What Health and Safety Legislation applies to sole traders and the self-employed when working with lasers
When working with lasers the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act (S.I. 10, 2005) applies to you. Even if you are a small business and it is just you, i.e. a sole trader or self-employed.
“The law applies to all places of work regardless of how many workers are employed and includes the self-employed.”
(HSA Website, The Law)
No matter how small your business, you must manage safety. You are legally responsible for the safety of yourself and your employees. As well as any other person who may be affected by your work activities. This includes members of the public, your clients, and other visitors such as service engineers. You have a duty to prevent risks to others in your workplace.
The benefits of effective health and safety management apply to all businesses. They include avoiding the serious consequences of a workplace accident, such as legal penalties or reputational damage.
Safety Health and Welfare at Work Act
The Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act outlines the legal responsibilities of employers, employees, and the self-employed. If you are self-employed, you are still considered an employer under this legislation. Your duties include managing and carrying out all work activities in a way that, protects the safety of anyone in your workplace. Including your clients and members of the public, as far as is reasonably practicable. This means maintaining a safe working environment and equipment. Providing, or arranging if it is just you, safety information and training, and having emergency plans in place.
In our online safety courses, we cover the legal requirements in detail, specifically how they apply to each speciality. This includes the plan you should have in place to respond to an eye injury caused by accidental exposure.
Risk assessments
A risk assessment is simply the process of managing safety to avoid injury. It involves looking at the tasks, equipment and environments in the business that may be hazardous. Then ensuring that control measures are in place to protect anyone who could be affected.
Regardless of the size of your business, you are required by law to carry out a written risk assessment of the hazards at your place of work. Risk assessments look closely at what in your workplace or work activities could cause harm to people. Depending on your workplace and the type of work you do, you may need several risk assessments. These will include your laser, IPL, and any other light-emitting device.
There are higher risks associated with working with lasers and IPLs, particularly to the eyes, where they can cause permanent and debilitating injuries. We cover these risks in our online laser and IPL safety courses.
The legislation states that the risk assessment must be completed by a competent person. Many businesses choose to employ the services of a Laser Protection Adviser. These include sole traders and large companies with their own Health and Safety teams. As often they don’t have the time, resources, or expertise. An Adviser has the required knowledge, experience, and skills to carry out the risk assessments on their lasers or IPLs. If you think you need help with your laser or IPL risk assessment, you can book a free consultation to see how we can help.
Safety Statement
There is also a legal duty on employers (including self-employed persons) to prepare a written health and safety document referred to as a Safety Statement. This is a written document that explains how health and safety is managed within your business. It will include details of the measures (identified through risk assessment) that are needed to protect against accidents and ill health in the workplace, as well as the names of those responsible for putting them into practice. If you have not done so already, make sure you have a Safety Statement that reflects your workplace and the specific work activities you carry out.
Safety Statement:
The Safety Statement is essentially your programme for protecting the safety and health of anyone who may be affected by the hazards you have identified. It will contain the relevant risk assessments and the controls required to minimise the risks from those hazards.
Do not copy your neighbours. Just as we discourage the use of generic laser/IPL safety Local Rules or Policies, Protocols, or SOPs, the HSA also discourages the use of generic Safety Statements.
“Too often HSA Inspectors come across generic Safety Statements that are prepared by someone with no real understanding of the activities undertaken by the employer.”
The Safety Statement, including the risk assessments, must be reviewed and, if necessary, updated. The HSA recommends reviewing it at least once a year, or more often if there are new hazards such as a new laser or IPL, or if a near-miss or safety concern occurs.
Specific legislation when working with lasers, IPLs and other light emitting devices
In addition to the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act, there is specific legislation for specific hazards, which are the regulations. The Control of Artificial Optical Radiation at Work, S.I. 176 of 2010, Part 9 of the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work (General Application) (Amendment) Regulations 2010, applies when working with lasers, IPLs, and other light-emitting devices.
This legislation adds to the requirements of the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act (S.I. 10, 2005). It specifies that where persons in your workplace are exposed to artificial sources of optical radiation, you must carry out a suitable and appropriate assessment of the risk arising from that exposure.
It also sets out what you must do to reduce the risk of exposure where exposure limit values for lasers or non-coherent light sources, such as IPLs, may be exceeded. As lasers are often Class 3B or Class 4, and IPLs are Risk Group 3, the exposure limit values will be exceeded in the event of an accidental exposure.
The steps you must take to reduce the risk of exposure include displaying mandatory warning signs, controlling access and exposure, providing (or procuring for yourself) safety information and training, implementing safe systems of work (such as Laser or IPL Safety Local Rules), and ensuring the correct use of personal protective equipment (PPE).
So, in summary when working with lasers
You must have a Safety Statement in place. If you have lasers or IPLs, you must also have a documented risk assessment for them. This assessment should identify the hazards associated with your device, determine the level of risk, and set out the controls that must be in place to reduce those risks. You must provide (or procure, if it is just you) safety information and training.
To learn more about the hazards associated with your laser or IPL, how to control them, and what you must do to reduce the risks to yourself, your clients, your employees, and anyone else who could be harmed, as well as what is required to comply with legislation, attend one of our online laser and IPL safety courses.
