There are tens of thousands of offices and workplaces up and down the United Kingdom where members of the workforce play an active role in general cleaning and sanitation duties. Which in many instances can be a great way of keeping the place clean in between the professional cleaning, but at the same time is something that should always be approached with health and safety in mind.
Of course, most people will tell you that they are quite competent and capable enough to take care if you mean they’re cleaning jobs without putting anyone in danger. Nevertheless, there are a few essential health and safety standards that should be revisited from time to time, just to ensure they are followed.
1 – Wear Protective Gloves
For example, anyone planning on using industrial or commercial cleaning products really must ensure that they only ever do so while wearing protective gloves. Even if the products in question appear to be relatively harmless at the time of using, they can nonetheless cause serious damage to skin over time. And of course, wearing protective gloves also means carrying out the job in the most hygienic manner possible.
2 – Never Mix Chemicals
One of the most important rules when it comes to working with these kinds of products is to never, under any circumstances mix any two cleaning products together. Even if the products are almost identical and you are simply planning on pouring the remnants of one bottle into another, this is always a terrible idea. You simply never know how the chemicals in one product will react with those in the second product, meaning you cannot rule out rather nasty consequences.
3 – Know What You’re Using
It is also crucially important to ensure that you fully know and understand what it is you are using and what it was designed for. The practice of grabbing any random bottle off the shelf and using it for any random purpose whatsoever really isn’t a good idea, for reasons that should be relatively obvious. If you don’t know what it is and what it should be used for, don’t use it!
4 – Original Containers
A simple yet extraordinarily important tip to follow at all times, ensure that all cleaning products across the board are always kept in their original containers. This way, you eliminate the possibility of somebody accidentally using the wrong product for the wrong purpose.
5 – Safe Storage
In terms of storage, harmful chemicals and cleaning products in general should never be stored above eye level. The reason being that this makes it difficult to know whether they are properly secured and could thus result in their contents being poured on the face of the unlucky person retrieving them.
6 – Fire Safety
Last but not least, it is a good idea to be aware of which products you plan to use are flammable and to ensure that such products are never used in the vicinity of making flames or extreme sources of heat. It can take only one of very minor oversight to result in one major fireball and a quite catastrophic injury.