Tag Archives: workplace accidents

First Aid Safety, General Safety Issues

QUICK TIPS TO HANDLE FIRE ACCIDENTS AT YOUR WORKPLACE (GUEST POST)

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“Safety never takes a holiday”. Truly, safety is the most important aspect of our lives. Following safety procedures is everyone’s responsibility. Can you imagine a day when someone knocks your door to inform that your loved one is in hospital in a serious condition, as the result of an accident? This is really heartbreaking news. Most accidents happen because they have not been prevented. So, taking health and safety training is very important to lead a safe and happy life. Employers must pay a lot of attention to manage health and safety at work to prevent accidents and ill health.

Fire accidents can strike anywhere and at anytime. Employees should undergo basic fire safety training because these accidents are expected to occur annually in most workplaces. Having ideas on fire safety tips is very important so as to prevent the likelihood of a fire that may result in injury, property damage or even death. There are many safety tips that employees should keep in mind which help them while fire accidents. Some of them are as follows:

  • After noticing a fire, you should immediately call to a fire department. The sooner they come to know the faster they approach

  • Employees should know exactly where the fire extinguishers are located, as well as how to use them

  • Shout for help loudly

  • Keep in mind that you should not use elevators during fire accidents. This is because if the power fails, you are stuck in the elevator with no means of escape

  • If you find any papers or any other clutter lying on the floor, immediately throw them out as they spread the fire more quickly

  • If your building is in fire check, you need to check before opening. If you feel any heat, then do not open that door

  • Switch off all the electrical appliances

  •  Do not disturb the fire team during fire fighting

  • Do not form into groups because it is difficult for the fire fighters to perform their tasks

Health and safety training effectively prevents the workplace accidents and injuries. Today, most of the business organizations are providing the best safety management systems as they understood the significance of the health and management that leads to:

  • Cost reductions

  • Improved employee relationships

  • Improved public image

  • Increase in the business productivity and reliability

Fire accidents are extremely deadly if you do not take proper precautions. As a business manager, you need to set up the health and safety notice board and keep it updated. Organize these health programs for your staff to reduce the hazards at your workplace and develop a safety action plan.

Author Bio: – Melvin is a medical student and is pursuing a firstaid course Glasgow. Apart from his studies, he likes to invest his time visiting patients in hospitals and clinics. He also likes to make general awareness on keeping health fit through his posts.

 

 

 

 
General Safety Issues

TOP TEN FORKLIFT FAUX PAS – HOW COMPANIES ARE AVOIDING FATAL ACCIDENTS (GUEST POST)

No matter what industry you’re in; oil and gas, shipping and receiving, warehouse or construction, there is one common factor that business owners, including myself, have a difficult time dealing with… workplace accidents! In particular, forklift accidents. It’s easy to blame it on inadequate forklift maintenance or even a freak accident but in the world of business there shouldn’t be these types of errors. A typical forklift
accident is usually the fault of who’s operating it. Take a look below to find the most common operator errors!

Top 10 Common Forklift Faux Pas

• Traveling too fast – speeding
• Operating with elevated loads
• Erratic jerking while driving
• No communication with staff
• Hitching a ride or giving a ride
• Inadequate breaking, turning and backing
• Improper parking
• Blocking railway car/semi-trailer wheels
• Horseplay
• Intoxication

How to Lower These Risks

It’s important that you and your staff are on the same page.  If you have a few bad apples this can trickle down hurting your bottom line. To ensure proper safety and employee compliance, get rid the operators that are not following the safety guidelines and properly train a select few to carry on with business.

When I started to grow my online retail store I never thought it would blossom into what it has today. After 3 years I expanded largely and needed a warehouse where I can ship and receive goods. After one of my workers received a debilitating injury I vowed it would NEVER happen again! I decided to sit down with my staff and get down to the important stuff. My first question was “what can I do to make your job safer?” 

With a great deal of hands rising up I was shocked to see such an immediate and persistent response. The first answer I received was more training! I was a bit surprised since I had assumed that if I hired a package handler they knew how to handle packages and if I hired a forklift operator he knew how to operate a forklift! I also posted general safety guidelines throughout the warehouse assuming that would be enough. I was wrong! Since these men and women came from different situations I needed to gather them together and get everyone thinking about safety first! 

I set up mandatory weekly safety training meetings where we would discuss possible risks, watch forklift training videos and go over any areas of the warehouse that needed tending to. The overcrowded aisles became a hazard and dealing with those issues has helped tremendously! It’s important to properly train your employees the way you want them trained, never assume they know how you want your operation ran!

Author Bio – Sarah Shade is a research assistant for safetyvideos.com, she researches the latest in industrial news and brings her readers helpful information.

General Safety Issues

EUROPEAN WEEK FOR HEALTH AND SAFETY AT WORK (GUEST POST)

European Week for Health and Safety at Work aimed to reduce number of workplace accidents

The European Week Health and Safety at Work week, which ran from October 22nd to October 26th was an initiative aimed at reducing the number of people harmed in accidents in their workplace. The scheme highlighted the key combination of good management and worker participation as essential to maintaining safety standards, and ran across Europe as a whole. 

It was organised by the European Agency for Health and Safety at Work and the group’s director Dr Christa Sedlatschek commented that when it comes to health and safety in the workplace, everyone is responsible, which is a sentiment I completely agree with. 

Employers are legally obligated to have strong health and safety codes in place to protect their workforce, but it should go beyond this – health and safety is a moral issue too, and any decent manager will not want to place their staff in harm’s way. 

However, staff also have a responsibility to behave sensibly, and to take personal responsibility for their own safety – if an employee follows instructions which they know to be unsafe the boss who gave them out is clearly to blame should injury occur, but so is the employee themselves. 

Dr Sedlatschek singled out the construction of the Olympic Park for the London 2012 Olympic Games as a great example of how “things can go well” when there is co-operation between employers and employees. She noted that “strong leadership, clear lines of communication and the engagement of staff and partners in health and safety” helped to make the build the first ever fatality-free construction of an Olympic stadium. 

As part of the campaign two documents detailing best practice management and worker participation have been created, and both contain checklists which staff and employers can use to rate the effectiveness of their own workplace behaviour.

 

About the author: Grieves Solicitors specialise in providing legal support and advice for victims who have suffered from an accident at work