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Neal's Notes For December 2008
Industry urged to maintain safety investment despite recession
As we head into the inevitable recession that has been looming for months, the hazardous area sector must insist on maintaining investment levels and not to cut corners on health and safety during the coming economic downturn. The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents is urging UK employers not to turn a blind eye on safety spending and to treat the investment as an essential economic ingredient.
Roger Bibbings, RoSPA Occupational Safety Adviser, said: "Given the current financial climate, there is a danger that occupational health and safety could be seen as a problem largely solved - a 'nice-to-have' rather than a really essential social and economic ingredient. There could be a temptation to cut corners, reduce standards or delay introducing essential protective measures.
"But we must avoid seeing an increase in the number of health and safety casualties as part of the price to be paid by workers and members of the public for the recession. In addition to the legal and moral reasons for preventing accidents and ill-health, employers also need to recognise the strong business case, which exists even when times are tough.
"Risk assessments are a case in point. While 'suitable and sufficient' risk assessments are a legal requirement, they do not have to mean an overload of red tape and, properly undertaken, they should help businesses to direct scarce resources towards priority issues."
Bibbings continued: "But a more compelling argument for keeping faith with health and safety in a recession is that when there are no longer opportunities to improve the bottom line by increasing turnover, controlling loss becomes even more important. And recession is coming at a time when penalties for non-compliance are being increased substantially and third parties such as clients are continuing to demand higher standards.
"In an increasingly competitive environment, the ability to demonstrate effective health and safety management will be all the more important in winning future business."
On-line library!
Health and Safety Information Service and the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health have signed a new sole collaborative agreement.
OHSIS is now able to provide subscribers with CIEH specific added value content and the most comprehensive online library of Health, Safety and Environmental Health information.
To find out more about this new agreement and OHSIS visit: http://ct.newsletter.ihs.com/rd/cts?d=62-286-42-44-61939-17212-0-0-0-1-2-267
Drop in workplace deaths
New statistics published by the Health and Safety Executive at the end of October reveal a reduction in the numbers of people killed, injured or made ill by work during 2007/08.
Reported major injuries at work fell by around 9% since the start of the decade and this trend continues. Work-related ill health has also fallen across the period, although the rate of improvement here is not as great as hoped. Workplace deaths also fell by around 5% to 229. Across the EU, Great Britain (GB) has one of the lowest rates of work-related fatalities and injuries.
Judith Hackitt, Chair of the HSE said: "Any improvement in the number of people being injured or made ill by work must be welcomed. However, there is a need for a step change. Of particular concern are the agriculture, construction and waste and recycling industries. I am also concerned that slips and trips - which can have an enormous impact on peoples' lives - are still not reducing. HSE is developing a new strategy that seeks to renew commitment from all those involved in health and safety to tackle these challenges and more.
"In the difficult and uncertain months ahead I urge employers not to take their eyes off the ball. Good business management will be vital and good health and safety management is an integral part of that. Health and safety contributes positively to competitiveness and should not be sacrificed in times of financial pressure."
The statistics for 2007/08 show: Ill health 2.1 million people were suffering from work related illnesses Injuries Over 136,000 workers suffered injuries such as amputations, burns or fractures Working days lost 34 million working days were lost in GB due to injury and ill health Fatalities 229 people were killed at work Enforcement 1028 offences were prosecuted by HSE 354 offences were prosecuted by local authorities
Stress tops list of workers' safety concerns
Stress or overwork, injuries and illnesses caused by the poor use of display screen equipment and repetitive strain injuries (RSI) top the list of workers' safety concerns, according to the TUC's biennial survey of safety reps.
Three in five (60 per cent) safety reps reported stress or overwork as a concern in their workplace. Concerns about stress are most common in the public sector and in large workplaces, with the highest instances in central government (81 per cent), education (74 per cent) and health services (69 per cent).
Stress was cited as the biggest concern in ten of the 14 sectors covered by the survey. Manufacturing (noise), construction, distribution and hotels (back strains) and voluntary organisations (display screen equipment) reported other top hazards at work. Injuries and illnesses resulting from the poor use of display screen equipment has risen from fourth in 2006 to become the second-most common concern, reported by two in five (41 per cent) safety reps. Repetitive strain injuries (40 per cent) are another commonly reported hazard.
Other concerns on the increase since the 2006 survey include slips, trips and falls (up six per cent), working alone (up three per cent) and violence and threats at work (up four per cent). Workers in London are most concerned about stress (68 per cent), while workers in Yorkshire and East Anglia are most worried about working alone (38 per cent). Workers in the South East (33 per cent) and London (32 per cent) are significantly more concerned about violence and threats at work than the rest of the UK (26 per cent).
TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said: 'Stress casts a gloomy shadow over far too many UK workplaces. And as the current economic crisis creates more anxiety about job security, stress is likely to increase. Unions and employers must work together to combat this as it can have a huge personal cost to workers and a damaging cost to businesses. Simple office hazards, such as spending too much time fixed on a computer screen or sitting on a badly designed chair, are often overlooked by employers. But today's survey shows that they are actually a huge concern to workers and need to be addressed. Thankfully, over 150,000 safety reps across the UK are on hand to help employers prevent these hazards."
Calls for more action on work-related road safety
The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents has welcomed a report from the House of Commons Transport Committee saying that more needs to be done to investigate deaths in work-related road accidents. Kevin Clinton, RoSPA Head of Road Safety, said: "RoSPA has been campaigning about managing occupational road risk for more than 10 years and we believe the Health and Safety Executive could have a much greater part in this."
The report - Ending the Complacency: Road Safety Beyond 2010 - estimates that there were between 750 and 1,000 deaths on the road last year linked to someone being at work. It says: "It is anomalous that the vast majority of work-related deaths are not examined by the Health and Safety Executive, purely because they occur on the roads.
"The Government should review the role of the HSE with regard to road safety to ensure that it fulfils its unique role in the strategy beyond 2010.It also says the Government should work with employers' organisations and trade unions on the issue, including an evaluation of its Driving for Better Business initiative. Fiscal and financial incentives are suggested to encourage employers to use vehicles with additional proven safety features, which could help increase safety features in the wider UK vehicle fleet."
Kevin Clinton said: "It is important to make the correct selection of vehicles so that employees are using the right car or van for the job they have to do. But employers also need people, policies and procedures in place to manage occupational road risk as part of their mainstream health and safety policies."
RoSPA recently launched a major research study aimed at helping young drivers to stay safe when they are on the road as part of their job and is seeking the views of managers who employ 17-24-year-old drivers. It will lead to a better understanding of the safety issues involved in these employees getting behind the wheel for tasks such as making deliveries, going to meetings or travelling between sites. See: www.rospa.com/roadsafety/youngdriversatwork/
The Society also welcomed proposals for a road accident investigation branch to parallel those for aviation, marine and rail and was encouraged that the committee wants a thorough examination of the drink-drive limit. "There have been many road safety successes over the years, but this report will help in the development of a road safety strategy for the next 10 to 20 years," Kevin Clinton said
Don't worry, be happy
National Stress Awareness day was 5th November and this year the International Stress Management Association (ISMA) is encouraging everyone to realise how unproductive the worry habit can be.
"Worrying is extremely ineffective" says Ann McCracken, Chair of ISMA. "Worrying drains your energy, saps your strength and makes you less able to cope with every day pressure. I find a lot of people on training courses tell me that they worry about lots of things but it doesn't change anything!" she said. Lots of useful tips on how to reduce stress and a stress busting game can be found at: http://www.nationalstressawarenessday.co.uk
Gardener ordered to take down barbed wire
A gardener who put up barbed wire around his allotment to protect it from thieves has been told he must take it down in case intruders hurt themselves, according to news site Ananova.
Bill Malcolm erected the wire fencing to act as a deterrent after he was targeted three times in a four month period by thieves who took over £300 worth of gardening equipment and trashed his potato patch. But officials from Marlbrook Council in Worcestershire who own the allotments told him he must take it down on health and safety grounds.
Outraged Mr Malcolm commented: "It's an absolutely ridiculous situation, all I wanted was to protect my property but the wire had to go in case a thief scratched himself.
"I told them to let the thief sue me so at least that way I would know who was breaking into my allotment but everything I said fell on deaf ears.
"The barbed wire was a single strand and ringing my property only. It was just three foot high and wasn't as though I'd dug a moat filled with piranha and erected six foot iron railings."
A spokesman for Bromsgrove District Council said: "With regard to the barbed wire, we are obliged to request its removal or remove it on health and safety grounds to the general public, as this is a liability issue."
TAIL PIECE - Messy workmates save builder's life
A builder is believed to have survived a six-storey fall down a lift shaft because his workmates had been using it as a rubbish chute Doctors in Podgorica, Montenegro, have said they think a heap of cardboard packaging and plastic at the bottom of the lift shaft cushioned 45-year-old Branislav Gomilic's fall and saved his life.
"One minute he was talking to us, the next he had disappeared down the lift shaft," said one co-worker on the site.
The ten-storey-building in the country's capital is currently under construction and the elevator has yet not been fitted in, leaving the shaft open and unused.
"The doctors told Branislav he wouldn't be with us any more if he and his workmates hadn't been so untidy. If they had put all their rubbish in the recycling skips he'd be dead," a family friend was reported to have said.
Mr Gomlic broke his arm in the fall but is expected to make a full recovery.
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