Leading manufacturers of abrasive products fear that proper training in their safe use is being overlooked. In an effort to resolve the problem, the British Abrasives Federation has decided that clear guidelines are required on who should be trained and to what standard, if accidents involving abrasive tools are to be reduced.

The British Abrasives Federation states that its members' products meet or exceed the highest worldwide safety standards. However, despite the huge effort that goes into the design and production of safe abrasives, when technical staff from manufacturers investigate accidents involving its products, they find that the cause is often due to poorly trained operators and products being incorrectly mounted or used.

BAF has brought together a group of leading experts within the abrasives industry. Using guidance from the Health & Safety Executive and PUWER (Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998), together with its combined experience of recorded accidents, the team has devised a standard stipulating the content and delivery to which all abrasives safety training programmes should adhere.

BAF set about identifying those suppliers that were delivering abrasives training to the required standard and found that the number of proficient trainers was woefully small, with course content often out of date or misleading.

The need to raise the standard of trainers meant that BAF subsequently set up an accreditation committee to examine both course content and accuracy. A number of training companies have been through the new accreditation scheme and a list of can be found on the BAF website: CLICK HERE TO VIEW

TASSIA were the first company to be granted BAF accreditation for training courses.

Full details of the BAF accreditation scheme are available on the BAF website: CLICK HERE TO VIEW