A recent site audit of safety equipment requirements at one of our long-term customers by Snell's safety expert, Marc Rooke turned out to be very well timed. He went to assess the safety requirements at two sites for this customer and upon his arrival, noticed many inconsistencies in the work areas that contravened basic health and safety laws.

For example, there were no visible evacuation procedures in case of fire or exit signs over doors. These are very important safety items although they may seem minor. Even when there's a fire in your own home which you know back to front, the smoke can cause disorientation and an exit sign could be the difference between getting trapped inside the inferno or making it out alive.

We informed our customer of these hazards and began to look at items to solve the problem. Within three days of this site audit, our customer coincidentally received a communication from OSH stating that they were conducting a random audit on the two business sites within the next fourteen days.

We received a call for help to get the site up to code as soon as possible, so the necessary advice, products and assistance was provided and all requirements were completed within one week.

OSH arrived and conducted the audit with the successful outcome being a clean slate in all areas.

Recently, one of SNELL's Christchurch customers requested that a Safety Audit be conducted at their site.

The time and day was arranged and SNELL's resident safety expert (who used to be an OSH inspector) proceeded with the audit. About a quarter of the way through, he realised that the site was non-compliant in quite a few areas and a danger to staff and site visitors alike.

There were pallets stacked too high, the dangerous goods shed did not comply with regulations, and there was inadequate safety signage and no masks for the hopper operators who were working in severe dust. It must be said that our customer was not deliberately violating OSH regulations, just that they had not had someone to advise them on what was required.

SNELL proceeded to supply safety signage, hi vis clothing and respiratory protection to get the site up to code. What the impact would have been on this company is unimaginable; they narrowly avoided loss of production, as well as wages for staff, a possible fine and having OSH on their backs forever more.