Construction Health & Safety Awareness

Following the CITB/CSCS syllabus

SECTION 7 -To take reasonable care for the safety of themselves & others

Co-operate with their employer

SECTION 8 -Must not interfere with anything provided for health & safety

MHSW REGS 1999

Must comply with training/instruction

Inform employer of shortcomings

HASAWA - EMPLOYEES DUTIES

LEGAL DEFINTIONS

Must/Shall - an absolute duty, it must be done. There is no effective defence for not complying.

John Summers vs Frost 1955

‘..all dangerous parts of machinery must be securely fenced..’

Factories Act

‘SO FAR AS IS REASONABLY PRACTICABLE’

Reasonable practicable is a narrower term than physically possible and seems to me to suggest that a calculation be made in which the risk is placed on one side of a scale and the cost (in time, money or trouble) placed on the other side of the scale, it there is a gross disproportion between them, the risk being insignificant to the cost then the defendant has complied with his duty’

Lord Justice Askwith - Edwards vs National Coal Board 1949

‘SO FAR AS IS REASONABLY PRACTICABLE’

COST

RISK

HASAWA SECTION 37

‘Where any offence has been committed with the consent, connivance or through the neglect of any director, manager or similar person, he as well as the body corporate will be guilty of an offence’

OFFENCES BY THE BODY CORPORATE

STATUTE LAW

ACTS - the prime source of statute law. Costly, slow, full Parliamentary process and Royal Ascent

REGULATIONS - subordinate to the ACT but have the full force of the law. Faster, enables law to be easily updated to keep up with technology or experience.

APPROVED CODES OF PRACTICE (ACOPS)

Practical Guidance on how to comply with the law; issued by the HSE

Opinions of good practice.

Guidance

notes

GUIDANCE NOTES

POWERS OF HSE INSPECTORS

Entry at any reasonable time

Examine & Investigate

Require an area to be left undisturbed

Take samples,measurements & photo’s

Look at records, documents etc

Issue enforcement notices

Don’t forget, employees can also be fined or sent to prison!!

‘THE SIX PACK’

The Management of Health & Safety at Work Regs. 1999

The Health, Safety & Welfare at Work Regs 1992

The Manual Handling Operations Regs 1992

The Provision & Use of Work Equipment Regs 1998

The Personal Protective Equipment Regs 1992

The Health and Safety (Display Screen Equipment) Regs 1992

Video “The Way Ahead ~ HSE 25th Anniversary”

Accidents

REPORTING DANGEROUS OCCURRENCES

There are dangerous occurrences that must be reported to the HSE including:

Contact with overhead electric cable

Electrical short circuit with fire/explosion

Collapse of scaffold

Overturning of a forklift/crane etc

Collapse of a structure (over 5 ton)

Explosion or bursting of any closed vessel or pipeline

Escape of a quantity of a substance that could cause damage to health or death

REPORTING DISEASES

Employers are also responsible for reporting certain diseases to the HSE, including:

Occupational asthma

Occupational dermatitis

Leptospirosis (Weils Disease)

Hepatitis

Nasal or sinus cancer

Mesothelioma, Lung Cancer and Asbestosis

Vibration White Finger (VWF)

Fire

FIRE TRIANGLE

Fuel - liquid, solid, gas

Heat - any heat source that rises the temperature over the flash point of the material

Oxygen - always present in the air

FIRE PREVENTION

To prevent or fight a fire you must break the fire triangle

Housekeeping - tidiness

- safe storage of substances

Remove sources of ignition

- no smoking

- hot tools/soldering/blow lamps

- electrical checks