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Invest in sun safety to protect your staff and save money by maintaining productivity.
It’s the middle of summer and the temperatures are rising.
We want to bring to you some warm weather safety tips to look at how to keep yourself and your people safe whiles you are saving $$$.
We all know that exposure to direct sun can cause heat-related illnesses such as fatigue, heatstroke, or even sunburn. But what happens when you work outside, on-site, and expose your skin to the sun all day, every day up to twelve hours per day?
Many of our clients work outside in the rigging industry at heights of 100 meters plus, exposed to the hot sun every day, assembling, erecting, disassembling, relocating, and maintaining containers and other outdoor work.
Research shows that New Zealand skin cancer is the most common cancer among people who work in construction sites, farming, trades, and landscaping industries. As your body temperature rises it can lead to skin damage due to loss of fluids, dehydration, and loss of elasticity, it becomes receptive to harmful ultraviolet (UV) radiation. Our body temperature needs to always stay in a healthy range, especially if we work outdoors for long hours. Any rise in body temperature beyond the normal range increases the risk of developing melanoma.
It is important to make sure that you and your employees know how to deal with heat-related hazards. How to help limit and reduce the risks.
Most job sites mandate the use of personal safety equipment such as helmets, toe-cap boots, gloves, and glasses when working outdoors to protect from the dangers of operating heavy machinery. But what about, protection from the hazards of the heat and the sun? The basics for avoiding heat-related dangers are often overlooked or taken for granted. Even sitting in a work vehicle close to glass windows can expose your skin to harmful UV radiation due to the reflection of the sun directly on your skin. So, we at Handling Equipment want to encourage you to educate your people with this information.
The best way to ensure you are protecting your employees from harmful UV is to take sun protection measures such as water-resistant sunscreen of at least SPF30; sun protective clothing; long sleeves, if possible, a sun shield cap or a safety helmet with a peak, and UVA and UVB (99.99%) filtered safety sunglasses that meet safety and sun protection standards.
This summer we want you to look after yourself and your people. We have a range of safety gear to complement our specialist range of lifting equipment and we would like to invite you to check out our awesome range.
Stay Safe This Summer!
The Handling Equipment Team
https://www.hecanterbury.co.nz/shop/
Resources:
https://www.sunsmart.org.nz/sunsmart-communities/sunsmart-workplaces/
https://www.federated.ca/blog/risk-prevention/working-outdoors-safety/
https://advancedct.com/working-safely-in-hot-conditions/
https://gocontractor.com/blog/preparing-your-workers-for-hot-weather/
https://gocontractor.com/blog/heat-stress-battling-working-in-heat/