Safety alert – site lighting

The nights are drawing in, it is therefore important that adequate lighting is provided to ensure the health and safety of all employees, visitors and passersby on all construction sites.

It is important that every part of a construction site – that is being used – should as far as possible, be arranged so that natural light is available to work and move around the site safely. Where very little natural light is available, artificial lighting should be installed.

Important

• Make sure artificial lighting does not change the apparent colour or visibility of any safety signs or other related items such as fire extinguishers.
• Shadows can obscure hazards both at the workplace and on the site generally. If necessary, provide extra lighting to illuminate shadow areas. Stairwells and areas where cutting or drilling take place should always have additional lighting to illuminate shadow areas.
• Emergency lighting should always be available to come on just in case the primary artificial lighting fails. This would prevent any trips and falls.
• If it is not possible to have lighting that comes on automatically when the primary lighting fails, torches or similar lights should be provided.
• All emergency routes (corridors and passageways etc that are used to follow in an emergency to escape from danger) should be kept well-lit, material and equipment free while employees are on site at all times.
• Emergency lighting only has to be sufficient light to be able to provide a means of escape and should be installed anywhere where there is not enough borrowed/natural light to enable a safe emergency escape.
• Temporary lighting should be mounted off the floor or affixed to a solid surface to prevent trailing wires.
• Use Festoon lighting with LEDs (energy saving) over halogen lighting due to the heat that is produced from the halogen lighting

Keep your construction site adequately lit at all times to provide a safe working environment.