Safety is ensuring you and your work mates around you are safe from the dangerous things around the workshop. Fire and hazardous substances can cause burns, irritations and it also can be lethal. Many people have lost their lives when dealing with fires and different kinds of hazardous substances.
Fire can be caused when the three essentials of making a fire come together. Injuries from hazardous substances are common because of carelessness. These things can be prevented. Isolating heat, fuel or oxygen and the fire won’t be made. Storing hazardous substances properly and clearly labelling what the chemical is. If not prevented they could be minimised.
Wearing the correct clothes for the right kind of job is called Personal Protection Equipment (PPE). These equipments include face masks, hand gloves, overalls, ear muffs, helmets and steel capped toe boots. When handling chemicals it is a good thing to wear non corrosive PPE as most chemicals are corrosive.
When putting out a fire, it is essential to have the kind of fire extinguishers in the workshop. There are different kinds of fire extinguishers: Water-red, Foam-blue, dry chemical-white, wet chemical-brown and Carbon dioxide-black. There are also different classes of fires, using these classifications we can assume which fire extinguisher to use. The classes are: Class A- wood, paper, textiles, plastic, Class B- petrol, kerosene, alcohol, oil, paint thinners, plastic, Class C- LPG, butane, acetylene, hydrogen, natural gas, methane, Class D- potassium, sodium, lithium, aluminium, magnesium, swarf and Class E- live electricity, energised electrical equipment. It is essential to use the correct coloured fire extinguisher for the right class of material that has caught on fire.
When dealing with an unknown substance, we could use an M.S.D.S (material Safety data sheet). A material safety data sheet (MSDS) is a form containing data regarding the properties of a particular substance. An important component of product maintenance and workplace safety, it is intended to provide workers and emergency personnel with procedures for handling or working with that substance in a safe manner, and includes information such as physical data (melting point, boiling point, flash point, etc.), toxicity, health effects, first aid, reactivity, storage, disposal, protective equipment, and spill-handling procedures. MSDS formats can vary from source to source within a country depending on national requirements.
MSDS (material safety data sheets) are a widely used system for cataloging information on chemicals, chemical compounds, and chemical mixtures. MSDS information may include instructions for the safe use and potential hazards associated with a particular material or product. These data sheets can be found anywhere where chemicals are being used.
Modern occupational safety and health legislation usually demands that a risk assessment be carried out prior to making an intervention. It should be kept in mind that risk management requires risk to be managed to a level which is as low as is reasonably practical. This assessment should: Identify the hazards, Identify all affected by the hazard and how, evaluate the risk and Identify and prioritize appropriate control measures.
When working at a workshop, u must know some form of first aid and have a current first aid certificate. The employee must be educated enough to know first aid because it will come in handy if any of your work mates or even yourself could end in up in a situation. This could mean saving lives of others, if you do not know what to do in a situation like this then simply follow the instructions. It could take just seconds for you to lose your life.
To summarise, fire safety is so important because in a second it could mean life and death. Do not attempt to put out a fire that is out of control. Using material safety data sheets you can minimise accidents from hazardous substances such as petrol, oil, gas, chemical wastes and poisonous fumes.
By: Shridhaant Kumar
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