Sorry - as it's Friday - You flush your toilets with hot water! Posh or what!


As for a serious answer - you need to ensure suitable welfare, this will depend on a range of factors. Can you in the short run.

Provide alcohol gel (not perfect but better than nothing)
use another facility for hand washing
Provide a means of heating water, e.g. boiler / kettle?

For example - lack of hot water in a hospital = really bad
lack of hot water in office toilets - I am sure people will survive a day
lack of hot water in engineering toilers - Ensure everyone wears gloves, provide separate facilities for cleaning.

Washing hands in cold water and soap is OK for most stuff temporarily I am sure....

quote=Clairel]Interesting that you're worried about breaching Regulations but not about hygiene.

In answer to your question as long as you are trying to do something to get it fixed then breaching the Regs isn't really an issue. This is the real world afterall.

IMO as long as you have soap and cold running water you should be ok unless you're in a particularly hazardous industry.

As Claire has said, if this is a ‘transient’ occurrence that you are seeking to remedy as soon as possible then I hardly think that you are likely to have the HSE beating a path to your door due to ‘a breach of your legal requirements’. Depending on your sector, I would have thought that both they and I suspect you, have bigger fish to fry!

The key to these sorts of situations is communication. Let your staff know what has gone wrong, what you are doing to put it right, how long you expect this to last and what alternatives, if any, there are.

I would have thought that most staff will understand.

Graham has picked up on something that was very much on my mind when I wrote my last post. We are not or intended to be miracle workers, nor do we have, should seek or be expected to have a magic wand. Part of our jobs is to both have and to convince others of the need for a sense of proportionality. In the grand scheme, the absence of hot water for a short period of time is unlikely to either kill anyone or cause them any significant harm. It might well be technically in breach, but considering the circumstances I can't see either an HSE/LA inspector taking this any further.

Inform, communicate, get it fixed as soon as you can.

Zyggy,

Did you read that back to yourself before you pressed 'post'?

Safety Smurf....no but see what you mean!!

To clarify...it's a toy plastic wand that we sometimes use in presentations!!

And to think this thread started on the subject of water temperature before getting to pink wands that tinkle. Tell me there's a link here.

Mr Flibble mentions union members among others not noticing, or perhaps just not complaining about the effects of a boiler faulty for 2 days. This perhaps provides an illustration that, contrary to some people's impressions, union members and their representatives are not necessarily out to score points and co-operate as little as possible with managers and employers.

As with people in general, some union reps are pragmatic and sensible about situations and, er, some are not. Sometimes sensible union reps tell the non-sensible ones to get a grip on reality, as I found for example some years ago shortly after one of my employer's secondary schools suddenly lost a third of its large building through fire. One rep was unhappy that several of his members were teaching in squash courts taken into use as improvised classrooms at the adjacent sports centre. The teachers themselves didn't seem unhappy with this arrangement, and a rep from another teaching union told the unhappy one that he was going way over the top about an understandable temporary arrangement. The unhappy rep promptly shut up. I never even got the chance to find out if he knew the meaning of "taxidermist"!

From a hygiene viewpoint I would not worry too much about no hot water. I know of no evidence that shows that washing in cold water is unhygienic. The hot water is really there for comfort. In any event hot and cold water should be mixed to provide lukewarm water to wash in.

Chris

Since posting my response above with info about the school taxidermy society I've remembered from my early years with HSE an anecdote from a colleague regarding himself and another colleague, a trainee. The gist of it was that both were travelling in a car, perhaps on HSE business, in a rural part of Scotland when the trainee either braked suddenly and stopped the car or asked our mutual colleague if driving to do so. He then got out and ran back to pick up a dead squirrel (if so, probably a red one) and pop it in a handy plastic bag. The ensuing conversation reportedly went along the following lines: colleague "what are you going to do with that?" trainee's response: "Stuff it!"

Apparently the trainee had been in a taxidermy club while a pupil at an independent boarding school and knew that squirrels, especially red ones, were desirable creatures for taxidermy. As he went to a different school from the one I inspected, does anyone happen to know if taxidermy clubs tend to be popular at independent schools, and also if any exist at LEA/state schools?

My apologies to forum users about the fact that the above has negligible or no connection with the original topic, but at least it contains some humour - and also there might be a tenuous link to OS&H in relation to taxidermy clubs at schools.

Nearly forgot: The trainee later decided to leave HSE and train as a medical doctor. Perhaps he thought that if he wasn't going to pursue a career to try to prevent occupational injury and ill-health, he could at least help patients who had suffered various forms of ill-health or injury, possibly including ones with an occupational cause!

Should we start a collection of anecdotes from the experiences of health and safety practitioners. I could add a few. Perhaps eventually IOSH could publish these as a book!

I too look forward to Graham's posts - they often brighten an otherwise normnally dull day.

Well plenty of people already tell me to get stuffed!
Sorry mods I know its not Friday but could not resist. Have a good Christmas and keep safe everyone.