Safe Quarry - Health and Safety Authority

PART 9 WELFARE
(c) a sufficient supply of hot and cold or warm
running water.
(2) The operator shall ensure that -
(a) washing facilities provided are conveniently
accessible from the accommodation for
taking meals and are adequately lighted,
properly ventilated and are kept in a clean
and orderly condition,
(b) provision is made for separate washbasins,
or separate use of washbasins for men and
women when so required for reasons of
propriety,
(c) suitable showers in sufficient numbers are
provided for persons at work, if required by
the nature of the work or for health reasons,
(d) provision is made for separate shower
rooms or separate use of shower rooms for
men and women,
(e) the shower rooms are sufficiently large to
permit each person to wash without
hindrance in conditions of an appropriate
standard of hygiene and such showers are
equipped with hot and cold running water,
and
(f) where the rooms containing showers or
washbasins are separate from changing
rooms, there is easy access between the two.
To be adequate and suitable, facilities for washing
should include running hot and cold,or warm,water
as well as soap and clean towels (the single towel
for use by many should be discouraged) or other
suitable means of cleaning or drying.Washing facilities
should be conveniently located, be near to the
sanitary facilities and large enough to facilitate
washing of face, hands and forearms.
Separate washing facilities and/or showers should
be provided for men and women except when the
facilities are provided in a room intended to be used
by only one person, the door of which is capable of
being secured from the inside.Separate facilities are
not necessary for washing the hands, forearms and
face only.
Hot water temperatures must be controlled so as to
prevent scalding.
Showers are necessary where workers are exposed
to heavy physical work or to offensive/harmful
substances where ongoing skin and hair contamination
must be prevented.
The provision of emergency showers is sometimes
required under other legislation for first-aid
purposes such as when handling acids or alkalis.
Washing facilities should have adequate lighting, be
sufficiently ventilated, adequately protected from
the weather, appropriately maintained and kept
clean. Employers may arrange amongst themselves
to jointly provide and maintain facilities.
65. SANITARY CONVENIENCES
(Regulation 67)
67.
(1) The operator shall ensure that adequate and
suitable sanitary conveniences appropriate to the
number of persons at work at the quarry are
provided.
(2) The operator shall ensure that -
(a) every sanitary convenience, other than a
convenience suitable only as a urinal, has a
proper door fastening and is partitioned off
to secure privacy,
(b) every sanitary convenience required to be
provided is sufficiently ventilated and does
not communicate with any workroom or
mess room except through the open air or
through an intervening ventilated space,
(c) every sanitary convenience is under cover,
(d) the sanitary conveniences are so arranged
as to be conveniently accessible to persons
at work at all times while they are at the
quarry and are, where practicable,
convenient to the washing facilities,
(e) provision is made for separate sanitary
conveniences or separate use of sanitary
conveniences for men and women, and
(f) every sanitary convenience is maintained in
a clean and hygienic condition.
BS 6465-1:2006, “Code of practice for the design
of sanitary facilities and scales of provision of
sanitary and associated appliances” provides
guidance for determining an adequate number of
lavatories and washbasins.
SAFE QUARRY GUIDELINES TO THE SAFETY, HEALTH AND WELFARE AT WORK (QUARRIES) REGULATIONS 2008 89