Safety toolbox: your health is worth it

Safe working is basically everyone's personal responsibility. But of course the employer has to comply with a large number of legal regulations in order to ensure safe and healthy working conditions and to minimise harmful risks. There is a fixed sequence for this process:

1. Source measures
   By source measures we mean all measures taken at the front end of the treatment process. With the aim of reducing risks. Think of the choice of pneumatic machines instead of electric machines. Or a fiber wheel instead of a deburring wheel. A tape joint instead of a welded joint, Cubitron3 sanding discs instead of classic sanding discs. Sometimes it's just small changes that directly provide increased safety.
2. Organisational measures
   These measures relate to agreements that you make as an organisation with regard to safety. These include rules about a tidy workplace, proper storage of materials and PPE, checks on the operation of warning indicators, decibel and dust measurements, breaks, proper extraction, separation between welding cabins or workplaces where there is a lot of noise. It all helps to ensure safety, but will also increase comfort and job satisfaction!
3. Personal measures
   These are measures aimed at limiting damage by, for example, rotating work activities so that no one person is exposed to danger for a long time. Often, a short period of noise, dust or vibration is not harmful, but a whole day is. By varying the work, you can prevent problems. And it is often more pleasant for the employee too!
4. PPE
   PPE is only used when there is no other option and all the previous measures do not provide sufficient safety. Comfort and fit are important factors in promoting acceptance. The latter also influences the actual protection provided. PPE must also be easy to combine with other PPE, for example, respiratory protection and eye protection are often used together. Foggy safety goggles do not make the situation any safer...

Metaaltechniek is not an occupational health and safety service or a safety expert. However, we can advise on source measures and PPE's and help companies to make employees aware of a safe working environment. We can give you insight in the amount of fine dust around a workplace by means of measurements: during grinding, directly after finishing the work and for example one hour after finishing the grinding. Or the noise level in production. But we also start at the source! Which tools, abrasives and grinding materials do you choose?

The choice of abrasives and the machines used in the process affect the safety of your environment.

With Cubitron3, you produce less fine dust. A fiber wheel produces less vibration and less noise than a deburring wheel. With Cubitron3, you finish work faster and therefore there is shorter exposure to harmful factors.

Pneumatic machines are safer than electric machines. Use a 1 mm cut-off wheel only on thin sheet metal. If the material to be cut is thicker than 3 mm, use a thicker cut-off wheel.

Respiratory protection

Breathing protection through a dust mask is a well-known phenomenon, but when do you use an FFP1, FFP2 or FFP3? And what are those limit values that are talked about? This diagram will help you on your way:

3M has a roadmap on their website for achieving a safe work environment when it comes to breathing.

Hearing protection

We can also look with you at suitable hearing protection. The possibilities are endless and your wishes will probably be very different. Here too, measuring = knowing and so we always take our decibel measuring device with us. In time, noise louder than 85 dBA can damage the hearing and cause whistling in the ears.

Important questions about hearing protection that will guide your choice:

• Do you need to be able to communicate at a distance of 10m and/or in a loud environment?
• In order to work safely, do you need to be able to hear sounds in the environment, such as alarms, and communicate face to face?
• Do you want to be able to listen to the radio while working?
• Passive hearing protection comprises earplugs, ear moulds and ear muffs. What do you choose?

Hand protection

Hands are perhaps the most vulnerable in a production environment. Close to machines, sharp work pieces or containers with chemicals. Outside in the cold or inside in the heat of a welding machine. They are the first to pick up vibrations from a machine and are constantly moving.

At the same time, hands must have grip and you must be able to feel what you are doing with your hands. Therefore, just putting on a glove is not an option. Determine where the greatest risk lies (cutting, chemicals, mechanical, dirt, etc.) and start looking for the right glove from there.

Each safety glove is coded to indicate the hazard and the level of protection it provides.

Eye protection                                                                                             

Eye injuries are often very painful and dangerous. Hazards include cuts from flying metal particles from both materials being worked on and from cutting and grinding tools. Think of cut-off wheels splashing apart or steel wires from steel brushes coming loose.

Another hazard with a different method of protection are noxious fumes. For this, safety glasses are not sufficient. The eyes should be sealed off from the outside air with a face mask. Breathing protection is also always necessary in this case.

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A safety toolbox is non-binding and free of charge. We believe that health and safety is an important issue and we would like to help companies in their efforts. We are explicitly not safety experts, but we have gathered a lot of knowledge, experience and tools over the years and have also followed training courses to be able to advise companies.

In addition to a toolbox on safety, you can also ask us to provide a toolbox on sanding and grinding. A Speedglas toolbox is also possible. Welding protection is a separate subject and is not included in the "safety" toolbox.