Does health and safety correlate with wealth and prosperity?
Chris Dee, executive director of BCAS (British Compressed
Air Society) ponders the question

It would seem that in the current
economic climate it is not the case that
health and safety correlate with wealth
and prosperity if we accept the protests of
industry trying to find a way out of the
current difficulties. To be more precise it is
the bureaucracy that goes with health and
safety that seems to be at issue.

During challenging times, the focus for an
established business is on maintaining the
business, securing current markets while
looking for new markets. The entrepreneurs
starting a business are focussed on
developing a customer base. In neither case
is there a wilful disregard for health and
safety matters, it would indeed be a boost to
industry if the ‘red tape’ was relaxed.

Most of industry is aware that the
management of health and safety is done
through risk assessment and that the
reporting of injuries, diseases and dangerous
occurrences results in additional paperwork.

Compressed air equipment has the potential
to cause harm if it is misused or abused.

Equipment such as blowguns can cause
serious injury if not used with care and by
trained operators, observing all the safety
procedures needed for what seems to be a
very simple device. Injuries from such
equipment add to the burden of paperwork
in the reporting of incidents. The process of
training in the use of such equipment seems
far less onerous after an accident.

The products of the compressed air
industry form the basis of many industrial
processes. These can be as control or motive
power or as pneumatic tools.Manufacturers
of compressed air equipment of all types
need to comply with legislation that
demands safe equipment to be placed on the
market. Among the many provisions to be
met are those which, when the equipment is
put into use, reduce harm to the operator.

These provisions require that equipment
operates as quietly as possible or, for handheld
power tools, there is the need to design
low vibration into the pneumatic tool.

Having done this the manufacturer is then
required to identify the noise and vibration
figures in the instructions to the user.

The provision of such work equipment is
subject to the need that it is safe to use and
that the operator is trained in its use. That
work equipment must then be seen to fulfil
the need to control issues such as noise and
vibration at work. The operator needs to
have health checks to find out if there are
any related issues to address such as
impaired hearing or hand/arm vibration
symptoms.Monitoring is required for both
noise and vibration and daily noise and
vibration limits have to be observed.

Some compressed air equipment produces
what is now called hazardous waste which
can be oily condensate or some types of
exhausted dryer materials or any oil
contaminated service and maintenance
items. Trade effluent includes oily condensate
and needs to be disposed of. The user can
chose to dispose of this down the foul sewer
if there is a licence to discharge from their
local water authority. Alternatively the
condensate with the exhausted dryer
material is put into the hazardous waste
system and can be disposed of using a
licensed waste carrier.

Having filled in all the forms and got all
the licences required and done all the health
checks industry can now get down to the
business of creating wealth and contributing
to the prosperity of all.

If you have any questions regarding any
aspect of operating your compressed air
system please email [email protected] or
visit the website – www.bcas.org.uk for
further information.