Health & Safety

When you are employing contractors to undertake any task it is suggested you following the following four points: Stage 1 – The pre-vetting of all contractors; Stage 2 – The delivery of the on-site health and safety induction to all vetted contractors; Stage 3 – The need to manage and monitor the contractor’s work during the project/task; Stage 4 – The importance of ensuring that the contractor’s overall performance is acceptable before closing out the work; You have an opportunity in the pre-vetting or induction to include the information you require and this could be both in your 'bill of quantities' and supported by some simple contractor rules for the people that will actually be on site. As they are doing blasting ...

Hi Graham, I think this is probably more of an environmental issue than a health and safety. I suggest the first place to try are the manufacturers or distributors of the products. If they are unable to help you then I suggest you contact a waste management company local to your area. As I do not know where you are I suggest try looking on www.yell.com or yellow pages. From a health and safety perspective then follow the guidelines on the material safety data sheet (MSDS)that you should have been provided with when you purchased the product. Again if you do not have this then have a chat with the supplier. I hope this helps, regards Colin 07799 656303 www.safetyhorizon.com

Hi, You touch on a couple of issues here and I will hopefully provide some advice but also some things to think about. Exposure to excessive levels of any dust is not good but in the quarrying industry there are many sites across the UK that have dust with high levels of silica. This can lead to a condition known as silicosis and there is some excellent guidelines on controlling silica on the MPA website. For drilling operations you will probably require a HEPA filter on your plant, this stands for High Efficiency Particle Arrestor. There are many suppliers who provide these filters. The rate of change will depend on how busy you are and the quality of your dust extraction. It is possible to get systems that measure the pressure drop ...

There is a requirement in the COSHH regulations to undertake health screening. It is common practice for companies to undertake an annual assessment of their employees but the frequency will be dependent on the hazard in the workplace and the results obtained. If you have employees that are working in a high dust or silica environment then it is necessary to complete a COSHH assessment and part of this assessment will determine the frequency of health surveillance. The person who completes the assessment should be competent, there are a number of health screening organisations who service the quarry sector. I hope this helps but if you need any further information then please call me on 07799 656303, Regards Colin Nottage