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Posts Tagged ‘health and safety’

A young British woman working in an office in London was seriously injured recently when her hair was trapped by the blades of a desk fan, leading to servere blood loss and lacerations to the scalp. Emily Hutnyk, 24, an administrative assistant at a major telecommunications firm in the London borough of Kensington and Chelsea, was trying to cope with the recent heatwave in the UK . Thermometers in the captial city rose to as high as 35 Centigrade (95 F) on July 1st, which meant if you worked in an office in London the conditions could become rather unbearable. Just like many other office workers, Miss Hutnyk put a small fan on her desktop in order to stay cool while trying to work. Since desk fans are notoriously inneficient at cooling in very high temperatures, she repeatedly moved the appliance closer to her face. However her long hair, swept around by the wind caused by the fan, swept in between the grilles and got caught in its whirling blades. It only took seconds for a large amount of hair and skin to be forcefully torn out of the girl’s head by the rotating blades of the fan. “I hardly remember it to be honest”, admitted Miss Hutnyk when interviewed later, “I think I passed out within seconds – it was my poor colleagues who had to watch it happen. I think my co-workers were acutally the traumatised ones – apparently my blood went everywhere.” She was rushed to the nearest hospital by ambulance, where she was treated for blood loss, scalp wounds and shock. Once her head wounds have fully recovered Miss Hutnyk may consider hair implant surgery, as some of the hair that was pulled out may never grow back.

“This was a terrible accident,” said a company spokesman later. “It is something we want to avoid happening again and we’ll be reviewing the provision of cooling appliances in the office. We will be fitting each office with a ceiling fan and banning the use of desk fans to prevent these kinds of incidents in the future.” Office and general workers trade union GMB scoffed at this response from the company, calling it “far short of the mark”. “The root cause of such disasters is that we don’t have equipment or laws in place in workplaces to help us cope with hot weather – ceiling fans aren’t enough. We are demanding that every office in the UK be fitted with at least a portable air conditioner both to help people concentrate on their work and ensure this kind of tragedy never happens again.” Miss Hutnyk, at the unions advice, is currently considering whether to pursue legal action against the company, which could be a landmark case in health and safety and employment law.

It doesn't matter whether you work in a shop, an office or a warehouse - the security of your business should be a primary concern.As well as complying with health and safety legislation, it is in the interests of your business that you take precautions in order to make safe the people and contents of your office.One of the most cost effective and economic ways of putting these measures into place is by installing safety mirrors.  Not only can they improve safety in the workplace, but they can also help your business to run more efficiently.

Convex security mirrors consist of a mirror face made of shatterproof acrylic and housing made from unbreakable ABS (Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene) plastic which is UV treated to protect it from the discolouring of any bright sunlight.

Security mirrors combined with the use of security cameras are an excellent method of improving safety where visibility is restricted or on occasions not possible due to the infrastructure.There can often be a significant reduction in visibility from increased storage equipment which is packed ever higher in order to maximise space usage.  If this is the case, then lighting must be arranged in such a way that dark shadows aren't cast on any isles or corridors.

Mirrors can make a significant difference in reducing the likelihood of theft from a property.Whether you are looking to combat the burglary of a warehouse, reduce shoplifting in a retail environment or reduce the impact that light fingered members of staff have on your stock, security mirrors help to give the visibility in those harder to monitor areas.  The value of mirrors as a deterrent should not be underestimated.

So if you are looking to improve the safety and security of people and property in your workplace then convex security mirrors are a highly cost effective solution that should be given serious consideration.