Cleaning is Essential Part of Work Safety

Even the safest-looking workplaces have their own dangerous moments. If you think that nothing wrong could possibly come to you in the safety of your own calm office, think again. There are probably bookshelves near you, with books high above you that could fall off and concuss you. How are the power outlets handled? Are there any bare wires? If you are working in a paper-filled office, even the smallest sparks can lead to big fires if not handled immediately. And, believe it or not, all these dangers are doubled when you opt to do some cleaning around the office. Here are some tips on how to protect yourself and the office.

• If you are about to do some office cleaning, use gloves. Hand protection is important even in the smallest of instances. Rubber gloves can save you a nasty shock and spill if you accidentally come in contact with a bare wire. They will also protect your hands from all the toxins in the cleaning product you are using. Avoid gross rashes and itchy spots with ease, simply put on a pair of gloves while rubbing your desk with a cleaner product and all will be fine.

Cleaning is Essential Part of Work Safety

• If might seem laughable, but if you are working in a place with lots of shelves with files or books, and you are trying to dust them, or even just looking for a particular item, you should use some headgear. Imagine you inadvertently shake a bookcase as you are browsing through some volumes, and there are heavy and unchecked books or folders above you. One wrong step (or shake) will collapse a few of those volumes over your head and could easily lead to a bad concussion.

• Be wary of slippery spots on your floor or carpet. If you are one to have lunches in the office, surely you spilled something once or twice, but did not bother to thoroughly clean it. Some stains become slippery over time and you should protect yourself – and the ones coming into your office from them. Get some carpet cleaners to remove it, or even hire a cleaning agency to do regular office cleaning and keep your workplace safe. Yes, cleanliness sometimes is the key to safety. A professional cleaner will do a fine job of recognizing lasting and problematic stains and will remove them to bring the shine to your office.

• If you are working with a lot of office hardware, you should know that it is inevitable that something may eventually breakdown. Unless you are a mechanic or specialize in office appliance repairs, call an actual repairman to see to the problem. Do not be a hero and try to help out a colleague with a quick fix to a problem that you have no clue about. Leave the broken machinery as they are and call somebody who actually can fix them.

Cleaning is Essential Part of Work Safety2

It requires very little to work safely in your office. A small bit of effort put into a clean and organized office will do wonders for the state of your workplace. If you cannot do it yourself, get a cleaning company. The key thing here is to work safe, so expenses should not be an obstacle.
Read more basic cleaning tips on: finchleycarpetcleaners.org.uk

Texting While Driving is Still One of Today’s Biggest Problems

teen_texting_driving

We should all know by now that not only is texting and driving a bad idea but is probably also against the law where you live. A federal ban on texting and driving was enacted in 2010 and 46 states have laws in place about using mobile devices while behind the wheel of a vehicle. A new law outlawing the practice in Mississippi will go into effect on July 1, 2015. The dangers of texting while driving should be common knowledge by now but apparently it bears repeating. Despite the laws in place and the number of warnings, texting while driving remains one of the biggest dangers on the road today.

It seems that every week there are reports of a new tragedy that could have been easily avoided happening on the road. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that nine people are killed each day as a result of distracted drivers and over 1,000 people are seriously injured. Some of the main culprits that contribute to distracted driving are using a mobile phone, texting or eating. The CDC outlines three major types of driving distractions and they include: visual distractions that take your eyes off the road, manual distractions that take your hands off the wheel, and cognitive distractions that take your mind off of driving.

Did you know that someone using their phone while driving is 23 times more likely to have an accident than someone that isn’t? In fact, a study cited by the Huffington Post found that there’s a 1 in 4 probability that any given car crash involved a cell phone in some way. There were 3,328 people killed in crashes involving a distracted driver in 2012 and another 421,000 people were injured. That’s almost half a million people injured as a result of something that might not have happened if people stopped texting while driving.

In the year 2000, Verizon Wireless became the first wireless carrier to support state legislation for the banning of all hand-held cellphone use while driving. That’s 15 years of supporting safe driving initiatives like the Responsible Driver Action Plan while continuing to be one of the industry’s leaders when it comes to safety outreach. The company developed its Responsible Driver Action Plan as part of its efforts which included the incorporation of responsible driving messages in customer communications and company advertising.

There are even apps now specifically to help drivers resist the temptation of their phones on the road. One of them is SafelyGo, which will automatically receive and respond to your calls while you’re on the road. This way you can keep your eyes on the highway while your phone makes sure you stay connected during your trip. With these kinds of advances in technology, there’s no excuse to be using your mobile device in the car. It’s not just about your own safety; it’s about everyone around you.

Lab Safety Guidelines

There is a great need to examine and reevaluate the safety procedures in a lab, especially if you happen to be more than just a simple lab assistant. Lab managers will need to consider this task carefully if they want safety to be a primary concern, especially when handling hazardous materials. There are plenty of cleaning companies that have certification as professional cleaners, going far beyond the usual house cleaning, office cleaning, carpet cleaning and the like and well into the area of laboratory cleanup, biohazard cleanup and more. Proper routines and rules must be observed if you want to succeed at keep the lab safe. The following tips will give you a few ideas you can use in your daily work:

Lab Safety Guidelines

• No drinks and food in the lab
This is pretty commonplace in most areas, but it also happens to be one of the things people find hardest to deal with. Everyone happens to enjoy a refreshing drink of cold water or coffee at work, but removing food and drinks from the lab will have multiple great benefits. First of all it will reduce the available distractions, so fewer things will go wrong. When performing really important and sensitive tasks, every distraction is a serious problem, especially when handling hazardous materials and substances. The risk of contamination in such areas jumps exponentially since such items can bring bacteria from the outside or may become carriers of contaminants from within the lab environment itself.

• Partnering up
A lot of times experiments can only be done right by sharing duties with a partner. Working in teams has a great advantage over working alone, obviously – you will have another set of eyes looking out for you when something goes wrong. Human error is not something that can be avoided – people get tired, mistakes are made and so forth, but in certain conditions mistakes cost lives, so working as part of a team requires people looking out for each other.

• Warning sign usage
Anything that you know for sure is dangerous should be labeled as such, whether with the appropriate sign or by using the NFPA 704 “fire diamond” to denote the type of danger faced by handling the materials or substance in question. You should also consider the OSHA guidelines or similar ones in your country. Trip hazards, high decibel noises, circuit breakers and more will need to be clearly marked so lab members will be fully aware of what they’re dealing with.

• Proper Safety Equipment
Maintaining your budget is very important for any laboratory out there, but you will also need to setup a good budget for safety and a safety plan. When you need to draft a new budget or you plan on revisiting your current one, you would do well to consider extra funds for safety equipment, such as eye wash stations, goggles, safety glasses, ear plugs, lab coats, protective gloves, fire safety and a whole lot more. You should also consider setting up a budget for proper safety training for all experienced and new lab members as well to drill in procedures in case of emergencies and accidents.
Read more helpful tips on: this cleaning website