MANUAL HANDLING

Factors and Questions to be considered are:

1. THE TASKS:
Does it involve:
•Holding or manipulating loads at distance from trunk?
•Unsatisfactory bodily movement or posture, especially
twisting the trunk?
•Stooping?
•Reaching upwards?
•Excessive carrying distances?
•Excessive pushing or pulling of loads?
•Insufficient rest or recovery periods?

2. THE LOADS:
Are they:
•Heavy?
•Bulky?
•Difficult to grasp with contents likely to shift?
•Sharp or hot?

3. THE WORKING ENVIRONMENT:
Are there:
•Space constraints preventing good posture?
•Uneven slippery or unstable floors?
•Variations in level of floors or work surfaces?
•Extremes of temperature?
•Poor lighting conditions?

4. INDIVIDUAL CAPABILITY:
Does the job:
•Require unusual strength, height etc?
•Create a hazard to those who might reasonably be
considered to be pregnant or to have a health problem?
•Require special information or training for its safe
performance?
•Is movement or posture hindered by personal
protective equipment or by clothing?

REDUCING THE RISKS

(A.) THE EMPLOYER SHOULD:
•Avoid the need for hazardous manual handling.
•Assess the risk of injury from any hazardous manual
handling that cannot be avoided.
•Reduce the risk of injury from hazardous manual
handling As Low As Reasonably Practicable(ALARP).
(B.) THE EMPLOYEE SHOULD:
•Follow appropriate systems and procedures of work
laid down for their safety.
•Make proper use of equipment provided for their safety.

HSE - MS & EXPECTATION

Health, Safety & Environment Management System (HSEMS)

Why HSEMS?

The HSEMS should be provided because:

Global awareness of the need for a structured system.

Increased emphasis on environmental awareness.

Arrangements should be auditable.

Requirement for continual improvement in HSE.

COMPANY and industry shareholders.

Need to be consistent with industry standards:

PR 750 and RP 75 ( API ).

ISO 14000.

Purpose

l States the HSE policy.

l States various responsibilities.

l Contains, or points to, standards in HSE that should be achieved.

l A “top level” document against which other guidance or reference documents are positioned.

Element description, or high level goal:

Activities which are required to be in position in order to satisfy the 'element.' They are written as,or indicate, performance standards.

Descriptions of procedures that already exist within COMPANY, and are used as guidance in satisfying the expectations.

There should be ‘ELEMENTS’ within the COMPANY HSEMS.

Each element has its own set of ‘EXPECTATIONS’.

These expectations should infer a standard which can be measured.

Element 1 Leadership

Element 2 Safety

Element 3 Occupational Health

Element 4 Product Safety

Element 5 Environmental Protection

Element 6 Risk Management

Element 7 Emergency response

Element 8 Incident reporting and investigation

Element 9 Personnel selection, competency and training

Element 10 External communication

Element 11 Legal requirements

Element 12 Continuous improvement

For more details, please contact David at: shemssolution@googlemail.com

Fire Safety Management Systems - Flash Back Arrestor

Hey, HAPPY NEW YEAR. Its soo wonderful to have you at the other side - Congratulation.


Are you a Facility Engineer/Contruction Engineer and/or Project Engineer? Do you use Acetylene (C2H2) with Oxygen (O2) in panel beating and/or welding operations? Have you heard of "flash back - otherwise known as reverse flow of gas? Do you have an idea of how dangerous this occurrence is to your life, health, work environment, facilities and even company's reputation?
There is a solution - "Fire / Flame Arrestor" and "Check Valve". These are preventive measures that are widely accepted!!!
For more information on Fire Safety Management System resources/materials, you may contact us through this e-mail address: shemssolution@googlemail.com

Emergency Response Planning (ERP).

Emergencies wreak havoc on businesses and governments on a daily basis. Whether it is accident/incident due to human factors (inexperience, manual handling), ergonomic factors, physical factors, or a hazardous chemical spill in the office or at a local school, which results can be loss of life, health, and property. How can you prevent or reduce the effects of such occurrences? By planning ahead.
Emergency Response Planning is designed to help corporate and municipal managers quickly understand their roles in proactive and reactive emergency management.

SHEMS Solutions have useful materials on how to develop, plan ahead in order to prevent, prepare for, and respond to natural disasters and man-made emergencies. Emergency Response Planning provides essential information to help you comply with government regulations, design an emergency response plan, train personnel, use the proper safety equipment, safeguard information systems, and resume normal operations after an emergency as quickly as possible. It will also help consultants design emergency response plans for their clients, and provide practical information for staff on business continuity and emergency issues.
To order for your company's copy, you may reach us through our electronic mail address: shemssolution@googlemail.com

Risk Assessment Matrix (RAM) Tool? - for Supervisors/Managers

Risk Assessment Matrix (RAM) is an environmental, health and safety management tool to rank, identify and assess the risks. HSE Practitioners have experienced that the Risk Assessment Matrix is not always correctly applied and is quite often seen as a tool for professionals to use to develop HSE Cases.

We have resources that will really help to get a good understanding of the matrix and its use in daily life. The use of this tool has been tested by many at medium and senior management corporate levels and found it well effective.
Its use resulted in a much improved understanding of the risks associated with the job and enthusiasm for the personal tasks to lower the risks to a level as low as reasonably practicable (ALARP).
A good appreciation of the HSE risks in your area of responsibility helps to correctly direct resources for improvement. This tool that will help you and your colleagues to:
apply the RAM properly and frequently as a natural way to communicate and plan for HSE improvement
better appreciate your personal role in managing the HSE risk in your area of responsibility
come to a good understanding of your role in demonstrating risk is managed to ALARP levels.
For details, check on via our email: shemssolution@googlemail.com

Personal Protective Equipments, (PPE).

Simply being exposed to a chemical or other potentially harmful substance (i.e. dust) does not necessarily mean that you will contract an illness or disease. Chemicals and other potentially harmful substances affect body organs in various ways. Information has been gathered regarding many of the chemicals you may encounter in the workplace. Groups such as the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) and the American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists (ACGIH) research such information. The information helps the groups performing the research to determine the concentration(s) at which workers will start to experience adverse health effects when exposed to certain chemicals over certain amounts of time. The limits are based upon a number of factors including, but not limited to, toxicity and cancer causing capabilities.
Every employer should be able to establish Permissible Exposure Limits (PELs), Short-Term Exposure Limits (STELs), Ceiling limits (C) and excursion limits. Threshold limit values (TLVs), for the safety of every personell including the employers, employees, clients, visitors, e.t.c. Exceeding this limits can result in death, serious injury or illness. These terms are commonly found on Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDSs).
For detail and more information on useful material and procurement of PPE, you can contact us at SHEMS solutions

Are You An HSE/Project/Constrution Engineer? Have You Heard / Know What "CHAIR" Means?

CHAIR, is acronym for "Construction Hazard Assessment and Implication Review", a tool that has been developed to bring together all the key stakeholders involved in design to help identify and eliminate (or minimise) inherent risks in a structured and systematic way. The name CHAIR was also selected because a function of both a chair and a design review is to provide an opportunity to sit down, pause and reflect on possible problems. CHAIR provides a rigorous framework for a facilitated discussion that is stimulated by guidewords or prompts. These prompts assist the key stakeholders to collectively identify and reduce construction, maintenance repair and demolition safety risks associat ed with a design. Those risks are then formally listed for action by the appropriate stakeholders. CHAIR recognises that a design involves key considerations such as operability, aesthetics and economics with the elements of safety. It also acknowledges that a design process may be determined by many different stakeholders and/or influences. The CHAIR methodology aims to involve these elements and influences. It is intended to be applied to projects where the design or construction is unique, unusual, or of sufficient inherent hazard that a formal detailed assessment is warranted. The primary aim of a CHAIR is to identify and eliminate or minimise risks in a design as soon as possible in the life of a project. There are three phases of CHAIR:

For detailed information and/or subscrition for this resourceful material and other related issues, you can call on us @:http://shemssolution@googlemail.com

How safe (Ergonomically) Is Your Work Environment ?

As early as the 18th century, doctors noticed that workers whose jobs required them to maintain certain body positions for long periods of time developed musculoskeletal problems. In the last 20 years, research has clearly established the connection between certain job tasks and repetitive stress injuries, or RSI’s.

Two elements are at work here: “static work” and “force.” “Static work” refers to the musculoskeletal effort required to hold a certain position, even a comfortable one. For example,.....
For detail you can check what Alexander's technique has to say by checking this site:here

Accident Investigation - Resources Available.

Do nyou investigate an Incident/Event and/or Accident?

An accident, a near miss and an incident should all be investigated.

• Accident investigations are a tool for uncovering hazards that either were missed earlier or require new controls (policies, procedures or personal protective equipment).
• Near-miss reporting and investigation identify and control safety or health hazards before they cause a more serious incident.
• Incident investigations should focus on prevention.

ACCIDENT—an undesired event or sequence of events causing injury, ill-health or property damage.

NEAR MISS—near misses describe incidents where, given a slight shift in time or distance, injury, ill-health or damage easily could have occurred, but didn’t this round.

INCIDENT—an incident is an unplanned, undesired event that hinders completion of a task and may cause injury or other damage.

At SHEMS Solutions, we are in possession of various fully equiped resource for inccident/accident investigation that your business operation.
Call on us!