Brewery Health and Safety

SIBA may be tossers but at times they do something useful. I was pleased to see they had a talk on Health and Safety at their AGM back in March.

You can make a judgement on how serious Health and Safety is treated by small brewers by the fact the speaker was able to go round and introduce himself personally to everyone attending the talk.

If a company has more than five employees it must be able to provide evidence that Health and Safety arrangements have been considered. This needs to be in the form of documented risk assessments.
Information on accidents that have happened in breweries can be found on the HSE website as well as some guidance.

The biggest cause of deaths in breweries is fork lift truck accidents. This one strikes a little close to home as some of the people I work with say someone was crushed to death by a reversing fork lift when they were working at King and Barnes brewery. The other major accident they talk about was someone getting his arm mangled in a Steel's masher.

That:

The seven most common causes of accidents:

Manual handling and lifting
Slips, trips and falls,
Being struck by something or falling objects
Falls from heights
Machinery related accidents
Exposure to harmful substances
Transportation related accidents

For companies of five to 50 people there should be a first aider at all times, and there must be a fire risk assessment, fire marshal and fire drills.

Confined spaces can also be a problem at breweries and it's not just CO2 filled vessels you need to worry about, mash tuns can also be a problem. SIBA have some information on their website, though it doesn't seem to be working at the moment, as do the Brewers' Association. 

We were also given some useful handouts:

10 things I must do to keep me, my business and my colleagues healthy, safe and legal

1. Decide what could cause harm to people in your business and how to take precautions. This will help you identify the necessary risk assessment. 
2. Decide how you are going to manage health and safety in your business. If you have five or more employees you need to have documented risk assessments. 
3. If you employ anyone you need Employer Liability Compulsory Insurance and you must display the certificate in your workplace.
4. You must provide free health and safety training for your workers so they know what hazards and risks they may face and how to deal with them.
5. You must have competent advice to help you meet your health and safety duties. This can be workers from your business, external consultants/advisers or a combination of these. 
6. You need to provide toilets, washing facilities and drinking water for all your employees, including those with disabilities. These are basic health and safety and welfare needs. 
7. You must consult employees on health and safety matters.
8. If you have employees you must display the health and safety law poster or provide workers with a leaflet with the same information. 
9. If you are an employer, self-employed, or in control of work premises, by law you must report work related accidents, diseases and dangerous occurrences.
10. If you are a new business you will need to register with either the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) or your local authority. 

We were also given information on carrying out risk assessments and some examples but I can't be aresed to type that out. The HSE has guidelines on carrying out a risk assessment here.