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EditorialFire Safety Concerns
March 2002 There are continuing concerns about the fire safety in workplaces, schools, the home and in the leisure industry where fires continue to cause death, injuries and thousands of pounds/dollars/euros in damages. The recent UK Annual Parliamentary seminar on European Union Fire Safety - Setting a Sensible Agenda, organised by the Fire Safety Development Group and sponsored by the All-Party Parliamentary Fire Safety Group revealed the concerns from many angles. In the past European Union policy has been to leave fire issues to the Member States but discussion in the European Parliament and recent events are making a wider dimension to policy solutions far more significant. Last September's terrorist assaults in the USA have affected virtually every branch of our fire safety community, most significantly the Fire Services, but also designers, insurers and manufacturers. Yet there are other cross boundary concerns to consider just as seriously such as building standards for hotels, structural safety in a range of building types, tunnel fires. The European Commission's Construction Products Directive may create part of the answer, but there is a lot of work yet to be done. This month's FOCUS article on Fire Worldwide will give you a valuable resource which will keep you up to date on fire information from around the world. OSHWORLD's 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. |