Electrical Testing and Tagging

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Each year in Australia there are many workplace related deaths caused by electrocution and many more serious injuries or destructive fires. Most of these could have been prevented with regular Test and Tag inspections. More importantly, there have been hundreds of lives saved due to timely inspection of electrical equipment. 

Our safety consultancy has recognised that there are a large number of businesses that are not aware of the values and benefits of regular inspections of portable electrical appliances or the legal requirement to have these items tested.  We have therefore expanded our business to offer testing to AS/NZS 3067:2010 by authorised and competent technicians using calibrated testing instruments.

Tests are conducted at your place at work at a time that suits your business to minimise disruption.  For further information download a flyer here or contact us to arrange an appointment.

Small Business Safety Health Check

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Small business owners face a difficult task of meeting the everyday requirements of their business and ensuring that all reasonable care is taken to ensure employees and visitors are safe.  The focus is often on meeting customer expectations and safety is left to look after itself.  Most of the time it works due to human instinct to avoid pain, but what about those unexpected  occurrences that happen and cause injury.  It may be that a hazard wasn’t identified, risk of an incident occurring not known or safety legislation not understood.

Let Positive Safety Outcomes put your mind at ease with our ‘Small Business Safety Health Check’ completed at your workplace in a single day.  An assessment will be completed on critical safety and health elements including, generic workplace risks, noise, manual tasks, electrical safety, plant, hazardous chemicals, slips, trips and falls and construction work.  A full report will be provided detail compliance with legislative requirements and, where applicable, recommendations to rectify any improvement opportunities.

Take advantage of this proactive opportunity to reduce workplace risks for your team – Download a flyer for further information and contact us to set up an appointment.

Electricity - Can a 'Tingle' become a serious injury?

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Many people assume that the people most at risk of suffering injury from electricity are those that work with electricity.  This isn’t the case as most workplace injuries associated with electricity arise from people using it as part of their job requirement or indirectly as a result of faults.  The major causes of electrical risks are electric shock from direct or indirect contact, arcing / explosion / fire causing burns, electric shock from step and touch potentials and fire resulting from an electrical fault.

What then can we do to make it safe for workers in our workplaces and even for our families at home?  There are some simple steps that we can all take that will make it safer:

  • Check cables and power tools prior to use

  • Position cables where they can’t be damaged or cause a trip hazard

  • Don’t use cables and power tools in damp conditions (unless designed for that purpose)

  • Use appropriately rated fuses and circuit breakers to prevent overloading

  • Don’t re-energise overloaded circuits until the cause has been identified by a qualified person

  • Ensure all circuits where portable electrical devices can be connected are protected by Residual Current Devices (RCDs).

In addition, there are a number of further steps that need to be taken and some are required by law depending on the work environment.  Regular testing (and tagging) will uncover faults undetectable by visual inspection and is a legal requirement when used in environments  ‘likely to result in damage to the equipment or a reduction in its expected life span’.  A simple interpretation of this would be any industrial use.  Furthermore, it is a requirement to ensure that RCD protection is installed where electricity is supplied to plug in electrical equipment and that this RCD protection is regularly tested.

In regards to your workplace, are your power tools and cables in good condition?  Is equipment in hostile operating requirements tested and tagged and in date?  Is there a record of test and tagged equipment?  Is RCD protection provided for plug in electrical equipment?  Are the RCDs tested and a record maintained of the inspections?  If the answer to any of these questions is no, then it would be beneficial to implement a process to ensure that these questions are regularly assessed. 

Don’t wait for the ‘tingle’ always experienced at a power outlet to become a serious workplace injury!

If you need help with System implementation and workplace inspection systems, contact us at positivesafety@bigpond.com  to  discuss your requirements.

Is your sport safe?

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Sport is a major part of the lives of Australians as we strive for personal fitness, achievement of a goal or social fulfilment as part of a team. Muscular skeletal or contact injuries are common place and considered acceptable if they occur as a result of our own intensity of effort and are within the rules of the sport. However, we all deserve to free from the risk of injury from hazards that haven’t been adequately identified or controlled.
Does your sporting organisation or club have a risk management plan in place? Does it identify all potential risks? Are the control measures adequate? Why not ask your club or association these questions. If there are no risk management procedures in place, then it is probably by luck rather than proactive management that no one has been injured.
A good starting place would be to complete a pre-activity checklist of risks ensuring that it covers all aspects of the facilities, equipment, environment, participants, spectators and external influences. Try getting together with a group of parents to draw up and tick off your health & safety checklist at your next sporting event.