Corona Virus precautions on site

[Ferdinand]

I have put this thread here, as it really belongs with the CDM role / Health and Safety.

 

Has anyone considered this? Though the numbers are small, we do have people coming on and off site - and some of us sometimes have a number of different subbies over periods of time etc.

 

I have been consulting an expert over the gym where I own a small stake, and where the activity is as vigorous as any building site, and the points made have been:

 

- Washing hands is still the key. Traditional soap is as good as gels etc. Having hot water is not quite as important as I thought it was.

- Regularly wipe down areas touched by a number of different people - especially door handles and light switches, but also taps, electric sockets, whiteboard pens, buttons on drinks machines, handles on doors or equipment if used by different people etc.

- Corona Virus lasts up to 48 hours on a surface.

- Laminated signs with instructions on doors where people enter, in the washing hands / bathroom area, and on noticeboards.

-  Make a summary note in any Health and Safety manual / file / procedure.

- Encourage wearing of gloves where possible / appropriate. (Either a gym or a building site probably have some glove--wearing anyway).

- Have a supply of robust disposable gloves available, in case you need to insist.

 

The reasons for self-builders to pay a modicum of attention seem to me to be twofold:

 

1 - For its own sake, to keep things rolling / be on top of things in a safe working environment for staff, and any regulators etc who visit.

2 - To have a suitable set of reasonable measures in place in case there is any attempted comeback later from any source (though it is unlikely) - the famous arse cover.

 

Does anyone have suggestions / comments?

 

Ferdinand

 

Edited March 6, 2020 by Ferdinand

[epsilonGreedy]

The greatest risks for me are the card reader keypad at my local BM, the pen offered to me each time a BM delivery arrives and SWMBO who works at a hospital. My brickie team is young and incredibly hardy and fit, so I doubt a corona virus infection would knock more than 1000 bricks a week off their productivity.

 

Supply chain interruption will be the greatest problem, I might get my roofing components onsite a month earlier than required.

Edited March 6, 2020 by epsilonGreedy

[nod]

I was talking to a HSE who covers 12 sites 

He said while hand washes and gloves can be provided he sees little point with some many people coming and going 

He said most measures will be token 

 

I’ve been working on one of his sites with about 30 others 

One porta loo no warm water 

While it is cleared out each week 

You can see from the picture below it isn’t suitable for 30 +

 

I do worry for cafe pubs and restaurants If you where so concerned as to ware a mask when out You wouldn’t eat or drink out 

 

 

[Bitpipe]

All my London meetings for next few weeks are now conf calls as almost every client is asking 'have you travelled to these X countries, or been in contact with anyone who has etc..' and if yes, you can't visit their offices. As my colleague was skiing in Italy at half term, we're on the exclusion list.

 

Can't say I'm really bothered but can't help thinking that if you did an exhaustive spider web of connections, you'd quickly exclude most of the UK population, especially as the virus has a foothold in UK now.

 

 

[nod]

Just watching the local news 

showing most restaurants in Chinatown Manchester showing bookings are down 40%
Its not helping with the majority of Chinese students waring surgical masks 

 

Also panic buying has already started 

one lady on the national news stated she still had her Brexit box so wouldn’t be buying extras in

The government needs to cain things down 

[Jeremy Harris]

The panic buying thing, along with the daft wearing of surgical masks (which offer the wearer pretty much zero protection from infection) is just a consequence of all the fear that's being stoked up by the media.  The reality here in the UK is that seasonal 'flu has already killed more people this year than this new virus, as have many other other infectious diseases.

 

Our local supermarket had sold out of hand wash stuff, and my wife's reaction was to assume that this meant that the majority of people never wash their hands, and have suddenly decided they need to (not a bad idea, but it does make you wonder a bit). 

 

Building sites are probably not a major risk, for a few reasons.  The virus most probably doesn't survive on surfaces outside for very long, and those who are used to having their hands dirty when working are usually also used to not putting their hands near their face when working.  Add in that many people may be wearing work gloves, anyway, and that porous materials are generally poor at transmitting the virus, and the risk drops still further. 

 

Most likely places on a site where transmission may happen are probably communal rest and refreshment areas.  My experience was that most of those on our site chose to go and sit in their vans for tea, lunch, etc, even when I'd sorted out somewhere to sit inside.

[Carrerahill]

1 hour ago, Bitpipe said:

All my London meetings for next few weeks are now conf calls.

Hopefully this will drive down the demand for pointless meetings, people love meetings and most of them are totally pointless, not all, but most.

 

I used to fly down to Heathrow nearly every other week for a meeting, I came away from the meeting 1/2 a stone heavier and with some liver damage as all that ever seemed to happen was a couple of days of people talking to convey would could have gone in an email then eating and drinking a lot!

 

So perhaps meeting lovers will soon realise that having people trotting up and down the country just to be seen to be doing something is a waste of time, resources etc.

 

I worked for a firm about 10 years ago where the MD wanted to Scottish office to have a monthly meeting, so we duly had this meeting, we all sat in the conference room and ate sandwiches and discussed pretty much the same stuff every time, it was fine and they only lasted 2-3 hours. Then the MD decided we were to have our meeting in Manchester... so every month we all met at motorway services and travel lodge carparks in the middle of the night across Scotland to car-pool groups of us to drive down... Must have cost the business at least £1000 in fuel and parking then on top of that the loss of productivity. 

 

 

[joe90]

Went to the dentist yesterday, notice on the door “if you have visited any of these countries recently you are not allowed to enter” a list  of about 8 countries followed.

2 hours ago, Bitpipe said:

All my London meetings for next few weeks are now conf calls

been there ,done that, conference calls are far greener than travelling by any means.

[Bitpipe]

8 minutes ago, Carrerahill said:

Hopefully this will drive down the demand for pointless meetings, people love meetings and most of them are totally pointless, not all, but most.

 

I used to fly down to Heathrow nearly every other week for a meeting, I came away from the meeting 1/2 a stone heavier and with some liver damage as all that ever seemed to happen was a couple of days of people talking to convey would could have gone in an email then eating and drinking a lot!

 

So perhaps meeting lovers will soon realise that having people trotting up and down the country just to be seen to be doing something is a waste of time, resources etc.

 

I worked for a firm about 10 years ago where the MD wanted to Scottish office to have a monthly meeting, so we duly had this meeting, we all sat in the conference room and ate sandwiches and discussed pretty much the same stuff every time, it was fine and they only lasted 2-3 hours. Then the MD decided we were to have our meeting in Manchester... so every month we all met at motorway services and travel lodge carparks in the middle of the night across Scotland to car-pool groups of us to drive down... Must have cost the business at least £1000 in fuel and parking then on top of that the loss of productivity. 

 

 

 

Conf calls are good for established relationships but face to face is important too.  For one thing, at least you can see if you have everyone's attention and how they are reacting to what you are saying - I know that on a conf call, the majority of attendees are multi-tasking and not paying attention. Side conversations are often more productive than the meeting itself.

 

Depends what you're trying to achieve I suppose. I think the business lunch, dinner & drinks culture is on the way out though.

 

I do think the conference industry is in big trouble  - I used to attend MWC (mobile phone industry) in Cannes and then Barcelona for over 10 years and now the Mrs goes with her firm. While a few of the big players (Google, Apple) pulled out years ago, it was still a big deal with over 150,000 attendees from companies big and small congregating.

 

After this year's cancellation (and dozens of other similar events), the accountants will be very happy, as will many of the attendees. Sales will likely not show an impact so it will be harder to justify next year and so on...

 

Fully how people are told to travel less for the sake of the environment and they ignore it, cant possibly happen etc. Tell them they may get a virus and it stops dead.

[Jeremy Harris]

28 minutes ago, Carrerahill said:

Hopefully this will drive down the demand for pointless meetings, people love meetings and most of them are totally pointless, not all, but most.

 

I used to fly down to Heathrow nearly every other week for a meeting, I came away from the meeting 1/2 a stone heavier and with some liver damage as all that ever seemed to happen was a couple of days of people talking to convey would could have gone in an email then eating and drinking a lot!

 

So perhaps meeting lovers will soon realise that having people trotting up and down the country just to be seen to be doing something is a waste of time, resources etc.

 

I worked for a firm about 10 years ago where the MD wanted to Scottish office to have a monthly meeting, so we duly had this meeting, we all sat in the conference room and ate sandwiches and discussed pretty much the same stuff every time, it was fine and they only lasted 2-3 hours. Then the MD decided we were to have our meeting in Manchester... so every month we all met at motorway services and travel lodge carparks in the middle of the night across Scotland to car-pool groups of us to drive down... Must have cost the business at least £1000 in fuel and parking then on top of that the loss of productivity. 

 

 

 

 

If you want barking mad when it comes to employers and travel, then it's hard to beat the terms of my job when I was working in Scotland.  The job spec was for me to be based in Scotland (West Freugh, near Stranraer) and work three days a week there and two days a week in London.  The really daft thing is that my boss specified that the two days in London had to be Tuesday and Thursday, so I worked Monday in Scotland, drove up to Glasgow airport at ~05:00 Tuesday morning, got the shuttle to Heathrow, then a 45 min tube ride into central London.  I did the reverse on Tuesday evening, getting back to Glasgow at ~08:30 and then driving home to Portpatrick (about an hour a half).  Wednesday I'd be working at West Freugh all day, then back down to London on Thursday, etc  I did this mad schedule for about 3 years until my boss in London was found naked in his office one Monday morning, having been locked in over the weekend.  He was sectioned and diagnosed with some severe mental illness that meant he never came back to work.  His replacement took one look at my travelling expenses (I'd managed to get a BA silver frequent flyer card, just on shuttle trips) and changed my work pattern so I worked in London on Thursdays and Fridays, with an overnight stay down there.

 

Back then I was still eligible for overtime, and all the travelling time meant that I bought a new car every couple of years, just from expenses.  Pretty knackering, though, all the same.

[Carrerahill]

38 minutes ago, Jeremy Harris said:

The panic buying thing, along with the daft wearing of surgical masks (which offer the wearer pretty much zero protection from infection) is just a consequence of all the fear that's being stoked up by the media. 

Exactly!

 

The issue however I think is the lack of official public announcements, even a simple ad campaign blasted out giving out fact, talk about the 10,000's of people who have recovered.

 

If I was older or had existing morbidity yes I think I would be taking a lot more care and limiting my exposure but people have gone mad, I am sure they are expecting scenes from 28 Days Later.

 

The media is to blame for a lot of this and ejits on social media with followers because they sang a song in 2004 and are now looked up to by the deluded. 

 

 

 

 

 

[Carrerahill]

27 minutes ago, Jeremy Harris said:

 

 

If you want barking mad when it comes to employers and travel, then it's hard to beat the terms of my job when I was working in Scotland.  The job spec was for me to be based in Scotland (West Freugh, near Stranraer) and work three days a week there and two days a week in London.  The really daft thing is that my boss specified that the two days in London had to be Tuesday and Thursday, so I worked Monday in Scotland, drove up to Glasgow airport at ~05:00 Tuesday morning, got the shuttle to Heathrow, then a 45 min tube ride into central London.  I did the reverse on Tuesday evening, getting back to Glasgow at ~08:30 and then driving home to Portpatrick (about an hour a half).  Wednesday I'd be working at West Freugh all day, then back down to London on Thursday, etc  I did this mad schedule for about 3 years until my boss in London was found naked in his office one Monday morning, having been locked in over the weekend.  He was sectioned and diagnosed with some severe mental illness that meant he never came back to work.  His replacement took one look at my travelling expenses (I'd managed to get a BA silver frequent flyer card, just on shuttle trips) and changed my work pattern so I worked in London on Thursdays and Fridays, with an overnight stay down there.

 

Back then I was still eligible for overtime, and all the travelling time meant that I bought a new car every couple of years, just from expenses.  Pretty knackering, though, all the same.

Mad eh!

 

I know where you are, I have family just on the outskirts of Stranraer.

 

 

[Bitpipe]

Our local Waitrose is empty of loo paper and pasta

 

I can only imagine that people can only sustain this level of hysteria for a short time before they have a house full of loo roll and have not dropped dead.

 

I also think the last few years have tainted the impact of government information campaigns.

 

The 'Get Ready For Brexit' one that ran last year was laughable - when you went to the web page it had vague advice such as 'you may want to prepare for changes in export processes' but obviously could not advise what was changing as no-one knew, and still don't know. Which begs the question, why have a super expensive information campaign?

 

If people get their info from social media influencers, then give them the correct facts and let them share.

 

 

 

 

[Temp]

I'm thinking handles for shopping baskets and trolleys are going to be a risk for virus spread. Ditto petrol pump handles. Not yet but if this thing really gets going in the UK.

 

 

[Jeremy Harris]

7 minutes ago, Temp said:

I'm thinking handles for shopping baskets and trolleys are going to be a risk for virus spread. Ditto petrol pump handles. Not yet but if this thing really gets going in the UK.

 

 

 

 

Exactly my thoughts, and one reason why I now carry a small bottle of IPA/water mixture plus some sheets of kitchen roll in my jacket pocket, so that I can give them a wipe down before handling them.  That, together with sticking rigidly to the "don't touch your face" rule when out and about will probably significantly reduce the risk of infection.  Might also reduce the chance of just catching a cold, as the transmission path for rhinoviruses is much the same as that for this corona virus.

[kxi]

Getting infected is also about the other people you may unintentionally spread infection to. E.g. you might have no symptoms, but say you visit your elderly mother in a nursing home to reassure her all is well and 2 weeks later someone else's Grandma is dead as a result of a door handle you touched. Same thing with the flu jab every year.

 

If everyone takes basic 'reasonable' steps to slow the rate of infection, it will likely reduce the number of people who end up dying, and reduce the likelihood that harsher changes in behaviour will need to be imposed e.g. mass quarantine like in China.

[epsilonGreedy]

5 hours ago, Jeremy Harris said:

 

Exactly my thoughts, and one reason why I now carry a small bottle of IPA/water mixture...

 

 

Anti-viral India Pale Ale!

 

Not heard of that before or is it a contingency for when your GP confirms a Covid-19 diagnosis?