BS: Health and Safety

Subject: BS: Health and Safety
From: GUEST,The Stage Manger
Date: 26 Feb 04 - 08:18 AM

My company has recently sent a bunch of us on a Health and Safety seminar, and our managers are now expecting to see some results and policies put in place in our locations .

I would like some advice on how to write a risk assessment for the team's bottle of 'correction fluid' without appearing to be massively taking the p**s.

If I start locking it up, and asking each of my team to confirm if they have received instruction on how to use it, or to sign a form that they understand the risks associated with using the product, each time they want it, my doctor's bill for rubber gloves is likely to go through the roof.   To say nothing of my own increased absence from work due to escalating personal discomfort.

This is not a joke. It is now a Health a Safety issue if a bottle bloody Tippex goes missing. We are being asked to return empties and dried up bottles.

Sorry, but in my opinion anybody abusing a bottle of the stuff deserves everything they get.   Anyone got any ideas?

Subject: RE: BS: Health and Safety
From: Sttaw Legend
Date: 26 Feb 04 - 08:45 AM

On a similar issue - I need to visit my optician to have my eyes tested after a Display Screen Equipment assessment (DSE). I have increasing problems due to eye strain, and have immense difficulty seeing my computer screen, I believe it's because of the TIPEX that's all over my screen. I sympathise with your predicament and good luck.

Subject: RE: BS: Health and Safety
From: artbrooks
Date: 26 Feb 04 - 08:46 AM

Where are you located? In the US, every dangerous, potentially dangerous or "let's include it because who knows" materiel has a "Materiel Safety Data Sheet" (MSDS). The MSDSs contain information on known hazards, precautions and first aid measures. These are allegedly obtainable from the company's/organization's safety manager but, in my own experience, often have to come from the manufacturer. Depending upon the circumstances, these are posted or circulated with an "I read this" sheet attached and then filed. Orientation for new staff includes an MSDS review. If there are a lot of them for a given site, they are often kept in a binder (which is kept in a prominent place to satisfy the safety inspectors) and everyone is required to review it (and sign a list) annually.

Hope this is helpful.

Subject: RE: BS: Health and Safety
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 26 Feb 04 - 08:56 AM

As an ex-Health & Safety Officer for the Union (in Oz), I am currently rolling on the floor - I realise you are serious... and I know what the chemiclas (in general terms) are...

When we did our training course, we were allowed to wander thru the Telstra workshops.... the management was most displeased with out report.... but one guy nearly had a fit when we found the spray paint cans in the welding bay.... :-)

Robin

Subject: RE: BS: Health and Safety
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 26 Feb 04 - 09:06 AM

bureauocracy gone mad!

Our lot went mad earlier this year by contracting a company to
(over)fill our stores cupboards!! So where once we had 2 or 3 of
something in the cupboard & ordered each week now we have THEM coming intwice a week & a store cupboard that contains enormous quantities of
everything. I've never seen so much yellow sicky paper, even Penfolds
(major supplier of office supplies in our fair town) does not keep so
much on their shelves & we have 2 such cupboards on each floor (6 in
total!)

you need someone who can write clap-trap that looks good & satisfies the system.

We also have OHAS (Office Health & Safety) officers who personally set up each employee to their desk, getting in specal equipment (screens, keyboards) as required. Yet the optometrist who checked my eyes cos I have trouble focusing on my screen said there was nothing wrong with my glasses. The problem was the set up, as in many cases, & the OHAS officer altered my screen height (going against the rules) & I can focus a lot better than when it was at the perfect height & distance!!! I still have problems with glare from the window, but I have problems with glare on dull winter days.

sandra

Subject: RE: BS: Health and Safety
From: Sam L
Date: 26 Feb 04 - 10:13 AM

I think what's usually done is to write with your end result in mind, which is that any idiot abusing the stuff gets what they deserve, rather than writing for actual safety and health concerns. You have to write for a legal position, not a health policy--might want to get a lawyer.
   What I mean is, you have to set a standard practice that nobody could adhere to, complex and unverifiable enough that it could be challenged in many respects, so that you can't be legally held accountable for the actions of stupid people, or for unpredictable accidents, and so if anyone tries, you can wear them out.
At least this is how things are most places I've worked. The actual policy would prevent me from being able to do my job at all, so the employee has to choose to do the job despite the policy. Then when the employee gets mad about something, he or she threatens to start following the policy and see how management likes it.

Subject: RE: BS: Health and Safety
From: Leadfingers
Date: 26 Feb 04 - 10:58 AM

Simple solution is STOP using the chemical based Tippex and go to water based stuff which doesnt work a fraction as well but is SAFE !!

Subject: RE: BS: Health and Safety
From: wysiwyg
Date: 26 Feb 04 - 11:55 AM

American Red Cross has booklets on doing just what you are asking about. Call your local chapter FMI.

~Susan

Subject: RE: BS: Health and Safety
From: The Stage Manager
Date: 26 Feb 04 - 01:59 PM

Guys

Thanks for all of this. It's sooooo reasurring to know there are people about who still remember what phrases like "common sense" and "personal responsibility" mean.

Armed with some of these ideas I'll go back and tackle the meddle merchants.

SM

Subject: RE: BS: Health and Safety
From: Chief Chaos
Date: 26 Feb 04 - 02:07 PM

If common sense were all that common, I and my fellow Coast Guardsmen would not have jobs. And remmeber! Don't make toast with your new toaster while you are engaged in bathing!

The only thing that bothers me is I always feel like I am contributing to the decay of the gene pool by saving people from themselves. (big sigh).

Subject: RE: BS: Health and Safety
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 26 Feb 04 - 06:14 PM

We had all our toasters removed because someone tried to make cheese on toast in one... they carefully put the slice of bread and the slice of cheese into the toaster.....

Then there was the case of a person trying to dry a wet T-shirt in a microwave..... you wonder if there is actually any such thing as common sense out there.....

We had to do a written report for the necessity of Tippex and found that with computer generated letters and forms, we had no need for it in the office. Now there is one bottle of Tippex per floor. That's about 70 people and one bottle of Tippex.

LTS - H&S rep.

Subject: RE: BS: Health and Safety
From: Amergin
Date: 26 Feb 04 - 07:16 PM

Chief Chaos...having personally seen some of what you Coasties have to put up with...I completely sympathise with your position...though some of the stuff I have seen the coasties do...didn't appear all that bright....like watching them pour napalm into the New Carissa...trying to burn all the oil...where all it did was burn the ship bad enough to break clean in half...

I will never forget when the ship ran aground again over by Waldport, Oregon...there was this kid on a trip with a friend and the friend's parents...and he was climbing a cliff face...that same place has killed and seriously injured many people...we were having lunch break...when some little girl came running up frantic and crying and scared yelling a kid fell off a cliff...I grabbed some line...and me and a few others (including a paramedic who was on our crew) ran down to see what we could do....boy I will never forget the look on that boy's face...blood everywhere...his face so white and shaking from the shock...he broke several bones in his fall..and landed on a beach of sharp rocks...what was worse...the tide was coming in...now the Ocean is never truly all that warm...but in March it is freezing bloody cold...the crew boss had a cell phone he called the coast guard...and he got ahold of the kid's parents and left a message for them...and we watched the coasties come in and they got a stretcher out...and we carried him out of there...him out...

I for one am thankful for the coast guard...and all the work they do to save people's lives in the utmost dangerous situations...there is a motto at least here on the west coast of the US... "We have to go out, but we don't have to come back."