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Useful INDG Health and Safety Guides - page 1
Health and Safety Executive
INDG is an abbreviation of Industry Guidance
Health and Safety INDG Industry Guides 36 to 199
> Health & Safety Law - What you should know
> INDG36 - DSE : Working with VDU's
> INDG68 - Do you use a steam / water pressure cleaner
> INDG69 - Violence at Work
> INDG73 - Lone Working: Health and safety guidance on the risks of lone working
> INDG84 - Leptospirosis: Are You At Risk?
> INDG90 - Ergonomics and human factors
> INDG91 - Drug Misuse at Work: A Guide of Employers
> INDG119 - Safety representatives and safety committees
> INDG125 - Safe working with bales in agriculture
> INDG136 - Working with substances hazardous to health : A Brief Guide to COSHH
> INDG139 - Using electric storage batteries safely
> INDG140 - Control of exposure to grain dust
> INDG143 - Manual Handling: Getting to Grips With
> INDG147 - Keep your top on
> INDG163 - Risk Assessment a brief guide (withdrawn - archive copy)
> INDG171 - Managing upper limb disorders in the workplace
> INDG172 - Breathe easy
> INDG175 - Vibration: Control the Risks from Hand-arm Vibration
> INDG177 - Gamekeeping and deer farming
> INDG178 - Written schemes of examination
> INDG185 - Using tractors safely
> INDG189 - Safety zones around oil and gas installations in waters around the UK
> INDG197 - Working with sewage - The health hazards: A guide for employees
> INDG198 - Working with sewage - The health hazards: A guide for employers
> INDG199 - Workplace transport safety
Health & Safety Law - What you should know
All workers have a right to work in places where risks to their health and safety are properly controlled. Health and safety is about stopping you getting hurt at work or ill through work. Your employer is responsible for health and safety, but you must help.
INDG36 - DSE : Working with VDU's
This leaflet will help you to comply with the Health and Safety (Display Screen Equipment) Regulations 1992 and explains what you, as an employer, may need to do to protect your employees from any risks associated with Display Screen Equipment (DSE) (ie computers and laptops). It will also be useful to employees and their representatives.
INDG68 Do you use a steam / water pressure cleaner
INFORMATION AND TRAINING
Companies who supply or hire out cleaners should provide enough information for operators to use them safely. Also, your employer should make sure that you are trained to use the equipment safely, and to understand the safe system of work.
The future availability and accuracy of the references listed in this publication cannot be guaranteed.
INDG69 - Violence at Work
People who deal directly with the public may face aggressive or violent behaviour. They may be sworn at, threatened or even attacked.
This document gives practical advice to help you find out if violence is a problem for your employees, and if it is, how to tackle it. The advice is aimed at employers, but should also interest employees and safety representatives.
INDG73 - Lone Working: Health and safety guidance on the risks of lone working -
This leaflet provides guidance on how to keep lone workers healthy and safe. It is aimed at anyone who employs or engages lone workers, and also at self-employed people who work alone.
Following the guidance in the leaflet is not compulsory, but it should help employers understand what they need to do to comply with their legal duties towards lone workers under:
> the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974;
> the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999.
INDG84 Leptospirosis: Are You At Risk?
What is leptospirosis?
Two types of leptospirosis infection can affect workers in the UK.
•Weil’s disease
This is a serious and sometimes fatal infection that is transmitted to humans by contact with urine from infected rats.
•The Hardjo form of leptospirosis
This is transmitted from cattle to humans.
INDG90 - Ergonomics and human factors
This leaflet is aimed at employers, managers and others and will help you understand ergonomics and human factors in the workplace. It gives some examples of ergonomics problems and simple, effective advice about how to solve them.
You may have heard the term ‘ergonomics’. In some industries, such as major hazards, defence and transport, ergonomics is also called ‘human factors’. This leaflet helps to explain how applying ergonomics can improve health and safety in your workplace.
Ergonomics is a science concerned with the ‘fit’ between people and their work. It puts people first, taking account of their capabilities and limitations. Ergonomics aims to make sure that tasks, equipment, information and the environment fit each worker.
INDG91 - Drug Misuse at Work: A Guide of Employers (withdrawn - archive copy)
This booklet has been developed by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), the Home Office, the Department of Health, the Scottish Executive, the Health Education Board for Scotland, the National Assembly for Wales, the Health and Safety Executive Northern Ireland and other organisations. It will help owners and managers of businesses and other organisations, particularly small and medium-sized enterprises, deal with drug-related problems at work.
It provides a basic understanding of the signs, effects and risks of drug misuse. It also sets out a best practice approach to dealing with drug-related problems at work.
INDG119 Safety representatives and safety committees
The Regulations give safety representatives certain powers to enable them to fulfil their functions.The Regulations also require the duty holder to arrange training in those aspects of the safety representative’s functions which are considered reasonable.
INDG125 Safe working with bales in agriculture
Who is this leaflet for?
This guidance is for people involved with the handling and stacking of round and
square bales. It does not address the safety risks associated with the use of machinery used to produce bales – see 'Find out more'.
Following the guidance in this leaflet could help prevent many of the accidents and much of the ill health associated with the handling and stacking of bales in agriculture.
INDG136 - Working with substances hazardous to health : A Brief Guide to COSHH
This leaflet describes how to control hazardous substances at work, so they do not cause ill health. It will help you understand what you need to do to comply with the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health (COSHH) Regulations 2002 (as amended) which apply to the way you work with these substances.
This leaflet provides measures that you, as an employer, may need to do to protect your employees from hazardous substances at work. It will also be useful to employees and their safety representatives.
Why do I need to read this leaflet?
Every year, thousands of workers are made ill by hazardous substances, contracting lung disease such as asthma, cancer and skin disease such as dermatitis. These diseases cost many millions of pounds each year to:
> industry, to replace the trained worker;
> society, in disability allowances and medicines; and
> individuals, who may lose their jobs.
INDG139 Using electric storage batteries safely
Every year, at least 25 people are seriously injured when using batteries at work. If you or your staff work with large batteries, this booklet is for you. It gives a basic introduction to working safely with batteries and minimising the risks involved.
INDG140 Control of exposure to grain dust
Introduction
Grain dust can affect your health. This guidance tells you about:
> where you might be exposed to grain dust at work;
> health problems that may occur if you are exposed to grain dust;
> what your employer should do to protect your health;
> precautions you should take.
What is grain dust?
Grain dust is the dust produced from the harvesting, drying, handling, storage or processing of barley, wheat, oats, maize or rye and includes any contaminants or additives within the dust.
INDG143 - Manual Handling : Getting to Grips With
As an employer, you must protect your workers from the risk of injury and ill health from hazardous manual handling tasks in the workplace. This leaflet will help you do that. It includes simple risk filters to help you identify which manual handling activities are hazardous.
Manual handling means transporting or supporting a load by hand or bodily force. It includes lifting, lowering, pushing, pulling, moving or carrying a load. A load is a moveable object, such as a box or package, a person or an animal, or something being pushed or pulled, such as a roll cage or pallet truck.
The Manual Handling Operations Regulations 1992, as amended in 2002 (‘the Regulations’) apply to a wide range of manual handling activities, including lifting, lowering, pushing, pulling or carrying. The load may be either animate, such as a person or an animal, or inanimate, such as a box or a trolley.
INDG147 - Keep your top on
Health risks from working in the sun Advice for outdoor workers from the Health and Safety Executive and the Health Departments in England, Scotland and Wales.
INDG163 - Risk Assessment a brief guide (withdrawn - archive copy)
This leaflet is aimed at employers, managers and others with responsibility for health and safety. It will also be useful to employees and safety representatives.
As part of managing the health and safety of your business, you must control the risks in your workplace. To do this you need to think about what might cause harm to people and decide whether you are taking reasonable steps to prevent that harm.
This is known as risk assessment and it is something you are required by law to carry out. If you have fewer than five employees you don’t have to write anything down.
A risk assessment is not about creating huge amounts of paperwork, but rather about identifying sensible measures to control the risks in your workplace. You are probably already taking steps to protect your employees, but your risk assessment will help you decide whether you have covered all you need to.
Think about how accidents and ill health could happen and concentrate on real risks - those that are most likely and which will cause the most harm.
INDG171 - Managing upper limb disorders in the workplace
This brief guide describes what you, as an employer, need to do to protect your
employees from the risk of injury and ill health from upper limb disorders (ULDs) in the workplace. It will also be useful to employees and their representatives.
What are ULDs?
ULDs are conditions which affect the muscles, tendons, ligaments, nerves or other soft tissues and joints in the upper limbs such as the neck, shoulders, arms, wrists, hands and fingers. They are often called repetitive strain injuries (RSI), cumulative trauma disorder or occupational overuse syndrome.
ULDs can be caused or made worse by work. In the following pages we explain:
> causes and symptoms;
> how to assess the risks;
> what you can do to help manage and control the risks.
INDG172 - Breathe easy
A workers’ information card on occupational asthma.
This card gives you practical information about occupational asthma. You may meet substances at work which could cause allergies if you breathe them in.
INDG175 - Vibration : Control the Risks from Hand-arm Vibration
This leaflet explains what you, as an employer, may need to do to protect your employees from the risk of hand-arm vibration. It will also be useful to employees and their representatives. The leaflet will help you identify when exposure to hand-arm vibration may cause harm. It introduces practical steps for controlling the risks and will help you understand what you need to do to comply with the Control of Vibration at Work Regulations 2005 (the Vibration Regulations).
What is hand-arm vibration?
Hand-arm vibration is vibration transmitted into workers' hands and arms. This can come from use of hand-held power tools (such as grinders or road breakers), hand-guided equipment (such as powered lawnmowers or pedestrian controlled floor saws) or by holding materials being worked by hand-fed machines (such as pedestal grinders or forge hammers).
INDG177 Gamekeeping and deer farming
Introduction
This guidance is for employers and others whose work involves moorland and lowland gamekeeping (including deer stalking and the work of water bailiffs and ghillies) and deer farming. For simplicity, the term ‘gamekeeping’ is used to cover all gamekeeping activities.
For ease of use, this guidance is divided into advice, which is likely to be relevant to all of those involved in the activities covered by this publication, and topic specific guidance, covering the areas of gamekeeping and deer farming.
Employers should remember they may be responsible for the health and safety of someone who is self-employed for tax and National Insurance purposes, but who works under their control and direction.
If you are an employee you must co-operate with your employer on health and safety matters and take reasonable care, not just for your own health and safety but also for that of anyone else who may be put at risk by your work.
INDG178 Written schemes of examination
Under the Pressure Systems Safety Regulations 2000, users and owners of pressure systems are required to demonstrate that they know the safe operating limits (principally pressure and temperature) of their systems, and that they are safe under those conditions.
They need to ensure that a suitable written scheme of examination is in place before the system is operated. They also need to ensure that the system is actually examined in accordance with the written scheme of examination.
This publication complements the HSE leaflet Pressure systems: A brief guide to safety. It provides guidance on drafting written schemes of examination, but it cannot cover all relevant aspects of the Regulations.
The 'Find out more' section at the end of the leaflet lists detailed guidance.
INDG185 Using tractors safely
This step-by-step guide to tractor safety is for everyone who uses a tractor, or tractor-operated machinery. It applies to those working in farming, forestry, horticulture, amenity horticulture and the sports turf industry.
Whether you are a student, a regular tractor driver, or an employer, you need to learn about tractor safety before it is too late.
People die in tractor accidents every year and there are many major injuries, including amputations and fractures. There are probably other accidents or near misses which HSE never hears about. Simple but essential safety steps would have prevented most of them.
This leaflet shows how training in tractor safety could save your life.
INDG189 Safety zones around oil and gas installations in waters around the UK
Introduction
This leaflet explains the purpose and significance of safety zones around offshore oil and gas installations and their effect on marine activities, particularly relating to fishing vessels.
INDG197 Working with sewage - The health hazards: A guide for employees
Are you at risk?
Workers whose activities bring them into contact with sewage and sewage products are at risk of contracting a work-related illness.
The majority of illnesses are relatively mild cases of gastroenteritis, but potentially fatal diseases, such as leptospirosis (Weil’s disease) and hepatitis, are also reported to HSE.
However, not all cases are reported because people often fail to recognise the link between illness and work.
INDG198 Working with sewage - The health hazards: A guide for employers
Introduction
Several work activities bring workers into contact with sewage and sewage products.
Each year, some workers will suffer from at least one episode of work-related illness.
The majority of illnesses are relatively mild cases of gastroenteritis, but potentially fatal diseases, such as leptospirosis (Weil’s disease) and hepatitis, are also reported to HSE.
However, there could well be significant under-reporting of cases because there is often failure to recognise the link between illness and work.
INDG199 - Workplace transport safety
Introduction
Every year, there are over 5000 accidents involving transport in the workplace. About 50 of these result in people being killed (www.hse.gov.uk/statistics).
The main causes of injury are people falling off vehicles, or being struck or crushed by them.
This guidance has been produced by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) to help people involved in workplace transport reduce the chances of accidents happening.
It is mainly aimed at managers but operators and their safety representatives will also find it useful.
Employers have a legal duty to ensure that the health and safety of their employees, contractors and members of the public are not put at risk as a result of the work they do. Employees and the self-employed also have a duty to look after their own health and safety and that of anyone who might be affected by their work.
Also see:
HSG 136 - Workplace transport safety: An employers' guide
HSG 144 - The safe use of vehicles on construction sites
INDG413 - Preventing falls from vehicles
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