Health & Safety: within photography

The ‘Health and safety at Work act 1974’ is often also referred to HASAW or HSW. The act is the main piece of health and safety legislation in the UK, it places duty on employers to ensure the safety and welfare of all employees at work. The act requires many things, including and not limited to:
Safe operation and maintenance of the environment and systems.
Safe use, handling and storage of dangerous substances,
Sufficient training of staff to ensure health and safety.
Sufficient welfare provisions for staff in the workplace.  
A risk assessment must be taken, in all areas of the workplace and to reduce industry accidents and ensure the safety of workers.
Employers also have to keep a copy of the act and often revise the policy. This policy is needed within this profession due to the amount of time in the workplace or out on shoots. All shoots should be risk assessed and should be safety first. Whilst in the workplace, all aspects should be clear and as safe as possible to prevent tripping, or any industry, especially around chemicals in the darkroom and lights in the studio.
Cossh 2002, or the ’Control of Substances Hazardous to Health’ act is the law protecting workers who use substances, or mixtures of substances. The law requires employers to control these substances, which could be hazardous to health and can prevent or reduce exposure to these substances. This could be by finding the health hazards, deciding how to prevent harm, providing measures to prevent this and planning for emergencies. This can be used within the darkroom, we should never mix two chemicals and be careful when creating your own developer/stop/fix. We should also keep the path clear, to prevent anyone tripping and spillages. If something has been spilled, it must be cleaned and a sign displayed to show there is a wet floor.
The Health and Safety (Display Screen Equipment) regulations 1992 requires employers to carry out analysis and  assessment of the work station, especially using screen equipment,  All work stations must meet basic requirements that enable them to be adjusted and used without any risks to health and safety. People must have breaks within the day, to get away from screens. However, this does not necessarily mean a complete break from work but a break from the screen. Free eye tests for users much be provided on request, the employer, however, does not have to pay for frames.  This is applied to my practice via editing and research, you can often be staring at a screen, however, make sure you can adjust the screen and take breaks as much as possible. Another way of ensuring safety in this practice, is using chairs with back rests and that allow the proper posture when working.