P2

When performing maintenance on computer systems, there are many health and safety risks that both the users and the IT practitioners are going to be liable to, I will now explain some of the  health and safety risks that an it practitioner or a user may come across when maintaining computer systems.

The first risk that is also the most obvious is the risk of electrical shocks and electrical damage, this is Apparent with any electrical appliance with a current flowing through it. Electricity isn’t exactly safe for humans, it could cause a whole manner of injuries if it flows through them such as burns or even death! Static electricity is also very bad for other electrical component and short them out, burning fuses, capacitor and microchips out, rendering them useless. To avoid this risks you will need to take a number of precautions. First of all for flowing electricity, you will have to make sure that you get rid of the power, this can be done by unplugging the power cord from the wall outlet or by taking out the batteries, meaning that there is no more electricity that can flow through you. To prevent static electricity you will have to use a static wristband, this will ensure that you have the same amount of electricity in you as the rest of the computer, meaning that it has no reason to diffuse and jump out of the components and on to you.

The second risk to health and safety you would come across while performing computer maintenance is a fire risk. There is a fire risk because some of the faulty component or the computer system that you’re repairing could potentially be smoking, sparking or on fire, which is obvious as to why it’s a bad thing. To prevent these kinds of risks, PAT tests are performed to ensure the safety of all electrical appliances, making sure that they are not liable to catching fire.

The third and final Health and safety precaution that you will have to follow is the physical aspect of moving equipment around. This is apparent when IT technicians move things around and then get injuries like cuts, bad backs and broken toes. In order to negate the risk there are a number of procedures that should be followed, for example; having to cart around equipment rather than carrying it, wearing the correct dress code and wearing gloves.