Health and Safety at work – well?

[David Rowland]

Yes we do now… have to or we not allowed on certain sites… no head gear as such but it is only a matter of time until something happens.. our accident book is fairly good but I know as soon as something happens we will be cursing each other.. so we have to be health and safety aware.

also, i hate the hospitals but I would expect to be rushed in for something like that, if it was a member of staff then it would be a serious problem.

[Shane Drew]

I don’t have staff, but I do enforce work place rules when I go onsite.

Customers that say ”go on mate, it is a little high, but a cherry picker is so expensive, it will only take you a minute on a ladder” don’t wash with me.

Your experience could have worked out worse, and you should have gone to the hospital for a checkup. Imagine if you got home at night and in theearly hours developed a complication – headache or doublevision. You would then have been a burden on your wife and daughter. (I’m starting to sound like my father 😳 ).

Here, these things must be reported to wph&s in case it has repercussions weeks or months down the line.

I would not have been working in the wet either. WPH&S are very strict on that here, being injured in that scenario would have sent them into a spasm 😛

Never heard of a bump hat but hard hats a mandatory when working on some sites.

I think we all think it will not happen to us, and when it does, safety becomes a priority for a while.

Hope you heal well Rob.

[Jill Marie Welsh]

…you better get stitches Rob or at least some staples or Super Glue….anything but Gorilla Glue as it expands!
love…..jill

[Robert Lambie]

if it was a bang, as in a proper bang/thud dizzy, white flash etc id have gone to hospital. im very paranoid about that sorta thing… thing was, this bang was more from the crappy folded 2mm alluminium sign on impact, it was actually the sharp corner of the sign that sliced into the side of my head. man was that sore… 😕

if i was in my home town ide have probably just gone into hospital anyway, but i was in the city and the thought of the glasgow royal infirmary, huge run down hospital made me think… no chance… by the time ide got home i felt better and bleeding had stopped. so that was that… yes, jill, without those staples/stiches ill have a lovely wee white parting in my hair. :lol1:

bump caps are basically baseball caps with plastic incerts. they do work a treat and did save a few sore heads in their time. these days though its more hard hats when on site. the bump caps, in my eyes looked good. they came in various colours. we had navy, navy sweatshirt, navy bodywarmer, jeans, riggerboots etc as standard. when some older staff started they would winge about the bumpcaps not looking right at their age, then they said they made their head itch etc its the usual, once a couple start to moan they all join in… 🙄

at the end of the day, staff moan about wearing the stuff, i dont give a damn… when niggling with them, i blame the H&S for enforcing them, but the truth is, if one does get the chance to make claim, they will… so i for one will make sure im not at fault.

[Hugh Potter]

quote Shane Drew:

I don’t have staff, but I do enforce work place rules when I go onsite.

Customers that say ”go on mate, it is a little high, but a cherry picker is so expensive, it will only take you a minute on a ladder” don’t wash with me.

Your experience could have worked out worse, and you should have gone to the hospital for a checkup. Imagine if you got home at night and in theearly hours developed a complication – headache or doublevision. You would then have been a burden on your wife and daughter. (I’m starting to sound like my father 😳 ).

Here, these things must be reported to wph&s in case it has repercussions weeks or months down the line.

I would not have been working in the wet either. .

hold on Shane, Rob is from wee scotland, right up there, if they did no work when it was raining, we’d have no oil, no gas, and the whole of scotland would only do a two day week 😉

i dont have staff either, of course, i just do what i feel comfortable doing, so long as i ‘feel’ happy to do something, i’ll just do it in the safest manner.

[Stephen Morriss]

I know you’ll already know this but you have to be seen to be enforcing these rules Rob or your leaving your self open to prosecution, if that had been the lad with you he could have been making a claim now and then HSE would ask questions, then fines etc.

All it really takes is for you to have a little chat with the employees, and tell them when on site etc, if they don’t wear the equipment supplied after that then that’s their own fault, employees also have a responsibility to use safety equipment supplied and if they then don’t use it after your demonstration then more fool them.

Steve

[Marcella Ross]

….god …. you’d do anything to try and add an inch or two to you height Robert! That’s a bit desperate! 😀

[Robert Lambie]

marcella, its because i keep hitting my head I’m this height. 🙄 :lol1:

Stephen,you dead right mate… that’s exactly what i do. its one of the first things i do is to go thru all this type of stuff with new starts. we actually have signs up along with the normal health and safety ones saying "think safety" and all that kinda thing… this is purely for the type of staff member you get that would conveniently say, oh i wasn’t told that or this, whilst having his finger sewn back on. 😕 :lol1:

[Martin Cole]

quote Hugh Potter:

hold on Shane, Rob is from wee scotland, right up there, if they did no work when it was raining, we’d have no oil, no gas, and the whole of scotland would only do a two day week 😉

:lol1: :lol1: :lol1: :lol1:

It ain’t far off that down here at the moment either ( whats happened to the weather 😉

Rob hope your head is better mate,
I was puting signs up few weeks ago and a particular bit was near a road sign, I knew it was there but still hit my head on it twice when going up the steps. I became totally oblivious to it while concerntrating on where the sign was going :doh:

I don’t have staff but use people as and when, but when fittng as per Shane, I make it as safe as possible. Ladders are always footed, if needed the scaffold tower is used everything and is coned off, to keep the public away.

I

[Shane Drew]

Are you guys allowed too smoke onsite in the open there?

I don’t smoke, but my subby fitters do, and they were fitting a sign for me in a cherry picker about 14′ in the air, and I got a verbal warning from the WPH&S officer inspecting the job site.

They are not allowed to light up on a job at all, I am told. To make matters worse, the sign was being fitted outside the window of the company safety officer 🙄 .

Problem is, I’ only 5′ 8" and the shortest subby fitter I have is 6’2"… and I’m sure he has a punching bag at home heavier than me 😮 . I didn’t have the nerve to say ‘OI! put the cig out or else!!….’ They were nearly finished and I banked on the fact thay wouldn’t light up again until they left..

I didn’t pass the message on this time, but I will have to warn them in writing before they go on site again.

What about over there. Has the government put similar conditions for you?

[Phill Fenton]

Never mind whinging on about a small scratch on the head Rob – did you manage to get the sign up 😛

[Roy Roffey]

2 questions mate

1. did you get a pic of said wound ?? 😮 😮

2. are you going to replace the projectional sign you damaged with your head free of charge 😀 😀

had some thing similar happen to me a while ago, its harder to hide when your a little thin on top tho

[Robert Lambie]

martin, its a wonder you need a ladder mate, tip toes would have done the trick… your that tall im sure i spotted snow on your head at the show.. then again, im that small cigarette smoke looks like a rain cloud. :lol1:

shane, funny thing that… my pet hate is guys smoking on a job. bugs the life out of me, more so fitting vinyl. 😕 its now illegal to smoke indoors anywhere public but outside is ok. that said, loose a finger with a chop saw while a cigarette is hanging out your mouth i bet the H&S would not pay out.

phill, yeh i did mate… finished about 9pm though 😕 :lol1:

roy, i was actually going to take a picture but i never "for once" had camera with me. :lol1: sign didnt break, but there was a wee sheen of bloody still on the corner of it, when i went back next day :lol1:

[Roy Roffey]

DISGRACE, fancy not having your camera !!!

at least it wasn’t one of those national lottery ones that got me ( bloody things )

hope it didn’t stop you drinking mate

roffs

[Ramj]

sorry to rejuvenate this old thread, but I was once stopped applying vinyl because I was using methanol to clean the substrate,

The guy said I needed a mask, gloves and overalls,

he then had the cheek to say to me:

"I just saved your life",

… grrrrr

then again, if I don’t feel safe doing something, I wont.

[Stephen Morriss]

quote Ramj:

sorry to rejuvenate this old thread, but I was once stopped applying vinyl because I was using methanol to clean the substrate, .

Do you mean meths or methanol, never used methanol to clean anything before as it’s more use in my grasstrack bike :lol1:
Anyway a mask wouldn’t have done anything unless it was a gas mask, gloves are a good idea though.

Steve

[Phill Fenton]

quote Ramj:

sorry to rejuvenate this old thread, but I was once stopped applying vinyl because I was using methanol to clean the substrate,

The guy said I needed a mask, gloves and overalls,

he then had the cheek to say to me:

“I just saved your life”,

I’d have punched him in the face – then shown him my risk assesment and method statements for punching people in the face before he had the opportunity to come back at me with some wisecrack comment:-?