Health & Safety Newsletter August 2016 university of Brighton - accommodation & Hospitality services

There has recently been an accident in Hospitality Services where a member of staff suffered a serious scald to their hand that resulted in them being signed off work for two weeks to recover. The member of staff had filled a pump action drink dispenser (pictured below) with coffee and carried it from the filling area to a trolley for delivery. Coffee leaked out of the dispenser and on to the member of staff’s hand causing a scald. As the dispenser at the time of the accident had been carried by the body and not by the handle, it was concluded that the leak may have occurred due to the dispenser not being stable. Holding the container by the handle would mean that the staff member’s hand would not have been able to come into contact with the contents of the dispenser. However, the accident did highlight that a reminder should be provided to all staff about the importance of correct handling of the dispensers. If you work in Hospitality and fill up these pump action dispensers make sure: You don’t over fill them, the catch on the top is set to ‘closed’ and that you carry the dispenser by the handle. The Hospitality Service’s kitchen competency checklist has now been updated to include this additional information when inducting new staff.
Pump Action Coffee Dispenser
Have you ever been involved in an accident at work and not been sure how to report it? Or are you unclear on what happens once you have reported an accident? If either of these are you, read on…. If you are involved in an accident at work you need to report it to your line manager as soon as possible. They will then ask you to complete an accident report form, or will complete it on your behalf if you are not well enough to do so. Your line manager will investigate what happened by looking at the immediate cause of the accident and then the underlying causes. For example, the immediate cause of Bob’s bumped head was that the shelf the box was on collapsed. The underlying cause might be that that the shelf was overloaded, and a further underlying cause might be that no one had communicated to staff what a safe load was for that particular shelf. Once your line manager has investigated they can then put new control measures in place if required, to make sure a repeat accident doesn't occur. The form is then sent to the department’s Health & Safety Advisor who reviews the information and may ask further questions and make further recommendations. The form then goes off to our department’s designated Safety HUB Manager in the central Health & Safety Team, Lorraine Everett. She reviews the accident one last time and may ask further questions and make further recommendations to ensure the university has done all it can to prevent the accident reoccurring. If the accident needs to be reported to the Health & Safety Executive, Lorraine will also do this. Your line manager will put in place additional controls if these were identified and will keep you informed of any further developments. Within our department, your accident will form part of the health and safety statistics which get reported to the Department Management Team (DMT) every quarter. The DMT will identify any patterns that emerge in the types of accidents and will address these where required, for example by making more resources available to put additional controls in place.
In recent weeks there has been an outbreak of e-coli in the UK with 144 people becoming ill and 2 fatalities. It is not 100% clear why so many people have been infected, however there is a link between those that are ill and them having eaten salad leaves prior. The symptoms of e-coli range from mild diarrhoea to bloody diarrhoea with severe abdominal pain. Public Health England has heightened surveillance and is carefully monitoring the situation. To protect our customers if you work in hospitality and to protect yourself too, wash salad leaves thoroughly before serving and wash your hands prior to eating and preparing food.
The HSE received a query from a member of the public after they were banned from taking their foldaway bicycle into their local supermarket for health and safety reasons. The HSE confirmed that there is no Health & Safety at Work legislation that bans this. After contact from the HSE, the supermarket admitted their mistake in using health and safety as an excuse in this instance.
Do you have a stepladder in your workplace? If so then there are a few things to consider before it is used. The university has a policy that all stepladders used across the organisation are trade stepladders. This means that the stepladder you use at work must be compliant with BS EN 131. When you buy a stepladder this standard should be noted in the item description, however if it isn’t, ask the supplier before you buy. Like all work equipment, stepladders need to be inspected regularly for damage and faults to ensure they remain safe to use. To ensure this is done you can buy a LadderTag inspection manual and tag system which takes the user through a detailed 6 monthly check which must be recorded. In addition to this the tag system takes the user through a pre-use visual inspection which doesn't need to be recorded, but does need to be carried out before each use. Anyone can carry out the inspection, but if you are unsure please contact Mike Young, our department’s Health & Safety Advisor, and he will visit to take you through the inspection. If you use a stepladder on a regular basis you should attend the central Health & Safety team’s stepladder use and inspection training. To find the next available course, please check out the Health & Safety Training site.
The Chartered Institute of Environmental Health Level 2 Award in Health & Safety in the Workplace is now being delivered to staff across the department and so far the first 22 staff have successfully passed the award. Well done to everyone who has attended so far. Our department has made this one day course mandatory for all staff. Therefore if you have not yet booked a place on to the course, please speak with your manager during your one to one. Apart from during September, the course will be running every other week until the end of December. Here are a couple of pictures of the learners from the last course getting stuck into a healthy and safe activity….
.....and a few more learners

If you see a hazard, don't ignore it, own it!

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