At the inaugural Construction Health Summit held in London on January 21^st 2016 construction giants will discuss possible ways to improve the current industry standards, after shocking statistics were released showing that workers are 100 times more likely to die from occupational diseases than accidents in the work place.

In the construction industry, 40% of deaths are cancer related, with 70% of these cases caused by exposure to the deadly material, asbestos.

The institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH) are currently running “No Time to Lose” Campaign, raising awareness about occupational diseases. Currently over 60 construction companies worldwide, are supporting the campaign and have pledged to improve their practises to reduce their workers exposure to hazardous materials.

Other topics discussed at the summit will include; what can be done to limit other causes of ill health caused by working in hazardous environments, such as breathing in dust and diesel fumes, and ill health caused by working around loud noises.

Research suggests that most of work related illnesses are preventable, and that employees need to ensure that employees are taking the correct safety precautions and wearing the correct Personal Protective Equipment to protect themselves and prevent contracting a potentially life threatening illnesses.

As an employer, is it your responsibility to ensure that you employees are informed about the potential hazards that they are working around. This can be achieved by clearly labelling any areas that could contain asbestos or by using mandatory safety signs. Here at label source we are proud of stocking and supplying a fully comprehensive range of Mandatory Signs and asbestos warning signs, labels and tapes to a large number of UK Businesses.

Click here to view our full range of Mandatory and Asbestos safety signs. 

In February 2016, we will see an increase in the amount a company is fined if they’re found not complying with health and safety laws.

Over the years, there has been concern that the amount large corporations are being fined for failing to meet health and safety regulations, were too low.  As it stands currently, if someone is fatally injured at work due to health and safety negligence, the fines that they will face should be no less than £100,000, and £500,000 for corporate manslaughter.  This may seem like a lot of money, but to organisations turning over in excess of £100m a year, the fine will pretty much so un-noticed.

In November 2015, new guidelines for the sentencing of health and safety cases were produced by the Sentencing Council. These guidelines,  which will apply to all sentencing in health and safety and corporate manslaughter cases, it will become mandatory for every court to follow these guidelines while carrying out health and safety sentences brought in front of a judge in or after February 2016, regardless of when the offence has taken place.

Under the new guidelines, large companies, companies with a turnover exceeding £50 million, that commit health and safety offences, will be fined up to £10 million. For Medium sized companies, companies with a turnover of £2m - £10m, they could expect a fine up to £4 million, and micro-companies, companies with a turnover of less than £2million, could be fined up to £450,000. For cases of corporate manslaughter the fines that companies could be facing are even higher, with fines in excess of £20 million for large organisations.

It is important to highlight here that people don’t need to be injured for the company to be penalised. If it has come to light that an organisation has repeatedly failed to meet health and safety regulations – even if there was not an accident caused by the negligence the company will still occur a penalty. This penalty will be determined by the court based on 1) the seriousness of the risk created and 2) The likelihood of an incident arising.

You can avoid these hefty fines by doing the following:

• Make sure that your organisation has an effective risk assessment and risk management system is place, including identifying hazards, and putting in place appropriate precautions to warn visitors and employees of the hazard or potential hazard.
   
• Ensure that all your health and safety polices are clearly communicated and enforced.
   
• Make sure you are providing regular support and training to your employees to ensure that they continually follow the correct health and safety regulations.  
   
• Make sure that your approach to health and safety is consistent – especially if you are the owner or manager of a company that owns a lot of different sites.

Here at label source, we help companies improve their health and safety standards in their work place on a daily basis by providing a large range of health and safety signs designed specifically to create awareness of potential hazards in the work place.

Our safety signs department is dedicated to signs raising awareness of potential hazards including hazard warning signs, mandatory safety signs, First aid and safe conditions signs and fire equipment safety signs. 

At Label source we are able to supply a wide range of custom tags to meet your specific requirements. So whether you need to create a tag for simply marking a valve or require a more complex custom printed plastic tag for product marking, you can be confident that Label source will be able to produce long lasting, high quality tags, meeting your exact specifications. Available in different sizes, colours, and materials, ordering your custom tags from Label Source really is a no brainer. 

If you are a regular customer of ours you will know that we offer the highest quality of labels and signs to our customers and our range of custom tags are no exception. Our metal tags, come in different shapes, sizes and colours. All of our metal tags are fully customisable with your own design or test – making them perfectly suited for the task at hand.  We also offer a range of custom plastic tags, made from polypropylene these industrial tags are tear resistant and malleable making them perfect for a range of industrial applications. Also fully customisable, these tags can be printed with your details, barcodes, or part of your product identification system. 

To customise your tags, simply upload your design to us when ordering the items. We will then send you a design proof for your approval before printing. 

Here at label source, we pride ourselves in stocking a truly comprehensive range of custom tags, however, in the unlikely event that you cannot find the exact tag that you are looking for please contact us by telephoning 0800 3761 693 or emailing info@labelsource.co.uk where a member of our customer service team will be happy to assist you. 

There has been outrage in Bradford City Hall after recent visit from health and safety officials.

The bosses of City hall have advised that all contraband appliances will be confiscated, however, the office is refusing to hand over their cherished toaster after their bosses inform them that the toaster could potentially set off smoke alarms in the grade-I listed building essentially banning the workers from making toast in their office.

Even though this may seem absurd, it is important to take sensible fire safety measures in the work place. Banning toasters because they could set off smoke detectors may seem extreme, but if they smoke detectors are set off, a full building evacuation takes place, wasting your company’s time and more importantly, the fire services time.

It is important that you test your fire alarms regularly, and ensure that your employees are knowledgeable on the fire evacuation procedure. It is important that your office has fire exits and escape routes clearly labelled.

Click here to view our range of fire safety products.

The employees at the Bradford city are also banned from using fans, portable heaters, hairdryers and their personal rubbish bins are also being removed and replaced with a large recycling bin, because they fail to meet the local authority’s eco-friendly standard. Employees have instead been advised to dress appropriately for the time of year, with the aim of saving energy.

Here, at Label Source we strongly believe that companies should ensure that they have a clear environmental management system in place.  It is important that, as a company, you are making sure that you are recycling as much as you can, and only printing out emails and documents if it is necessary.

We stock a wide range of environmental signs and tapes, here at label source, including recycling signs, waste segregation signs, WRAP recycling signs, Contaminated Land Signs, Resource Conservation signs & Notices and more. Click here to view our full range.

If you have any questions regarding Label Sources products or require more information about our signs, tapes and labels, please  contact us by telephoning 0800 3761 693 or emailing a member of our customer service team at info@labelsource.co.uk

With Christmas drawing ever closer, people are looking for fun ways to celebrate the holidays with their loved ones. This could include going to watch the Christmas lights being turned on in the town centre, going to a charity Christmas gig, going to watch a church choir, or simply just enjoying the Christmas tree in the centre of your village. These activities all sound very appealing – until health and safety gets involved!

Christmas is a period during which UK residents traditionally get enraged over silly 'elf and safety' scandals, with many left feeling that H&S regulations are solely in place to ruin people’s fun at Christmas.

We have searched the internet to find you some of this year’s most absured ‘Elf and Safety Stories:

Solihull, a small town on the outskirts of Birmingham did not enjoy an official Christmas lights switch on this year – because of health and safety concerns. Traditionally the town enjoyed local celebrities, Santa clause, Sport stars, charities, choir groups and local dance groups turning on the town’s spectacular Christmas lights. However, this year the event organisers decided not to comply with tradition because they were expecting huge crowds of people on the night, which could have presented the town with health and safety issues.

Click here to read more about this story.

Onto Saltdean, where a charity Christmas show, that had already sold 150 tickets out of 200,  was cancelled due to health and safety concerns regarding the buildings fire escapes and the lighting in the venue. A chairwoman of the trustees of the SCA stated “From the sale of the bar we could have £500, which we didn’t think outweighed the risk.”   After 5 years of showcasing the local rock talent this year was going to be the last year that this Christmas charity show was due to run. The event manager stated that he was “devastated” that the show was unable to go on.

Read more of this story here.

In two South Tyneside Villages Christmas trees have had be cut down to size because of ‘elf and safety rules. In Cleadon and East Bolton it was decided that their 8 meter festive firs were too close to power lines, and it would be unsafe for workers to plant the trees using a crane. It was explained that “to ensure we do not have a safety-related incident on site, during tree installation and removal, the crane wagon boom and lifting  equipment comes into contact with the energised supply cables we should reduce the height of these two trees as a matter of public and worker safety.” – The councillor is furious with the decision stating that this decision is “utter madness”

Click here to read the full article.

Even though some of the health and safety stories you may read over the Christmas and winter period may sound ridiculous, please remember that health and safety is in place to protect people – not to ruin your Christmas fun!

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