Our Health & Safety team has written a range of industry guidance, the guidance is assured by primary authority giving it legal standing. Industry guidance comes into play where no other guidance exists, the latest revision to our health surveillance guidance for cold store workers now considers potential employee circulation issues/medication and treatments (e.g weight loss drugs).

The revision puts more emphasis on the importance or asking employees if they are currently experiencing any symptoms such as cold hands and feet, numbness or tingling (pins and needles), pale or blue skin, muscle weakness, numbness, pain in legs when walking, swollen veins, sores, ulcers on skin. These symptoms may indicate sensitivity to cold or potential circulation issues

In addition, the guidance recommends that you request information of any current or past medications taken and/or medical treatments, as this may affect their ability to work in low temperature environments.

Should any symptoms be reported, it is important for employers to refer employees to a suitably qualified medical professional such as an occupational health provider for further evaluation.

BFFF Member Guidance

The below provides a few examples of how BFFF members utilise our guidance in the workplace:

• CHECKING if an injury in the workplace is actually reportable to the authorities using our flowchart,

• DETERMINING suitable cold insultative (CI) footwear as the current EN standard for testing footwear is only completed at -17°C when many cold store operate at a much lower temperature,

• ENSURING operators of Material Handling Equipment (MHE) are still doing this safely using our observation checklist,

• ASSESSING if cold store control measures such as rest break duration are suitable and sufficient,

• COMPLETING health surveillance considering medical conditions and ethnicity.

For more information on our range of health & safety and fire safety guidance, please contact simon.brentnall@bfff.co.uk