#riskassessment

Tips for Cleaning Human and Biohazardous Waste

Dale Allen

Dec 11, 2018
4 min

Tips for Cleaning Human and Biohazardous Waste

There will come a time when your commercial cleaning business is contacted by a potential client who needs you to take on a not-so-general cleaning operation. There has been an incident and there are biohazardous substances involved, likely including human waste or bodily fluids. It's a job nobody really wants, but how you handle it is extremely important. But first, what is a biohazard? A biological hazard is any biological material that presents a threat to human health. Th

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How to Identify Hazardous Substances in the Workplace

Dale Allen

Nov 29, 2018
4 min

How to Identify Hazardous Substances in the Workplace

It will come as no surprise that the majority of workplaces there are in the world use chemicals, or somehow produce other hazardous substances. Chemical safety is one of the biggest hurdles business' face and it becomes more complicated as the size of your workplace grows. Chemicals can be very dangerous, but they also enable us to create many things we would never have been able to, otherwise. Hazardous substances created through your work processes, however, are just dange

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Who is Responsible for COSHH in the Workplace?

Dale Allen

Nov 19, 2018
7 min

Who is Responsible for COSHH in the Workplace?

COSHH was created to protect people from hazardous substances, but who is responsible for ensuring it happens? The easy answer is.. Everybody! The employer's COSHH responsibilties Yes, if you're the employer, then the onus is mostly on you. You must not only make sure everybody can do their work safely, but also make sure they are all doing their part to abide by the COSHH regulations. You will carry out COSHH risk assessments throughout your site, installing control measur

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Safety Lapses Cost Lives and Maybe Your Business

Dale Allen

Nov 5, 2018
2 min

Safety Lapses Cost Lives and Maybe Your Business

Let me be clear right from the beginning here. I'm not just talking about you or your safety people cutting corners to save money and time. I'm also including those little things your employees may do. You know. Those tiny things that they think will make their work easier, but in fact, are often what lead to some of the messiest incidents that can happen in your workplace. Because they add up. And when the same person is cutting the same corner every day, it's going to take

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6 Tips for Improving Employee Motivation for Health and Safety

Dale Allen

Oct 8, 2018
5 min

6 Tips for Improving Employee Motivation for Health and Safety

Based on some quick google wizardry (because my maths is apparently terrible) I found that the average person will spend over 82, 000 hours of their lives at work. That's more than 3, 416 days. Considering you spend such an obscene amount of your time at work it should come as no surprise that the environment you work in has a massive impact on your life and the lives of your employees. Your safety, health and well-being are at risk if your work environment isn't properly con

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Can Cloud-Based Software Improve Your Chemical Safety Management?

Dale Allen

Jun 5, 2018
2 min

Can Cloud-Based Software Improve Your Chemical Safety Management?

You and I know that ensuring your people are safe from exposure to chemicals can be tedious and time-consuming. There are regulations in place - a lot of them - and meeting their standards can be a huge undertaking, especially when dealing with hazardous substances. Actually understanding the regulations and being able to show that you do by proving your company is fully compliant is difficult when there is so much information to take in. There are several pages worth of data

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Explaining the Risks: Carbon Monoxide Poisoning

Dale Allen

May 24, 2018
3 min

Explaining the Risks: Carbon Monoxide Poisoning

Carbon monoxide poisoning is a well-known subject; over many years you've been warned to be wary of it in your homes and at your place of work. Carbon monoxide is a substance that is highly hazardous to humans and it's something that we inadvertently produce through various appliances and machinery that we use on a daily basis, either to make our home or jobs easier. It is a clear, odourless and tasteless gas and is also known to be produced through animal metabolism in small

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The Dangers of Mixing Bleach and Alcohol

Dale Allen

May 22, 2018
2 min

The Dangers of Mixing Bleach and Alcohol

Mixing chemicals is never a good idea, unless you know what you're doing and are fully prepared for the reaction you will get. But, did you know that mixing bleach with alcohol will create chloroform? In fact, any chlorinated compound that is reacted with any one of a wide range of organic molecules will create chloroform. This types of chemicals are often found stored close to each other in peoples homes and the dangers of mixing them, even accidentally, are very real. Somet

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Researchers Produce Safer Solvent for Removing Metals from Water

Dale Allen

May 16, 2018
2 min

Researchers Produce Safer Solvent for Removing Metals from Water

Solvents have been in use for many years across a wide range of industries. Most of the products that we use every day are created using solvents in the production process. This includes chemical manufacture, obviously, but also your daily food and beverages. All of these industries and more use solvents in their production processes Food and beverages, paints and coatings, cosmetics and personal care items, printer inks, dyes and pigments, adhesives, aerosols, and yes, even

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COSHH and Chemical Safety in the Catering Industry

Dale Allen

May 9, 2018
3 min

COSHH and Chemical Safety in the Catering Industry

When you walk into a bar, a restaurant or your local all you can eat catering establishment the first thing you think about is COSHH and chemical safety, right? No? Unfortunately, it's often the case that the establishment itself also overlooks many risks associated with catering work and the chemicals used later to ensure the place is thoroughly cleansed. What are the risks? Many of the products used in the catering industry contain something that could potentially cause adv

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Chemical Safety in the Pharmacology Sector

Dale Allen

Apr 30, 2018
2 min

Chemical Safety in the Pharmacology Sector

If you work as a pharmacist you'll be used to clean working environments, where everything is in it's proper place, everyone is generally careful, there is little noise and less air pollution. Sounds pretty hazard free, right? Well, apart from your usual hazards, like electricity hazards or trip hazards, pharmacists also need to be aware of the risks they're exposing themselves to when working with the chemicals they prescribe to patients. If a spillage occurs or there is a c

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How to Identify Risks Linked to and Reduce Occupational Skin Disorders

Dale Allen

Apr 24, 2018
2 min

How to Identify Risks Linked to and Reduce Occupational Skin Disorders

Skins disorders can be a bit of a worry for some businesses. If you're working in a place that deals with handling and transporting hazardous substances, working inside machinery or on other contaminated surfaces then it can be difficult to fully protect all of a persons skin all of the time. Especially when that person is in such frequent contact with chemicals, even when cleaning your hands you're using a substance (or substances) that could cause your skin to dry out which

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How You Can Help the Worlds Plastic Problem

Dale Allen

Apr 20, 2018
3 min

How You Can Help the Worlds Plastic Problem

Plastic has been in use for many years across many different industries. We use it in pretty much everything that we produce, from cars to water pipes and houses to our mobile phones and even teabags. There are so many ways we can use plastic to make our lives easier. So, what's the problem? Well, there are a few answers to that question. First, there is just so much of it Globally we go through hundreds of thousands of plastic bags, bottles and other packaging every day. And

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The Dangers of Chemical Spillages and How to Contain Them

Dale Allen

Apr 17, 2018
4 min

The Dangers of Chemical Spillages and How to Contain Them

Chemical spills are a fairly common incident and they can happen at any time. They usually happen due to a failed or improperly closed container, or during transport via a dropped or damaged load. Fortunately, they're one of the easier hazards to contain and clean up but there are chemicals that are more dangerous than others and they require a more careful approach to control. It's very important to be able to quickly identify the chemical that is spilled as it may contain h

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4 Ways to Encourage Safety in the Workplace

Dale Allen

Apr 10, 2018
3 min

4 Ways to Encourage Safety in the Workplace

Having a strong safety program in place at work is essential. This program will inform your employees that you are properly able to ensure their safety while they're going through their daily work activities. It will also provide information on specific responsibilities and step-to-step work processes for certain jobs in your workplace. Your workplace safety program should be a constantly updated and easily accessible series of documents that can be referred to by anyone, at

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Dale Allen

Apr 3, 2018
4 min

Chemical Safety Mishaps from the Past

It's amazing how far health and safety has come over the last few decades, especially chemical safety. We still use countless chemical compounds in many industries, and thankfully, there are far less incidents involving chemicals than ever before. In the past, however, there were many accidents and injuries involving chemicals. The thing is, back then we had no idea how dangerous to human health some of these chemicals really are. From fumes of toxic compounds to chemical exp

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How to Spot Symptoms of and Prevent Silicosis

Dale Allen

Mar 30, 2018
4 min

How to Spot Symptoms of and Prevent Silicosis

Silica is another one of those things that is all around us without us really knowing it. It's got a plethora of applications and is used widely throughout many industries around the world. It's quite likely that you've seen silica out there in nature as it normally exists, as quartz, but it's also one of Mother Nature's main ingredients for sand in many places around the world as well as being the second most abundant mineral is our planets crust. Working with silica, or in

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7 Ways to Reduce Exposure to Arsenic, Lead and Mercury

Dale Allen

Mar 27, 2018
5 min

7 Ways to Reduce Exposure to Arsenic, Lead and Mercury

While it's true that governments around the world have already begun to take action against the use of arsenic, mercury and lead, it's also true that these toxic heavy metals have already seeped into the ground around us and worked their way into our food chains. The concerns All three of these heavy metals are highly toxic to human health and cause a very wide range of detrimental effects on our bodies, especially in young children. Some of these health problems only occur a

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How to Ensure Chemical Safety in the Hospitality Sector

Dale Allen

Mar 16, 2018
3 min

How to Ensure Chemical Safety in the Hospitality Sector

If you work in the hospitality business you'll know that the safety of your guests, and the cleanliness of your hotel is vitally important. Common cleaning products are often disregarded as low risk but these products are still chemicals and they're extremely bad for human health, if handled or stored incorrectly. Even the most common products are, or have, chemicals in them that can cause respiratory problems, skin and eye irritation and chemical burns. If they happen to be

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UK Businesses Fork Out Billions on Workplace Injuries

Dale Allen

Mar 13, 2018
4 min

UK Businesses Fork Out Billions on Workplace Injuries

I've been trying to prevent injuries and death in the work place for a long time now so it's shocking to see how many workers receive grievous injuries in their workplace from such hazards that may cause slips, trips and falls. I came across the results of the Labour Force Survey for last year and there were over 600,000+ injuries in workplaces across the UK, with the vast majority of those being due to a slip, trip or fall. How is it, in 2019, that over 600,000 people injure

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