Importance of Maintenance Work

An activity we have never previously covered but one in which people are exposed to just about every known hazard is that of Maintenance.

The trigger for producing this article is that the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work launched its latest campaign on 28th April 2010, targeting the issue of Safe Maintenance. Throughout 2010 and 2011, the aim is to raise awareness or the importance of high standards of maintenance, the risks to everyone if it is not done properly and the risks for those who carry it out.

We are currently witnessing on our TV screens a major tragedy in the Gulf of Mexico after the explosion of an off-shore oil rig platform being operated by BP. A number of workers lost their lives in the explosion and it seems that all the resources available to the US Government are being called in to control the aftermath.

Obviously it is too soon to know the full reasons for this explosion but it calls to mind a similar disaster in the UK’s North Sea Oil Field when the Piper Alpha platform exploded in 1988. This extreme example was put down to inadequate coordination of the maintenance process. If we allow standards to slip, we may appear to get away with it for a long time but eventually – as was the case with Piper Alpha – we get caught out and the consequences can be both tragic and disastrous.

Maintenance work, properly carried out, is an essential element of creating a safe working environment for all of us, though it is an aspect that many of us tend to overlook and take for granted. (more…)