HEALTH & SAFETY WORKPLACE HEALTH AND SAFETY
IS TRADITIONAL SIGNAGE ENOUGH?
the past two years - including materials and labour shortages - are well-documented. However, the pandemic also created a number of operational challenges for production teams, who needed to implement new hygiene measures and social distancing rules. Reports suggested that meat processing plants, in particular, were susceptible to outbreaks of the virus. COVID-19 aside, manufacturing and
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warehousing are among the riskier industries to work in, with 85,000 staff in the sector reporting ill health due to work in 2020. To mitigate the risk, workers are used to seeing safety signage warning them of danger, hazardous substances, and communicating what protective clothing they should wear in certain areas. According to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), 142 people were killed at work in 2020 - 2021 across all sectors, while 693,000 sustained a non-fatal injury in the previous year. A further 1.6 million suffered ill health. Any reputable firm will do everything they can
to keep workers safe - what they need to avoid though is bombarding employees with too much signage. This is because it can lead to ‘sign blindness’ - an industry term which simply means we fail to notice what is in front of us. Overexposure to COVID-related messaging over the last few years could mean people simply switch off when they see more safety signs, so how can you make sure they comply?
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Over the years, a standardised system of colours and symbols to keep people safe have become recognised across the globe. They are so ingrained into our culture, it is hard to believe that the green running man icon used to depict an emergency exit was only introduced in the 1980s. These signs can be a powerful way to reinforce
good behaviours - so why then do people sometimes break the rules? Of course, there are some cases where people make an active decision to override instructions from signage, which will be explored later. But after this, one of the most common reasons is ‘sign blindness’.
10 JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2022 | INDUSTRIAL COmPLIANCE
ince March 2020, COVID-19 has caused huge disruption for almost every industry, including warehousing and manufacturing. The challenges facing the sector over
With many of the UK’s COVID-19 restrictions now lifted, Ed Barnes, product innovation manager at health and safety solution provider Seton, explores different approaches to conveying safety messages in the workplace.
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