Unbelievably, many workers each year are still being mangled by unguarded or poorly guarded machines (or 'plant'). The results of these accidents are horrific - workers lose fingers, arms and in the worst cases are even killed - often because a machine lacked a guard costing very little.
Most of this sort of plant is regulated under Part 3.5 of the
Occupational Health and Safety Regulations 2007 (read more)
. At the moment, employers can also refer to the
Code of Practice for Plant for guidance on risk assessment and control, including guarding. However, the Code of Practice will be replaced by a Compliance Code in the near future.
WorkSafe also has a useful Guidance Note:
Guarding of machines