5 Common Misconceptions About Health and Safety

Misinformation is everywhere! So we at Storage Equipment Experts feel like it’s high time to do some health and safety myth busting. If there’s one consistently popular — and usually inaccurate — news story, it’s the one about health and safety “going too far”. After all, some people just love to hate health and safety. But “health and safety gone mad!” is more than just a worn out cliche; it’s damaging to the reputation of health and safety and all the good work it does. What is rarely mentioned in these fabricated tales is how HSE has helped to reduce workplace fatalities by 86 per cent and workplace injuries by 77 per cent. So, in order to clear health and safety’s name, here are some common health and safety myths debunked.

1. Mixing Milk: A Cocktail of Workplace Danger!

In a Costa Coffee in Sheffield, a customer asked if their barista would be able to mix whole milk and skimmed milk for them. The customer obviously felt that this would be a creative solution to the fact that the cafe didn’t serve semi-skimmed milk, so you can imagine their shock when they were told that mixing milk would violate health and safety. Unless the resulting milk was somehow poisonous, this simply is not true. In fact, HSE itself stepped in and described the incident as a “clear case of poor customer service hiding behind the guise of health and safety”. It so happens that the customer being served was a health and safety manager in the construction industry. She stated that debacles like this trivialise health and safety, and we couldn’t agree more. In cases like this, “health and safety” becomes a catch-all term for “things we can’t/don’t want to do”. Health and safety is about keeping people safe, not about providing excuses for customer service or trading standards issues.

2. Don’t be Such a Baby! Staff Refusing to Heat Up Food for Infants

Many parents, and many employees of cafes and restaurants, have been in this exact situation. A parent walks up to the counter of a quiet restaurant and asks the staff member if they could just pop their microwavable tupperware or baby bottle in the microwave for a moment. It’s not a big ask, is it? Except that the health and safety police have stepped in. Restaurants and cafes can’t heat up baby food because — well — health and safety. What a crazy world we live in! Once again, this is not true. HSE have confirmed that restaurants, cafes, hotels, or any other private business with a microwave are free to use them to heat up baby food. HSE have never said anything of the sort and they claim that myths like these probably originate from “jobsworths” who are looking for a reason to avoid doing more work than they have to. The problem is that these “completely nonsensical interpretations” then spread and taken as fact. Moreover, these lies only help to make people sceptical of the important work HSE does.

3. Does My Apartment Balcony Need a Rack Safety Inspection?

You probably already knew this, but no. Balconies do not need rack safety inspections because they are — balconies. And yet, that didn’t stop one landlord acting as if balconies should be subject to the same standards of safety as warehouses. They released a statement asking tenants to refrain from storing large items or drying clothes on their balconies because of health and safety. Storage safety is important, which is why we provide rack safety inspections for businesses across the UK, but a landlord should have the wherewithal to trust tenants with their own personal storage. Your warehouse may need regular warehouse racking inspections and guidance to ensure safe storage, but your balcony does not. We at Storage Equipment Experts and HSE both have faith in people to be able to store things safely in the comfort of their own home. HSE’s comment was that this “misuse of “health and safety”” was simply “an excuse for banning the use of balconies for activities which would detract from the overall appearance of the property”. It’s yet another example of a business owner, a landlord, blaming an unpopular decision on health and safety to save face.

4. Sorry to Burst Your Bubble But…

Children’s birthday parties and bubbles go together like HSE and SEMA-approved racking inspections. They’re both great relationships and — most importantly — they are both perfectly safe relationships. So why would HSE ban the use of a bubble machine at a birthday party? It’s absolute madness! The madness is that people believe they would. No, HSE doesn’t want to ban bubbles from children’s birthday parties. Their comment on this was that people usually blame these over-zealous decisions on health and safety in order to hide their real motives — “fear of being perhaps, or bad customer service”.

5. Health and Selfies: No Selfie Sticks in British Nightclubs

The logic behind this makes sense. Selfie sticks are big metal contraptions that get swung around with abandon as groups of friends try to get the perfect picture of themselves. Throw in some drink, loud music, and a hugely crowded room and you’ve got yourself a recipe for a disaster. It’s no wonder that HSE has banned selfie sticks from nightclubs. Except that, they haven’t. HSE has no problem with this whatsoever. In debunking this myth, Lord Freud stated that “it’s never been easier to understand the rules and make the right choice”. Once again, this is likely the case of management using health and safety to protect themselves from an unpopular decision. Selfie sticks are something of a phenomenon, but it’s easy to see why a nightclub owner — and many of his loyal, non-selfie-stick-owning customers — might be fed up with them. Still, if a nightclub owner (or any business owner) wants to ban selfie sticks from their establishment, they need to be honest about their reasons. There are countless other health and safety myths out there, and HSE is desperately trying to debunk almost as fast as they are being created. But for health and safety to truly be appreciated for the good that it is, others need to step in, expose the lies, and explain why HSE is — in fact — a great thing for British business. Contact Storage Equipment Experts for a racking safety inspection and racking inspection training from the people who will cut through the jargon tell you the truth about health and safety.

Being a SEMA approved racking inspector means maintaining high standards, but what exactly are those standards?

And what does an average day look like for a SEMA approved inspector?

With clients based all over the UK and Ireland, no two days in the life of a SEMA approved inspector at Storage Equipment Experts are ever the same. The job requires a willingness to travel as well as knowledge of racking safety, a disciplined approach to racking inspections, and the ability to teach. A SEMA approved inspector needs to understand science, business, and the value of safety. It’s all in a day’s work!

Our SEMA Approved Inspector Travels Across the UK and Ireland

At Storage Equipment Experts, we are willing to travel to every corner of the UK and Ireland to deliver SEMA approved rack inspections. We are not limited by geography. Our base in London means that getting to anywhere in the UK, by motorbike, car, train, or plane, is no issue whatsoever.

As the only SEMA approved racking inspector based in the London area, we at Storage Equipment experts are particularly good at inspecting racking inside — or just outside — the M25. However, as has been previously mentioned, we are also more than willing to travel anywhere in the UK.

How Do Businesses Respond to a SEMA Approved Inspector Performing a Warehouse Racking Inspection?

Some of the people we visit are having their first ever racking inspection from a SEMA approved inspector. This is surprising, considering that HSE recommends a racking inspection from SEMA approved inspector at least once a year, though it makes more sense when you consider the general confusion British businesses sometimes feel towards health and safety. According to a study by HSE in 2015 404, 72 per cent of business owners surveyed claimed that they felt keeping up with new HSE regulations was a burden.

Both HSE and Storage Equipment Experts are striving to change that mentality. In HSE’s 2016-2017 business plan, dispelling myths and helping with misunderstanding about health and safety were two of their biggest aims 404. The aim is to get the message across. Health and safety doesn’t restrict business; it makes business better.

In the 2015 survey, 58 per cent of businesses said that their perception of HSE had changed for the better after a visit from HSE compared with just two per cent who claimed it had changed for the worse. This is certainly something which we see at Storage Equipment Experts. After a visit from a SEMA approved racking inspector — a racking inspection expert — many businesses have a much more positive attitude towards health and safety.

In fact, after a visit from us, many businesses are keen to receive racking inspection training so that their staff can carry out their own internal racking inspections on a more regular basis. This something which HSE also recommends.

All of which goes to show that the best way to cure British workplaces of ignorance and confusion towards health and safety is to confront it head on.

How Does a SEMA Approved Inspector Perform a Warehouse Racking Inspection?

Carefully. A SEMA approved inspector performs a warehouse racking inspection carefully. Awareness about rack safety and warehouse racking inspections is increasing every year. As a result, it is our responsibility at Storage Equipment Experts to maintain the highest standards as more and more people learn about the benefits of racking inspections and racking inspection training.

The condition of racking systems can be deceptive at first glance, and this is why we need SEMA approved inspectors. After all, racking damage isn’t always obvious. A warehouse can be clean, neat, and otherwise completely safe, but just because there isn’t damage that doesn’t mean that there isn’t danger. Missing safety locks are a surprisingly common fault. These missing locks may seem innocuous, but without them, the racking system could collapse at any moment.

Sometimes, particularly in more established businesses, a fast-paced and pressurised business environment can lead to the overloading of racking systems. In some extreme cases, this may have been going on for years without businesses paying any attention to it. This is the sort of danger that requires fresh eyes to see. It’s easy to become acclimatised to danger if it’s been there for so long, but that doesn’t make it okay.

What Happens After a Warehouse Racking Inspection from a SEMA Approved Inspector?

At Storage Equipment Experts, we are always there to recommend the best course of action following one of our inspections. Ultimately, it is the legal responsibility of the business itself to implement the change their warehouse may need. The new CDM regulations make this clear the buck stops with the business owner.

Repairing or replacing parts of — or the whole of — a racking system can cause short-term disruption. However, much like in every area of business, certain investments are absolutely necessary. No serious business can knowingly continue to operate with an unsafe racking system especially when an expert has told them exactly what the problem is. At that point, a business owner can no longer feign ignorance.

It need not get to this point. Annual racking inspections from a racking inspection expert, as well as staff who are trained in how to perform regular internal racking inspections, will make sure that your business is not in a position where they are forced to replace or repair their racking. Racking systems are sturdy, reliable, and can last for years if treated properly. At Storage Equipment Experts, our day to day job is making sure that businesses realise that fact.

Being a SEMA approved racking inspector means maintaining high standards, but what exactly are those standards?

At Storage Equipment Experts, one of the things we regularly see in cinema, literature, and theatre is a dangerous workplaces.

We let a lot of details slide in the name of telling a great story. After all, over the course of its ten-year run, Friends regularly changed the ages of its main characters as well as major events in their lives in order to tell a new joke or two. However, one thing that gets ignored far too often are the places where our beloved fictional characters work.

Even Fictional Workplace Safety is Important

Characters get into trouble, whether it is comic or tragic, for a whole host of reasons and so it wouldn’t be outside the realms of good story writing to make workplace safety a pivotal plot point. Instead, we are usually left wondering how on earth so many fictional businesses are still functioning. After all, with regards to Friends, who else works at Central Perk other than Rachel and Gunther? What happens when someone needs to call in sick? And have you ever once seen someone clean those tables?

For some stories though, a proper appreciation of workplace safety and the intricacies of the day-to-day workplaces helps to add an extra layer of realism.

The Wire, HBO’s flagship crime-drama, was praised for its six-year commitment to consistent realism. It built an extremely convincing and compelling picture of the city of Baltimore, not by using broad brushstrokes, but by patiently adding thousands of small details together.

And yes one of these details was workplace safety. It became an important plot point as Officer Polk considers purposefully throwing himself down an unsafe stairway so that he can retire early and live off the compensation. Eventually, he can’t bring himself to do it. However, that unsafe stairway helps to teach us more about Polk’s character and his motivations, or therein lack of, for being a policeman.

Still, not every television show is The Wire. Sometimes a story moves too fast for the characters to pause and consider the unsafe working environment that they’re in.

A Sci-Fi Show with Pallet Rack Inspections?

There’s no reason why it couldn’t happen! Over the course of Doctor Who’s 50 years, The Doctor has experienced every kind of drama — from the political to the intellectual, to the comedic, to the absurd — so why haven’t pallet rack inspections found their way into the story? Would it really be any stranger than that time the Doctor was trapped in the Big Brother house?

Firefly, another sci-fi classic, lasted for just one season. Yet, despite this, the show still made room for some very simple details. We watch the characters eat meals together, we see how their beds fold out, and in the opening section to one episode, the crew are playing some kind of made up sport together.

In this fictional universe, where the everyday details are what make the show so believable, a safety inspection of some kind wouldn’t be entirely out of place.

Workplace safety is much more important to storytelling than we often give it credit. With that in mind, here’s our infographic on the most dangerous fictional workplaces of all time…

Whether it’s fairytale fantasy or fast-paced fight scenes, workplace safety factors into a lot more stories than we realise. Eddie Izzard once pointed out that the Death Star must have had a canteen. Equally, it must have had a safety inspector of some sort…

Pallet racking safety is no fiction! Contact Storage Equipment Experts for the best pallet rack inspections in the UK.

The 14th Annual Forklift Safety Conference takes place at the end of this month and there are plenty of reasons why it affects everyone.

The Forklift Safety Conference has taken place every year since 2002, and it affects a lot more than just forklift experts. With over a million forklifts sold in 2014 alone — that figure having risen steadily for several years — forklifts are serious business.

A warehouse in Telford recently learnt the value of a well-made forklift after its roll cage saved a worker from a potentially fatal racking collapse. All of which brings us to our first top tip for forklift safety…

1. Forklift Safety Should be Partnered with Racking Safety and Warehouse Safety

If pallet racking is properly secured, then it should be able to withstand most forklift impacts. Of course, forklift impacts should be avoided at all costs, and proper use of a forklift will ensure this. However, sometimes, no matter how careful you are, an accident might happen because the environment you are driving in is dangerous and not the forklift itself.

This is why forklift safety should be partnered with racking and warehouse safety. If your pallet racks are loaded properly, then a forklift can drive down aisles without worrying. However, this is permitting that the aisles themselves are free from obstructions or slippery services.

Another way that racking safety should be partnered with forklift safety is with the use of rack protectors. These can — and should — be added to racking wherever there is likely to be a collision. Though this comes with a caveat. Both we at Storage Equipment Experts and SEMA themselves are of the opinion that physical rack protectors are often misused. That is to say, many businesses are often over-reliant on them.

The best form of racking protection comes in the form of prevention and protection. Put another way…

2. Racking Inspections from Racking Inspection Experts and Racking Inspection Training are the Best Form of Rack Protection

They really are. That’s why HSE agrees with us that pallet racking should be inspected by an expert, such as a SEMA approved rack inspector on a regular basis. And regular, in this context, means at least once a year. Added to that, HSE also states that racking requires a more regular inspection from internal warehouse staff. For this, we recommend racking inspection training.

The net result should be racking which is secure enough that, should a forklift bump into it, the system will not completely collapse. Forklift safety should be followed at all times but, should the worst happen, secure racking is there to make sure that a bad situation is not made worse.

3. Warehouse Safety is a Positive Feedback Loop

If you obey HSE’s guidance on racking safety, then you will be safe when something goes wrong with your forklift. If you obey HSE’s guidance on forklift safety, then you will be safe when something goes wrong with your racking. The two disciplines compliment each other well, but this is also true across your whole warehouse.

Your warehouse is a delicate system. When one thing goes wrong, it often leads to other problems. Wet floors lead to slips and trips, which can lead to low employee motivation, unsafe behaviour, and yet more accidents. However, the reverse is also true. That is to say, when things go right it can lead to other things going right.

If you use your forklift properly, then your racking will be safer. And if your racking systems are safer, then your whole warehouse will be safer too. Good things have a way of snowballing in much the same way that bad things do.

Combining forklift safety with racking safety is the best way to ensure that your warehouse is living up to its potential! Contact Storage Equipment Experts, the best racking safety experts in the UK!

The possibility of a Brexit is a very real one, and so it’s worth considering what it would mean for workplace health and safety.

At Storage Equipment Experts, we take pride in our knowledge of workplace health and safety, which is why we offer both SEMA approved rack inspections and pallet racking inspections from a racking inspection expert. However, with the EU being largely responsible for shaping workplace safety in the UK, it’s worth considering what a Brexit would mean.

HSE Recommend Racking Inspections by SEMA Approved Inspectors…

We often tell our customers that the authority of SEMA approved racking inspectors ultimately comes from HSE. HSE recommends an expert pallet rack inspection at least once a year to ensure racking safety. They mention SEMA approved rack inspectors (SARIs) by name as an example of racking inspection experts. This decision is made by HSE alone.

Still, there are a few things to bear in mind. First, there are many EU Directives that affect UK law, and that can have an affect on HSE. And sometimes the influence of EU Directives are hard to separate from HSE’s own decision making, something which HSE itself has admitted.

The second thing to bear in mind is that SEMA and the EU have a relationship which could change if Britain were to leave the EU. The resulting split could lead to SEMA having less authority, but this is also unlikely. SEMA and HSE’s relationship has only become closer over the years, with talks of SEMA even helping to create a law which HSE will enforce. From this, it seems almost certain that HSE and SEMA’s relationship will continue whatever the results of the referendum. And so whatever the reason for HSE’s recommendation, it is highly unlikely that HSE will stop recommending racking inspections by SEMA Approved inspectors. After all, if something is working, and working well, why change it?

Inside the EU, or outside of it, HSE will most probably carry on recommending pallet racking inspections from racking inspection experts at least once a year.

What about Warehouse and Workplace Safety as Whole?

The future of warehouse safety and workplace safety in a general sense is much less certain. As a rule, it’s fair to say that the more general the question is about the Brexit, the less certain the answer will be. As columnist David Mitchell pointed out in a recent article, “No one knows if we will be better off inside or outside the EU. The liars are those who claim to be certain.”

With regards to workplace safety, there is a lot of truth to this. To find out how safe or unsafe the EU makes the British workplace, the EU Directives that have influenced HSE decisions will have to be weighed up against the ones that HSE have decided upon themselves. That sort of comparison is next to impossible. After all, workplace tragedies rarely happen because an employer failed to follow just one protocol. Often it’s the case that a whole host of protocols were ignored.

Then there is the fact that, even if the UK were to exit the EU, HSE would not change overnight. The laws that HSE have made under the influence of EU Directives may or may not change on a case by case basis. However, what is certain is that — if the UK did leave the EU — each respective government would have more power of HSE than before. That is what lies at the heart of the EU debate in all other areas, and it doesn’t change with regards to workplace health and safety.

By this point, you will have most likely already made up your mind about the EU and your vote has already been mentally cast. If you are in favour of the EU, then that’s because you probably think that its influence on British workplace safety is generally a good thing. If you are not in favour, then that’s probably because the reverse is true. Still, whatever your political view, we at Storage Equipment Experts will not be changing as a result of the vote. Our dedication to delivering SEMA approved rack inspections will remain the same.

Contact Storage Equipment Experts for pallet racking inspection training from the UK’s best racking inspection experts!

As the referendum draws closer, voters in the UK should be asking themselves “what has EU ever done for health and safety?”

Monty Python’s The Life of Brian is now almost 40 years old, and yet the moment where John Cleese asks “What have the Romans ever done for us?” is still relevant today, even more so as the EU referendum fast approaches. That question is — in the old routine — followed by a series of things the Romans did do for us. In much the same way, the question “What have the EU ever done for health and safety?” might also be followed by a series of things the EU has done for health and safety.

However, the real question is “has the EU ever done anything good for health and safety?” After all, there’s no doubting their influence on British workplaces, and the UK as a whole, but has it always been a positive influence?

How Does the EU Affect Health and Safety?

One thing that should be pointed out is that the EU regulation can’t just force itself the British workplace on a whim. According to HSE’s appraisal of the situation, it often takes several years for regulation suggested in Brussels to affect a warehouse in Milton Keynes or anywhere else in the UK. The reason for this is that there are many checks on the EU’s power over HSE.

However, just because it might take a long time, that doesn’t mean that it won’t eventually happen, even if there is strong opposition. In 2006, for example, an EU Directive on artificial optical radiation was heavily opposed by the British parliament. Despite this, the directive had to go into effect so as to adhere to EU law. HSE still follows the directive, but only at the barest possible minimum.

The UK controls to what extent it will follow EU health and safety legislation with transposition notes. These are amendments that accompany EU Directives and they are the UK’s way of implementing EU regulation in a way that best works for British businesses and British people. Depending on how you feel about a particular EU Directive, the fact that the British government can’t simply overturn it may be something you support. To give just one example, much of the UK’s commitment to environmental safety, an increasingly important part health and safety, comes from its adherence to EU law.

The EU, HSE, SEMA, and You

It’s clear that the EU are an influential voice in health and safety and that this can sometimes be a good thing and this can sometimes be a bad thing. Still, it’s also important to recognise that the EU is not the only voice and that the influence doesn’t just go one way. As we have previously mentioned, SEMA has its own influence over the EU and this influence helps to give SEMA its authority.

At its worst, the EU imposes rules on the UK which negatively affect health and safety and which the UK uphold under duress. At its best, the EU helps us to shape laws that better the lives of everyone and hold governments to account when they don’t deliver on their health and safety promises. The relationship between the EU, HSE, SEMA, and British businesses is a conversation. Your vote will depend on whether or not you feel the EU has anything worthwhile to say.

How Does the EU Affect Racking Inspections and Racking Inspection Training?

Despite the EU and SEMA’s relationship, the requirement that businesses receive a pallet rack inspection at least once a year from a racking inspection expert (such as a SEMA approved rack inspector) is not an EU directive. This is something which HSE decided to implement on its own.

That decision may have been inspired by an EU Directive, but this is why looking at the EU’s relationship with — and influence on — British health and safety is so difficult. As HSE itself has admitted, “maintaining a strategic overview” of the relationship between HSE and the EU is filled with “particular challenges”. This is because of the length of time it takes to implement an EU Directive and how much back and forth there is between the two bodies during that time.

Despite all this, HSE’s recommendation is something that is unlikely to change regardless of the result of the referendum. The EU and SEMA’s relationship may go some way to legitimising SEMA’s authority, but even without this SEMA are still a well-respected organisation and this is unlikely to change outside of the EU.

Whatever the result of the referendum, we will continue to deliver expert racking inspections and racking inspection training for businesses across the UK. The result will not affect our continued commitment to the highest standards of racking safety.

Contact Storage Equipment Experts for the highest standard of racking inspection training in the UK.

Since HSE inception forty years ago, their role has changed a lot, and nowhere is that more true with their involvement in the safety of schools.

When HSE was first born, in the aftermath of the Flixborough, it was a bold piece of legislation designed to make workplaces safer, but that was never designed to its only role. It’s important to remember that the original name of the act that allowed for the birth of HSE was the “Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974”. That “etc” embodies one of the most important aspects of HSE, which is that, though a safe workplace is vital, the government should also step in to ensure the safety of other public spaces as well.

And so it is that HSE has entered into our schools as well. The result of this has been overwhelmingly positive. No-one would argue that HSE’s continued campaign to remove asbestos from school buildings is a bad thing. It’s a perfect example of why we need HSE. The invisible hand of the market alone cannot effectively clean up the asbestos disaster on its own, and we need someone to step up and tackle the issue head on. HSE was created for precisely this sort of job.

“Now HSE Want to Ban…”

We should rejoice that we live in a country which is so safe that mocking HSE for being “too safe” counts as a news story. You’ve probably heard some outrageous claims about HSE’s involvement in schools, but these claims are usually exaggerated, taken wildly out of context, or not a result of HSE but a decision made by the school itself.

Do HSE want to ban children playing conkers in schools? No, they do not. Do HSE want to ban playing pin the tail on the donkey in schools? Nope, guess again. Do HSE want to ban school ties? Not right this time either. The list goes on and on, and HSE are tirelessly releasing myth-busting statements every month.

HSE Just Want What is Best For School Children

However, sometimes myth-busting is not enough. Recently, HSE’s chief, Dame Judith Hackitt spoke out about HSE’s reputation. She argued that the over-zealous attitude some schools have towards health and safety runs a risk of making a mockery out of genuine health and safety legislation. HSE’s role in schools is important, but if their voice is drown out by “overprotective parents and risk-averse teachers” then students will grow up thinking that health and safety is some kind of joke.

We are lucky enough to live in a country where children are so well protected from the dangers of their school that health and safety does seem like a joke to them. Students are only able to feel this way because their schools are much safer than schools were before the creation of HSE. Those same children will grow up to have jobs in workplaces where rates of fatal injury have fallen by an enormous 86 percent since the creation of HSE.

Racking Inspection Training Means Continuing HSE’s Quest to Educate

HSE’s role in British schools makes a lot more sense when you consider that the aim of any health and safety legislation, health and safety training, or health and safety press release is to educate. Teaching people how to be safe around pallet racking goes hand in hand with teaching people how to use pallet racking, and this is why pallet racking inspection training is so important.

At Storage Equipment Experts, education is at the core of what we do. Our racking inspections and racking inspection training is very much in line with HSE’s belief that health and safety is essentially a matter of teaching people how to be safe. Fines and the laws are an important enforcement tool, but education is at the core of what we do.

HSE recommend expert racking inspections because they know how important a well-educated opinion on safety is. HSE’s continued involvement in schools and continued involvement in the warehouse industry is about creating the same thing: a safer and more intelligent workforce for the future.

School yourself in the basics of racking inspection and racking safety with our free racking inspection checklist.

Better yet, contact us for expert racking inspection training from a SEMA approved racking inspector.