Health and safety
There are initially three objectives of the health and
safety Work Act (1974); ensuring the health, safety and welfare of personnel
and others at work. The act prevents and controls the use of highly flammable
and toxic substances otherwise dangerous substances used and at the work place.
As well as preventing the use of unlawful substances and ownership of such substances.
There was a forth objective; keeping a tight restriction in the amount of emission
released into the atmosphere. However, the act was repealed, when the control
of emission was brought under the Environmental Protection Act 1990.
The health and safety act also defines the duty of any
person who manufactures, imports or supplies any substance for use at work,
which is in section 6(4). Its explains that personnel should be aware of the
substances they are handling, they must be given adequate information about
their health and safety and any risk with when dealing with the substances, they
must undergo testing such as written testing which can also be carried out by
other personnel as long it is reasonable, to ensure the safety of an item. Manufacturers
must carry out research to identify and eliminate risks, as far as reasonably
practicable. Furthermore, the health and safety act defines that substances
employees handle are reasonable and practicable which means it does not cause
harm to persons.
COSHH (control of substance hazardous to health) is the law
that requires personnel to control substances hazardous to health. COSHHR
(control of substances hazardous to health regulation) objective is to prevent
or reduce employees harm to their health and safety by underlying the health
hazards for companies and businesses are then deciding what precaution to take.
Providing health control measures to reduce harm to health and ensuring they
are used. Keeping all control measures in good working order by providing
information. Instruction and training for employees and others by providing
monitoring and health surveillance in appropriate cases; planning for
emergencies.
The industries in which COSHHR covers are Agriculture, Baking,
Beauty, Hairdressing, Printing and so on. The hazards in which the agriculture
industry have is dusts, chemicals, diseases, toxic gases. COSHH covers
substances that are hazardous to health. Substances can take many forms and
contain chemicals, products containing chemicals fumes, dusts, vapours, mists,
nanotechnology, gases and asphyxiating gases and biological agents (germs). If
the packaging has any of the hazard symbols then it is classed as a hazardous
substance. Germs that cause diseases such as leptospirosis or legionnaires
disease and germs used in laboratories. However, COSHH does not cover lead,
asbestos or radioactive substances because these have their own specific
regulations.
COSHH has a brief guide informing industries about personnel
and other people’s health and safety. The guide includes instructions; when a
product is ‘dangerous for supply’, by law, the supplier must provide you with a
safety data sheet. The guide says medicines, pesticides and cosmetic products have
different legislation and don’t have a Safety data sheet. The guide also says
there should be An Assessing risk.
The Health and Safety (Display Screen Equipment) Regulations
1992 explains what an employer, may need to do to protect their employees from
any risks associated with Display Screen Equipment (DSE) (i.e. computers and
laptops). It will also be useful to employees and their representatives. These
Regulations only apply to employers whose workers regularly use DSE as a
significant part of their normal work (daily, for continuous periods of an hour
or more). These workers are known as DSE users. These Regulations do not apply
to workers who use DSE infrequently or for short periods of time. However, the
controls described in ‘How to control the risk’ may still be useful for these
workers.
The risks of employees not following the regulations when
spending too long at a computer screen may cause them to experience fatigue,
eye strain, upper limb problems and backache from overuse or improper use of
DSE. These problems can also be experienced from poorly designed workstations
or work environments. The causes may not always be obvious and can be due to a
combination of getting comfortable the following may help users: forearms
should be approximately horizontal and the user’s
eyes should be the same height as the top of the screen. The regulatory bodies
make sure there is enough work space to accommodate all documents or other
equipment. A document holder may help avoid awkward neck and eye movements.
Arrange the desk and screen to avoid glare, or bright reflections. This is
often easiest if the screen is not directly facing windows or bright lights.
I will under take precautions so I do not breach these laws
and cause harm to myself and my workers, the way I will do this is when I am
using the computer I will make sure to lower the lighting of the screen and sit
at a 30cm distance from the screen. I
will have to take regular breaks away from the workstation, say ten minutes in
every hour, I may walk, have a stretch, give my eyes something different to do
and rest my ears.
When working in a dark room, I must be aware of the
increased risk of tripping on unseen objects.
I can prevent this by storing bags under the workstation.
When shooting my images in front of the green screen I will
ensure all the wires from the lighting and other wires are in the corner, so no
one trips over them and injures themselves.
I will make sure only the required people are there whilst shooting my
images so no one is harmed such as colliding into one another. Everyone will be
assigned to the required role so there is no chaos.
When I am I finish with the equipment, for example the
lighting I will place it in the corner, again so no one trips over it and
because it is hot I do not want anyone touching it. I will dismantle all the
non-used equipment so no one is hurt.
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