With Christmas drawing ever closer, people are looking for fun ways to celebrate the holidays with their loved ones. This could include going to watch the Christmas lights being turned on in the town centre, going to a charity Christmas gig, going to watch a church choir, or simply just enjoying the Christmas tree in the centre of your village. These activities all sound very appealing – until health and safety gets involved!

Christmas is a period during which UK residents traditionally get enraged over silly 'elf and safety' scandals, with many left feeling that H&S regulations are solely in place to ruin people’s fun at Christmas.

We have searched the internet to find you some of this year’s most absured ‘Elf and Safety Stories:

Solihull, a small town on the outskirts of Birmingham did not enjoy an official Christmas lights switch on this year – because of health and safety concerns. Traditionally the town enjoyed local celebrities, Santa clause, Sport stars, charities, choir groups and local dance groups turning on the town’s spectacular Christmas lights. However, this year the event organisers decided not to comply with tradition because they were expecting huge crowds of people on the night, which could have presented the town with health and safety issues.

Click here to read more about this story.

Onto Saltdean, where a charity Christmas show, that had already sold 150 tickets out of 200,  was cancelled due to health and safety concerns regarding the buildings fire escapes and the lighting in the venue. A chairwoman of the trustees of the SCA stated “From the sale of the bar we could have £500, which we didn’t think outweighed the risk.”   After 5 years of showcasing the local rock talent this year was going to be the last year that this Christmas charity show was due to run. The event manager stated that he was “devastated” that the show was unable to go on.

Read more of this story here.

In two South Tyneside Villages Christmas trees have had be cut down to size because of ‘elf and safety rules. In Cleadon and East Bolton it was decided that their 8 meter festive firs were too close to power lines, and it would be unsafe for workers to plant the trees using a crane. It was explained that “to ensure we do not have a safety-related incident on site, during tree installation and removal, the crane wagon boom and lifting  equipment comes into contact with the energised supply cables we should reduce the height of these two trees as a matter of public and worker safety.” – The councillor is furious with the decision stating that this decision is “utter madness”

Click here to read the full article.

Even though some of the health and safety stories you may read over the Christmas and winter period may sound ridiculous, please remember that health and safety is in place to protect people – not to ruin your Christmas fun!

For more stories like this, be sure to follow Label Source on Twitter!

However you celebrate the holiday season, it should be a safe and largely stress-free environment for you and your loved ones to enjoy. Sadly, this is often not the case, as Christmas it is in fact the time of year when most accidents occur. While there is no way to ensure total safety at this or indeed any time of the year, there are many simple steps you can perform in order to avoid the chances of causing a Christmas calamity.

Here are a few simple but efficient measures you can perform in order to avoid accidents, and prevent some not-so-merry mishaps:

• Avoid dangerous situations when shopping: If you're planning a trip to the shopping centre either in the lead up to Christmas or during the sales, be sure to stay hydrated and do your best to avoid over-crowded areas. Obviously you won't be able to avoid crowds altogether, but try to use your better judgement to stay out of situations where crushing could occur. You should also avoid rushing if you can help it, as you could easily slip an injure yourself in the cold and damp conditions.

• Don't overload plug sockets: Fairy lights are a much-loved element of Christmas, but please be mindful of attempting to recreate the huge displays organized by your local council! An extension lead or socket should not use more than 13 amps or 3,000 watts of energy, so be sure to check the specifications of all your electrical items before use. These days there are lots of battery and solar powered options available for indoor and outdoor use, so this may be worth considering to reduce the number of plugs.

• Don't leave open flames unattended: Candles and open fires are a part of the traditional Christmas ideal, but they should always be treated with caution! People are 50% more likely to die in a house fire at Christmas than at any other time of year, so make sure that you are not leaving flames unsupervised, particularly around cards and paper decorations. On the same note, be sure to buy the correct batteries for any electrical items that have been purchased as gifts; you shouldn't be tempted to remove them from your smoke alarm!

• Use the proper equipment when reaching for something at height: When decorating your home or removing things from the attic, please be sure to use the proper ladder or step required for the height, do not use chairs and stools!

• Take care in the Kitchen: Be sure to keep children away from hot water and cooking fat, and avoid the consumption of alcohol when cooking. Also ensure that everything is properly cooked and in-date before serving, to avoid food poisoning.

• Keep Christmas plants away from children, animals and vulnerable people: Mistletoe, orange berries and the Christmas rose are all poisonous, so be sure to keep them out of harms way, or avoid them in favour of faux versions if you can.

• Be extra wary of choking hazards: Small parts from broken ornaments, packaging, crackers and the like could be lethal to small children, so be on the lookout for any stray items in their reach.

• Don't drink and drive: It may seem like a rather obvious point to make at any time of the year, but at Christmas people are more likely to relax and loose track of how much alcohol they've consumed, or are more willing to take risks on Christmas Day because they expect the roads to be quieter. Please use the same caution at Christmas as at any other time of the year to stay safe and well!

Please share these tips on Facebook and Twitter, to ensure safety for all this Christmas!

You can follow us @LabelSourceUK and find our Facebook page here.

As you will have already noticed, we've been placing an increased focus on the subject of UK road safety over the past few days, in order to help spread the message about Road Safety Week. In Northampton, a primary school has also been getting involved in this week's activities, by breaking the world record for the number of high visibility vests worn in one place. More than 1,500 people, including the pupils at the school, crammed onto the school yard in order to smash the previous record of 1,475 people, setting the bar for the next group of people looking to take on the challenge.

While the main aim of the day was to aid the promotion of Road Safety Week, it was also an opportunity for staff, pupils and local residents to pay tribute to one of their former pupils. 13 year old Sophie Bywaters was tragically killed whilst crossing the road upon returning from a youth club back  in 2009, an accident made even more heartbreaking by it's preventable nature. Members of the local police as well as the fire and rescue service were also in attendance at the event, not only to aid in the record attempt, but also to give various presentations on road safety. A number of informative activities took place later that day, including a road safety signage competition for students, with the winning designs being chosen for use on international infrastructure group Balfour Beatty's sites. There were also live demonstrations with safety vehicles and fire safety appliances, in order to aid the illustration of vehicle blind spots and proper safety procedure.

It's extremely inspirational to see how this school has managed to encourage interest in the topic of health and safety, by presenting the information in a fun and engaging fashion. It is vitally important that we inform the most vulnerable members in our society about these issues, and ensure that they are fully aware of the safety procedures that should be followed at school, at home and on the roads. This comes from providing good quality and easy-to-read information, in the form of engaging activities such as this one, and of course in the form of good quality safety signs. 

To find out more about Road Safety Week, visit the Brake website.

  To browse our range of high quality health and safety signs, click here.

A mass food poisoning outbreak was caused at a convention over 200 people who attended the convention reported to have been suffering with food poisoning and 24 people were hospitalised. 

An investigation into the cause of the outbreak revealed that the people who were poisoned had the same strain of salmonella that was found on a kitchen stick blender that had not been cleaned correctly and was poorly sanitised. Although cooking food at high temperatures does kill the bacteria, on this occasion the salmonella was not killed because the cooking temperature was not high enough, instead the bacteria was “incubated”. 

A further investigation into the kitchen where this outbreak took place, found not only salmonella on the kitchen stick blender and a large food mixer, but also E-coli, and Bacillus Cereus (B. cereus) were found on a separate mixer, pastry brushes and whisks. 

These harmful bacteria’s were all present at this establishment due to a breakdown on cleanliness, a lack of sanitizing the equipment, and staff not washing their hands correctly or often enough. 

To prevent another harmful outbreak the general manager of the establishment has advised that the mixer has been removed and whole eggs are no longer on the menu, which means there are no egg shells, which potentially carry pathogens, will ever come into the kitchen. 

If you are working in an environment where you are handling food you have a responsibility to the public to ensure that the food that you are serving them is safe and free from foodborne illnesses such as salmonella and E. Coli. 

Salmonella is one of the most common causes of food poisoning. People can get salmonellosis by eating food contaminated with salmonella if an infected food handler had not washed their hands with soap before handling food products.  

Salmonella can also be passed from meat products to vegetables if you are preparing vegetables with the same equipment that was used to prepare the infected meat. 

There are many strains of E. Coli, thankfully most of them are harmless to humans, however, if you are handling raw fruit and vegetables, it is important to skin / wash them before use. Again, if you are preparing meat, such as beer, be sure not to use the same utensils or chopping board for cooked, uncooked meat and vegetables.  

It is important that the employees in your kitchens are washing their hands regularly, before they start work, before food preparation, and after handling raw products. 

Here at Label Source we know that kitchens are full of hazards. We have a comprehensive range of mandatory kitchen safety signs will help prevent the contamination of food prepared in your kitchen by helping to identify potential hazards, and encourage best practises from your staff. 

All of our Kitchen Safety signs are made to meet the ISO EN 1710 standards and comply with the General food hygiene regulations 2010. 

Click here to View our comprehensive range of Kitchen Safety Signs. 

In the unlikely event that you cannot find the safety signs that meet your specific requirements then please contact us on 0800 3761 693 or email info@labelsource.co.uk and a member of  our customer service team will be happy to assist you.  

As the rugby world cup has kicked off this week, your attention may not be 100% on health and safety. You may have known that they have changed the "law" for the rugby scrum and now has a "crouch, bind, set" instructions - this change alone has reduced accidents and injury in the scrum by 50%. But unfortunately not all companies this week have changed their procedures to keep their players (employees) or even their customers safe:

Keeping with the rugby theme, A restarant in Rugby was fined thousands of pounds for having mold growing on the kitchen walls, keeping utensils on the floor and more hygine issues. The restaurant was issued a health and safty warning with an outline of the improvements needed to ensure that the restaurant wasnt closed down. However, when the health and safety officers revisited the kitchen they were shocked to see that instead of improving it had infact deteriorated, there was no hot water in the hand wash basin, a hole in the kitchen door and food waste out to the rear of the kitchen. The owner was fined a total of £3,500 and ordered to pay £913.57 in costs. You can read more of the stroy here. 

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A director of a zoo has appeared in court due to a string of health and safety breeches after a Sumatran tiger mauled and killed one of its keepers. It is said that the zoo director has failed to act on the previous notices to make improvements to his health and safety, not only for is employees but for people not in his employment to ensure their safety when visiting his park. Notices were sent after a tragic accident where a zoo keeper fell from a ladder while preparing food for the large cats last year. The case will be in the courts in October. 

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A bricklayer tragically lost his life this week after a wall collapsed and fell on top of him. The building contractors who had been working on building a 3 bedroom house and a storage room in the garden, the storeroom was planned to be built next to a wall that was built a year previous, however the wall was not built as a retaining wall, and when the ground was being levelled the soil that was supporting the wall collapsed.   The company failed to complete the correct health and safety checks on the wall and did not put in place structural support to prevent this accident from happening. The company has now been fined £200,000. You can read more on this story here. 

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A polythene firm has been fined a total of £50,000 following serious safety breeches which has left an employee with life changing injuries after they got trapped in a machine. The business was charged for breaching the provision and use of work equipment regulations and the management of health and safety at work regulations. For these two breeches the company pleaded guilty and was fined a total of £40,000. They were also ordered to pay a total of £10,000 for costs. to read more about this story click here.