Something for the weekend
June 1st 2009

In the construction industry, PPE is often seen as a necessary evil – something that has to be worn but which gets in the way of doing the job. John Williams explains why Marigold Industrial is hoping a more 'out of work' approach to the health and safety message will help change this perception

The UK construction sector has never been so focused on reducing injuries on site in what remains one of the most hazardous industries in the UK.

Manufacturers are increasingly underpinning their products with an emphasis on worker training, reinforcing the need for PPE out on site, and encouraging workers to see it as a benefit to them rather than a hindrance.

It is no longer good enough to simply give workers gloves and tell them to wear them, without reinforcing the reasons why you are asking them to and highlighting the very real dangers of not wearing them At Marigold Industrial we established a pioneering Hand & Arm Protection (HAP) training programme for the construction industry, which has been running very successfully across the UK, having been adopted by some of the biggest names in the industry.

Not only does this ensure that the right gloves are being used for the wide range of tasks undertaken on site, but the gloves provided are reinforced with a programme of on-site training and education sessions highlighting the varied dangers to the hands on site and the importance that gloves can play in keeping them protected and working.

Beyond the toolbox talk The goal is to encourage workers to actively continue to want to wear the gloves provided whenever they are out on site, long after the toolbox talk has finished. If we can achieve that, then the chances of preventing hand injuries and skin disease will increase significantly. So how can this be achieved? One of the critical elements in the success of our HAP Training Programmes is that we have sought to help companies keep their health and safety messages both fresh and relevant.

This and the continued focus to deliver our core mission – To keep working hands safe so they can enjoy what life brings - were the central objectives when we went back on site to undertake research in locations across the UK, to see how the health and safety message could be reinforced further.

What soon became clear was that on sites today, there are many more opportunities available to get the hand protection message across. While notice boards and canteen walls remain staple locations, modern urinal blocks, specific site entry points with built in poster areas and stair systems that have replaced traditional scaffold and ladders, provide added opportunities to get the safety message out to where it is needed most - where people are working and coming into direct contact with hand hazards.

From this research we decided to adopt a new approach to hand protection reinforcement with a poster campaign focusing on life outside work.

Its aim is to make people on site think about the impact that a hand injury or skin disease could have on them out of their working environment, what it could deny them and the impact it could have on them socially.

Free posters say do yourself a favour This has now become a central part of our HAP Suite support package, with construction companies able to request and receive the posters free of charge, printing agreed quantities and sizes for placement throughout their sites.

The posters help construction firms take a new approach to a serious message, inviting workers to "do yourself a favour and make sure you wear your gloves on site".

If we can make people stop and think how hand injuries can impact on their free time and social life – denying them the opportunity to play sport or go out with friends – then it gives the PPE message an added real life dimension.

The hands of workers in the construction industry remain the driving force of what is still very much a handson, labour-intensive business, so we need to look at every possible way to make people buy into the hand protection programme.

And that is what the poster campaign hopes to achieve – to show that by protecting your hands in work, you can safeguard some of the things that are important to you out of work.

John Williams is the UK Sales Manager for Marigold Industrial To request free posters for your site contact Marigold on the number below

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