Safety Products to Prevent Workplace Accidents

Safety is such a huge subject. There are literally thousands of different elements to consider when it comes to maintaining a safe and palatable workplace. Not only is safety about protecting our workers from a physical and psychological point of view, however safety also comes down to providing the confidence and trust that our workers require to do the best job possible. Safe workplaces are identified to be effective workplaces and so investing some time and money into discovering solutions that promote safety - can save you generously in the benefits that it delivers.

Large or small, any construction project can be dangerous for workers around. With proper coordination, consultation and cooperation, organisations can ensure the health and safety of all members present on site. Equipping the staff members with personal safety equipment can reduce workplace accidents. At each step of the process in construction work, management must understand that safety cannot be overlooked in order to cut costs or make profits. Your business will benefit from great safety management and happy workers.

To protect both your workforce from fatalities, ProjectLink has covered a wide spectrum of safety solutions. We have a fantastic range of safety clothing protection which cover everything from eye protection, fall protection, body protection and much more. Safety signs are always a crucial feature for informing workers and First Aid kits are an industry standard in case of accident or injury. Our suppliers even offer comprehensive site inspection Services to give insight into the potential hazards of your workplace.

If it is one thing that ProjectLink prides itself on, it is the quality and range of our safety products and services. We understand the necessity for safety within the realm of construction and infrastructure which is why our website features thousands of different solutions to ensure that your business is getting the best outcomes that it deserves.

Take a look at these different options and pick the ones that fit your requirements perfectly. By choosing to view a product you will be able to get in touch with the supplier directly.

Source: https://www.projectlink.com.au/c/buildings/safety

Management of Health and Safety in Buildings and Civil Works

With multiple teams, heavy machinery, castings and concrete works and precarious spaces - Construction sites are busy and fairly dangerous spaces. With proper coordination, consultation and cooperation organisations can ensure the health and safety of all members present on site.

What is Construction Work

Construction work is any work carried out in connection with the construction, alteration, conversion, fitting out, commissioning, renovation, repair, maintenance, refurbishment, demolition, decommissioning or dismantling of a structure, or preparation of a building site.

National Approach

Due to the nature of risk to life involved in certain industries, the Australian government has been proactive in creating laws and strategies to enable the safe working conditions. The Australian Work Health and Safety Strategy 2012-2022 has identified the construction industry as a priority due to the high number and rate of work-related fatalities and serious injuries.
For a number of years, construction has consistently been among the top few industries with the highest number of serious claims. Since 2006-07, it has had the fifth highest incidence rate of serious claims of all industries. The Strategy aims to reduce the incidence of serious injury by at least 30% nationwide by 2022 and reduce the number of work-related fatalities due to injury by at least 20%.

Since the Strategy launched, Safe Work Australia and all jurisdictions have been working collaboratively with the industry, unions, relevant organisations and the community to reduce traumatic injury fatalities and injuries in the transport industry.

Precautionary Measures on Site

The old adage "Prevention is better than cure", cannot be ignored when we consider the safety of staff and works on site.

Personal Safety Equipment

Equipping the staff members with personal safety equipment can save the PCBU (Person conducting business or undertaking) a fair amount of heartache.

Helmets or hard hats, safety glasses, gloves, safety boots and earmuffs are the basic construction wear if provided to the workers can immediately reduce claims and injuries.

Click here to know more about safety wear »

Safety Equipment

Depending on the nature of the construction, equipment like safety harnesses, safe cage lifts, safety eyewash, and fireproofing can ensure the work is carried out with minimum problems.

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Safety Officer or Consultant

It is also fairly common, and a norm growing in popularity to hire a safety officer or consultant to guide from workers to the management staff the proper guidelines and processes to ensure the injuries and fatalities can be prevented while working on the site. The safety officer also makes rounds of the site to ensure that staff is adhering to the guidelines.

Demarcation of Danger Zones

Safety markings, signages, and barriers are simple and effective ways to ensure safety on site. It is important that these are in bright or reflective colours, and the signs are in bold lettering. As most construction sites are noisy ensuring high visibility of danger zones can be extremely helpful to all on site.

Safety Briefing for Staff Members on Site

As per the safety norms in Australia to be able to carry out construction work, a person must complete an introductory safety training course called ‘general construction induction training’. This is also commonly known as ‘white card’ training.

Under the model WHS (Work Health and Safety) Act, a PCBU must make sure every worker has completed white card training, including those who have completed training in the past but have not carried out construction work in the last two years. Once a person has completed that training they may apply to a WHS regulator for a white card.

A white card issued in one state or territory or by the Commonwealth is generally recognised Australia wide.

Regulations and Rules in Australia

The WHS Model Act

In 2011, Safe Work Australia developed a single set of WHS laws to be implemented across Australia. These are known as ‘model’ laws. For the model WHS laws to become legally binding, the Commonwealth, states, and territories must separately implement them as their own laws.

The model WHS Act forms the basis of the WHS Acts that have been implemented in most jurisdictions across Australia.
The main object of the Act is to provide a balanced and nationally consistent framework to secure the health and safety of workers and workplaces. It does this by:

1. Protecting workers and other persons from harm by requiring duty holders to eliminate or minimise the risk
2. Providing for fair and effective representation, consultation and cooperation
3. Encouraging unions and employer organisations to take a constructive role in promoting improvements in WHS practices
4. Promoting the provision of advice, information, education, and training for WHS
5. Securing compliance with the Act through effective and appropriate compliance and enforcement measures
6. Ensuring appropriate scrutiny and review of actions taken by persons with powers or functions under the Act
7. Providing a framework for continuous improvement
8. Maintaining and strengthening national harmonisation of WHS laws and facilitating a consistent national approach to WHS

Responsibility and Safety Duties for the Company

It is important that PCBUs understand their responsibilities and duties towards the staff and workers on the site. As construction is high risk work with injuries and fatalities, the PCBUs must ensure checks and safety. At each step of the process in construction work, PCBUs are subject to certain general and specific duties under the model WHS laws. For example:

1. The model WHS Regulations require the person that commissions construction work to consult with the designer of a structure about safety matters and to give the designer and the principal contractor for the project information about safety matters
2. A PCBU that carries out construction work must manage and control WHS risks associated with that work. It must also ensure that a construction site is secured from unauthorised access
3. The principal contractor for a construction project is also a PCBU and must be aware of the WHS duties that apply to all PCBUs that carry out construction work, as well as the specific duties that are imposed on principal contractors in that industry
4. Specific duties that apply to principal contractors include, but are not limited to, the duty to be clearly identified by signage posted at the construction site, the duty to prepare, review, keep and inform others about the WHS management plan for the construction project
5. Under the model WHS Act, the person with management or control of a workplace must ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, that the workplace, the means of entering and exiting the workplace and anything arising from the workplace are without risk to the health and safety of any person

Training your Management Staff

Once the PCBU has initiated the workers on site on the safety measures, it is also essential that the management staff, and other upper executive level officers understand the importance of safety. Here are a few pointers:

1. Management must understand that safety cannot be overlooked in order to cut costs or make profits.
2. Risk assessment should be added to the project management details
3. Clearly identified responsibility and staff member associated with it should be appointed
4. Management initiated safety drives and checks to ensure ground staff is adhering to the safety rules
5. Awareness/Orientation towards of incident management
6. Cross level committee development initiative to ensure fair representation of all level of staff

Source: https://www.projectlink.com.au/blog/construction-site-safety-and-management/

How Replacing Streetlights to LED can Help the City Councils

In our previous post, we spoke about the importance of city lighting. Lighting helps improve safety, reduces crime and also uplifts the overall look of the city. Lighting is an important aspect of city planning. Just like roads and other amenities, lighting is an important mandate for all city councils. Read our post about the importance of city lighting »

Over the last five years, most city councils across Australia have actively initiated the process of replacing old streetlights to LEDs. The advantages of opting for LED Street lights are manifold.

Cost and Energy Savings

There are more than 2.3 million street lighting lamps in service in Australia, this contributes to nearly 1.5 million tonnes of greenhouse emissions each year and costing nearly $400m in energy and maintenance costs. It is stated that a change to widely accepted energy efficient technologies could save councils nearly 80% in energy costs. In addition to adopting renewable energy sources for public amenities, replacing traditional lighting with LED lighting is one of the first proven steps to reduce carbon footprint.

"Old lights use four and half times the electricity. The 80W mercury vapour streetlights cost 437% more in electricity compared to LEDs."

Click here to know more about LED lighting »

Return on Investment

While the implementation in LED light replacement appears to be a high investment. The capital cost of the new lights, installation costs, project management and other costs (such as a residual value of old lights), the initiative will pay themselves back in as little as 5 years.

"Long and predictable lifetime: The projected lifetime of LED street lights is usually 10 to 15 years, two to four times the life of currently prevalent High Pressure Sodium Lamps. (LEDs themselves do not generally fail or "burn out" in a way comparable to other technologies, and barring catastrophic failure of other mechanical or electronic components of the LED fixture, lifetimes are typically set by a decrease in luminous output of 30%."

Leading by Example

Governments at the central and local level clearly understand the positive impact of sustainability and environment-friendly solutions in cities. As cities are gearing up for a sustainable city management and development, many city councils are setting great examples.

Sydney has set a great example and is a world leader in the movement to switch over to LED lighting in public spaces. Public lighting costs make up one-third of Sydney's annual electric bill and nearly 70% of its greenhouse gas emissions. Since 2012, Sydney has saved nearly $370,000 and enjoyed a 34% reduction in energy usage.

In Brisbane, more than 20,000 LEDs have been switched over from incandescent bulbs. This includes 8,500 LED lights that have been incorporated into City Hall alone.

Melbourne is not only installing LED lighting on the street through its Public Lighting Strategy, it is also offering rebates to apartment owners who upgrade to LED lighting through the Smart Block programme.

The benefits of installing LED lights and LED downlights are real and the impact immediately noticeable. Other cities across Australia, both large and small, are taking note of Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne's experiences and starting to implement their own LED lighting plans, hoping to enjoy similar cost savings, emission reductions and lowering the carbon footprint.