Discuss about a risk profile for a retail store, risk assessment for the display of goods and comments on the Role of HSE and the LA system?
Every occupation is associated with some hazards that may be potentially harmful to the workers and other human being in the premises and may cause injuries, major or minor if not tended to. Risk assessment is the observation and study of any specific occupational premises like a retail convenient store in this document and the identification and management of the potential hazards involved. Simple events like spillage of oil or paint on the floor to uneven surfaces and loose fixtures can cause serious accidents and endanger the lives or injure the occupants of the premises. If not taken care of, the store owner may face legal prosecution (Felton, 2000).
The following document is a detailed analysis and risk assessment for a convenience store in an attempt to identify and understand the occupational hazards and recommendations and discussions to prevent them. In doing so, I, as a newly qualified environmental practitioner has visited the store as a customer, observed and noted down the good and bad practices that I have encountered in the experience in the store and compared them to some recently occurring hazardous incidents in other retail stores due to bad practices and tried to recommend certain remedies in overcoming the risks and their management. In doing so, I have extensively used the HSE templates and guidelines for risk assessment and it is based on some assumptions that I have mentioned later on in the succeeding sections of the document.
A retail store deals with many different types of products and commodities which may prove to be hazardous to the health of onlookers and customers who may visit the store. In addition to this, the hazards can be fatal to the working staff in the premises of the store. The following points will provide a better insight of the potential practices or items that may be hazardous to the health if not assessed or managed otherwise. Not all of them are relevant in this particular assessment of the retail store in concern, but they are all common hazards that are found in the most of the retail stores (Hse.gov.uk, 2016).
It is a well known saying that prevention is better than cure. In order to prevent the health hazards to disrupt the health of the human beings present at the premises, it is a good thing to maintain and follow some pre determined dos and don’ts, which if properly followed and executed at all times will narrow down the chances of any occupational hazards occurring inside the retail store. Training and obliging the working staff in these aspects should be a great start in achieving this. In addition to this, putting up posters or warning signs to make the customers and visitors aware of the potential risks or hazardous items or zones will allow the store visitors to be more aware and attentive toward their own safety within the store (Martonik, Grossman and Gordon, 1998).
As part of the surveying aspects of my duty, I went into a retail store to take note and observe what good and poor practices of occupational and workplace hazards were being followed there and this is a brief account of the observations.
As I entered the store, I realized that there was an ongoing promotion and sale of household decorating materials and everywhere there was a spree of building materials including paint solvents, paints and wallpapers. In addition to these, other painting related items like paint brushes and rollers were to be found here and there.
Owing to the ongoing promotion, the store was filled to the brim with customers rumbling for the right equipment for their needs and exploring every nook and corner of the store. As a result of this, it came to my notice that there was a spillage of paints form knocked over containers which was unattended at that moment (Oshwiki.eu, 2016).
In order to find myself a tin of paint of my choice I seeked the help of a young sales person who came to my help but informed me that the paint I was looking for only came in 20 liters can which was kept at an upper shelf. He readily came to my help in order to fetch me the tin and brought in a conventional ladder to reach at the top. As he laid the ladder on to the rack where the paint tin was stored at the highest shelf, and started climbing on top of it I could see that the ladder was moving to some extent dangerously and I tried to support it in order to let him fetch my paint tin safely. There were some metal lattices stored at the other aisle and if the ladder slipped and fell, he could have been impaled by the sharp edges of the metal items.
I acquired a trolley to put my tin on and went ahead to get myself a spray paint machine. I had to guide the trolley around trailing wires on the floor. I also wanted mirrors for my wall and found that they were big and heavy yet they were stacked against the wall loosely and it took me some effort to get them on the trolley (Parker, 2005).
As I brought my car around the bay to collect my stuff other vans were parked there of construction workers who was in the store. There were no lanes marked. The sales guy from before was helping a guy with the loading while the guy was abusing him with his choice of language.
There was only one delivery bay and heavy vehicles damaged that bay and it was difficult to maneuver a vehicle form out of the store.
As I left I felt the sales guy deserved a break for lending me a hand but it was a couple of hours before he could have got a break from his supervisor.
Manual Handling Operations Regulations 1992
Lifting Equipment at Work INDG290
Management of Health and safety at Work Regulations (MHSWR) 1999
The Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations (RIDDOR)
HSE has been doing a great job in restoring the importance of health and safety management in different establishments and Britain’s health and safety is one of the best in the world. The close association with LA rating and intervention has defined a new edge in keeping in control and monitor the health and safety issues and if they are managing it properly. However, the system lacks the confidence when it comes to association of government prosecution protocols and policies and this has to be incorporated within the system for the system to work as one big unit.
The National Local Authority Enforcement Code was developed as a compliment of Reclaiming the health and safety for all to assist the local authorities health and safety inspection. In order to determine the intervention significances on a priority basis there is a risk rating system.
The establishments not managing the risks effectively are rated “A” who does not induce confidence in their management systems. Likewise the categories follow into B1, B2 and C.
The observations made at the retail store and the identification of the potential hazardous elements of product display featured in the store brings me to shivers when compared with the outcomes of the incidents at the three different locations in the UK one of which claimed the life of a four year old and one another permanently disabling the walking ability of a grown man. Improper storage of bulky items like the washbasin at an inappropriate height like the one that happened at the Greater Manchester store in Oldham can be reflected by the observation at the retail store that had a 20liter can at the top shelf of a rack. Similarly the mirrors were loosely stacked against the wall and similar incidents that proved fatal could be related to. The damaged delivery bay at the retail store can be closely related to the incident at the Glasgow store where the door fell and injured the man. Similar incidents with vehicles moving in and out could occur at the delivery bay of the store.The good hazard management practices that has been stated earlier needs to be followed and implemented in order to prevent any such occurrence which may lead to the loss of life or injury as well as the legal prosecution of the store leading to heavy penalties and destruction of goodwill (Segura, 2008).
References
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