For construction site operatives doing hands-on ground level work: working at height, cutting and drilling, concreting, digging, and using hand and power tools. Aimed at ordinary site operatives rather than plant and machine operators, which sit in PHW's separate Workplace Transport pack.
Nine hazard areas, each with its own risk assessment, safe system of work, training and assessment.
Work at Height Regulations 2005
The hierarchy: avoid work at height, prevent falls using an existing safe place, prevent falls using work equipment, minimise the distance and consequences of a fall, and instruction and training last. Collective protection such as a guardrail always comes before personal protection such as a harness.
COSHH 2002
Cutting, drilling, chasing and sweeping produce respirable crystalline silica against a workplace exposure limit of 0.1 mg/m³ as an 8-hour time-weighted average. Control by elimination or substitution, water suppression and on-tool extraction, with RPE only as the last line and requiring face-fit testing.
Control of Vibration at Work Regulations 2005; Control of Noise at Work Regulations 2005
Hand-arm vibration exposure action value of 2.5 m/s² A(8) and exposure limit value of 5 m/s² A(8). Noise lower and upper exposure action values of 80 and 85 dB(A), and an exposure limit value of 87 dB(A). Both require health surveillance once the action values are reached.
Manual Handling Operations Regulations 1992 (as amended)
Avoid hazardous handling, assess what cannot be avoided using the TILE headings (task, individual, load, environment), and reduce the risk. There is no legal maximum weight.
PUWER 1998
Equipment that is suitable, maintained, inspected and guarded, with adequate training for every user, plus a pre-use check and the essentials of mounting and using abrasive wheels safely.
COSHH 2002, regulations 6, 7, 11 and 12
Wet cement is strongly alkaline, around pH 12 to 13, and causes chemical burns and dermatitis that often go unfelt until the damage is done. Controls include waterproof gloves, waterproof trousers worn over the boots, and washing off any contact immediately.
CDM 2015, regulation 22 and Schedule 3; HSE guidance HSG47
Never enter an unsupported excavation whatever the depth, keep spoil and loads back from the edge, inspect before each shift, and follow the plans, locate, mark, dig carefully method for buried services, treating every service as live.
Electricity at Work Regulations 1989
A 110 volt centre-tapped-earth supply for portable tools with RCD protection only as a backup, no damaged or taped cables, and an exclusion distance from overhead lines of the machine's maximum height and reach plus 9 metres from wooden poles or 15 metres from steel pylons.
Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012
Awareness only, it does not authorise any asbestos work. If asbestos is found or suspected, stop work, leave the area, prevent access and report it, and always ask for the asbestos register before starting work on a building built or refurbished before 2000.
The full document set.
Risks, law and the full range of PHW products for construction firms in one place.