“Home safe and healthy”, “Go home safe” and “If it’s not safe, we don’t do it” are examples of phrases used by Tower Supplies customers to remind all their stakeholders of the priority of safety.
Before the end of the year the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) will release their annual updated of health and safety statistics on work-related injury, ill health, enforcement, and costs in Great Britain.
The current HSE stats, released in November 2020, highlighted key figures:
1.6 million working people suffering from a work-related illness
693,000 working people sustain an injury at work according to the Labour Force Survey
38.8 million working days lost due to work-related illness and workplace injury
£16.2 billion cost of injuries and ill health from current working conditions (2018/19)
We know that protecting the worker with PPE is the least effective element of the Hierarchy of Controls. Personal protective equipment (PPE) is vital in many situations but it’s still the last line of defence.
To fulfil the Tower Supplies mission to: Make The Workplace A Better Place we work in partnership with customers to change the way people work, such as Administrative Controls, which are a more effective stage of the hierarchy.
PPE also means Premium Partnership Experience when you work with Tower. Beyond the supply of personal protective equipment, Tower ensure that wearer know how to use, care and maintain their PPE, we’re able to support our customers to ensure they right combinations of PPE are used, and we have a system to help monitor this also.
Whilst PPE might look the part, ineffective PPE wouldn’t be the last line of defence potentially resulting in irreversible harm. Just because it fits, the wearer may be covered but are they protected?
Mark Dowling | Divisional Managing Director
01202 305518 | mark.dowling@towersupplies.com
This article is featured in the December issue of the Dorset Business Focus magazine. Read on the online version here.