Health & Safety in the work place HAZARDS AND SAFETY EQUIPMENT

Manage Hazards  The key steps in managing health and safety in your business are to identify hazards, then control and manage them.

Identify Hazards  The first step in managing health and safety in your business is to identify the hazards in your business and assess the likelihood of them causing a serious injury or illness.

What you must do  Systematically identify the hazards in all work areas.  Regularly review your accident and incident register to determine the hazards that cause harm.  Involve your employees in identifying hazards.  Reassess the work area when there are new hazards or processes. For example, when you introduce a new machine or work process.

Control and manage hazards  Once you’ve identified and assessed the hazards in your workplace, then you must workout how to control and manage them.

What you must do  Deal with hazards in this priority:  Take all practicable steps to eliminate the hazard, particularly if it presents a significant injury or health risk. Examples: replace noisy machinery with a quieter process or swap a toxic chemical for safer product.  If you can’t eliminate the threat then try to isolate it. Examples: enclose a noisy machine in a room or fit a guard around dangerous parts.  If you can’t eliminate or isolate the hazard then minimise it. Examples: manage the hazard through training, safety manuals, checklists and protective equipment such as ear muffs in a noisy workshop.

If you can only minimise the hazard then you have additional duties to:  Inform and train staff about the hazard controls.  Plan how frequently you will measure the level of the hazard. Examples: noise surveys, chemical levels in air, lower explosive limits.  Monitor the exposure of employees to the hazard including the health impacts on the employee. Examples: noise surveys and hearing tests

Getting staff to wear safety gear  Protective clothing or equipment includes anything used to protect against the effects of contamination or physical harm.

Some typical examples of safety equipment are:  Clothing to cover the body (such as overalls and aprons)  Items to protect hands and feet (such as gloves and safety boots)  Breathing protection devices (such as dust masks or air-fed or canister respirators)  Hearing protection devices (such as earmuffs and earplugs)  Eye safety protection (such as safety glasses and goggles)  Head protection (such as hard hats)  Safety harnesses and related equipment  Life jackets and buoyancy aids