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Safety Net Journal Issue 8 |
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New Guidance on H&S in Warehouses and Distribution Centres
HSE has issued its long awaited updated Guidance ‘Warehousing and storage: A guide to health and safety’ (HSG76).
It is hard to get accurate figures for accidents in the industry because the warehousing sector is so diverse.
However the HSE is concerned that accidents appear to be increasing among warehouse and transport workers.
The vast majority of accidents are caused by a few obvious hazards that could be prevented by better management. For example about a quarter of major injuries (broken bones, injuries requiring hospital treatment, etc.) are caused by slipping or tripping. Falls from height and being struck by moving vehicles are responsible for the fatalities in the sector.
This updated version was developed in liaison with the Warehousing Health and Safety Forum, a joint committee with representation from trade associations, trade unions and enforcement bodies.
The Guidance is aimed at managers and supervisors but it is also extremely useful to health and safety reps.
The detailed guide runs to 124 pages and covers 3 main subject areas-
- General health, safety and welfare (H/S management, Occupational health etc)
- Materials handling, (Manual/mechanical handling, workplace transport, working at height etc)
- Storage, (Automated storage and retrieval, temperature controlled storage etc)
The Guidance is available from HSE Books - www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/ - priced £14.40. Safety reps in warehouses and distribution centres should encourage management to buy copies of the guide and to make it available for the reps to use.
The HSE has also produced a free short guide Warehousing and storage, Keep it safe'(INDG412) which gives brief advice on the most common causes of accidents and ill health in the industry:
- vehicles in and around the warehouse; and
- moving or falling objects.
Copies of the free leaflet are available from the Health and Safety Section at Central Office or can be downloaded from www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/indg412.pdf
Source: HSE
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