Editorial
Preparing for the Year ahead....
February 2002
Sheila Pantry, OBE
Many thanks to everyone who has sent messages welcoming OSHWORLD as a
portal to quality and authoritative health, safety, environment,
chemical and fire information. Many of you will be starting the
preparations for your special OSH event in your organisation and
country. The European Agency for Safety and Health at Work are in the
final stages of preparation for the European Safety and Health Week in
which all Member States will be participating. The theme will be the
prevention of psychosocial risks with a particular emphasis on work
related stress.
The campaign slogan is "Working on stress" and as usual the
Week will take place in October. Member States are free to choose which
specific week, in the UK it will be the week beginning 14-19 October
2002, but as yet no precise dates from other Member States.
This month's FOCUS article on Stress and Mental Health from a health
and safety practitioner Steve Walter tells how he suffered from stress
and makes the plea for a better understanding of the problem. It is a
timely reminder that as work pace quickens we should all learn to look
around us constantly and see how others are coping.
The regular pages are constantly updated, with new events in the Diary of Events which lists training courses, symposiums and conferences
in many places in the world on a wide range of subjects. Remember that
even if you cannot attend these many events, speakers and organisers are
often willing to share their knowledge. Look at the details - where
possible, I add in the web sites of these events so you can request
further information. And do let me know if you are organising any
occupational safety, health, and environment events so that I can add
them to the Diary.
Globally there are continually new titles, news items, new products
so remember to look at the News and also use OSHWORLD as your
portal to many hundreds of validated and authoritative web sites which
you can find in the Country and Subject links we offer.
Many web sites now contain vast amounts of information on specific
topics, and it is not always apparent that some "nuggets of
gold" are available. OSHWORLD goes "data mining" looking
for such topics and you will see many entries in the subject links which
will take you to these topics. All links are constantly checked to
ensure that no "orphan" links exist. And you work smarter not
harder if you bookmark OSHWORLD.... we do the checking for you!
Most information services have a reference shelf where you can
quickly check the reference sources - so OSHWORLD brings you a
collection of Reference sources.
Remember to look at the Products and Services on this web site and
see what is new and updated, such as OSH-ROM,
one of the world's oldest OSH CD-ROM which has thousands of records to
good practices, guidance, advice and legislation from many countries.
Already many organisations around the world are finding this source of
information of immense value. Even if you cannot afford the price of all
these publications and space to put them in at least you have a constant
reminder of what is new. OSH-ROM is easy to use in your daily work,
either via CD-ROM on your personal computer or on your organisation's
network or via the Internet.
Click onto the various Bookshops to order any new document as
they are being published.
Please send any suggestions or comments about OSHWORLD - your portal
to validated and authoritative information.
Remind everyone to make 2002 a zero accident and incident-free year
in your workplace.
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