Prevention is better than cure: a winning combination
In the 04/05 edition of the Bulletin, we teamed up with the HSE Unit's Safety Inspection Service to launch a “Spot the Mistakes” competition based on 7 mistakes. You had to identify 7 major safety problems in the photo below.
Here are some of the most flagrant security infringements that can be identified in the photo:
- This jumbled mass of heterogeneous objects and equipment impedes movement and evacuation and of course there is a potential hazard of falling objects;
- Chemical products should not be stored on the ground. In addition, they should be labelled and if inflammable should be locked away in a clearly marked metal cupboard;
- Stored inflammable material represents a fire hazard;
- The fire extinguisher in the middle of the photograph is not secured to its support and bears no identification marks. Checks should be carried out to make sure that it is suitable for the hazards concerned and that its periodic inspections are up-to-date;
- There is a soldering iron in premises clearly not designed for soldering operations: there is no workstation, little ventilation and above all there is a substantial quantity of inflammable material close to the soldering equipment;
- Access to the emergency stop button is impeded;
- The sling should not be stored on the floor to prevent it from being damaged. It should also be verified that its condition has been properly checked;
- The step-ladder should be checked to ensure that it has non-slip treads;
- And of course if this area is really used for storing radioactive equipment, as the photo appears to suggest, it must be kept under surveillance by the Radiation Protection Group.
Head of HSE Unit Ralf Trant (in the middle) rewards the joint winners of the “Spot the Mistakes” competition Emeline Weymaere (DG-RPC) (on the right) and Marc Tavlet (BE-ASR) (on the left) with places at the Lift12 conference and copies of the book LHC: the Large Hadron Collider.
