Health and safety news and updates

safety4business produces this completely free monthly update on health and safety news for distribution to selected clients. The update is not intended to be comprehensive, as that would clearly involve a very long and unwieldy communication. Instead, it aims to identify the most relevant items, providing you with the option to investigate further if needed.

We hope you find the news and update both interesting and effective in helping you to keep abreast of what is happening in the world of health and safety.

News

The survey of 200 van drivers by logistics firm Ryder asked questions about the stresses and strains of daily life on the road, what drivers do to alleviate them and how they feel about their jobs. More than 80% of the drivers interviewed indicated that driving conditions have become more stressful over the past three years. The major causes of stress are:

• Traffic jams (80% of drivers)
• Road works (64%)
• Parking restrictions (47%)
• Speed cameras (46%)
• The pressure to deliver goods on time (36%)

Drivers hogging the middle lane on motorways, not indicating, and early starts/long hours were also quoted as sources of stress.

Computer Screens Taking Toll on Eyes.

A survey of nearly 1,700 UK workers, by research firm Tickbox, reveals that 14% say over-exposure to computer screens is the reason they now wear glasses or contact lenses. The survey also found that 20% of UK workers have not had their eyes tested in five years, with only 30% aware of their right to a free eye test through work. The main barriers to taking eye tests are:

• Concern that it would involve a cost to them (12%)
• Confusion as to whether or not they are entitled (15%)
• Not wanting to ask their boss (22%).

New IOSH Head Demands Higher Profile for Health and Safety Role

The new president of the Institute of Occupational Safety and Health has put increased public recognition of safety and health practitioners in helping to keep workplaces safe at the top of his agenda.

Neil Budworth, who took over from Lawrence Waterman, said: "We know our efforts significantly reduce the toll of accidents and work-related ill health and improve business efficiency. That's why our role demands and deserves more formal recognition. It is abundantly clear that incompetent advice leaves employees at risk and can mean organisations spend large sums of money for little additional protection."

Local Authorities to Implement Worker Involvement Programme

The Government is urging local authorities to ensure that they make worker involvement through partnership arrangements a key element of their health and safety work programmes for 2006/7.

The Worker Involvement Programme will be working with HSE regional Partnership Managers to encourage LA's to put worker involvement into their plans of work.

Young Workers at Seasonal Risk

The Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH) has warned that young workers must be taken care of over the Christmas season as they are more accident prone. At Christmas with many employers taking on additional staff to cope with the seasonal business surge the institution points out that young people are particularly vulnerable.

Neil Budworth, IOSH president, said: "Young people play a major part in keeping our economy sustainable and our services running, particularly during the busy festive season. Employers must look after their health and safety, as they do for their other workers and not just look on them as 'more pairs of hands'. This means not putting unreasonable work demands on young people and preventing them endangering themselves or others."

He called on employers to train young people in the basics of workplace health and safety, supervise them and, where possible, team them up with a workplace 'buddy' or mentor.

Reducing Falls from Height in Schools

A briefing produced by South West Safety Advisors Network in consultation with HSE has been published for teaching employers and school support staff to help them reduce the number of falls from height accidents in schools.

In the last 6 years there have been 5 deaths and over 3,000 injuries in the UK education sector due to falling from height, with most major injuries in schools caused by ‘low’ falls of less than 2 metres. Other high fall risks include:

• Standing on desks and chairs while putting up displays
• Standing on stools while closing windows
• Standing on ladders while carrying out repairs and maintenance work

RSI Database

A new database, expanding and updating existing information on important Court judgments in repetitive strain injury (RSI) cases, can now be freely accessed. The HSE-funded work-related upper limb disorder (WRULD) database has free access to registering users, enabling them to:

• Read details of judgments
• Learn of the degree of care exercised by employers
• Discover the amount of damages awarded to claimants

Safety4business course ‘RSI – What It Is and How To Avoid It’ aims to enable workers to understand and avoid the causes of RSI – call us on 01843 847479 for more details

Local Authority Inspection and Enforcement Understaffed

A recent survey of local authorities reveals significant understaffing in environmental health departments:

• More than 60% of authorities in England, Wales and Scotland say they are at least one
  member of staff down
• Two authorities had 13 posts unfilled, affecting work in food hygiene, health and safety,
  housing and environmental protection
• 20% of authorities say they were unable, or struggling, to meet statutory requirements such as enforcing health and safety law in retail and other premises.

Local authorities are responsible for enforcing the law in more premises than the HSE, and are responsible generally for offices, retail and wholesale, warehouses, fuel and storage depots, residential care homes and premises involved in catering, leisure, cultural or consumer and other services.

Grants for Worker Involvement

Grants are available to organizations of all kinds who are able to demonstrate a commitment to getting more workers involved in occupational health and safety. The grants are available from the £1million Worker Safety Adviser (WSA) Challenge Fund. Further details can be found at http://www.wsa-cf.org/

Centre for Workplace Health Opened

The Centre for Workplace Health, a national centre of excellence in the promotion of health in the workplace, has been opened at the Health and Safety Laboratory in Buxton.The Centre, which will treat occupational asthma as a priority area, will:

• Host the training of practice nurses and GPs
• Work with the British Thoracic Society to improve the situation for patients
• Deliver high quality health surveillance for workers exposed to hazardous materials
• Run specialist clinics with the NHS
• Work with specialist doctors to agree diagnosis procedures and establish consistency of reporting

Influencing Behaviour Relating to Slips and Trips

Rossmore Group have produced a Health and Safety Executive funded report entitled ‘Research into the behavioural aspects of slips and trip accidents and incidents’, which throws light on interventions that might influence human behaviour, make changes to environments or improve safety performance.

TUC Report on Occupational Cancer Epidemic

A TUC report, Burying the Evidence claims that Britain is facing a cancer epidemic which has been almost entirely missed in official statistics. The report claims that occupational cancer is killing 50 people every day and calls for an urgent and fully resourced public health response.

The report recommends:

• Recognition by the Government that occupational cancer prevention is a major public
  health priority
• Launch of a national occupational cancer and carcinogens awareness campaign
• Convening a working party, to review occupational cancer strategy
• Wherever possible phasing out carcinogens and replacing with safer alternatives
• Introducing Toxics Use Reduction legislation, already used successfully in some US states
• Creation of a national system of occupational health records to ensure adequate recording of workplace exposures and other occupational cancer risk factors
• Creation of a National Exposure Database
• Health and Safety Executive resources for training of union safety reps in “lay epidemiology” techniques for the early recognition of work-related diseases, including cancer
• Full implementation of the European Union law requiring workers to have access to occupational health services
• Revision and extension of the Government Industrial Injuries Benefit Scheme to include a wider range of occupational cancers in it scope

Legislation Update

First Aid Regulations Review

The recent review of the First Aid Regulations has resulted in HSE deciding not to make it a requirement for employers to ensure provision of first aid treatment for members of the public. However, guidance will continue to strongly recommend that employers should consider the public when conducting their first aid needs assessment and provide first aid for them. HSE First Aid Regulations review page provides further information.

Health and Safety Executive Update

HSC/E Plan Simpler Regulation. The HSE has published an initial Draft simplification plan in response to the Government’s challenge to develop a draft simplification plan by February 2006. Further information can be found at the Better Regulation website. Stakeholder comment is invited on this initial draft.

Key themes include:
• Simplification for business to help them concentrate on improving outcomes rather than
  bureaucratic processes
• Changing the culture for example through a campaign to tackle risk aversion
• Consideration of alternative penalties to reduce burdens and simplify enforcement
• Challenging policy makers on the need for new regulation and its impact on SMEs
• Simplifying existing legislation
• A fundamental review of the system on reporting injuries and ill-health
• Joined up enforcement including more effective partnership with LAs to secure a consistent, targeted approach
• New arrangements for dealing with large organisations to ensure interventions are better coordinated for multi-site firms and consistent with agreed priorities for improvement across the organisation.

To comment on the draft simplification plan, email HSE at simplification@hse.gsi.gov.uk.

HSE Leaflets, Books and Guidance

New Guidance on Whole Body Vibration

The Health and Safety Executive has published further guidance on Whole Body Vibration (WBV). The guide, "Whole Body Vibration: The Control of Vibration at Work Regulations 2005" gives advice to employers of what can be done to reduce and control the risks of WBV under the Control of Vibration Work Act 2005 which came into being earlier this year.

The new guidance will be helpful to those who operate off-road machinery and construction vehicles as well as industries where drivers can be exposed to shocks and jolts while travelling over rough ground like, mining and quarrying. The book is a detailed, plain language guide of the regulations as they apply to whole-body vibration together with chapters, giving practical advice on a number of issues such as:

• How to do risk assessments
• Estimating vibration exposure
and
• Arranging health surveillance

Workplace Transport Guide Revised

The HSE have extensively revised and updated HSG136 Workplace Transport Safety: An Employers' Guide, which offers advice on all aspects of workplace transport operations, including risk assessment.

Copies of Workplace Transport Safety: An Employers' Guide, ISBN 0 7176 6154 7, are priced at £11.50 and are available from HSE Books.

The HSE has also published a revised INDG199(rev1) Workplace Transport: An Overview, which is a free booklet providing a brief summary of the main issues that should be considered when planning workplace transport operations.

The Head of HSE's Workplace Transport Team commented:
"Workplace transport is the second biggest cause of incidents in the workplace, accounting for about 70 fatalities each year. The majority of these accidents are preventable. Reducing these casualties is an important priority in the HSE's work programme. The guide gives detailed advice on the key risks surrounding transport use in today's workplaces, and how to get to grips with controlling them. There's also a free booklet which provides an extensive overview of the subject, enabling those responsible for workplace transport to identify any areas of their operations where further help might be required."

HSE Reports

Cost of Health and Safety Failure is not a Motivator
An HSE-funded report - Perceptions of the cost implications of health and safety failures concludes that, in the main, organisations do not measure costs resulting from accidents.

Concern was present about the expense implications of major incidents, but this did not generally extend to costs arising from minor accidents. Of 129 organisations surveyed, only 25% attempted to measure accident costs.

The report suggests that current initiatives stressing the economic implications of health and safety failures may have a limited effect as a safety motivator in many organisations.

Respirable Crystalline Silica – New Exposure Limits

The HSC has published a Consultative Document Proposal for a Workplace Exposure Limit for Respirable Crystalline Silicon which proposes new Workplace Exposure Limits for respirable crystalline silica (RCS).

Crystalline silica is present in rock, sands, clays, gravels and shales. It is also present in materials composed of these substances, such as bricks, tiles and concrete. Over 100,000 workers are believed to be regularly exposed to dusts containing RCS, working in mines and quarries, iron and steel foundries, the heavy clay industry, brick manufacture, potteries, construction, stonemason work and the industrial sand industry. Crystalline silica is harmful to the lungs, causing the lung disease silicosis; it also brings an increased risk of lung cancer.

In Court

Waste Management Failures

Shanks Chemical Services Ltd of Hartlepool has been fined £45,000 with costs having admitted 3 breaches of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974. The company, pleaded guilty to failing to ensure the health and safety of employees in storage and handling of a dangerous substance. A Health and Safety Executive Inspector commented:
"Sensible health and safety is about managing risks. Currently, the HSE and the Environment Agency are working together to visit sites handling hazardous wastes to give advice and take enforcement action where necessary.

It is critical that waste management companies, particularly those which handle dangerous substances, have robust procedures in place to ensure proper control over what is accepted and handled on site.

This case should send a clear message to the waste management business that HSE treats such infringements seriously and shows what can happen when acceptable procedures are not implemented and followed."

Hazardous Substances Failure

Shanks Chemical Services Ltd of Hartlepool has been prosecuted and fined £45,000 with costs for breaching S.2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974. In the prosecution, brought jointly by the HSE and the Environment Agency, the company admitted having failed to ensure the health and safety of employees with regard to the storage and handling of a dangerous substance.

Fire Failures Lead to Fines

Two London businesses have been prosecuted and heavily fined for failing to meet duties under the Fire Precautions (Workplace) Regulations 1997.

At Ealing Magistrates' Court, P Goddard & Sons Ltd, a furniture company, admitted 6 breaches of the Fire Precautions (Workplace) Regulations 1997 and was ordered to pay £17,650 in fines and costs. In two separate inspections exit doors to the car park were found padlocked shut with iron bars, and the final exit from the bed showroom obstructed by a double bed. At the same court, a glazier, Toughglaze (UK) Ltd, was ordered to pay £23,000 in fines and costs after pleading guilty to 19 breaches of the Fire Precautions (Workplace) Regulations 1997. An inspection of the company’s premises was carried out and a number of contraventions of the regulations were found:

• No working fire alarm
• Firefighting equipment and extinguishers were either out of date or inaccessible
• Staff training on fire safety was inadequate and unrecorded
• There were insufficient fire exits
• Fire exits were padlocked shut or obstructed.

Risk Assessment Failure

Janesville Products Ltd., manufacturer of products for the automotive industry, has been prosecuted and fined £75,000, with approximately £23,000 costs, at Burnley Crown Court.

The prosecution resulted from its failure to conduct risk assessments and guard equipment at its Colne premises. As a result of these failures an employee sustained crush injuries in the machine's rollers as he undertook a cleaning task in September 2002.

Jail for Company Director

The director of a quarrying company has been sentenced to a 9-month custodial sentence to and a heavy fine following conviction for breach of health and safety legislation. Fines totalling £25,000, with £30,000 costs, were also levied against a co-director.

The prosecution resulted from a Health and Safety Executive investigation when an employee fell 4-metres, sustaining major injury, whilst attempting to clear a blockage in a screener at Strayground Quarry, Wymondham.

A failure to respond to HSE enforcement notices aggravated matters, as did an alleged veiled threat said to be made by the jailed director and directed toward an inspector, but the latter was denied by the defendant.

Sainsbury's Fined Following Slip Accident

Sainsbury's have been fined £10,000, with costs of £11,042, for breaching S.2 of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 and r.12 of the Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992.

The prosecution arose from an accident in March 2004 at its retail store in Curzon Road, Sale, Yorkshire when the bakery manager slipped on water leaking from a dough prover, sustaining serious neck and back injuries.

Note: The information contained within this document is intended as a summary of selected items of health and safety news and information. As such, it is not offered or intended as complete, exhaustive and accurate reporting of such news and information. Safety4business accepts no responsibility for the completeness of the information, and no liability for actions resulting from it.