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Connect Issue 33 05 October 2009

Welcome to the latest issue of Connect

Hello and welcome to Connect

With party conference season drawing to a close in the next few days, IOSH has been working hard to make sure workplace health and safety stays on the political agenda.

At the recent Labour party conference in Brighton, IOSH asked delegates about their first jobs and how this experience helped shape their view of the workplace. There are a number of YouTube interviews on our channel now with people giving their recollections, including the Rt Hon Jim Knight MP, Lord McKenzie of Luton and Diane Abbott MP.

As well as party conferences, IOSH has been on the campaign trail in other ways – this time by organising a charity conker match later this month between politicians and members of the press. The conker challenge is part of our ‘Stop taking the myth’ campaign which seeks to remind people that health and safety isn’t a killjoy conspiracy to ban people’s fun but a necessary safeguard against injuries and possible death.

In this issue, we talk to Andy Furness, chair of the Fire Risk Management Group, who reminds us about the five golden rules when preparing a fire risk assessment. We also make a trip to London’s Natural History Museum to speak with Alan Barlow, Head of Health and Safety, about the museum’s successful accreditation to the OHSAS 18001 international safety management standard – the first for a UK museum.

As well as features, we look at what news is making the headlines, including how five companies are being prosecuted over the explosion at Buncefield oil storage depot in Hertfordshire which injured 40 people, and how managers aren’t doing enough to prevent accidents in their vehicle fleets.

Thanks for reading. If you want to be included in any of our features, or want to comment on Connect, please drop me a line.

Shaun Gibbons
e-Editor, IOSH.

Good practice: a five-step checklist to fire risk assessments

Headlines

The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order published in October 2006 replaced over 70 pieces of fire safety law
Under the Order, the person responsible must carry out a fire safety risk assessment as well as maintaining an ongoing fire management plan
We look at a five-step checklist needed to start your fire risk assessment

First things first

The first thing you need to establish before starting a fire risk assessment is what your workplace premises are used for. This has a large bearing on the type of assessment needed. This site offers a number of free guides for specific premises including:

offices and shops
factories and warehouses
hospitals, including medical centres
transport depots
schools, colleges and universities including outdoor education centres
residential care homes.

There’s also a supplementary guide on accessibility and means of escape for disabled people.

Whatever the premises, here’s a general five-step checklist to help you get started.

Step 1: identify the hazards

There are three things needed to start a fire:

an ignition source
fuel
oxygen.

Start by looking throughout your premises and identifying potential ignition sources. These could include:

faulty electrical equipment
lighting equipment, such as lamps too close to stored products (e.g. bulk paper)
electric or gas heaters
hot processes, such as contractor works (e.g. roofing and electrical)
cooking equipment
smoking material, such as cigarettes and matches.

During your search for potential ignition sources, look for tell-tale signs such as scorch marks or discoloured electrical plugs and sockets. These will help you identify hazards you may not have noticed.

Once you’ve identified ignition sources, you’ll need to look at possible fuel sources – thereby trying to eliminate ‘fuel for the fire’. These could be:

cleaning products and photocopier chemicals
stationery
polyurethane foam-filled furniture and polystyrene-based display materials
textiles such as curtains
waste products such as shredded paper.

Lastly, consider the sources of oxygen. Most premises will have two main forms of ventilation: doors and windows, and air conditioning systems.

Step 2: identify groups or individuals who are at risk

These may be employees, contractors involved in long-term work, members of the public, volunteer groups, children and the disabled. Other things to consider may be employees, contractors or members of the public who have English as a second language.

As well as employees and contractors, your risk assessment should also take into account your neighbours and what impact a fire on your premises could have on theirs. For example, if a business stores its rubbish near or next to an adjoining business premises, this will need to be taken into consideration.

Employees or contractors who are working on roofs or basements as well as those who are lone workers or who work outside of core working hours – for example, contracted cleaning staff – should also be considered and provisions need to be put in place about how they’re going to be informed of and what to do in the event of one.

Step 3: evaluate existing control measures

Look at the current measures you have in place in the event of a fire. Evaluate things like:

the risk to people in your building if a fire starts
reducing the hazards that might cause a fire.

Other things to consider might be:

fire detection and warning
firefighting equipment
escape routes – are they adequate?
emergency lighting, signs and notices
the regular testing and maintenance of safety equipment.

Once you’ve looked at these issues, identify whether they’re adequate or not. If they aren’t, you need to suggest better controls.

The way people use your premises will have an effect on your evaluation. For example, a school during normal hours will probably not require emergency lighting. However, if the school is used outside normal working hours – for night-school courses, parents’ evenings, etc, then it will require emergency lighting.

Step 4: record, inform and train

If your organisation, or the person responsible for the premises, employs more than five people, or an alterations notice is in force, then you must record the findings of your fire risk assessment – together with the actions you've taken. These should include:

the hazards you've identified
the measures you've taken to reduce the chance of a fire
people who may be at risk
the actions you've taken to reduce the risk to people
the actions people need to take in case of fire
the information and training you've identified that people need and how it will be given

In addition to recording your findings, you must inform, instruct and train your staff and other people working in the building about prevention – as well as what to do in the event of a fire.

Not only will this mean that the risk assessment doesn’t just become a paper exercise, it also allocates responsibilities to certain members of staff to make them aware of what they need to do. For example, a Facilities Manager needs to keep the fire log book up to date and the appropriate people need to know where this is, and other relevant documents, are kept.

Step 5: review, update and amend

You should constantly update your fire risk assessment and amend if required. Consider reviewing the document if:

there are changes to work processes or the introduction of new equipment
there are alterations to the building
there are substantial changes to furniture and fixings
there's a significant increase in the number of people present
there are people with disabilities.

If a fire or near miss does happen, this could mean that your existing fire risk assessment may be inadequate, and you should think about carrying out a reassessment. It's good practice to identify the cause of any incident and then review and revise your assessment.

Conclusion

The above information is intended to be a general guide for those thinking about, or in the process of, putting together a fire risk assessment. For more detailed information, look at our links section below or, alternatively, keep an eye out for future issues of Connect for a more detailed guide for each of the five steps.

Events

IOSH runs a number of Professional Development courses at The Grange dealing with fire risk assessments. The dates are:

Tuesday 27 and Wednesday 28 October
Thursday 28 and Friday 29 January 2010
Tuesday 23 and Wednesday 24 March 2010
Tuesday 22 and Wednesday 23 June 2010
Tuesday 26 and Wednesday 27 October 2010

Dates for the ‘Fire risk assessment – the next level’ courses are:

Monday 29 and Tuesday 30 March 2010
Wednesday 13 and Thursday 14 October 2010.

Spotlight: the natural laws of health and safety

London’s Natural History Museum is a global cultural landmark, home to millions of specimens including the famous 32-metre replica Diplodocus skeleton. Connect spoke to Alan Barlow, Head of Health and Safety, about the museum’s successful accreditation to the OHSAS 18001 international safety management standard – the first for a UK museum.

“In some workplaces people still have the view that the health and safety department has the sole responsibility for health and safety. I’ve made sure, from day one when I walked into this job seven years ago, that health and safety is primarily the responsibility of managers.

“This was one of the main reasons we went for accreditation. Once that was in place, there became far more motivation among the managers. To create consistency, we introduced a health and safety control book for all managers to give them the information they need, along with a single point of reference for their department’s documentation.”

The museum received accreditation in August 2007 and staff are still working hard to maintain this by reaching improvement targets, in particular accident rates.

“We’ve now moved a lot of things online. We’re in the process of uploading all of the risk assessments so each department can access them as a guide. We’ve also got an online accident reporting database to get away from the old paper-based system.

“Once an accident has been logged, it sends out automatic reminders to managers. These reminders tell them of the accident and ask them to go into the system to check the details and make sure an investigation is carried out. They will also make sure the risk assessment is still valid and state what they’ll do to stop it from happening again.”

Alan believes the system has had an impact on the museum’s accident rates. They have around eight RIDDORs a year, usually from accidents to members of the public. One of the museum’s key performance indicators is to cut the accident rate by five per cent a year.

Last month, the museum opened the second Darwin Centre, a £78 million building home to hundreds of specimens, where the public can meet scientists and take part in interactive sessions.

“We were involved with the project from the initial planning stages. During building work, the health and safety team made regular site visits to make sure that the contractors were up to standard.

“We used a spreadsheet to mark down any issues, from missing fire signage to sharp corners on display cabinets. We continued to check against the original list until the opening.”

As well as exhibits, the museum is home to over 300 scientists whose research work covers biodiversity, evolution and the ecosystem. They’re also continually working to find a cure for malaria and bilharzia (a parasitic disease most commonly found in Asia, Africa, South America).

“We can have researchers out on field trips to as many as 35 countries at one time. The scientists collect and catalogue every specimen they find, but not all of them are on display.”

The scientists use a wide range of equipment to carry out their research, including one of the most powerful X-ray machines in Europe. For DNA processing, they use a wide range of chemicals in their laboratories.

“Even though these scientists are working with dangerous substances, they tend to be very safe people by nature, as laboratory safety is drilled into them from day one.”

Being such a large museum, crowd control is an issue. Although there are three entrances to the building, ‘pinch points’ and issues around getting people in and out safely can be a constant headache – particularly as the museum operates a bag search on entry. “This can often lead to long queues, so by the time people get into the museum they’re often tired and irritated.”

Over three million people visited the museum last year, and this year they’re on target for more than four million.

“Being in the middle of Kensington and on two main roads can make it difficult when it comes to dealing with a large amount of people, so we tend to queue them through the grounds. Once they’re in the museum, they follow a one-way system and, should they have to queue again, there are markers telling them of the wait time for the next section.

“Due to the size and complexity of the site, we have to think carefully about our fire risk processes and how we can get people safely out of the building. We‘re working towards a horizontal evacuation process which allows us to have six separate fire compartments in the museum to ease visitors into another building and gradually move them through.”

In the past, there’s been some very interesting ways of getting large exhibits into the museum. “There’s an old photograph of people bringing an elephant through the front door on a wheeled trolley, and we still do it that way sometimes!

“When it comes to cleaning the exhibits we discuss and plan how we’ll do it for a good few months, to make sure we’ve covered everything. Then, we’ll section off the exhibit and begin cleaning. It’s no easy job though, particularly when it takes three months to clean a blue whale!”

Factfile:

The Natural History Museum was established in 1881
The museum hold specimens collected by Darwin
Alan has been a member of IOSH and the South Coast Branch for 16 years

Links:

National History Museum

Quote me

IOSH gets the message across...

Yorkshire Post

Michelle Muxworthy, Chair of the Yorkshire Branch, and Paul Marston, IOSH’s media officer, took part in a conkers match in Barnsley to try and bust the myth of the ‘health and safety brigade’. Michelle said:

“When we heard about the event, we wanted to go along because it’s important that people realise we aren’t killjoys.

“We want people to realise it’s not bonkers to play conkers and there’s no law against it. In fact, by the law of averages, the worst injury you’re going to get is rapped knuckles.”

BBC Radio Sheffield

Yorkshire Branch member Tim Briggs talked to BBC Radio Sheffield about the conkers match. He said:

“IOSH has actually sponsored the World Conker Championships in the past.

“The problem is that there’s a perception that health and safety stops you from having fun. It doesn’t, it helps people to have fun safely. There’s not one health and safety law that bans conkers.”

BBC Three Counties Radio

Ray Hurst, IOSH immediate past President, was interviewed by BBC Three Counties Radio on Tesco’s decision to reprimand two students for touching a fresh muffin. Ray said:

“I think it’s fine to pick up fruit and vegetables because you can wash them before you eat them, but if you’re talking about pre-cooked food or confectionery, then I’d argue that it’s not best practice to touch them.”

BBC West Midlands

Ray was also interviewed by BBC West Midlands Radio about a care home resident who was asked to remove a door mat because it posed a health and safety risk to other residents. Ray said:

“Health and safety is important because last year 180 people died at work, 4,000 people died to cancer due to asbestos exposure, 2.1 million people suffered from work-related ill health, and around 136,000 people suffered injuries at work. So that’s why it’s important. We’ve got to make sure that when people come to work, they get home safely each day.

“Door mats could be a trip hazard. We need to think about the age of the resident, mobility and fire risks. It’s about getting the balance right. A lot of the dafter decisions made in the name of ‘health and safety’ are made because of the worry over being sued. It’s a catch-all phrase for people who don’t really know about health and safety. We’re here to solve problems and offer practical solutions, not ban things.”

The Bolton News

On International Literacy Day, IOSH President Nattasha Freeman told the Bolton News that businesses shouldn’t assume that written health and safety instructions will be understood by everyone. She said:

“Being able to read is something we all take for granted. But there are many people in the workplace with low levels of literacy, which means we must not rely on written information or even verbal instructions.

“There’s also been a huge increase in workers who don’t speak English as their first language, and we have to make sure we’re able to communicate, particularly on health and safety, with these members of staff.”

Safety Management

Rob Strange OBE, Chief Executive of IOSH, spoke to Safety Management about the British Safety Council offering IOSH Managing Safely as part of its training portfolio. Rob said:

“Managers are key influencers in creating a safer world of work – and one of the best ways to do this is to educate them to create a safe working culture in their workplaces.

“The IOSH Managing Safely training course delivers this on a practical level and in an interactive way. In a recent survey of those who have been on the course, 100 per cent said they would recommend it to others.”

Health and Safety Times

Sarah Hamilton, IOSH Networks and international director, spoke to the Health and Safety Times about this year’s Ireland Branch Conference on ‘Managing health and safety in times of change’. Sarah said:

“Judging by the many positive comments from delegates, the conference proved to be a real benefit. The economic climate has a huge impact on our profession, so it’s very important that our members maintain standards in these turbulent times.”

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