Are you a garden centre manager?
In search of a health and safety risk assessment tailored to your activity?
Do you need a pre-filled assessment to save you hours of work?
Want to be in compliance with safety regulations?
 
Our Health and Safety Risk Assessment is designed to meet your needs with:
→ A professional risk assessment totally specific to garden centres.
→ Risk prevention proposals dedicated to garden centres.
→ The integration of risks linked to the COVID-19 (Coronavirus) pandemic.
 
All this in an easily editable Excel format, allowing you to make personalized updates on your own.
 
FEATURES OF THE HEALTH AND SAFETY RISK ASSESSMENT 
 
This 5-page Excel file includes:
A Cover Page
A Company Information page
A presentation of the Risk Assessment Methodology used.
An occupational risks assessment tailored to your sector of activity.
A risk prevention schedule with all the different safety measures.

It contains 38 occupational risk situations classified into 7 work units:
Receiving goods
Shelving: articles and plants
Flower arrangement
Product collection
Customer contact
Store cleaning
Work premises
 
☑ Complies with the employer's obligation to assess risks
(Regulation 3 of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulation 1999)
☑ Adheres to the General Principles of Prevention
(Schedule 1 of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulation 1999)
☑ Takes into account good practice and pitfalls in risk assessment
(Report RR151 from the Health and Safety Executive)
 
EXCERPTS FROM THE HEALTH AND SAFETY RISK ASSESSMENT 
 
The danger of manual handling when shelving items and plants: In the garden center, manual handling is mainly due to the need to handle plants, particularly shrubs, some of which are contained in large pots filled with soil and weighing up to several dozen kilograms. Added to this is the handling of items, some of which are made of particularly heavy materials (cast iron, wood, metal, etc.). The health risks associated with carrying loads are particularly acute when you're handling objects without observing proper handling postures (keeping your back straight, sticking your load to your abs). Other criteria also increase the risks: travelling long distances while carrying loads, having difficulty moving around the garden center (objects on the ground are a source of falls), not using handling aids. In the short term, the main risks associated with such handling are pain, particularly muscular pain, mainly affecting the upper limbs. In the long term, such handling will generate Musculoskeletal Disorders (MSD) affecting the muscles, tendons and nerves of the upper limbs (shoulders, elbows, wrists), as well as the spine (dorsalgia, cervicalgia and lumbago).
 
Dangers associated with working in cold and/or damp conditions: Garden center employees have to work outdoors or in unheated premises (greenhouses), even when temperatures are low. Moreover, working with plants also requires working in a relatively humid atmosphere. Working in low temperatures is a source of various physical health hazards, which it is important to guard against. The risks associated with working in a cold atmosphere are particularly prevalent outdoors in late autumn, winter and early spring. The garden-centre sector is special in that plants evapotranspire, creating a humid atmosphere that feels pleasantly cool in summer, but colder in cooler seasons. Possible damage includes cracked skin, frostbite, fatigue, irritability and infectious diseases (rhinitis, angina, bronchitis, etc.). Cold can lead to Raynaud's syndrome (white, painful fingers caused by vasoconstriction). When working in high-moisture areas, there's a greater risk of developing skin diseases such as athlete's foot.
 
The danger of manual handling at the checkout: At the cashiering station, garden center staff may scan large quantities of products over the course of a working day, which represents a significant weight to handle. This is especially true when relatively heavy items (bags of potting soil, metal items, etc.) have to be passed through the checkout, without being scanned directly into the customer's cart. The risks associated with manual handling are particularly acute for items packed in large quantities, or which are bulky and difficult to handle. At the checkout, the risks associated with manual handling will increase in proportion to the number of items passed through the checkout, and therefore to the total weight handled. In the short term, the main risks associated with manual handling will be pain, particularly muscular pain, mainly affecting the upper limbs. In the long term, heavy handling can lead to Musculoskeletal Disorders (MSD) affecting the muscles, tendons and nerves of the upper limbs (shoulders, elbows, wrists), as well as the spine (back pain, neck pain and lumbago).
 
 
A GUARANTEE OF THE QUALITY OF OUR HEALTH AND SAFETY RISK ASSESSMENT 
_ We're registered as Professional Risk Prevention Consultants.
_ Our team comprises graduate safety engineers.
_ Our documents are routinely checked by safety inspectors.
_ We frequently update our Occupational Risk Assessments.
 
RESOURCES 
_ "Health and Safety in the Garden Centre" by Garden Centre Retail.