During winter, the amount of accidents that can happen at the workplace significantly rises. Ice, frost, snow, wet surfaces, rain, all of those making safely working more complicated than during this time of the year.
To make sure that the work day goes smoothly, without accidents, the following need to be taken into consideration:
Lighting
The people that are in charge of making sure that the workplace is safe need to provide proper lighting. This way, the workers will be able to see their surroundings and be careful with any potential hazardous element.
Temperature monitoring
Always monitor the temperature and make sure that the workers aren’t in tough working conditions.
Signs and warnings
Signs need to be placed where hazardous locations are located for example: Ice, wet floors etc.. Those signs are required not only inside buildings but also at entrances, parking lots and other workplaces outside the building.
Taking action fast
Whenever there are potential health and safety risks such as ice or wet surfaces, those not only require a sign to warn the workers about their existence but also be eliminated as soon as possible or minimalized as much as possible
Gritting
The most common way of gritting is by using rock salt. Salt can stop ice forming and cause existing ice or snow to melt. Another advantage in using salt as a gritting method is how inexpensive it is.
Removal of cones and warning signs
When warning cones are used, make sure to remove them as soon as the hazard has been passed.
Rain Water
When it comes to elements such as rain water, use signs to inform workers to not use shortcuts over the grass or dirt as they can carry water and dirt inside the buildings and other working areas and cause accidents
Wet leaves
Wet leaves: during autumn and winter, the presence of fallen leaves mixed with melted snow and rain water can represent an issue because of how slippery they get. They need to be sweept as often as possible to eliminate any possibility of workers getting hurt.
Illnesses specific to the cold weather
Cold temperature illnesses: together with the cold temperatures, a large number of illnesses can occur in the workplace. Make sure that if any worker is showing signs or transmissible illnesses such as the cold or the flu, they need to be sent to a doctor as soon as possible to prevent others contacting it as well.
Stairs
Stairs need to be taken care of especially since they can cause serious injuries to the workers. Make sure that there’s always a rag at the beginning of the stairs so the workers won’t take the stairs with wet shoes and injure themselves. If the stairs however get wet, signs need to be placed and the stairs need to be cleaned as soon as possible.
Adequate clothing and equipment
Adequate clothing: when it comes to working outside a building, there’s nothing we can do to raise the temperature so to make sure that the workers aren’t subjected to extremely cold temperatures, they need to be provided with adequate clothing that can protect them from the harsh weather
Temperature inside the building
When inside a building, the temperature needs to be maintained at an optimal level, not too hot and not too cold, no less than 16 °C and not more than 20 °C. The recommended indoors temperature is 18 °C.
Emergency response plans
Emergency response plan: if, despite of all actions taken, an accident does occur, the staff needs to be trained investigate the accident and minimalize or eliminate any chances of the same accident happening again and give first aid to the injured worker if needed.
First aid kits
First aid kits: while they are not only needed during the cold seasons, during the winter the number of first aid kits should sometimes be increased. The standards for the number of first aid kits required at the workplace is the following:
Low-risk workplaces:
- one for 10 – 50 workers
- two for 51 – 100 workers
- one additional for every additional 100 workers
High-risk workplaces:
- one for up to 25 workers
- two for 26 to 50 workers
- one additional for every additional 50 workers
If the workplace has less than 10 workers, it is still required to have at least one
