ICMMA/HSE Guidance, Non-Slip Kitchen Floors
Working closely with the Cleaning Industry Liaison Forum of Health and Safety Executive, the Industrial Cleaning Manufactures Association, ICMMA, has contributed to recent publications of H.S.E. that should be of particular interest to the Cleaning Industry, both publications now appearing on the HSE Website.
The most significant contribution arose from the involvement of ICMMA in a working party of HSE addressing the issue of slips in kitchens.
This working party lead to the publication of the 'Stop Slips in Kitchens' Good Practice Guide that has 3 key components , firstly it seeks to provide a pictorial overview of flooring types and their 'slip' characteristics such that the particular 'slip' risk associated with typical kitchen flooring may be quickly identified by even the most inexperienced of kitchen operators, then reinforcing a principle message that a clean kitchen floor is the best insurance against slips in kitchens, the Guidance Notes detail cleaning tips for the cleaning of non-slip flooring, covering mopping and machine cleaning of such surfaces.
The Guidance notes continue with tips on selecting footwear most suited to non-slip flooring and the kitchen environment.
Traditionally Guidance notes on generic floor cleaning has always focussed on mopping techniques but the involvement of ICMMA in this working group allowed the machine cleaning of non-slip flooring to be given proper prominence, recognising that the larger the kitchen the more likely would be the need for machine cleaning of a non-slip surface to ensure that the characteristics of the flooring were maintained. H.S.E. has already distributed over 30,000 packs of the Good Practice Guide and has plans to distribute an additional 30,000.
Full details of these Guidance Notes may be found on:--
www.hse.gov.uk/slips/kitchens/index.htm
ICMMA membership have also contributed to the drafting of another recent H.S.E.publication, 'Example Risk Assessment – for General Office Cleaning '.where consideration was given to basic good practice associated with the use of cleaning machines in the cleaning of an office, where the use of a vacuum cleaner might now be considered universal.
The details of this 'Example Risk Assessment' are to be found on:
www.hse.gov.uk/risk/casestudies/officecleaning.htm
Issued 10 September 2007 by ICMMA
Contact;
Graham Jones
P.O.Box 12492
Solihull B91 9AX
Tel: 0121 703 0636