Health and safety - The Hempcrete Topic: Designing and Building with Hemp-lime - page 165

Health and safety often gets a bad press nowadays, especially in the context of the
overzealous attitude many organizations have to it in today's increasingly litigious
culture. At best, health and safety at work is not the most thrilling topic, and this
chapter is unlikely to be the first that readers turn to when they pick up this topic.
However, we would emphasize that there are some very important health and safety
factors to be kept in mind when building with hempcrete.
Of course, working on any building site is potentially dangerous, with many hazards that
have the potential to (and do) cause accidental injuries and deaths. Common risks include
trips and falls, falls from height, accidents with power tools and machinery, exposure to
hazardous substances, crushing injuries, head injuries and electrocution, to name but a few.
This has resulted in the development, over the last 40 years, of a range of legislation, work-
ing practices and procedures aimed at improving safety by reducing the risk of accidents
as far as possible, and minimizing their impact on individuals when they do happen.
Plenty has been written about health and safety on building sites, and we do not intend to
reproduce it here. Suffice to say that it is the responsibility of everyone on-site to ensure
that, in line with Health and Safety Executive guidance, safe working practices are fol-
lowed at all times, the correct personal protective equipment (PPE) is used, materials are
safely stored and tools and machinery are operated safely by trained personnel.
The main health and safety issues associated with hempcrete are to do with the nature of
the materials; specifically the lime binder. Because these issues may not be immediately
obvious to those who have not worked with building lime before, it is important to ensure
that everyone is aware of them before starting work on a hempcrete build. Reading the ad-
vice in this chapter may give you the impression that working with lime is a highly danger-
ous occupation, involving constant injuries and burns. This is not the case. When proper
procedures are followed and precautions taken, untoward incidents are very much the ex-
ception rather than an everyday occurrence. However, like everyone else who works with
lime, we started off by getting burnt a lot more often than we do now, and we've picked up
a few tricks along the way. We thought it would be a good idea to pass them on.
Always refer to the safety guidance provided by the manufacturer of all materials before
starting work, but in general you should assume that the following issues and precautions
will apply.