Protecting your Future – Building Skills Maintenance: Construction Health and Safety evening in Queenstown

It was a privilege to have Dion Tapper of BSM, Darren Cockburn from WorksafeNZ, Deb McAlpine of 3M and Graham Burke from SARNZ visited our patch and share their combined construction health and safety wisdom. Here is a quick-fire summary of tips, tricks and reminders from the evening.

Asbestos:

  • 170 people die each year from asbestosis., from a construction health and safety perspective it’s the easiest and most painful way to die.
  • If you suspect asbestos is present get the product/site tested
  • If you are dealing with friable asbestos – asbestos-containing material in powder form (sprayed asbestos fire retardants, thermal lagging on pipe insulation, low-density boards, sheet vinyl underlay or backing) even if you are working on an area less than 10 m2, don’t touch it!
  • For unlicensed work with non-friable asbestos, you still need to wear a correctly fitting mask, glasses, gloves, disposable coveralls, boots with no laces AND dispose of it all correctly (Goosenecked, labelled, double bagged)
  • See Health and Safety at Work (Asbestos) Regulations 2016 (Regulations) and ACOP: Management and removal of asbestos

 

Construction Health and Safety – Critical Risk  

  • People in charge of a site need to be able to list the 5 critical risks. For example, the typical construction site may have: working at heights, dust, noise, trenches, and plant.
  • The way to manage your ‘Critical Risks’ is:

1. Leaders need to lead

2. Risks need to be identified, assessed, controlled and monitored

3. Workers need to have their say

 

Dropped Tools

 

Noise and Dust:

 

Safety Nets

  • If your purlins are set at 900 you need safety nets
  • Nets need to be properly fixed, tagged and inspected
  • Nylon nets are not acceptable
  • See Safe use of safety nets

 

Scaffolds

  • Don’t tutu with scaffolds! If there is tube all over the place pull the scaff tag!
  • Look for bracing, toeboards and ½ metre footings.
  • Make sure the scaffold is rated for it’s working load and the weather it’s subject too
  • Notifiable scaffolds are measured at 5 metres from the top guardrail, not the top lift
  • Wrapped scaffolds need an engineer to design them to check that there is adequate airflow and structural integrity
  • If water ballast is used, check that it is full and secure before getting on the scaffold
  • See WorksafeNZ/ SARNZ Scaffolding in New Zealand Guidelines

 

Working at Heights A, B, C’s

A         Anchor – needs to be rated to 1,500 kg (small car)

B         Body Support – Industrial harness with front/ rear attachment points

C         Connection – Lanyards need to be fit for purpose and regularly checked

D         Descent/ Rescue – you need to decide if you will use a ladder, elevated work platform or rescue kit if there is an emergency

E          Education – Get trained so you can be competent

F          Fall Protection for Tools – back to the tool splitting watermelon scenario

 

I know people from all over the country saw the BSM talks and some of the best learning was in the war stories that the team told. Please let me know if there were any key points around construction health and safety that I left out please phone Sarah on 0272 007 680 or email sarah@employmenow.co.nz.

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