An end to the use of unsafe electrical appliances
A
Seaward Electronic product story
Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team
Dec 16, 2004
Seaward Electronic argues that there can be no excuse for potentially unsafe electrical appliances remaining in use in the workplace.
With the HSE claiming that around 1000 workplace electrical accidents are reported each year, a safety specialist says that there can be no excuse for potentially unsafe electrical appliances remaining in use in the workplace.
The latest HSE statistics show that in 2003/2004, electric shocks caused 10 deaths and 148 non-fatal major injuries to employees in the UK.
In addition, there were also 376 electrical incidents that resulted in the loss of over three working days productivity.
However, the HSE also reports that fires started by poor electrical installations and faulty electrical appliances causes many more deaths and injuries than those included in these figures - for example, in the year 2001 faulty appliances and leads caused 6300 separate fires.
In 2003/4 the HSE issued 233 enforcement notices for companies in breach of the Electricity At Work Regulations 1989, including 127 immediate prohibition notices.
Against this background, electrical safety testing specialist Seaward Electronic estimates that at any time around 20 per cent of electrical appliances used in workplaces require re-testing to ensure that they do not pose a hazard to users.
To overcome such problems the company has recently introduced new safety testing management technology designed for safety personnel, facilities managers, maintenance staff and those contractors with responsibility for ensuring that working and public environments remain safe.
The software-based system provides automatic and pre-emptive re-test alerts for electrical equipment and appliances.
The program works by automatically monitoring, analysing and interrogating existing safety testing records, triggering an immediate e-mail message highlighting those electrical items requiring re-testing.
Software development manager Alan Barrett of Seaward said: "The new technology means that no electrical equipment should ever be in use beyond its safety re-test date.
"Periodic testing is essential to verify the safety of appliances.
"It follows that any failure to remove items from general use when they have not been tested means that they pose a significant hazard to all users - including employees and members of the public".
The Seaward software has been designed specifically to help organisations meet the requirements of the Electricity at Work Regulations 1989 by providing advance notice of the safety testing usually undertaken by electrical contractors, service engineers and/or in-house maintenance staff.
Alan Barrett says: "Effective electrical safety testing solutions are widely available.
"However, despite the overwhelming evidence of the dangers caused by faulty electrical equipment, too few companies have effective preventative maintenance programmes in place to deal with this problem".
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