled lines from anglers. Other problem areas are excavations, tunnelling, and mining, when underground electrical cables are damaged or sheared.
Label Source has a range of products to clearly mark dangers from high voltage electrical supply. These can include signs to identify electrical equipment such as transformers, switchgear, circuit breakers, pylons and towers warning of high voltage and danger of death; signs for the mandatory use of protective equipment and safety wear such as hard hats, gloves and rubber soled boot; labels for operating instructions on equipment for termination, cable jointing, pressure testing and fault location; calibration labelling on test instrumentation; and signs and underground warning tapes for buried power cables.
So together using our products we can provide guidance and information to make operating with, and near, high voltage generating and distribution equipment a much safer environment.
Back in 2012, the HSE (Health and Safety Executive) announced that it would be testing a new 'Fee For Intervention' scheme. Under this new initiative, the HSE began to recoup its costs from the businesses that they investigated; previously, these costs were covered by the taxpayer.
Now, almost two years later, the 'Fee For Intervention' scheme appears to have been a success. The HSE's latest report states that "FFI is working effectively and should be retained", adding that "those who fail to meet their legal obligations should pay our costs".
Most will welcome the news that lazy business owners are to foot the bill for their own neglect, and while the FFI scheme has attracted its share of controversy - some business owners have suggested that the HSE will no longer be impartial if their rulings are directly linked to their own revenue - businesses who are mindful of health and safety regulations should have nothing to fear.
On the other hand, those businesses who aren't so safety-conscious should be very concerned indeed. If the FFI really is here to stay (and this looks to be the case), the news should act as a wake-up call to anyone who thought they could get away with cutting corners forever. Perhaps these business owners will sit up and take notice now that it's their own money at stake!
If your business isn't already compliant with UK health and safety law, here are some (though not all) of the areas you'll need to address:
It's never too late to start being safety-conscious. Get your workplace up to standard ASAP, or be prepared to foot the hefty FFI costs!
September 2014 is a very important page of the Label Source calendar - as of this month we've been in business for a full twenty years! That's two decades of outstanding service and top-quality products, with absolutely no signs of slowing down.
Since Label Source was founded in 1994, we've built a glowing reputation for ourselves. Here's why we're still the #1 supplier of labels, tags, and safety signs:
- Comprehensive technical knowledge
- A huge range of high-calibre products
- 20 years of experience
- The complete package, offering an 'across the board' service
No matter what you need - whether it's a roll of sticky labels or a set of high-quality, fully-compliant signs for your workplace - LabelSource.co.uk will always be the very best place to find it. Here's to the next 20 years!
Vandalism is a shamefully common sight in modern Britain - whether it's graffiti, defacement, or general destruction, you can scarcely turn a corner these days without spotting some sort of pointless destruction.
But as unsightly as smashed-up bus shelters and spray-painted walls are, there's one particularly deplorable form of vandalism on which we'd like to focus: the defacement of safety signs. This appears to be something of a trend at the moment, and it's very worrying - people are rendering signs almost illegible, with no apparent consideration of the potential consequences.
This story from Inverclyde Now is a good example. Vandals have been defacing, damaging, and even stealing signs from several reservoirs in the Inverclyde area, and while such acts would be foolish and juvenile enough without the health and safety implications, the truly frightening part is just how important these signs and their messages are.
One such sign - given as an example in the IN article - reads:
"BE AWARE! Deaths have occurred at reservoirs"
The sign then goes on to list some of the dangers associated with reservoirs, such as deep water and steep, hidden embankments. Signs like these are designed to make people aware of potentially life-threatening hazards, and by removing/defacing these signs, vandals are sharply increasing the likelihood of a serious accident.
This problem isn't limited to Scottish reservoirs, either; it's happening all over the country. We recently read of some No Entry signs in Liverpool that had been removed by vandals, making the nature of the one-way street far less obvious to motorists. This is obviously a huge crash risk, and the signs will now have to be replaced using taxpayer money.
Authorities are urging vandals to consider the consequences of their actions and stop defacing important signs such as those mentioned above. If you ever see anybody vandalising or removing a safety sign, please report it to the police as a matter of urgency - you never know whose life you might save!
You may think it kind of obvious why electrical labels are so necessary, but we thought we would quickly highlight some of the facts so it really hits home.
Electrical labels are so important, as if you neglect a dangerous area and someone were to get shocked any or all of the following can occur:
- If you get shocked it causes your muscles to tighten which can make pulling away from the circuit near impossible.
- It also causes your lungs to tighten and constrict making it hard to breathe.
- As your blood vessels constrict the beat of your heart can also be disrupted.
- You will also find burns as the electricity enters and then leaves your body.
Did you also know that:
- As the human body is 70% water, electricity moves quickly through us making us good conductors.
- As electricity moves at the speed of light you have little chance of pulling away quickly enough to avoid getting hurt, so it goes without saying that prevention is the cure.
The importance of electrical labels cannot be overlooked and if you own, run, or manage a premises which poses a potential electrical threat, you really cannot be too overcautious with your signage.
