Trade Safety Ltd: Industry leaders in health & safety, consultancy and training

As it moves into its third decade in business, Trade Safety Ltd has grown impressively to become an industry leader in health & safety, consultancy, training, and equipment sales and hire.

Headed up by husband and wife team Austin and Patricia Handy, Trade Safety celebrated reaching the 20-year milestone with an open day last Friday at its headquarters in Sragh Business Park on Sragh Avenue in Tullamore.

Visitors – along with any motorists passing by – were treated to the sight of a man conducting a simulated rescue from a great height, just one of the numerous services which Trade Safety now offers.

Austin Handy's original qualification was as a welder/fitter and in the mid 2000s he completed a degree in environmental health and safety management, a move which brought him to where he is today - running a company which has clients large and small all over the country (Enva in Portlaoise and AQS Environmental Solutions, Tipperary are just two examples) and which has just opened a branch in Belfast.

The Clara man's breadth of experience means he is extremely well positioned to understand the safety needs of the modern workplace.

Standing in the very well stocked store at the Trade Safety premises he recalls the early years of his career as a craftsman.

“When I served my time we had no protection whatsoever and as a result of that I struggle with my lungs. I used to be able to swim 100 lengths and now I would struggle to swim 20 because I can't get the oxygen through,” he said.

“We even used to sniff the welding rods not knowing that they were a carcinogen.”

The supply and service of specialised equipment for all kinds of workplaces is now paramount and all industrial sectors have moved to the point where they realise the importance of health and safety.

As a result, protective masks and headgear are now so complex that some can be provided specifically to fit a person's head, just as one would choose a certain shoe size.

Austin sums it up:

“We don't just put a mask on the person, we do a face fit test to ensure the mask actually fits. If it not correct contaminants can get in and that person could breathe in something they shouldn't.”

Trade Safety owners, Austin and Patricia Handy and colleagues celebrated 20 years in business last Friday

As he found his feet in the world of health and safety Austin quickly discovered that there were many problems out on sites, but few solutions. He set about rectifying that imbalance.

Today, Trade Safety Ltd is a very large operation employing more than 15 people which can broken down into three broad areas of activity – Equipment Hire, Sales and Servicing; Consultancy; and Training.

At the open day there was a particular focus on three specialist sectors in which Trade Safety has particular expertise - confined spaces, working at heights and asbestos.

With the confined spaces training unit beside him, Jimmy Duffy, Trade Safety general manager, explained that such spaces require a particular response:

“Confined space is an area where there's an issue with access or egress, or issues inside that could cause a restriction. Basically it's an enclosed space and within it there are different levels of risk, low, medium or high.”

At the same time, Aidan Marrinan was going up and down the Skyhook, Trade Safety's system for rescuing people from heights.

Aidan demonstrated how an injured person – and himself – can be brought safely to earth for medical treatment in under four minutes, something which is of critical importance in situations which are literally matters of life or death.

The Skyhook (there are only four such devices in Ireland and Trade Safety has all four) can be positioned where the emergency is and the person in difficulty can be winched off and brought down so that first aid can be administered.

Trade Safety trains others in the assembly, installation and use of the Skyhook and the company's staff can also be on standby at a site to manage a rescue in the event of a fall.

Last Friday visitors could also see a decontamination trailer, a mobile unit which is especially important when workers encounter the dangers of asbestos.

Commonplace in construction for centuries, its safe removal is now a key requirement in many refurbishment, reconstruction and demolition projects.

Workers enter the trailer, undergo a changing and washing procedure, and emerge without any contamination.

As Jimmy Duffy put it: “You go in a dirty end and come out at the clean end.”

Trade Safety also offers roof safety systems, working with an Italian company, Rothoblaas, to carry out bespoke design solutions which are then installed and inspected periodically.

Whether it is access or egress to a roof via a ladder, or safe walking on a roof in bad weather, solutions are necessary and Trade Safety can deliver them.

The company is also expert in over-netting which prevents falls through the weakest part of many roofs – the skylight.

Austin Handy lists just some of the challenges his business has to address: “How do we rescue somebody from heights? How do we rescue somebody from a confined space? How do we put somebody into a confined space that has a toxic atmosphere or an oxygen deficient atmosphere?”

Some of the answers to those questions, and countless other problems which are more down to earth, are answered in Trade Safety store.

It is open Monday to Thursday, 9am to 5.30pm and on Fridays from 9am to 5pm, and stocks masks, helmets, first aid equipment, fire extinguishers, gas detectors, safety wear, safety equipment, breathing apparatus, lanyards, winches and much more.

“A lot of the guys around the town call us the harness people. We do sell a lot of harnesses so I suppose it's a good thing to be known as,” laughed Austin.

The sale and hire of equipment is a big part of the business (even some of the largest contractors find it more economical to hire than buy equipment outright, especially when one item, like an ATEX light would costs thousands of euros to purchase but only a couple of hundred to rent) but servicing is crucial too.

“We have to be able to service equipment because basically somebody's life is on the line if it fails,” said Austin.

Log on to www.tradesafety.ie for more information.

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