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.

Asset tracking is essential to companies who have IT equipment, valuable goods and hardware. These assets generally require significant capital investment and extensive maintenance cost to your business.

Asset tags are primarily for managing and reconciling ownership of the company’s asset as well as recording the location of the asset. Asset tags can be attached to both fixed assets and movable assets - these are items that hold value for the company. Asset tags can also help you track the life of the asset, this is useful to know when the asset will need to need to serviced or replaced and will help prevent major equipment downtime.

Asset tagging also addresses issues that many companies may experience such as;

• Theft of assets: Theft is a huge cost risk to businesses, and asset tagging will help identify any assets that have gone missing.
   
• Unauthorised moving of assets: It may be that an asset gets moved from one location to another by mistake; for example, if someone switches PCs in the office.
   
• Ensuring that the right asset is removed and/or repaired: You may find yourself with two assets that look the same and have identical item barcodes, but one asset is of greater worth to your company than another, so it is important remove or repair the correct asset – asset tags will help you identify which asset is which.

Here at Label Source we provide many different asset tags:

The barcode asset tag is a secure, low cost way to report the asset to the inventory or your company’s asset database.

Serial number asset tags are useful if you want to have a unique serial number on your assets, to prevent issues such as the removal of the wrong asset.

Tamper-proof asset tags are used as security tags as these leave a “void” pattern on the tag should the asset be stolen or removed.

To see our full range of asset tags, please head over to our Asset Tagging & Property Identification department.

Recently, a survey carried out by IronmongersDirect revealed that many employees would not know what to do if there was a fire at their workplace. Alarmingly, 22% of people said that they would look to see what other people are doing before acting; even more shockingly, 13% of those polled said that they would simply continue with their work and ignore the alarm.

As an employer, the health and safety of your employees is your responsibility. Therefore, it is down to you to put in place and maintain the appropriate safety measures, as well as providing information on what to do in the event of a fire in your workplace. It is a legal requirement to carry out a risk assessment of your premises and review them regularly.

When carrying out a fire risk assessment, you will need to do the following:

1. Identify all potential hazards
2. Identify the people who are at risk (young children, disabled or elderly people)
3. Evaluate all risks
4. Remove or reduce all risks
5. Record your findings
6. Provide training to all members of staff
7. Review periodically to ensure that there are no new risks and that people have not forgotten the correct company fire procedure

As fire speads very quickly, it is important that everybody evacuates the building quickly, safely, and calmly. This means that you need to:

• Provide accessible escape routes, keep them free of obstacles, and mark them clearly
• Use signs to remind employees what to do in the event of a fire
• Provide a designated safe meeting point for your staff
• Clearly mark all fire equipment using the appropriate signage

Here at Label Source, we take fire safety extremely seriously. We have a huge range of emergency access and fire safety signs, including disabled guidance safety signs, access and escape signs, fire equipment safety signs and projecting fire equipment safety signs.

Remember, if your workplace is missing any crucial fire and safety signs, you could face prosecution for breaching health and safety regulations.

Here at Label Source, we don’t just deliver top quality labels and signs; we also offer our customers a large range of brass tags.

Over the years, we have seen our brass tags being used for many different purposes, from etched company logos for keys to marking industrial machinery and equipment. With our selection of different sizes and shapes, we are sure we will be able to cater to your requirements. 

Available in up to 3 different sizes and with a melting point of 900 degrees, these corrosion-resistant brass tags are perfect for valve marking and labelling your pipework around your workplace. 

Our brass tags are large enough to enter your own safety or identification information; the tags also have a low friction point. This means that they have low spark emissions, so they are safe to be used in most work environments and are excellent for labelling machinery and industrial equipment. 

If you would like to customise the tags yourself, that is no problem - our brass tags are provided in packs of 25 and are completely blank, allowing you to customise however you need. 

Click here to browse and buy our brass tags. If you have any special requirements we are able to offer these tags in different bespoke sizes & thickness. To discuss these needs, please e-mail our team on info@labelsource.co.uk.

The Fork Lift Truck Association is a European organisation that helps to keep businesses safe when using fork lift trucks. Every September, the FLTA observe Fork Lift Safety Month, a thirty-day campaign to improve safety in workplaces where fork lifts are used.

As you're probably aware, we're pretty big on health and safety here at Label Source, and so we thought we'd mark Fork Lift Safety Month with a brief list of do's and dont's for anyone who operates or works near fork lifts. These vehicles can be extremely dangerous if used improperly - please bear the following points in mind if they apply to you!

Fork Lift Safety: Do's & Dont's

• Don't operate a fork lift without proper training. Fork lift trucks should be totally off-limits to everyone except fully trained personnel.


• Do look out for others while in the driver's seat. Always watch where you're going (especially when reversing) and be aware of those around you - they may not be able to get out of the way in time!


• Don't use a fork lift to transport people. This shouldn't need saying, really, but some people sadly think it's a good idea give each other 'lifts' on the forks of a fork lift. Never offer or accept a lift - fork lifts are for transporting goods, not people!


• Do pay attention to signs. There are plenty of signs related to fork lift trucks in our Safety Signs department; for example, our 'Caution - Fork Lift Trucks' sign should be clearly displayed in any work environment where these vehicles are used. If you work in such an environment, it's important to pay attention to safety signs like this and follow any instructions they give you.

• Don't get too close to a fork lift when in use. Pedestrians should maintain a safe distance and ensure that they're not hidden from the driver's view at any point.


• Do check loads before lifting them. Make sure that they're not too heavy for the fork lift you're using, and that they're suitable for transportation by fork lift. Look out for 'No Forks' labels - any goods bearing such a label should not be lifted using a fork lift.

You should also be sure to check the fork lift itself - is it in safe working order? If not, don't use it!

Click here to see Label Source's full range of fork lift labels and safety signs.