Cleaning and site teams handle heavy kit, loud machinery and hazardous chemicals as a matter of routine, and the injury figures reflect it. Handling, lifting or carrying causes 17% of all non-fatal workplace injuries reported in Great Britain in 2024/25 (HSE). A joint HSE and UNISON survey went further and found one in five cleaners using floor buffers, mops and vacuum cleaners needed time off work for aches and strain caused by the equipment itself. Health and safety for cleaning staff is not a policy binder on a shelf. It is gloves that fit, ear defenders that get worn and not just carried, and someone knowing where a lone worker actually is.
The same teams are also the ones handling the chemicals that keep a site clean, often working the hours when nobody else is around to notice a problem.
Manual handling: the strain that builds up
Bin bags and rubbish moved by hand, buffers and vacuums carried up and down stairs, furniture shifted to clean underneath it: cleaning work is physical, and it adds up. The UNISON and HSE finding that one in five cleaners needed time off for aches and strain from their own equipment points at a fixable problem: training on correct lifting, longer-handled and angled tools that cut out stretching and bending, trolleys for waste instead of carrying it, and kit stored on each floor of a multi-storey site rather than hauled between them.
Chemicals and skin contact: what COSHH actually asks for
Cleaning fluids, from floor and toilet cleaners to bleach and polishes, fall under the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 2002 (COSHH). The regulations require staff to be trained to read container labels and understand which products should never be mixed, to use each chemical only for its intended purpose, to wear the right PPE, gloves, masks and goggles where the label calls for it, and to store products according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Skipping any one of these steps is where skin irritation, fumes and chemical injuries start.
Noise and hearing protection: the risk you can’t always hear happening
Pressure washers, floor buffers and power tools put site and cleaning work well within the range that damages hearing over time, and the damage builds up gradually. Under the Control of Noise at Work Regulations 2005, employers must provide hearing protection once exposure reaches 85 dB(A), and must assess the risk and provide information and training from 80 dB(A) (HSE). HSE estimates 15,000 workers a year live with hearing problems caused or made worse by their work.
Working early, working alone
Much of this work happens before a building opens or after it closes, often by a single person. That changes the risk profile of everything above: a chemical splash or a strain injury that would be dealt with immediately in a busy office can go unnoticed for longer when nobody else is on site. A simple check-in routine, a colleague aware of start and finish times, and first aid kept where the work happens go a long way. Our commercial cleaning teams build this into every site schedule as standard.
Health and safety for cleaning staff starts with the right kit
Training and process matter, but none of it works without the right equipment on hand. Our Health & Safety range covers PPE, signage and first aid supplies, stocked alongside the wider janitorial range so gloves, masks and first aid stock can go on the same order as everything else a site needs. Standard orders are delivered within 3 to 5 working days.
Whatever the job, the sites we supply across Liverpool and North Wales get the same standard: kit that matches the risk. Shop the Health & Safety range online.