Electricity is extremely dangerous; even small appliances need to be clearly labelled to prevent shocks and minimise the risk of electrocution.

We at Label Source offer an extensive range of laminated voltage labels for electrical supplies and other high-voltage installations/appliances. Here are some examples of what we have to offer people and business who are serious about electrical safety:

Voltage-Specific Labels

Many of the voltage stickers we stock give specific voltages (e.g. 110V, 440V), making them ideal for applications that require an accurate voltage measurement.

Non-Specific Voltage Stickers

If you do not know the exact voltage of the installation you are labelling - or if you would simply prefer to send a stronger message to those who may be exposed to this electrical hazard - we also sell a variety of voltage labels with more general warnings and information (e.g. 'High voltage', 'Danger of death').

Labels for Specific Installations

Many of our voltage labels are design to be used alongside specific hazards, such as live busbars or terminals. 

No matter what kind of hazard you're labelling, our wide range of voltage stickers is sure to have something to suit your requirements. Click here to browse our full collection.

Whats been going on in the world of Health and Safety this week? 

Taylor Wimpey Provides education to primary school students 

In Banbury this week students from Woodford Halse CE primary academy learnt about how to keep safe near building sites.  A visit from health and safety consultants arranged by building company Taylor Wimpey saw the young pupils learn about the different hazards that are posed by building sites, including hazards like falling scaffolding, broken glass, falling bricks and sharp metal hidden around the site. Here at label source, be believe that the education of the potential hazards of building sites is essential for young children to ensure their safety near construction sites, and we hope to hear about more of these lessons   happening around the country. 

To read mor about Taylor Wimpeys visit click here.

Firm Fined £5000 after mobile platform failed

In North Lincolnshire an agricultural services firm has been fined following an incident where two workers fell three metres when a mobile work platform failed. The firm had been contracted to erect a steel frame building, work had just started on installing the steel roof beams when the accident happened.  The two men where attaching the steel beams from inside a man riding basket attached to a forklift truck when the basket attachment failed, due to the fact that the basket had not been secured correctly, and the basket along with the workers fell to the ground. Both men suffered broken bones and internal injuries from the fall.  The HSE later revealed in court that the equipment that was used was not the correct equipment for the job that they were conducting, the company had failed to provide the correct working at height equipment and how the work was not properly planned or properly supervised. The firm was fined £5000 and have to pay £10,147 in costs. The two workers have fully recovered and have since returned to work.

Click here to read more on this report.

Gate Safety Week 

From October 12 – 18 it is national gate safety week. This is a campaign that has been created by Door & Hardware Federation (DHF) Powered Gate Group with hope to improve the safety of powered gates here in the UK. 

In total 3 children and 3 adults have been killed from accidents involving powered gates. It has been reported that in the UK alone there are over 500,000 powered gates in use, however, shockingly only 30% of these gates are safe to use. 

The gate safety week campaign aims to educate the public and professional installers the dangers around poorly installed gates and how to identify and report unsafe gates.

Learn more about Gate Safety Week Here 

Wearable Technology saving lives

Site workers in Bristol are using Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) which uses chips to pass information between transponders and receptors. This innovation alerts pedestrians and machine operators of each other presence by sending vibrating, audio and visual alerts when the pedestrian and a vehicle driver are in the ‘danger zone.’ Allowing the both the driver and the pedestrian to avoid an accident. This device also features a warning system, if a pedestrian does breach a danger zone a warning system logs the incident and records it, so site managers can identify workers who repeatedly breach the danger zone and offer safety training to avoid accident. 

Click here to read more about On Guard

What is PAT Testing?

It is a legal requirement that any electrical appliance or equipment that has the potential to cause harm is maintained. Portable Appliance Testing (PAT) is a test of all electrical equipment and appliances to ensure that there are no faults or damage to the appliance and that they are safe to use. A PAT Test includes a visual appliance test; most of the damages that could happen to your appliances can be picked up visually. However some of the damages could only be highlighted if you have conducted full testing. 

How frequently do you have to PAT test your appliances?

This can differ depending on the appliance that you are Pat testing. If you are testing a 230V hoist then this will need a formal inspection every week, however a desktop computer in an office may only need testing every 2-4 years.  

Should I label the appliances that have been tested?

PAT Test Labelling is useful as a way to record and monitor the lifecycle and depreciation of your assets and maintenance of your appliances. 

The items that have been tested should be labelled with a PAT test Label, these labels must contain the following information:

• Status: if the appliance passed or failed the testing
• Test Date: the date when the appliance was tested
• Inspection due date: The nest time this appliance needs to be tested

Appliances that have failed the PAT Test must be labelled “failed” and taken out of use immediately, wither to be fixed or to be replaced. You must never use faulty electrics. 

There are many variations on the PAT Test Label and Label Sources large range of PAT Test Labels are extremely durable, can last through long periods between testing without deteriorating and will stick to any surface.  

Click to view our full range of PAT Test labels, If you cant fined the specific label that you are looking for please contact us via email at info@labelsource.co.uk or call us on 0800 3761 693 and a member of our specialist team will get back to you as soon as possible,

As the rugby world cup has kicked off this week, your attention may not be 100% on health and safety. You may have known that they have changed the "law" for the rugby scrum and now has a "crouch, bind, set" instructions - this change alone has reduced accidents and injury in the scrum by 50%. But unfortunately not all companies this week have changed their procedures to keep their players (employees) or even their customers safe:

Keeping with the rugby theme, A restarant in Rugby was fined thousands of pounds for having mold growing on the kitchen walls, keeping utensils on the floor and more hygine issues. The restaurant was issued a health and safty warning with an outline of the improvements needed to ensure that the restaurant wasnt closed down. However, when the health and safety officers revisited the kitchen they were shocked to see that instead of improving it had infact deteriorated, there was no hot water in the hand wash basin, a hole in the kitchen door and food waste out to the rear of the kitchen. The owner was fined a total of £3,500 and ordered to pay £913.57 in costs. You can read more of the stroy here. 

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A director of a zoo has appeared in court due to a string of health and safety breeches after a Sumatran tiger mauled and killed one of its keepers. It is said that the zoo director has failed to act on the previous notices to make improvements to his health and safety, not only for is employees but for people not in his employment to ensure their safety when visiting his park. Notices were sent after a tragic accident where a zoo keeper fell from a ladder while preparing food for the large cats last year. The case will be in the courts in October. 

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A bricklayer tragically lost his life this week after a wall collapsed and fell on top of him. The building contractors who had been working on building a 3 bedroom house and a storage room in the garden, the storeroom was planned to be built next to a wall that was built a year previous, however the wall was not built as a retaining wall, and when the ground was being levelled the soil that was supporting the wall collapsed.   The company failed to complete the correct health and safety checks on the wall and did not put in place structural support to prevent this accident from happening. The company has now been fined £200,000. You can read more on this story here. 

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A polythene firm has been fined a total of £50,000 following serious safety breeches which has left an employee with life changing injuries after they got trapped in a machine. The business was charged for breaching the provision and use of work equipment regulations and the management of health and safety at work regulations. For these two breeches the company pleaded guilty and was fined a total of £40,000. They were also ordered to pay a total of £10,000 for costs. to read more about this story click here. 

It was reported that yesterday at a lorry tipped over when traveling along a busy road in wales. As expected the contents of the lorry spilt over the road and caused traffic congestion until pasts 8pm last night.

This lorry was transporting sodium hypochlorite, a chemical which is commonly used as a bleaching agent or in your everyday, household, disinfectant. Sodium hypochlorite is highly dangerous chemical, which omits sodium oxide and chlorine gasses and can cause incredible damage to the environment and humans if ingested or inhaled, due to the nature of this chemical it is classified as a Class 8 corrosive Hazardous chemical.

Luckily no one was hurt in this accident but it did trigger us here at Label Source to think about our own range of Hazardous chemical labels.

Hazard warning labels are there to protect people who are to come into contact with the substance, say if there is an accident the emergency services will know how to respond to the substance to help protect everyone involved and themselves.

When transporting hazardous chemicals you are required to display hazard diamonds on the harmful substances.  These hazardous have a different classification and so require different labels.

  Class 1:  Explosive substances and articles, with sub-categories ranging from 1.1 (mass explosion hazard) through to class 1.6 (extremely insensitive substances).

Class 2: Gasses  (including compressed gas, liquefied gas, refrigerated liquefied gas, dissolved gas, aerosol dispensers containing gas,  and other articles containing gas under pressure and non-pressurised gas).

Class 3 : Flammable Liquids

Class 4.1 : Flammable Solids

Class 4.2 : Substances liable to spontaneous combustion  (including pyrophoric substances, mixtures and solutions - liquid or solid - and self-heating substances) 

Class 5.1 - Oxidizing substances, solid or liquid, either self-heating, or emitting flammable gases on contact with water.

Class 5.2 : Organic peroxides. Substances which decompose at normal or elevated temperatures, or heat up on contact with impurities (acids, amines etc), friction or impact, and release harmful or flammable gases and vapours.

Class 6.1 - Toxic substances that cause damage to human health, or death by inhalation, body absorption or by ingestion.

Class 6.2 - Infectious substances that contain pathogens (bacteria’s, viruses, parasites or fungi) leading to disease in humans or animals.

Class 7 - Radioactive material containing radionuclides above permissible levels.

Class 8 - Corrosive substances where skin or mucous membrane is attacked by chemical action, or where goods are damaged or destroyed through leakage

Class 9 - Miscellaneous dangers not covered by the above. This includes: fine dust hazards (asbestos fibres); substances which form dioxins in the event of fire (PCBs); environmentally hazardous materials; substances emitting flammable vapours; lithium batteries; and lifesaving appliances.

Transporting chemicals is a dangerous activity so it is important that you follow the correct safety regulations in case an accident does occur. To ensure that everyone knows about the risk that is involved the hazardous substances have to be labelled on the outside of the carrier, on the substance container and if the substance is in its own packaging on the outside of the packaging, so the hazard is highly visible for all.

You can view our full range of Hazardous Chemical Labels here. If you do have any questions or in the unlikely event that you cannot find the label you are looking for, feel free to contact us by email on info@labelsource.co.uk.