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IN THIS ISSUE (Nov 2007)

Welcome
A Members Perspective - feedback from one of our members (Mr Shane Evans)
Lesson(s) Learnt - Knife Safety
EHS Regulations - what's new?
Products and Suppliers - want to share?
Website changes - a summary of some key features to save time
Interaction - always keen to hear and look for contributors.
Website Downloads - an overview
Disclaimer
On a final note...
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WELCOME

Dear Colleagues....Firstly, a great big apology for such a long delay since our first newsletter. I can't believe that 5 months have passed since our inaugural newsletter. We have been so busy with our EHS Consultancy, website downloads and fine tuning. Hope you all like the new format and content.

We have now competed all of the primary modules for the website and our membership is growing every day. We now have over 800 members and we are working hard to increase downloads available and networking. In the pipeline is a members' forum....watch this space.

As always, if there is anyway we can improve the website or offer something that you would like...please let me know. We are constantly striving for improvement and it always helps when a "fresh pair of eyes" gives us feedback.
Thank you - Sonni Gopal (Yahoo Messenger: "morphehs")

A MEMBERS PERSPECTIVE - Mr Shane Evans

I first joined Morphehs in the early days before the search engines, and in joining I got a lot more than I anticipated. It began with a problem with my log in I reported the problem and received back a personal email (within minutes I might add) from the main man (Sonni Gopal). He was great, very helpful and more importantly he wanted me to give him feedback on my thoughts of the website. I think that asking for feedback is one thing but readily following up on that feedback is even better and Morphehs do that really well.

My long term plans are to become a consultant specialising in Health and safety – especially behavioural based safety and continuous improvement, by joining Morphehs I am getting great practice at fulfilling that plan by submitting articles etc to the website, if we are honest- where else would you get that opportunity? In my humble opinion – Nowhere!!

So although you’d think that by joining up to a professional networking website you would be giving someone else some benefits it turns out that by joining this site I have benefited more than Morphehs, nowhere else can I get free downloads on training, health & safety, environment and management systems, I can get all the up to date legislation it is a great place to network and learn new things. I can also help others by giving something back.

One of the most important things you will notice when you join Morphehs is the fact that they truly practice what they preach, each day the site seems to continually improve, and I bet if you have any feedback to give them then it will be taken into account and it will be gratefully received.

I want you to know that all of the above is my opinion and I am in no way trying to give a hard sell, I truly believe that there is no other site like Morphehs and if you want to talk anything through I will be glad to pass on my thoughts direct, please contact Sonni and he can introduce us.

Shane Evans - Lean Manufacturing & Health & Safety Leader, Fenmarc Prepared Foods, Wrexham

LESSONS LEARNT

In this month's newsletter, I would like to share my experiences with "Knife Safety". Over the many years I have been in EHS, I cannot recall the number of incidents I have heard about, or had the misfortune to investigate, associated with knives. Whether we like it or not, knives can be found in most toolboxes or certain tasks within a plant (or manufacturing site). Come to think of it, you can even find them in an office environment!

During my last investigation of knife related incident, I made a summary of some "Golden Rules" for the organisation. Albeit basic, they found the details quite help for increasing awareness. I am sure that the information could be improved and developed further. I will leave those aspects to the reader should they wish to do for their own application.

Step 1 - Eliminate The Risk.....Do you really need to use a knife?....Are you using the right type?
	Multi Purpose
		• Boxes
		• Plastic straps • Film/cellophane
		• Bulk bags • Packaging material such as paper or plastic
	Special Application - Strongly recommend conducting a Task Based Risk Assessment (TBRA) prior to application
		• PVC sheet • Siliconised paper • Bitumen • Coated tapes • Cardboard
		• Slitting bags manually for batch process
		• Rubber material • Cutting plastic bags
		• Paper bags • Plastic bags • Wrappings
	Some Golden Rules
	Only approved knives should be used for the task in hand. See Guidance Table above for suggestions. Training - Personnel who use a knife can only do so following appropriate awareness training/orientation. The distribution of knives must be controlled and recorded (e.g., the knife may be engraved with recipient’s initials or a distribution list maintained including details of awareness/training record). PPE - approved knives can only be used in conjunction with the appropriate PPE, i.e. cut resistant gloves with grip feature. Personnel must never place or carry knives in their pocket. Knives must ONLY be carried in approved pouches/sheaths when not in use. Pouches must be distributed to all knife users. If pouches are unavailable, the knife is left near to the point of use, in a clearly labeled closed container with the blade in the retracted, unexposed position. Periodic audits should be conducted to ensure knife safety requirements are being followed. Plant/Office audits should include the tool and knife safety items. Unused knives must be stored in locked cabinets when not in use. Knife maintenance - knives are prone to getting jammed in the open position if not cleaned regularly. All approved personnel using a knife should ensure that they check the tool pre, during and post use. This should be considered as the “model behaviour” for knife safety and included within the plant knife safety procedure. Blade disposal – used or broken blades must be disposed off safely into clearly marked “sharps box” located near to the points of use. Sharps boxes should be routinely emptied by appropriately trained personnel via approved a waste disposal method.

If you would like to download the above information, click here.

EHS REGULATIONS

If you want to know how to register, submit articles and so on, we have created a help page which can be accessed via the EHS Regulations home page (or you can click HERE).

PRODUCTS AND SUPPLIERS

Still early days, however, our Products and Suppliers database continues to grow. If you are produce or supply EHS related goods and services....can you afford to miss out on free advertising?

To submit your company details and associated services, you can register for free. Again, we have a help feature (Products and Suppliers) to guide you and if all else fails, you can contact us.

WEBSITE CHANGES

A few of our members emailed us and said that they found it difficult to see or find what changes had taken place on the website. We also had feedback that it would be useful having "Help" files.

We realise that albeit we are very familiar with the site, we too find it difficult to keep pace with the status. We are constantly tweaking something or uploading a file etc. 

OK...we hear and obey. On our home page we have now added a "Tracker" button. This tracker file will give you a quick snapshot of what are the latest changes. We are not going to go into "mirco" level...just a quick overview on changes. We have also added "Help" buttons on the key pages within the website (Home {under construction at present}, EHS Regulations and Products and Suppliers pages).

In our "Latest News" banner (on the home page) we will continue to keep you posted on Corporate/Business related aspects.

Hope this helps...pls let us know.

INTERACTION

We now have a reasonable number of members spread across this blue planet of ours and we are growing day by day.

If you would like to play a greater part in our network....feel free. I have never been one to "hog center stage" and strongly encourage any one of you to participate. If you want to submit an article or get 1-2-1 support (information, mentoring etc), tell me and let us see what we can do. Don't be shy!!!

WEBSITE DOWNLOADS

We now have quite a number and selection with regard to downloads and there is still lots more to come.  To keep all our members posted on downloads, we have created the Tracker. We understand that might not be enough and do recommend frequent visits to the website.

We are also working on a module which will notify all our members whenever a new download is made available. This is a really neat feature and we plan to implement it as soon as we can get the coding right....tricky little things!

By the way, on our home page, we went to great effort to provide a "graphical" representation on downloads. This is auto linked and changes accordingly as we add or delete. You wont believe how long it took to create this feature!