3 Common Warehouse Hazards and How to Prevent Them?

Without a rigorous approach to safety, warehouses can be dangerous places. So, here are the three common warehouse hazards and how to prevent them.

Warehouse hazards come in all forms. You can avoid some hazards by taking simple steps, even when those steps aren’t always intuitive. You can’t prevent other hazards, so you must manage or minimise them instead. Many of the most common warehouse hazards require a combination of prevention and risk management.

A thorough risk assessment can help you identify and address potential workplace hazards. If your business has more than five employees, the law requires you to conduct and record a risk assessment.

If you have less than five people in your business, HSE still recommends a risk assessment, but you don’t need to write anything down.

So, to give you a head start on your risk assessment, here are three common warehouse hazards to look out for and what you can do to stop them.

Warehouse Hazard #1: A Cold Workplace

Winter is finally over, but spring isn’t exactly sweltering either.

For most workplaces, the answer is 16 degree Celsius. However, staff who carry out physical work should work in temperatures of at least 13°C. Warehouse work likely qualifies as physical, but maintaining a 13 degree warehouse can be harder than you might think.

Warehouses are large, open spaces that typically have poor insulation. When it’s minus 13 degrees outside, you may struggle to get your warehouse’s temperature above freezing.

The cold weather is an example of a hazard that you can’t prevent, but the temperature of your warehouse is something which can modify with decent heating and installation.

Beyond that, insist that your staff are wearing appropriate clothing and make sure that they are following your recommendations for staying warm.

Warehouse Hazard #2: Slips, Trips & Falls

Late last year, Poundstretcher paid a £1,000,000 fine because its messy warehouse put people at risk of slips, trips and falls.

Although slips, trips and falls are three separate hazards, they all have one thing in common: your floor. A slippery surface can often result in a slip, an untidy surface can often result in a trip, and an uneven surface or a heightened surface without protection can often result in a fall.

These types of hazards are common in warehouses because of the sheer amount of floorspace a warehouse tends to have. As such, it’s easier for some corners of your floor to go unnoticed. What’s more, untidy floors are a more common problem in warehouses — where badly stored items can quickly become trip hazards than in other workplaces.

HSE has a guide on how to prevent slips, trips, and falls which refers to the legislation relevant to these hazards. In a worst case scenario, a slips, trip, or fall can be fatal, but they are not inevitable.

They don’t “just happen”, and you can take many steps to prevent them.

As with any other warehouse hazard, a risk assessment will help you identify and deal with potential slips, trips, or falls. However, a floor map is a specific tool HSE recommends you use which will help you to do a risk assessment specifically for your floor.

To prevent slips, use simple measures such as entrance mats to stop people bringing water inside. Clean up spills as soon as possible.

The way you clean a floor can also significantly affect how much grip it has. Also, bear in mind that some floors are more slippery than others. You may need to install new flooring.

To prevent trips and falls, install guardrails wherever someone could fall. Clearly display the manufacturer’s instructions for mezzanine flooring or elevated surfaces. Don’t leave things in stairways, throughways, or aisles; storing things properly will help to prevent this.

Warehouse Hazard #3: Misused Racking

Racking misuse can be fatal. Overloading a storage system, ignoring damage, and stacking items messily can all cause serious accidents. These are common examples of racking misuse.

You don’t have to look far to find examples of racking collapses making headline news.

When this happens, the best case scenario is that the business loses thousands of pounds due to broken or damaged product and a warehouse in need of repair. The worst case scenario is injury or death.

In order to make sure racking isn’t misused, employers should insist that all employees follow the manufacturer’s recommendations to the letter.

Load notices give explicit guidance on how a racking system should be used and what the maximum load for the system should be.

As for damaged racking, employers should be trained on how to inspect a racking system because damage or missing parts are not always obvious. Inspections when a system has been potentially damaged or even if damage is suspected is a legal requirement under the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations (PUWER) 1998.

Beyond that, HSE also recommends regular staff inspections and an inspection from a SEMA approved racking inspector once a year. For staff inspections, Storage Equipment Experts recommends and provides racking inspection training for employees and employers. We are happy to deliver this training at your workplace or at our training centre.
To book your racking inspection by SEMA Approved inspector or racking inspection training today, contact us for a FREE consultation.