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As of June 30th 2011 is now a necessary requirement that all employers have the correct first aid boxes and the correct contents specifically for their business.

FAAMS (First-aid Approvals and Monitoring Section) of the Health and Safety Executive has mandated that all employers must have a First-aid box that complies with the BS 8599 standard. There is a grace period of implementation which lasts 6 months to the 31st of December 2011 after which point the employers are responsible and at risk of litigation, malfeasance and not providing due care to their working staff.

The genesis of this mandate begins when it became clear due to complaints and some poor on-site medical attention, that first-aid boxes are not all the same and having a few plasters and gauze will not be sufficient. It made little sense to have engineering workers having the same medical provisions in their first-aid box, as say office workers. The levels of danger from work based incidents are obviously higher in the engineering arena than an office unless someone goes made with a letter opener or a stapler.

Every employer in the UK is now required by statute to undertake a risk assessment of their working environment to assess the levels of hazard and the number of employers who are exposed to that particular working environment. The risk assessment will determine the size and the content of each first-aid kit.

There will always be special cases and extenuating circumstances that need further assessment, those cases such as remoteness from the emergency services, shift-work and sites with several different locations will require greater numbers of first-aid kits and possibly more content than is typical.

Content List:

First-aid Guidance List

Content list

Medium Dressing (12cm x 12cm) (Sterile)

Large Dressing (18cm x 18cm) (Sterile)

Triangular Bandage (Single Use) (90cm x 127cm)

Safety Pins (Assorted) (Minimum length 2.5cm)

Eye Pad Dressing with Bandage (Sterile)

Wash-proof Assorted Plasters

Moist Cleaning Wipes

Microporous Tape (2.5cm x 5m or 3m for Travel Kit)

Nitrile gloves (1x pair)

Finger Dressing with Adhesive Fixing (3.5cm)

Mouth to Mouth Resuscitation Device with Value

Foil Blanket (130cm x 210cm)

Eye Wash (250ml)

Burn Relief Dressing (10cm x 10cm)

Universal Shears (Suitable for Cutting Clothing)

Conforming Bandage (7.5cm x 4m)

Traffic cones/road cones or bollards were invented in 1914 by Charles P Rudebaker. Although originally made from concrete with the intention of being permanent or semi permanent installations, today’s modern Cones are made from Thermoplastics or High grade rubber compounds. Typically speaking, for durability and extensive use on busy roads and motorways, most cones are made from a two-part design with a very tough rubber composite base top. Cones can also be molded complete with hand grips to increase easy handling due to weight around 7kg which increases sturdiness.

Many traffic/road cones are made from recycled PVC plastics stripped from discarded plastic bottles.

Traffic cones are not always conical and depending on the desired use can be employed in various situations indoors and out.

Applications

The most typical applications for cones or bollards are road management, redirecting vehicles or warning oncoming traffic of dangerous conditions ahead. Cones are used to redirect contra flow traffic on motorways or duel carriage-ways many metres even kilometres prior to any hazard or work area. The purpose of traffic cones is to give advanced warning to drivers but also allow a subtle gradual change in the flow of the oncoming vehicles. Advanced warning provides a safety buffer for the workers or users cones which is paramount with fast-moving traffic and allows rapid evasion if the line of cones are breached. In the UK when major transportation work is ongoing the traffic cone line if you will can reach multiple miles. An example of this; in 2011 the M1 UK motorway improvement scheme between Junction 10 and Junction 13 has incorporated lane reorganization and hard shoulder use while work is ongoing. The system requires 15 miles of road cone configuration. Roughly speaking that is over 48,000 cones used in that specific traffic management system.

Cones or bollards can also be used to block of an area for specific reasons or unspecified reasons by the authorities the result is the same, an overt sign; “warning do not enter” without having a specific road sign made.

For night-time use most cones are or should be equipped with a retro-reflective sleeve that can be one solid colour, red for example or have a silver/white phosphorous band which slips snuggly over the cone. These are seen typically on many UK streets and have become a favorite for students to “liberate” and place in unique locations.

What is Arc Flash?

An Arc Flash is a short circuit through the air when insulation or isolation between electrical conductors is breached or can no longer withstand the applied voltage.

In an arc flash incident an enormous amount of concentrated radiant energy explodes out from the electrical equipment creating pressure waves that can damage a person’s hearing, a high-intensity flash that can damage their eyesight and a superheated ball of gas that can severely burn a workers body and melt metal. The pressure wave can send loose material like pieces of damaged equipment, tools and other objects flying through the air.

The best way to prevent Arc Flash from occurring is to de-energize the system before beginning any work and always verify that the energy is controlled.

Examples:

• Arc flash incidents typically occur in applications above 120 volts and can occur when electrical equipment is being serviced or inspected.
• Some incidents occur when a worker is removing a cover or trim from a piece of equipment.

What are the two types of faults in an electrical system?

A Bolted Fault consists of a low impedance short circuit between two separate phases or between phase-to-ground. Because of the low impedance path, the short circuit current present is very high compared to an “Arc Fault” in a similar system.

A typical rule of thumb is that the Bolted Fault current a system is capable of sustaining is roughly twice that of an Arc Fault in a similar system. Traditionally electrical equipment was designed to withstand this very high Bolted Fault current. However, a Bolted Fault rarely results in the devastating explosion associated with an Arc Fault and as such electrical equipment that has only been type tested for resistance to Bolted Faults may not maintain their integrity under Arc Fault conditions.

An Arc Fault is a phase-to-phase or phase-to-ground short circuit through air which is caused by a reduction in the insulating clearances to such an extent that the potential differences applied can no longer be withstood by the system. Such reductions can be as a result of dropped tools, or other elements that may be accidentally left behind that could compromise the distance between energized components.