LEN HALL CHEMICAL CONSULTANTS LIMITED

GENERAL HEALTH AND SAFETY ADVICE

The Management of Health and Safety Regulations 1999 requires all companies who employ more than five people to appoint a suitably qualified safety adviser. It is the HSE's preference that such appointees should be from within the company, however many employers do not have suitably qualified employees or if they do they have other functions to perform within the company. Len Hall is a Chartered Chemist and Member of the Royal Institute of Chemistry. He also has a diploma in Occupational Health, Safety and Environmental Management and is a member of The Institute of Occupational Safety and Health. With this range of qualifications and experience, Len can offer advice on the following range of topics.

Control of Substances Hazardous to Health

The COSHH regulations require employers to consider the risks associated with the chemicals used in their business, this could range from a few simple chemicals to more complex handling of toxic materials. Having identified the risk to employees health the company must take steps to control the exposure by a series of options, replacement, control by mechanical means or as a last resort by providing personal protection for the employees at risk. If mechanical means are employed to provide protection then this equipment must be properly maintained and tested.
Employees must be made aware of the risks and the control measures put in place to protect their health.
This process can be simple or it can be extensive dependent on the range of chemicals involved. We can help employers to carry out the work required to ensure that they are able to take the required action to prevent unnecessary risk to the health of their employees.

Classification for CHIP and Transport Purposes

In order to supply hazardous materials it is necessary for the formulator classify the products the products in accordance with the appropriate regulations. As a result of the classification to ensure that the risk associated with the materials are correctly identified by means of a CHIP label, suitably packaged, a health and safety data sheet is prepared and the materials are correctly classified for transport, and the correct documentation supplied to the carrier.
This is a complex set of regulations the application of which depends on the complexity of the product. There are computer systems available that will carry out the above processes for you, however for a large proportion of formulations the exercise can be carried out manually with satisfactory results.
We can help manufacturers to carry out the processes outlined above or can offer a one day training package to introduce employees to the requirements of this process of classification.

Health and Safety Risk Assessments

Since the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 assessment of risk has been a key part of providing a safe place of work for employees and others. Since this time European initiated legislation has further developed and reinforced the concept of carrying out risk assessments in order to provide safe working conditions. The COSSH regulations, Noise at Work regulations and Manual Handling regulations are just three specific examples where risk assessment is directed at a specific hazard in the workplace.
The Management of Health and Safety regulations specifically requires employers to carry out suitable and sufficient risk assessments and that a competent person should carry them out. The regulations do not say what a competent person is and what is suitable and sufficient, as both will be somewhat dependent on the circumstances and in reality only time will tell whether what you have done was sufficient. The acid test is that industrial injuries become less of a problem.
With regard to "the competent person" aspect of the regulations this can of course be an employee but the conflict of other demands on your time often result in this apparently non-productive exercise being overlooked. There is also considerable benefit in having an outsider's viewpoint that will not be influenced by familiarity with the working methods.

Management of Health and Safety BS 18001

British Standards are well accepted in the areas of product related requirements, they are also well known in the area of quality and to an increasing amount environmental management.
The background against which the requirement for improvement of occupational health and safety performance is one of some 18 million working days lost due to work related accidents at an estimated cost to industry of 11 billion pounds each year. A significant burden for the country, employers and employees to cope with, both in financial terms and suffering for the injured.
The British Standards Institute has developed the ISO9001 quality approach applying its methodology to occupational health and safety. It is by no accident that it follows the same principles of setting out your intentions, involving those who can best influence the outcome, monitoring the progress and reviewing the process on a regular basis. Those that are familiar with either ISO9001 or ISO14001 should find OHSAS 18001 a well-fitted addition to their management toolkit.

The key elements of OHSAS 18001 are as follows:

Establish management responsibility for investigation of and carrying out corrective action arising from accidents, incidents and non-conformances.

Health and Safety Procedures

So much of current quality management relies on all employees knowing what is required of him or her and what their role is in achieving a particular goal, health and safety is no stranger to this approach.
The health and safety process begins with a clear definition of the management's commitment to providing a healthy and safe work place, and the way in which the company will go about meeting its specific responsibilities. This is usually referred to as the Health and Safety Policy and Arrangements. For the policy and arrangements to be effective they need to be supported by a series of procedures which may start with simple concepts such as fire evacuation and be extended to include the most complex of situations.
The aim of writing procedures is to communicate a common approach to handling a problem situation and as a reference for employees who are unsure of what is expected of them in a given situation.
I can help you to write procedures for the various aspects of your business on an ad hoc basis or I can produce for your business a complete set of documents from safety policy to all procedures, whatever suits your situation best.

If you would like any assistance on the above general health and safety topics, please contact Len Hall on 01254 701972 or email len@lenhallcc.co.uk