Stay Safe This Easter: Most Common Hazards You Need To Know

Easter is a wonderful time of year for so many reasons. Spring is fast approaching; the days are brighter and warmer, and it serves as a great excuse to load up on a completely unreasonable amount of sweet treats.

To celebrate the Easter holidays, we will be looking at some of the most common hazards you might want to be aware of over your seasonal activities, to keep you and your loved ones safe.

Easter Egg Decorating Safety

Many people enjoy decorating or painting eggs as a part of family celebrations. It’s a very creative activity to engage in and can be fun, but you should consider some of the potential hazards and how you might protect against them. Here are a few things to bear in mind:

• Inspect eggs before buying them. Do not use any that could be cracked or broken, and make sure to keep them refrigerated until you use them.
• Hard boiling eggs before use makes them easier to paint and serves as a great way to avoid children handling raw eggs (not to mention the potential mess involved in dropping them).
• Don’t eat the eggs. Eggs that have been out of the fridge for longer than two hours should never be eaten. When not stored or cooked correctly, eggs can spread disease-causing bacteria.

Easter Egg Hunt Safety

A good old-fashioned Easter egg hunt is a true holiday staple. It’s a great chance to get outdoors, appreciate the season, and mix in a bit of friendly competition. 

When setting up your hunt, you must be diligent about the fact that it will be a chaotic activity, and a lot of young children will likely be too excited to notice a potential danger. Be extra careful where you hide eggs and don’t get too overly ambitious.

Scan the area for potential hazards, and if you’re in the garden, put away any tools, hoses, or chemicals. Keep eggs away from animals (household pets or otherwise). Don’t hide eggs in pre-existing holes, or near any plant that you can’t identify. And keep count of the eggs you’ve hidden! The last thing you need is a rotting egg in the back garden. Finally, before starting, it’s worth setting up a physical boundary and informing children where not to go to prevent them from exploring too far.

Fire Safety in the Kitchen

It should be no surprise to anyone that the number of house fires goes up during every public holiday. In addition to this, one of the largest causes of house fires is cooking. Guests are over, and a lot is happening all at once, so it’s easy to get distracted when you might be preparing food. Be mindful of the following:

• Too many cooks spoil the broth – Ensure the kitchen doesn’t become too overcrowded. Only the essential people should be allowed inside, and if your kitchen is a primary walkway through the house, you might want to consider opening an alternative route. 
• Keep it simple. Don’t juggle too many things at once. This divides your focus and can lead to missing something, such as the oven or gas ring.
• Presence of mind is key – Make sure you are fully rested and wide awake before cooking and avoid drinking alcohol before or during cooking.

If the art of preventing fires appeals to you, you might consider enrolling on the NEBOSH Fire Safety Certificate when you return to the office after your well-deserved break. Every office needs a fire warden, and completing this course will equip you with the necessary skills to manage fire safety, the fire protection of buildings, risk assessments and the safety of people in the event of a fire. The course is now available for pre-order below and is expected to be released on 03 June 2024.