Manufacturing - more information

Information for manufacturing workers and employers:

On WorkSafe website:

• Several Your Industry pages, including: Manufacturing which has a number of sub-pages; Foundries; Major hazard facilities;  Wood Products Manufacturing
• a number of relevant Injury Hotspots for manufacturing, such as hotspots for the meat, airconditioning, metal manufacturing industries, as well as on topics such slips, trips and falls. (note - the links in that section may not be functioning).
• Manual Handling risks in your industry - which has information for manufacturing and automotive industry.

Food manufacturing generally

From the UK's HSE: A Recipe for Safety a free 2015 guide on health and safety in food and drink manufacture. This guide is for everyone in the industry, including workers, supervisors, managers, directors, health and safety professionals and health and safety representatives. The guidance covers the main health and safety hazards in the food and drink industries and gives practical advice on how to manage the associated risks. It provides a 'one-stop shop' reference document with links to more detailed guidance.

Baking 

From the UK's HSE: COSHH and Baking  - this covers a range of hazardous substances in the baking sector, including controlling exposure to flour dust.

Printing Industry 

Essential Chemical Controls Package for Printers - User Guide - web-based guidance from the Safe Work Australia on the control of hazardous substances for the printing industry. The package provides simple step-by-step guidance to assist printing companies with chemical hazard identification, risk assessment and control. It has information on preventing and controlling exposures, and advice on the use of chemicals, equipment, health surveillance and training within the printing industry.

Machine guarding manual  The US's OSHA has issued Safeguarding Equipment and Protecting Employees from Amputations [pdf], the revised guide that identifies eight mechanical motions and eight hazardous actions that present possible amputation hazards. The guide also sets out steps employers can take to reduce these hazards. 

Woodworking: 

• The UK's Health and Safety Executive has a site on Health and Safety in the Woodworking Industry : Help and advice on the key risks in woodworking including; dust, machinery, and slips and trips.
• Focus on wood products manufacturing - WorkSafe 
• Benchmarking of exposures to wood dust and formaldehyde in selected industries in Australia - Unfortunately no longer available. This 2010 Safe Work Australia project project is one of a series of concept studies to examine options for the collection of occupational disease hazard surveillance data This study  found 72% of hard wood dust exposure exceeded the exposure standard of 1mb/m3. Some 22% of solid softwoods, 28% of reconstituted woods and 25% of mixed woods exposure exceeded the recommended limit. Gaseous formaldehyde exposure was lower than the standard of 1ppm. Mixed wood and multi-tasking exposures were common and it recommended a review of wood dust exposure standards to reflect this. It recommended a larger study of more companies, and investigating using existing data to model exposures.

Foundries and Metal Fabrication 

• The WorkSafe webpage for foundries and metal fabrication.

Meat industry

• National Guidelines for Health and Safety in the Meat Industry - can be downloaded from this page.
• Guidance notes on health and safety in the meat industry have been published by the British Meat Processors Association. The guidance notes, which are available free online (and can be downloaded from this page), have been developed by a meat trades joint working party involving the union Usdaw, the Health and Safety Executive and trade associations. The guidance covers commonly used machinery and equipment such as bowl choppers, bandsaws, hand knives and mechanical deboning systems. It also gives advice on risk assessment in the industry and on priority health and safety topics such as workplace transport, control of hazardous substances and thermal comfort.

Last amended March 2021

Important Manufacturing Information