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
New Workplace Health Director Appointed
Professor Dame Carol Black, who is a doctor and President of the Royal College of Physicians, has been appointed as the first ever National Director for Health and Work.
The Government says she will spearhead initiatives promoting and improving health in the workplace, ensuring that people with health conditions and disabilities are supported to enter, return to and continue in work. The role is part of a package of reforms introduced by the Health, Work and Well-being Strategy, launched in October 2005 by the Department of Health, the Department for Work and Pensions and the Health and Safety Executive.
Strategy Unveiled to Improve Health and Wellbeing of Nation
The Department for Work and Pensions, the Department of Health and the HSE are developing a strategy aimed at improving the health and wellbeing of working age people.
The strategy, Health, Work and Wellbeing - Caring for our Future, lays out a blueprint for change, so that work related illness and accidents can be avoided in the first place, but if not ensures people get fast treatment and that they can access occupational health when it is needed. It also puts the emphasis on creating healthy working environments.
The strategy has a number of aims including making sure the topic gets the attention it deserves, that work is recognised by all as important and beneficial, that healthcare services meet the needs of working age people and that employers look at supporting people in work.
The newly appointed National Director of Occupational Health will guide the strategy forward.
Workplace Health Connect, a new service launched by the HSE for small and medium sized enterprises, will also help deliver the strategy’s aims. It offers free and impartial advice on occupational health, safety and return to work issues.
Managers' Stress Levels
The 'Quality of Working Life' report by the Chartered Management Institute and Health and Safety Executive advice service, Workplace Health Connect, suggests significant stress problems amongst managers.
Key findings include:
• 43% of managers admit to feeling or becoming angry with others too easily
• 31% admitted losing their sense of humour, which is in turn increasing workplace pressures
• 55% complained of muscular tension or physical aches and pains
• 44% said they experienced frequent headaches
Mary Chapman, chief executive of the CMI, said managers needed a better understanding of the consequences of letting relatively minor symptoms escalate.
"They need to take more personal responsibility for improving their health because inaction is clearly having an effect on colleagues and the knock-on effect is that customer relationships will suffer, too," she said.
Refuse Collectors Could Face Toxic Gas Risk
Experts have warned that fortnightly rubbish collections could put refuse workers' health at risk due to the release of toxic gases.
A 2003 study in Scandinavia found that long periods between collections allow dangerous emissions to build up, causing respiratory irritation. The study results were originally dismissed as irrelevant in the UK as most of the country enjoys weekly bin collections. However, Bracknell Forest has now decided to scrap the traditional system, and campaigners say this could lead to long-term health problems in refuse workers.
Office Workers Face DVT Risk
Office workers risk being struck down by deep vein thrombosis (DVT) if they sit at their computer screens for long periods without a break, health experts have warned.
The warning came as it emerged that a computer programmer from Bristol almost died after a
12-hour stint in front of his screen in what is believed to be one of the first cases in the UK of a growing phenomenon dubbed ‘e-thrombosis’. Beverley Hunt, medical director of the thrombosis charity Lifeblood, said few office workers seemed aware that they could be affected in the same way as air passengers.
Establishment of Local Government Panel
The Local Government Panel (LGP) has been established to promote a strategic dialogue on local, central and devolved government issues impacting on health and safety regulatory functions. It will have a role of reviewing the effectiveness and performance of the partnership between both health and safety enforcing authorities.
TUC & RNID Flag Noise Risks
TUC and hearing charity RNID are warning employers and employees to take hearing damage more seriously now that the new Control of Noise at Work Regulations have come into effect. The groups welcomed the tighter Noise at Work regulations, which became law on 6 April and will provide improved protection for workers from one of Britain's most serious occupational diseases.
RNID's Brian Lamb said:
"Noise induced hearing loss is often cumulative and not immediately obvious, so its threat is seldom recognised or taken seriously. Whilst the effects of noise are irreversible, noise induced hearing loss is totally preventable."
TUC head of safety Hugh Robertson added:
"If properly implemented these regulations will save the hearing of literally hundreds of thousands of people. If they are ignored or implemented half-heartedly employers could face a wave of compensation claims from staff. Better to rigorously enforce safe noise levels to prevent hearing damage, in industry but also entertainment and construction, than leave employees to go through the courts for compensation after their hearing has already been harmed."
The Dangers of Oxygen Enrichment
As part of a European Industrial Gases Association (EIGA) campaign, the British Compressed Gases Association (BCGA) has published guidance and a training package on the hazards of oxygen enrichment. The guidance can be accessed via its website.
Health and Safety Executive Update
Consultation on Worker Involvement
The HSC, through the Health and Safety Executive is seeking opinions on how to increase the participation of workers in health and safety.
The HSE has issued consultative document CD207 Improving worker involvement- Improving health and safety to seek views on this part of the HSC strategy for workplace health and safety.
The consultation period ends on 8th September 2006 and a number of regional meetings on the matter will be held in the coming months.
Noise and Vibration Roadshows 2006
HSE/EEF have announced 4 more 'Noise and Vibration' roadshows aimed at publicising the recent legislative changes. The roadshows are aimed at all those who manage risk at work including managing directors, production managers, health and safety advisors and safety representatives.
They provide information on:
• What the new regulations mean in practice
• Practical risk management
• Effective health surveillance
The latest roadshow venues, dates and information contacts are:
• London 16th June apatel@eef-fed.org.uk
• Bridgend 20th June enquiries@eeftrainging.org.uk
• Sheffield 22nd June ljackson@eef-sheffield.org.uk
• Warrington 27th June clennon@eefnorthwest.org.uk
HSE Leaflets, Books and Guidance
Orphaned Gas Cylinders
The HSE has produced a best practice guidance - Orphaned compressed gas cylinders in the waste and recycling industries - dealing with unwanted or unidentifiable compressed gas cylinders, so called ‘orphaned’ cylinders that appear in the waste stream. It also extends to fire extinguishers which can contain small internal CO cylinders under high pressure.
The guidance is written in consultation and with the support of the Waste Industry Safety and Health Forum (WISH).
HSE Reports
Falls from Commercial Vehicles
Falls from vehicles, often as a result of slips or trips, account for around one third of workplace transport accidents.
The HSE have now published a report 'RR 437 - The underlying causes of falls from vehicles associated with slip and trip hazards on steps and floors' which considers the risk factors leading to such accidents and how they can be controlled.
In Court
Firm Fined £150,000 after Worker's Death
A Birmingham firm, Clifton Steel Ltd, has been fined £150,000 and ordered to pay costs of £20,000 having admitted breaches of health and safety rules following the death of an employee.
The employee was using a crane to move a steel coil and was crushed when a nearby stack of coils moved. The HSE said the stack had not been set up safely, meaning the smallest vibration, perhaps from the operation of the crane, could cause it to slip and move.
Ladder Fall
Hampshire Building contractor Drew Smith Ltd has been fined £20,000, with costs of £5,788 following a fall from height, an accident that resulted in serious injury to a 41-year-old workman during October 2005. The injured man fell from a 5-metre ladder that was inadequately secured to the building he was working on in Southampton.
Company Fined Following Drill Accident
Construction company CET Group Ltd has been fined £20,000 and ordered to pay costs of £30,000 for breaching health and safety regulations after an employee suffered serious injuries at a site in Enfield.
The employee was dragged into a lorry-mounted rotating drill as he dug a borehole on 29 March 2004. The company admitted breaching the Health and Safety Act following an investigation led by the Health and Safety Executive. It found the company had not carried out a proper risk assessment before the employee used the machinery. The drill was completely unguarded and its emergency stop device did not work.
HSE inspector Sarah Snelling said:
"Accidents such as this are notably foreseeable when using such large, dangerous pieces of machinery without the proper safeguards being in place. The need for proper risk assessment and the provision of effective guards or other protection devices are well known within the industry."
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.
