June 14th is WHO Blood Donor Day. The event raises awareness of the need for safe blood and blood products. It is also used to thank donors for their life-saving gifts of blood. Working with chainsaws, there’s obviously a lot that can go wrong, so we’re thankful that nobody on the team has ever needed to be the recipient of donor blood!!!!
We wanted to take the opportunity though to highlight Blood Donor Day (if you’re a healthy adult, have you ever thought about being a donor?). We also thought it’s a good excuse to look at some of the good practice that has kept Simon and the other staff away from A&E, and give some tips to anybody thinking of exploring chainsaw carving.
The Legal Stuff
The first thing is GET YOUR CHAINSAW LICENSE! This ensures you are trained to work competently with a chain saw. There are several ways you can go about this, but a good starting point is the TKF website.
Simon always has a health and safety policy in place wherever he works. This includes things like roping up when necessary, safe use of scaffolding, storage of equipment, and safe distances for others. Although health and safety assessments can seem tedious, they really do help think through the possibilities. In turn, this ensures everybody is doing their best to stay safe. If you are planning on some chainsaw art, even if you don’t need to write a policy, think through the possibilities, assess your site, project, tools and personnel and stay safe!
Top Tips for Chainsaw Safety
Our other top tips include:
- maintain the chainsaws properly.
- always wear the correct safety equipment.
- time invested in best practice is always worth it.
- take time to think through best positioning of equipment, especially ladders and scaffolding, and work within the guidelines provided by the manufacturer.
- know you limits!
Tiredness, being distracted by hunger, using equipment too heavy for your fitness level and physical capability etc can all compromise a person’s safety. There’s no shame in knowing when to stop and take a break. This is also key in avoiding things like Repetitive Strain Injury.
We love when people get creative and try new things. BUT!!! Let’s stay safe and make sure the only blood-giving we do on world blood donor day is intentional!!!!