Health and Safety

There are two main health and safety aspects to consider when specifying lighting for the workplace. Both fall under the provisions of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974:

• The Working at Height Regulations 2005
• The guidance for Lighting at Work

Working at Height

Industrial high bay lighting is, as the name suggests, normally installed in high and sometimes difficult to access places. This means that proper procedures must be followed each and every time a light bulb fails.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) give the following guidance when planning work at height:

"As part of the Regulations, duty holders must ensure:

• all work at height is properly planned and organised;
• those involved in work at height are competent;
• the risks from work at height are assessed and appropriate work equipment is selected and used;
• the risks from fragile surfaces are properly controlled; and
• equipment for work at height is properly inspected and maintained.

There is a simple hierarchy for managing and selecting equipment for work at height. Duty holders must:

• avoid work at height where they can;
• use work equipment or other measures to prevent falls where they cannot avoid working at height; and
where they cannot eliminate the risk of a fall, use work equipment or other measures to minimise the distance and consequences of a fall should one occur."

Clearly, installing LED high bay lighting which is totally maintenance free, guaranteed for 5 years and has a life of more than 60,000 hours (6.8 years running 24/7) means that there will be no need to work at hight in order to change dim or failed lamps.

Lighting at work

Here too the HSE provides guidance in the form of a guide book (HSG38). This guide book provides useful information about not only recommended lighting levels but also the quality of the light in the working environment.

Employers, the self-employed and people in control of non-domestic premises have a duty to ensure that lighting is safe and does not pose a health risk to employees and others who may use their premises. Under the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 (MHSW), employers must assess possible risks in the workplace. In practice, this includes considering whether work lighting arrangements are satisfactory, or whether they pose any significant risks to staff using the workplace. Where there is a possible risk to employees, action needs to be taken to remove, reduce or control the risk.

The following points should be considered when evaluating the suitability of lighting:

• Under monochromatic light sources, such as low pressure sodium discharge lamps, colours will not be identifiable and a hazard may go unnoticed.
• Lighting needs to achieve a reasonable uniform illuminance in all relevant working areas, ie illuminance across any given task area needs to be uniform.
• Employers need to consider the type of work that is to be carried out when deciding on a suitable lighting design. For example, if a task requires detailed work, additional lighting may be needed so that the work can be carried out safely.
• Specialised work, for example electronic assembly, may require workers to differentiate between the colours of wire. In these circumstances employers will need to consider lighting that does not affect the natural appearance of colours so that their employees can work safely.
• The illuminance needed depends on how much detail needs to be seen. It also depends on the age of the worker, and the speed and accuracy by which the task needs to be performed. These perfomance-related requirements and light levels are detailed in the CIBSE Code for lighting. The table on below sets out recommended illuminances for different types of work. It makes recommendations for average illuminance for the work area as a whole and for minimum measured illuminance at any position within it. Using only the average illuminance may result in lower illuminances in certain areas. This may endanger the safety of workers. The minimum measured illuminance is the lowest illuminance recommended in the work area for health and safety.