Series editors' preface - Wood Tools

422 Conservation of Furniture
– set up a safety committee if asked in
writing by two or more safety representatives.
• The employer has duties to take precautions
against fire, provide adequate means
of escape and means for fighting fire.
• Other specific duties of the employer arise
out of the legislation listed above.
Employees, also have duties under the law.
They include:
• Taking reasonable care for their own health
and safety and that of others who may be
affected by what they do or do not do
• Co-operating with managers on health and
safety
• Not interfering with or misusing anything
provided for health, safety and welfare.
9.7.2 The process of managing health
and safety
The emphasis of good health and safety management
is on a forward-looking, proactive
approach. The systems needed for good health
and safety management are the same as those
needed to perform well in every other aspect
of our work: first it is necessary to know what
the current situation is; second we need to set
targets; third we need to monitor and review
to see that we are meeting targets. If we are
not we must respond in away that enables us
to do so. If the review process shows that we
are improving then we will set new, more challenging
targets and in this way we will obtain
continuous improvement. We also need to
respond to events as they arise, to take notice
of incidents that may occur and to put into
practice the lessons that can be learned from
them. Documentation is vitally important in
this process. Under European Economic
Community Directives there is a common ethos
for the management of Health and Safety – a
common process for meeting the requirements
of all health and safety legislation which consists
of the activities listed below:
• Assess the hazards/risks to staff and others
• Identify measures to control those hazards
• Involve staff and union representatives in
the assessment and control process
• Inform staff of the hazards and risks
• Inform staff of the control measures introduced
and how to make them work
• Train staff to do their tasks safely
• Record any actions taken
• Monitor the effectiveness of the control
measures
• Review and re-assess as necessary.
The practical steps to be taken to achieve each
of these steps are detailed below. Further information
is given by Stranks (1999).
9.7.3 Documentation for health and
safety management
Documentation is an essential component of
good health and safety management. You must
record what you do and what you find. This
provides the accountability and audit that is an
essential part of Health and Safety management.
The first step is therefore to set up the
necessary documentation. How you do this is
up to you but what needs to be accomplished
is described below. The main documents
required to support health risk control are:
• Health and safety information from suppliers
and independent sources
• Risk assessments file
• Manual of policy and procedures
• Log book to record plans and all actions
taken.
• Personal safety file – substances used, accidents/incidents,
training received.
These components provide the inputs to and
outputs from the various processes required to
manage health and safety. Sources of general
information for health and safety are listed
below. Further specific information on particular
products can be obtained from manufacturers
and suppliers. To be of use the various bits
of information need to be collated in an
indexed file or database for ease of access. This
information provides much of the basis for
making an assessment of risk and deciding on
the control measures that need to be adopted.
For chemical hazards, typical information that
might be needed would include:
substance/chemical name; supplier name; catalogue
number; physical form (liquid/solid etc.);
Maximum Exposure Limit (MEL); Occupational
Exposure Standard (OES); Category of Danger;