News - Health & Safety

In this section:

♦ Young Persons - Speak UP, Stay Safe (June 2010)

♦ A quarter of workers have never experienced a full fire drill at work (23rd April 2010)

♦ BSIA publishes employers' guide to Lone Workers (9th March 2010)

♦ HSE launches crackdown on dangerous construction sites (2nd March 2010)

♦ Firm fined over builder's death (30th January 2010)

♦ Asbestos Survey Guide Updated by HSE (2010)

♦ Vehicle Spot Checks drive new load safety campaign (19th January 2010)

♦ East of England Employers asked to make New Year Safety Resolution (29th December 2009)

♦ Asbestos - The Hidden Killer Campaign (2nd November 2009)

♦ Swine flu - General advice to employers (18th June 2009)

♦ New Health & Safety Law Poster Introduced (6th April 2009)

Young Persons - 'Speak Up, Stay Safe'

A new campaign from the British Safety Council asks young people to take responsibility for their own health and safety.

Julie Nerney, British Safety Council chief executive says: "Every 40 minutes in the UK a young person is seriously injured in the workplace. We think this position is wholly unacceptable. By highlighting to young people that they need to be aware of their environment and speak up if they feel unsafe we hope to significantly reduce this number."

The campaign supports young people to feel confident talking to their work supervisor, parent, teacher or friends if they feel that they are in an unsafe situation.  No young person should feel pressurised to work in an environment where there is a risk of injury or death.

Item courtesy of the Health & Safety Executive. Also see British Safety Council 'Speak Up, Stay Safe' website

A quarter of workers have never expeirneced a full fire drill at work

New research has found that a quarter of workers have never participated in a full fire evacuation of their workplace, despite government guidelines suggesting full drills be undertaken at least once a year.

The study of over 2,000 adults by insurer, RSA, also found that one in 20 UK workers admitted their workplace had no marked fire exits at all. In addition, 6% of people questioned admitted they would stop to pick up a cup of tea or coffee when the fire alarm sounds before heading out of the building.

Item Courtesy of Workplace Law Network

BSIA publishes employers' guide to Lone Workers

The BSIA has published a guide to help employers understand their responsibilities towards lone workers. 

'Lone Workers - An Employers' Guide' provides employers with easy-to-follow advice about British Standard BS8484 - the Code of Practice for the provision of Lone Worker Services - and what they should look for when sourcing a supplier.

Alex Carmichael, Technical Director at the BSIA, comments: "With over 6 million people in the UK working in isolation or without direct supervision, this guide recognises the importance of keeping such employees safe and secure. Responsible employers will consider the health and safety of their lone workers as a top priority, and the use of lone worker devices can help by connecting such employees with an emergency response system that has direct links to the Police. BS8484 is the basis on which Police respond to lone worker systems, so it's important for employers to choose a supplier who works to these standards."

Item courtesy of British Security Industry Association

HSE launches crackdown on dangerous construction sites

HSE inspectors are to launch an intensive inspection initiative aimed at stopping dangerous practices on building sites across Great Britain. The HSE says it wants to raise awareness of construction site risks and prevent unnecessary injuries and deaths. Construction is one of Britain’s most dangerous industries. During 2008/09, 53 workers died and 11,264 were injured, across Great Britain, while working in construction. 

The inspection initiative – starting this week – will focus on refurbishment or roofing work. Inspectors will make unannounced visits to ensure that sites are managing work at height safely and are in good order.

Item courtesy of Workplace Law Network

Firm fined over builder's death

The death of a man on a Bolton building site could easily have been prevented, health and safety chiefs said last night. The comment came as a building firm was ordered to pay £15,000 after one of its workers fell to his death. Ian Smith, aged 64, fell five metres from an unstable ladder as he worked on a building site in Dale Gardens, Easedale Road, Heaton, in December 2007.

DC Kennedy Homes Ltd was yesterday fined £7,500 by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and told to pay a further £7,500 in costs. Mr Smith was working on a project to build six new semi-detached houses at the time of the incident, Manchester Crown Court heard yesterday.

The HSE’s investigation found that the company had allowed work to be carried out on the first and second floors of one house, before the stairs had been fitted. The ladder, which had been used to reach the second floor, had not been secured and did not have rubber feet.

Item courtesy of This is Lancashire

The HSE has published 'Asbestos: The survey guide' aimed at those who commission asbestos surveys, the surveyors who carry them out and those who use them such as architects and demolition or removal contractors. It replaces the MDHS 100 guidance and sets out the role of surveys in ensuring that builders or maintenance workers have all the information they need to minimise their risk of exposure to asbestos and put the right precautions in place.

The guidance has been prepared to help people carrying out asbestos surveys and those with specific responsibilities for managing the risks from asbestos under Regulation 4 of the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2006 (CAR 2006). However, it is also designed to provide guidance in situations where surveys may be carried out for other purposes e.g. for 'managing' asbestos in domestic premises under wider health and safety legislation and for meeting the requirements of the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2007 (CDM). It complements and supports other guidance on managing asbestos.

Item courtesy of the Health & Safety Executive

Vehicle spot checks drive new load safety campaign

Spot checks on hundreds of vehicles will take place in the coming weeks in support of a new drive to ensure that loads are being transported securely. The Health and Safety Executive's new load safety campaign is focused on reducing the number of death and injuries linked to workplace transport.

Loading and unloading accounts for one in five workplace transport incidents- many resulting from loads not being properly restrained. Unsafe loads on vehicles injure more than 1,200 people a year and cost UK businesses millions of pounds in damaged goods. There will be eight days of spot checks at locations across the North West, with officers from HSE and the Vehicle Operator Services Agency (VOSA) inspecting the loads of vehicles that have been pulled over at random.

Similar spot checks took place in April last year with close to 80 per cent of loads found not to be sufficiently restrained. Drivers/businesses who are found to have unsafe loads face fines or even risk having their vehicle ordered off the road.

Item courtesy of the Health & Safety Executive

East of England employers asked to make New Year safety resolution

New figures show extent of workplace safety failings in local area

Employers across the East of England are being asked to ensure their workers are kept safe in 2010 as Britain's safety watchdog urges improvement on last year. According to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), last year almost 232 work-related incidents occurred across the East of England each week, an annual total of 2,049 people being killed or injured. HSE hope this figure will act a stark reminder to employers and staff to make their workplaces safer this New Year and drive down casualty rates.

The 2008/09 statistics show twelve people were killed at work across the region while 2,449 sustained major injuries and a further 9,588 suffered injuries requiring more than three days absence from work. The figures compare with 19 fatalities, 2,541 major injuries and a further 9,756 injuries requiring more than three days absence from work in 2007/08. Including other absences due to ill health caused by work activities, this equates to 2.6 million working days lost at a massive cost to the economy and individual businesses, which is why HSE says it makes perfect sense to make working environments safe.

The organisation warns that if employers insist on compromising the health of their employees then it will not hesitate in taking enforcement action. Last year HSE prosecuted 122 firms for breaching health and safety in the East of England and took action against another hundreds in the form of issuing prohibition and enforcement notices.

Item courtesy of the Health & Safety Executive

Asbestos - The Hidden Killer Campaign

Every week twenty tradesmen die from asbestos-related disease. If you are an electrician, plumber, heating and ventilation engineer, joiner, plasterer or work in any similar trade, you are likely to come across this hidden killer in your work – asbestos dust could kill you.

A lot of buildings contain asbestos materials - anywhere built or refurbished before the year 2000 is likely to contain asbestos and it is often in places where you can’t see it easily. You could be working where asbestos is present right now.

Item courtesy of the Health & Safety Executive

Swine flu - General advice for employers

Employers and employees should always practice good personal hygiene measures – use a disposable tissue to control coughs/sneezes, dispose of it appropriately and wash your hands before eating, drinking etc.  In addition at the current time you should:

• Advise your staff to stay at home if they are sick with flu-like symptoms and have good reason to believe, based on HPA guidance, that they may have been exposed to the swine flu virus
• Send home any employees who are displaying flu-like signs/symptoms in the situation described above

For further information about swine flu please visit the Health Protection Agency (HPA)

Item courtesy of the Health & Safety Executive

New Health & Safety Law Poster Introduced

As from 6 April 2009, HSE is publishing new versions of its approved health and safety poster and leaflet.

The new versions are modern, eye-catching and easy to read. They set out in simple terms, using numbered lists of basic points, what employers and workers must do, and tell you what to do if there is a problem.

Employers can, if they wish, continue to use their existing versions of poster and leaflet until 5 April 2014, as long as they are readable and the addresses of the enforcing authority and the Employment Medical Advisory Service up to date. This information can be obtained from HSE's Infoline on 0845 345 0055.

Item courtesy of the Health & Safety Executive