SAFETY Archives - Page 8 of 8

Hazardous substances refer to chemicals or substances which can be toxic, corrosive and can cause harm. So it makes sense that we document what’s on-site and when.

If you have hazardous substances on-site, there are processes that, by law, you need to follow to ensure they are stored, used, and disposed of correctly and to reduce the risk to anyone that uses or comes into contact with them.

On 1 January 2021, Australia began a two-year transition to the revised edition of the Globally Harmonised System of Classification and Labelling of Chemicals (GHS 7). This new system replaces the previous Approved Criteria for Classifying Hazardous Substances.

Despite the transition period, we recommend you start making the changes to labelling, SDS, and packaging as soon as possible.

You can find out more about the changes below so you can make sure you are up to date with the latest info.

There has been changes to the Hazard Classifications, and you will no longer use the following classes for your hazardous substances:

Class 1 Explosives
Class 2 Flammability gases
Class 3 Flammability liquids
Class 4 Flammability solids
Class 5 Oxidising
Class 6 Toxic
Class 8 Corrosive
Class 9 Ecotoxic

The new GHS7 for hazardous substances will be classed as a physical hazard, a health hazard or an environmental hazard, detailed below:

Physical hazards

Explosives
Flammable gases
Flammable aerosols
Oxidising gases
Gases under pressure
- Compressed gas
- Liquefied gas
- Dissolved gas
- Refrigerated liquefied gas
Flammable liquids
Flammable solids
Pyrophoric liquids
Pyrophoric solids
Self-heating substances
Substances and mixtures which, in contact with water, emit flammable gases
Oxidising liquids
Oxidising solids
Organic peroxides
Corrosive to metals

Health hazards

Acute toxicity: Oral, dermal, inhalation
Skin corrosion/irritation
Serious eye damage/eye irritation
Sensitisation of the Respiratory tract or skin
Germ cell mutagenicity
Carcinogenicity
Reproductive toxicity
Specific target organ – toxicity single exposure
Specific target organ toxicity – repeated exposure
Aspiration hazard

Environmental hazards

Hazardous to the aquatic environment
Hazardous to the terrestrial environment. (This hazard class is not part of the GHS 7 classification system, but was added to ensure risks to the terrestrial environment continue to be managed.

What this means for you

You will need to ensure that your SDS, packaging and labelling of substances has been updated to reflect the new classes or you are in the process of updating. This can be done by reaching out to the supplier or manufacturer of substances.

What is a Hazardous substance register?
This is a list of all your hazardous substances (including hazardous waste) that is used, handled, or stored at any of your sites or workplaces. Having a register will ensure you know the substances you have on-site, the requirements you need-to-know, and what to do in case of an emergency.

Keeping a Hazardous substance register
Keeping your register in a central location on your site means that in case of an emergency, it can be accessed quickly by anyone who needs it. There are some key bits of information that need to be included on your hazardous substance registers. Not only do you need the information below, but you must also make sure that the register is up to date and available on-site.

The name of the substance
Issue date of the current safety data sheet t
The maximum quantity that is stored at the workplace
Where it’s located
Specific storage requirements
Any hazardous waste

Because the register represents the maximum amount of the substance held, it means it’s not going to be a daily task to keep it up-to-date. But if the maximum quantity changes, the register needs to reflect this. We recommend that you review your register each time you make a change to ensure it’s up to date and accurate.

Why not kick off the year by keeping your health and safety sorted, starting with a Risk Assessment via the HazardCo App? Risk Assessments help you identify hazards, assess the risk, and implement controls to help prevent incidents.

The HazardCo Risk Assessment feature is perfect to use before starting a new task or at the beginning of the day, but remember if you need to review the full building site, complete a Site Review instead. So, take a few moments to think about any major tasks coming up, and then open the Risk Assessment tool. The App gives you a number of question areas – quickly tap each topic and if the risk is not present for this task, select ‘No’. Where the risk is present, select ‘Yes’ or ‘Not Sure’ and the App will give you some options on how to control the risk – simply select any that apply. Of course, you can add your own comments and upload photos before moving to the next topic.

Once all topics are complete, hit submit and the completed assessment is saved to the Hub and available anywhere, anytime. You can also download the assessment and email to others as needed – easy as that.

The App makes completing a Risk Assessment really straight forward, and the suggestions on how to control possible risks give you confidence you’re doing all you can to keep your crew safe. Because the App is in the palm of your hand 24/7, Risk Assessments can be completed at any time… no paperwork needed.

As you get back into the swing of things, now’s the perfect time to start planning the first few weeks on-site and ensuring you start out the way you’d like the year to continue. HazardCo’s Risk Assessments help you keep your health and safety sorted and make sure everyone leaves the site safely at the end of each day.

With everyone coming back to work after a few weeks away, it is the perfect time to review your health and safety on-site. Easing back into work after the Christmas and New Year break may seem difficult with a looming mountain of work ahead of you, but before you get overwhelmed with day-to-day activities, take stock and prepare yourself for the year ahead. So, here are the top suggestions from the HazardCo team to help you start the year with the right mindset.

Catching up on where things are at is a good place to start. Refresh yourself on priorities for your current projects and plan out the next few months to make sure you’re on top of key milestones. Before you crack into any work, conduct a site review – after a few weeks away, you never know what might have happened on-site, so be sure to check it thoroughly and brief the team on any new hazards or site changes.

It’s also a great time to action change, so think about how your projects have gone over the past year… is there anything you want to be doing more of or doing differently? Setting new goals can be really motivating. Some popular health and safety goals amongst our HazardCo members include:

Reduce the number of serious site incidents
Increase the amount of reported near misses – big or small it doesn’t matter. (The more near misses identified, the safer your site)
Increasing the frequency of Site Reviews, Risk Assessments, and/or Toolbox Meetings. Per site, aim to complete at least 2 Site Reviews and 2 Toolbox Meetingsper month.
100% of subbies and direct team members, scanning in and out of site 100% of the time

Make sure your health and safety goals are achievable and measurable. Don’t forget to celebrate when you achieve a goal – it can help you and your team build more confidence in yourselves as you see progress, and that keeps you all motivated and inspired to continue trying to improve.

We challenge you to create new routines, such as a weekly Toolbox Meeting that you can do with everyone who is present on-site every Monday morning – as a group talk about current hazards, progress, key activities happening that week, and how you’ll all work together to manage them. The HazardCo App makes it super convenient to complete reviews and conduct meetings from anywhere on-site – so you can get your health and safety sorted from the palm of your hand, and even hold the meeting where the hazards can be seen at the same time. Simple, regular routines can be a great way to build the team and effect change.

It doesn’t take a lot of time to plan how you’d like to approach the year, yet it can have a significant impact on your achievements and your crew’s job satisfaction. Whatever your goals are, the team at HazardCo wishes you a safe and successful year, and we look forward to working with you on your health and safety goals this year.

The year’s end has snuck up on us once again, bringing the added pressure of work deadlines, projects, social events, and family commitments.

With these additional pressures occupying our headspace over the festive season, injury rates and incidents tend to increase. The team at HazardCo have a few tips on ways to manage your stress, energy levels, and overall wellbeing at this busy time.

Deadlines – short deadlines for projects and pressure to reach end-of-year-goals can add additional stress to the holidays and cause health and wellness to fall by the wayside. As always, communicate early on, and involve everyone in the project timeline and any dependencies… that way time pressures become a shared problem. And if you do have a looming deadline you don’t think you can make, now’s the time to start talking about it and looking at options with your wider team and client.

Temporary Workers – great for covering annual leave and busy periods, these staff members are often at a higher risk as they don’t have the experience or knowledge of processes specific to your workplace. If you engage temporary workers to cover annual leave or busy periods, it is important that they are inducted correctly, and receive full and correct safety instructions and supervision for any work with machinery or unfamiliar tasks they may be doing.

Social Events – whether it’s purely a social catch-up, or an end of year work party, remember to drink responsibly; monitor and manage alcohol provided to staff, and never drink and drive. This way everyone can have a safe and enjoyable time celebrating their achievements throughout the year.

So, whether you are actively working, or in the midst of the holiday season, try to stay focused on the job at hand, and pay close attention to the task you are performing.

The HazardCo team wishes you all the best for a safe and happy holiday season and look forward to catching up in 2022!

Things can get pretty hectic on a construction site so it can be hard to find time to keep on top of everyone and everything. With HazardCo’s Quick Share, the latest innovation in health and safety, subbies can now share their on-site activity with the main builder – all online and at the touch of a button. It keeps builders and their subbies on the same page when it comes to health and safety, and gives them both one less thing to remember to do later.

HazardCo created Quick Share to let subbies easily share their on-site health and safety activity with the main builder. Subbies no longer have to find, download, and print or email reports since Quick Share does the sharing for them. It works on the HazardCo App so it’s all online and shared instantly, meaning less paperwork, and since there are no delays there is also less chance of being chased by the site supervisor for health and safety activity.

When subbies use Quick Share, the main builder has a better view of what’s happening on-site and more peace of mind that everything is being completed as it needs to be. It also saves the main builder time since they don’t need to chase their subbies for that paperwork.

The online HazardCo Hub retains all activity created by the main builder for a site, as well as any activity shared by their subbies for that project. With all health and safety activity saved in one place, on-site health and safety becomes more streamlined.

Quick Share saves both builders and their subbies time and makes sure they’re on the same page when it comes to health and safety. True to HazardCo’s purpose, Quick Share is yet another feature that helps HazardCo members create a safer site and have more time to focus on the job at hand.

Managing your project on-site is all about multi-tasking. Your team, your client, as well as all the subbies and tradies, so it’s no surprise things can get pretty hectic on-site with a lot to juggle. Now there’s a way you can get your health and safety sorted even faster, while still doing the right thing to protect everyone on site.

HazardCo was built to make health and safety a breeze for everyone on-site – the app and online hub use smart templates and drop-down options, which make it super quick for anyone to complete a SWMS, site review, incident report, toolbox meeting, or induction.

The time saved on health and safety gives everyone more time on the tools, helping you get the job done quicker. And because the HazardCo App goes everywhere with you on your smartphone, health and safety activity can be completed there and then, with no need to find time to get it done later… helping you to have a safer site and manage your work-life balance.

Getting your team home safely at the end of the day is the most important thing you can do, and with HazardCo’s App and online Hub you get to save time without compromising on safety. Using the app every day keeps health and safety top of mind, which helps make the site safer for everyone.

Ready to have a little more time for other things in life? Whether you’re the lead builder, a subbie who’s won a site contract, or part of the crew, HazardCo is there to get your workplace health and safety sorted – super quick and straightforward.

Risks change, all day, everyday. That’s the reality of life on site.

Methods change because of different training and experience, people on the job change, there are differences in machinery and materials used, as well as environmental changes from hour to hour.

It’s a lot.

Risk is a product of the work processes being carried out. So, if the work doesn’t happen, the risk isn’t present.

But, if a work process is defined then risk can be recognised and taken into account.

The key question tradies and supervisors need to be asking themselves is:

How do I adapt my task when a change occurs?

It’s not about mountains of paperwork. It’s about 4 simple steps:

Plan: Identify and assess the risk
Do: Eliminate or minimise the risk
Check: Monitor the control measures
Act: Review for continuous improvement

A change occurs. Repeat.

Plan. Do. Check. Act.

Repeat.

(You get the picture)

We should all be working towards a heightened sense of awareness on site. And of course, treating risks as priority should be a collective mindset. Reinforced by supervisors who should be adapting plans and guiding teams to take account of the constantly evolving risk environment.

The power of change in risk can kill, the power of change in process can save a life.

Be the change you want to see.