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Earth Hour UK March 2021

earthhourUK

 

Lights out. Do it for our planet!

On 27 March, 8.30pm, hundreds of millions of people across the globe will come together for a huge and spectacular lights out display to show they care about protecting our amazing planet. It’s a special moment, for everyone who loves our natural world and wants a brighter future to take action – simply sign up to be part of it:

You’ll join a whole community of people who are doing their bit to make a difference – whether supporting WWF’s work to protect the world’s most fragile places or threatened species to taking small actions every day to live more sustainably.

A Near Miss

Our Fire Safety activities have been prompted by a lucky escape that recently happened to a client who runs their business from home. This fire was quickly put out – but things could easily have been very different.

This client has an office in the conservatory of their home, shared by the family of four.

The mother, father and son work in the family business, while the daughter is currently studying at university.

We had undertaken a ’Lone Working and Working from Home’ assessment of the clients’ work areas just three weeks before this incident occurred – and Fire Safety was a key point, but the advice and recommendations were not put into practice.

The Home Office is used for Accounts and Documentation to support the business, and they have a fully installed fire detection and alarm system, water and CO2 manual extinguisher’s properly positioned and designated fire and emergency escape routes towards the front and rear of the premises.

The incident happened on a Sunday morning shortly after the family had finished breakfast, and the father and son had left to visit a potential client.

The mother was in the office doing paperwork and the daughter was upstairs in her bedroom when the fire alarm activated.

The mother headed for the kitchen where she could smell burnt toast, and found bagels stuck in the toaster, and flames reaching out of the toaster to the underside of the wall cupboards above. The daughter also came down, but the flames prevented them from switching off the toaster at the wall.

The mother picked up a pair of oven gloves and pushed the toaster along the worktop so she could reach the wall socket before the fire spread.

When she looked in the toaster, she found two of the four halves of bagel stuck down inside.

The daughter admitted putting the cut bagels in and switching the toaster on as she went upstairs to her room.

The fire risk posed by the toaster and microwave positioned underneath wooden wall units was identified during the “Lone Working and Working from Home” inspection. In the event of fire, flames could rise up and ignite the underside of the units above. We strongly recommended that they should be pulled out from underneath the wall units, and that all members of the household and visitors be instructed in fire safety issues and observations.

Luckily, on this occasion there was nothing more than a little smoke damage to the underside of the wall units and possibly a new toaster.

However, the daughter admitted that she was listening to music with headphones on and it was only in a quiet passage of music that she heard the fire alarm. It is possible that had the loud music continued for longer, the fire could have got hold and become more serious before she was alerted.

No real damage, no one injured, all concerned really lucky – ON THIS OCCASION!

Useful links for further reading

Fire Safety in the Home

Fire – Make your home safe

CDM-C changes for 2015

The Construction (Design & Management) Regulations are the main set of regulations for managing the health, safety and welfare of construction projects

The new Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015 (CDM Regs) come into force on 6 April 2015 and apply to all building and construction projects, regardless of the size, duration and nature of the work.

The main changes, outlined in general by the Health & Safety Executive, are as follows:

Principal Designer. The CDM co-ordinator (under CDM 2007) has been replaced by the principal designer. This means that the responsibility for  coordination of Health & safety during the pre-construction phase – which is crucial to the management of any successful construction project – will rest with an existing member of the design team.

Client. The new Regulations recognise the influence and importance of the client as the head of the supply chain and as the party best placed to set standards throughout a project.

Competence. ‘Competence’ has been split into its component parts of skills, knowledge, training and experience, and  – if they are an organisation – organisational capability, provides clarity for the industry to assess and demonstrate that construction project teams have the right attributes to deliver a healthy and safe project.

How does this affect construction companies and Contractors?

Construction companies will have to comply with the revised CDM Regs from Monday 6 April 2015.

Employers will need to provide information, instruction, training and supervision, with workers having their training needs assessed against the needs of the job and employers have to meet the gap in skills and knowledge through appropriate training.

Written construction phase plans will be required for all construction projects (including domestic client work) and a principal designer and principal contractor appointed when there is more than one contractor on a project.

What does it mean for domestic clients – homeowners?

For the first time, the new CDM Regs will apply to domestic client projects, although client duties will normally be transferred to the contractor or principal contractor, or if the client wishes to make a specific appointment, the designer.

All building and renovation work shown in property development programmes will be covered by the revised CDM Regs.

Main Transitional Arrangements

When CDM 2015 comes into force on 6 April 2015, there will be a transitional period that will run for six months from 6 April 2015 to 6 October 2015.

For projects starting before 6 April 2015, where the construction phase has not yet started and the client has not yet appointed a CDM co-ordinator, the client must appoint a principal designer as soon as it is practicable.

If the CDM co-ordinator has already been appointed, a principal designer must be appointed to replace the CDM co-ordinator by 6 October 2015, unless the project comes to an end before then.

In the period it takes to appoint the principal designer, the appointed CDM co-ordinator should comply with the duties contained in Schedule 4 to the new CDM 2015 Regulations. These duties reflect the existing requirements under CDM 2007 for the CDM co-ordinator rather than requiring CDM co-ordinators to act as principal designers, a role for which they may not be equipped.

For more information please click the below link

http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/books/l153.htm

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