Around 300 people die and 16,000 are injured in enclosed spaces each year, which means somebody dies needlessly almost every day. Perhaps the most shocking statistic is that for every one person requiring assistance, two or three people will die trying to rescue them. The terms...
Most accidents occur when there is an unplanned transfer of energy from one place to another. As an example, a hammer dropped from a height will have kinetic energy, and when the falling hammer is stopped by hitting another object it will exert a force...
Personal Protective Equipment, or “PPE” is often considered as our first protection from workplace hazards. THIS IS WRONG – PPE is our LAST line of defence against hazards and to stay safe it is important to remember this. When designing safe systems of work a “Hierarchy...
Back pain is a big problem - studies have estimated that more than four million working days a year in the UK are lost because of it, and in the USA back pain and other “Musculoskeletal Disorders” (MSD) account for almost 30% of illnesses leading...
“Do not walk under a suspended load” is one of our twelve Life Saving Rules and it is easy to understand that being hit by a falling container will probably kill you. It is also clear that wearing a safety helmet will be of little...
Terminal velocity is the highest velocity attain- able by an object as it falls through a fluid (air is the most common example). It occurs when the sum of the drag force and the buoyancy is equal to the downward force of gravity acting on...
When the TH!NK Life Saving Rules were introduced in November 2016, some of the most important early feedback concerned the use of cell phones and other mobile devices. Many of our Captains considered that this was becoming a problem, so we started a “Don’t Get Distracted”...
“About four minutes later, the skipper reduced the ferry’s speed to 12kts as it approached the next stop. He then sat back in his chair and closed his eyes. Moments later, the skipper awoke with a start to find the ferry heading straight for a...
We use our hands in almost every physical task we perform, both at work and in our domestic lives: grasping, probing, pushing, pulling, lifting, carrying, and holding. Our hands and fingers are also central to our sense of touch. Because of their great versatility, our hands...
The Global Positioning System (GPS), together with GLONASS, BeiDou and Galileo forms the basis of the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) that provides positioning, navigation and timing information (PNT) via satellites orbiting above the Earth. This information allows anyone with a compatible receiver to determine...