Safety Guidelines
Clothing:
Must be suitable for the conditions. Water proofs, sensible footwear: wellingtons recommended for work in areas of wet sand, mud or clay; non-slip trainers for slippery rocks; walking boots for long distances.
Protective clothing:
Hard hats must be worn in quarries and near cliffs. Safety Spectacles must be worn when hammering.
Behaviour:
Do not use a hammer if someone else is standing nearby. Do not hammer or collect samples under an overhang. Collect rocks in an ethical way, with considerations of the status of the site (SSSI or RIGS) and its use by others. Hammering and collecting are banned at some sites. Insurance: We advise you to take out your own accident insurance.
Specific risks:
Coastal exposures - fieldwork should always start on a falling tide, you should be aware of local conditions and ensure that there is adequate time to return safely before the next high tide. Quarries - Hard hats must be worn at all times within all working quarries. The owner may insist that people wear safety glasses, high visibility waistcoats or safety footwear - these instructions must be followed. Any instructions given by the site foreman must be followed. Be aware of areas in which diggers and lorries are working, areas of soft ground or lagoons, areas of loose or recently blasted rock, and times of rock blasting. Keep away from and not interfere with any machinery and vehicles in the quarry. There may be an age restriction, and/or limit to the number of people attending placed on visits to working quarries by the owner.
Please follow our national fossil collecting code
A UK Fossils & Discovering Fossils initiative (c) 2006
All recent fossil finds 'emailed to us' get
displayed under our 'recent finds' page. |
