We don’t want to rain on your parade during the holidays, but here is a very insightful look at heart disease, some of the causes and preventive measures we should take. We usually make a New Year’s Resolution to lose weight, so hopefully, this great article sent to us by Shannon Lochwood will help us realize how very important it is to be heart-healthy and keep that resolution!
Since so many are “enjoying”this hectic time of the year, it’s a good opportunity for me to offer good advice for those hard-working guys who will have some time off to enjoy their favorite (non-Christmas) activity. Football!
My husband is a seasoned armchair coach, having 54-plus years of experience. (At least that’s how long I have witnessed it.) He has given advice to all the professional coaches, as well as college coaches. I am so thankful they can’t hear some of that advice. There are probably a lot of wives out there who know what I am talking about.
Not everyone enjoys football; some had rather be outdoors playing golf, hunting, riding motorcycles, and there are those who enjoy readding a book. And what family doesn’t enjoy gathering around the table to play games? But for those seasoned veterans of viewing the gridiron, here are some useful tips:
If you are really into supporting your team, check out the NCAA and NFL team hardhats at Texas America Safety Company. You can show your co-workers just how you feel. We also have all types of hardhats that support NHL, NASCAR, NBA, and NCAA basketball, as well as patriotic ones and pink ones for the ladies. (Don’t forget to mention the 5% discount that you read about it on Blog4Safety.)
While you have the time off to relax from work, enjoy your holidays and don’t drink and drive, don’t text and drive. Be thankful for your family and friends, and make every day count. There’s still more football ahead!
Although we at Texas America Safety Company and Blog4Safety focus on work-related safety most of the time, we feel it is our responsibility to warn y0u when health issues come up. As most of you know, flu season is just around the corner, and for workers, it is a devestating issue when it spreads among workers. Here are some facts from the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention):
Influenza (Flu) Facts
Cover your mouth with tissue if possible when sneezing or coughing. The most important advice is to sneeze into your elbow if you must sneeze, and don’t have a tissue. If you work in healthcare, wear a face mask and gloves when around patients with the flu or other contagious illness. Keep hand sanitizer handy to kill germs when you aren’t near a lavatory. It’s hard to know if you are coming down with the flu, as sometimes you feel well before you are aware that you may be contagious. The main thing for those who work, is to please stay home when you are ill.
Most everyone is going to come in contact with germs either through shared office equipment, telephones, elevators, traveling by bus, plane, or cab. Our children and teachers also are exposed through school germs.
We hope this year will be a “light” season for the flu! Getting vaccinated will help.
Source: CDC
A Candle Loses Nothing by Lighting Another Candle..
Many of us have has experienced some form of cancer, or has a close relative or friend who has. As research continues, please take a few seconds to pray for cures to be found for this terrible disease. Thank you for your time and concern. Pat
Employee absenteeism is one of the major drains on organizational performance, with the flu costing U.S. businesses over $10.4b a year alone. In Britain, it is estimated that workers take almost double the number of sick days than the U.S., according to research by professional services firm, PwC.
Richard Phelps, HR consulting partner at PwC said, “With sickness accounting for the lion’s share of absence, the question for employers is what can be done to improve health, morale and motivation.”
While some of this can be attributed to employees taking “sickies” – days off taken despite being well and able to come to work – it can also be attributed to greater rates of illness. Sickness generally accounts for around 80% of absence, which also includes jury service and compassionate leave:
“You need clear policies in place to make it less appealing for people to take unwarranted leave, while protecting those people with genuine illness,” added Phelps.
In many circumstances, illness is picked up from the workplace, with members of staff passing on germs as a result of being in close proximity to their colleagues.
To reduce the likelihood of contamination, your workplace can take a number of steps to prevent illness from spreading:
Step One: Identify sources of germs
Most cold and flu symptoms are passed directly from person-to-person through coughs and sneezes, which become air borne and inhaled. They can also be passed from hands to objects like telephones, computer mice, equipment and machinery handles, photocopy machines, door handles or desks.
Step Two: Reduce the spread of germs
You can stop germs from spreading by making staff more responsible for their daily behaviour. As a general rule, ask staff to wash their hands after using the toilet, smoking or eating, using an antibacterial soap or alcohol-based hand sanitizer.
Staff with colds should avoid touching their eyes, nose and mouth, as this will increase the spread of germs. They should also cough or sneeze into tissue paper, covering their nose and mouth, before cleaning their hands.
Encourage your employees to clean their desks and personal items with disinfection wipes, particularly if they have recently been unwell.
Step Three: Clean areas which house bacteria
Kitchen
Workplace kitchens are a hive for bacteria so ensure that staff clean up after themselves when preparing food. Ensure that chopping boards, surfaces and utensils are washed with hot water and washing up liquid, particularly if they have been used for raw meats or fish.
Leftover food should be covered and put in the fridge, which should be monitored and cleaned out regularly; any leading brand of general purpose cleaner can be effective here – sites like Amazon.com stock a broad range of high-quality equipment.
Toilet
Toilets are another hive for bacteria and staff should be encouraged to keep them clean and tidy. Your cleaner should wash the floor and bowl with a disinfectant or general purpose cleaner, but also encourage staff to clean up their drips and spills and wash their hands after each visit.
You can visit clickcleaning.co.uk for a full range of high-quality cleaning products.
Step Four: Encourage sick staff to go home
Encourage staff with viruses to go home; having one member of staff off sick for two days is better than three members of staff being away for a total of six days.
If staff insist on working, let them work from home; otherwise encourage them to think carefully about how they interact with other team members, so to avoid cross-contamination.
Step Five: Encourage staff to practise healthy habits
Staff can avoid picking up viruses by leading healthy lifestyles, which means:
Workplaces are shared environments, which mean responsibility for your wellbeing is collective too; encourage staff to keep your environment clean and germ-free and you will benefit from lower absenteeism and higher organizational productivity.
Author: Kate Southgate
Interior designing has become a common practice for every household because people want their home to appear new and innovative for an enhanced living standard. For this reason, they invest in a huge sum of money to remodel their homes, but in some cases such as the one mentioned above, only expertise and a professional approach can do the home remodeling or renovation job perfectly. Walls are one of the important parts of your home and they require special attention while planning for your home renovation.
Damp Walls are a major issue for many American home-owners. In this article, we will highlight this problem and propose solutions to overcome it. Let us first discuss the common types of dampness for a better understanding of the issue.
1. Condensation Problem
Condensation basically refers to the water droplets visible on walls, windows or ceilings. It is caused mainly due to the moisture present in air. Warm air contains more moisture and hence the places which are badly ventilated have more chances of getting condensed. For instance, bathrooms and kitchens are prone to get affected from condensation.
2. Chinese Drywall Affect
Every American’s nightmare, the Chinese Drywall affect causes thousands of American homeowners to suffer from muscle aches, sinus attacks and other ailments. The Chinese Drywall imported from China in the 2001 contains a compound which emits sulfurous gases causing health problems and the corrosion of bathroom and kitchen fixtures.
3. Pipeline Leakage
Dampness of walls of a home can also be due to any leakage of pipelines or appliances such as washing machines or dish washers. At first, what may appear to be a small leak can become a major dampness issue if left unattended. Leakages can destruct the structure of your walls and can deform them.
4. Rising Wall Dampness
Just as a sponge soaks up the surrounding water, rising wall dampness is caused when water from the ground rises up through the bricks and they absorb this water and cause rising wall dampness. This water will keep rising unless no evaporation would be possible and gravity will take over and pulls it down again.
Rising damp mostly found below floor level, when water is absorbed by walls surface it starting displaying damp marks on walls. It occurs when the water from the ground rises up through bricks and as a result the water is sucked by the walls and cause dampness.
Guidelines to Overcome these problems:
1. Effective Ventilation and Heating System:
Having effective ventilation and heating systems can help you to get rid of the condensation problem and boost the life of your walls. Windows can also serve as a solution but installation of vents and extractor fans can help you to save your walls from becoming the victims of condensation.
2. Call for an Inspection
If you notice the signs of wall dampness in your home and you are sure that your home has become a victim of defective drywalls then it is time to call an inspection team to analyze and scrutinize the condition of your damp walls and other issues at your home. The home inspectors will detect the effect of dampness and Chinese drywall would charge you with half the price you would have to spend for remodeling your house later.
3. Hire Plumbing Service
In order to fix any leakages or cracks in your pipes it is necessary to get professional help. Only excellent plumbing services will make sure that you don’t have any leakages in future to avoid getting your walls damp again.
Author Bio:
Christina Fusano is a blogger by passion and content writer for Chinese Drywall Advisors, offering reliable Chinese drywall inspection services to homeowners.
Paying attention to health and safety can protect a business’ bottom-line. In the newspapers, there are regularly stories about “Health and Safety Gone Mad,” but in many cases it turns out is not health and safety to blame for the problem in the article, but is due to other factors, such as insurance policies, or overzealous ‘jobsworths’, or workers lying about safety regulations due to laziness or incompetence.
In reality, health and safety should be a benefit for businesses, and not just because it prevents accident at work compensation claims. Occupational cancer costs the UK’s economy £30 billion every year, and workplace accident claims or industrial disease claims are responsible for a huge number of missed working days.
Prosecutions or enforcement notices can cost businesses a fortune, but investing in health and safety counts for more than just avoiding these expenses. The Health and Safety Executive estimates businesses have to pay out between eight and thirty-six times as much money as insurers following accident at work compensation claims.
Major workplace accident claims can easily spell the end of a business – fires, explosions or the death of workers can be impossible for firms to fully recover from. Employers who lose a member of staff in fatal workplace accidents caused by negligence will undoubtedly experience emotional difficulties, including guilt and anxiety, and this can be very hard to cope with.
Businesses can spend years building up worker morale, only to have their efforts ruined because of a personal injury leading to an accident at work compensation claim. If workers feel like they are not safe in their employment, they will be unhappy, and if they regularly take time off because of avoidable injuries, or have to continue working while injured, they could become irritated by the negligence they are subjected to.
Strong leadership and positive business management prevents accidents at work
Providing strong leadership on health and safety issues, and integrating them into the rest of a management system, can inspire workers and help to maintain a positive safety culture. Personal injury claims can also be avoided by developing good communication, supporting employees when whistleblowing and enabling people to discuss workplace safety confidently.
Not all businesses are supportive of whisletleblowing – the large-scale construction industry in particular has been found to blacklist whisleblowers, although many medical negligence claims could be somewhat due to a ‘culture of silence’ within the NHS.
However, maintaining strong management and handling whistleblowers in a supportive manner can make all the difference to workplace health and safety and help to avoid accident at work compensation claims.
Health and safety should be a part of every aspect of a company, from human resources, to environment, to management, to personnel development. It is worth considering health and safety throughout a business’ operations – it is not just good for business, it is essential.
Most companies should be able to implement effective health and safety in-house; those that cannot could consider hiring consultancy services to help them.
Hellen Geek has worked alongside professional indemnity insurance firms when deciding the total value of clinical negligence claims and http://www.clearwatersolicitors.co.uk/personal-injury/accidents-at-work/accident at work compensation. She is passionate about raising standards in hospitals and other healthcare settings, and supporting doctors as well as patients. She lives in Somerset and loves the beautiful fields and farms around her small cottage.
