How many of us are guilty of hoarding old laptops, electric toothbrushes, kettles phones and cables collecting dust?
It is claimed that households across Wales are hoarding around 26 million small old electricals, rather than recycling them.
People instead of throwing away of these old or broken items are contributing to one of the fastest growing waste streams in the world, estimated to cost the UK economy over £370 million of lost valuable raw materials such as gold, copper, aluminium and steel. Precious metals are used to make up compononents for everyday items we take for granted.
On average it takes a household about two years or more before they get rid of things.
Studies have shown that if all the old laptops hoarded across the UK if they were recycled could provide enough aluminium to produce 159,000 bikes; enough steel to make 12,000 playground swings; or enough plastic to make nearly 5 million life-saving defibrillators.
Hand Sanitisers are mostly Alcohol based and are used in the fight to comat COVID-!9 and other viruses however they are also are highly flamable.
Employers and Self Employed Electricians alike should tread caution when using alchol based hand sanitisers whilst working near sparks and naked flames.
Used in the wrong working conditions these products can cause catastrophic effects.
Health and safety experts at CE Safety are alerting workers up and down the country of the potential fire risk of alcohol-based hand sanitisers.
Workers working with Gas and Electrics should be up to speed with training and the risks involved with hand gels, especially when we hear that there was one employee who used alcohol based gel and had been unfortunate enough to come into contact with a static spark, which ignited and gave him second-degree burns on his hands.
Alcohol based hand sanitisers are highly effective at killing germs and are used worldwide by everyday people. However the dangers of hand sanitisers near naked flames whilst cooking even should also be a hazard warning to be extremely careful.
However the strengths of some of these liquids can range from flammable, to highly flammable, to extremely flammable and it could pose a fire risk not only through direct contact but also by the vapour that they emit which could easily ignite.
Working environments that involve open flames/heat sources, flying sparks or anything of that nature, pose a constant risk to fire safety and personal health and safety. Vapours react at their “flashpoint” and then can ignite in normal air conditions.
A CE Safety official said: “Any person who carries out hot works – such as welding, soldering, grinding, cutting, burning or any other process that produces sparks – should, as a rule, use a hand-sanitising solution that is completely free of alcohol, due to the risk factors”.
A person can minimise the risks by washing their hand throughly using soap and water and can use alternative hand sanitisers to combat hand sanitisation on the go.
***Remember to read labels carefully just incase there are other flamable ingredients.
When applying alcoholic based hand sanitisers a person must wait until the liquid has fully evaporated on their skin (i.e. their hands are completely dry) before they begin or resume work – especially when working next to naked flames or in any other environments that pose static-charge risk.”
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