News from around the World

News Archive

March 2017

RoSPA awards scheme shortlisted for top accolade

The UK RoSPA’s prestigious Health and Safety Awards is in the running to win its own accolade after reaching the finals of the Awards 2017.

The safety charity’s awards scheme, which recognises the outstanding health and safety record of businesses and organisations from the UK and overseas, has been shortlisted as a finalist within the Best Judging Panel and Process for an Award category.

To be shortlisted, RoSPA had to show that its awards scheme had “the most prestigious judging panel and most robust and/or innovative judging process used in an awards event”. It also demonstrated:

• A simple but effective entry or nomination process
• A strong and well regarded judging panel
• A rigorous and efficient judging system
• Positive feedback from attendees and entrants.

The winner will be announced during a ceremony in London on Friday, 12 May 2017.

More information: www.rospa.com/media-centre/press-office/press-releases/detail/?id=1514

USA: Trump doesn’t want to upset workplace killers

The US safety regulator OSHA has stopped issuing press releases highlighting enforcement action for serious safety offences. The last enforcement press release issued by the federal watchdog was on 18 January 2017, two days before the inauguration of Donald Trump. Until the new president took office, OSHA’s policy was to issue news releases where a penalty for safety offences was $40,000 or above.

The use of news releases was seen as a way to increase the effectiveness of a relatively small agency, by making apparent the financial and reputational consequences of being caught.

More information: https://www.tuc.org.uk/workplace-issues/health-and-safety/risks-newsletter/tuc-risks-793-25-march-2017#_Toc478034179

Event: Safety & Health Expo

20-22 June 2017, ExCeL London, UK

At this year’s Expo you’ll discover the latest PPE, training, eLearning and occupational health solutions; meet others in the industry and learn about the best ways to keep your team and environment safe. Plus you’ll have the opportunity to:

• Learn how to create a positive safety culture, influence the board and successfully embed health and safety into your organisation
• Advance your career by connecting with leading training providers and key industry associations
• Share best practice on mitigating risks with 13,000+ like-minded health and safety professionals from a range of industries
• Learn how to keep your team safe
• Gain access to exclusive deals from 300+ suppliers

As usual RoSPA will be partnering with Safety & Health Expo to bring you updates in the Operational Excellence Theatre, Fleet Safety Zone and on their stand (M300), you can help us to celebrate their centenary year, as well as find out more about RoSPA training, membership and awards with special discounts for visitors.

More information: www.safety-health-expo.co.uk

IOSH launches new suite of fire, health and safety courses

Fire safety and environment management are the subjects of three new courses launched by the international Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH). Environment for Business, Fire Safety for Manager and Fire Safety Awareness have been developed in collaboration with world-renowned experts to respond to the needs of industry partners in different sectors and regions.

IOSH has also released a revised version of its Managing Safety Refresher Course, which will help organisations ensure that their staff are up-to-date with their health and safety knowledge.

For more information about these and other courses from IOSH visit www.iosh.co.uk/training

One-four-deaths in Ireland is work-related, study shows

Nearly a quarter of all road traffic fatalities in Ireland are work related according to a new study by of Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH). Of these deaths, 85% are bystanders while the remaining 15% are if workers themselves.

This is the first time the scale of work-related road traffic collisions and the associated fatalities have been comprehensively identified. To conduct the study, researchers from University College Dublin analysed the coroner records on all traffic fatalities in Ireland over a 4 year period i.e. 2008-2011.

Full report: www.iosh.co.uk/roadfatalities

Event: Conducting Incident Investigation & Analysis Using the Tripod Beta Methodology

2-4 May 2017, London

This 3-day training course will provide a theoretical overview of the Tripod Beta methodology and teach delegates how to apply this in practice, helping delegates uncover not just how an incident happened but also why it happened: the management controls that should have prevented it and the systemic organisational issues that can lead to future incidents.

For more information go to the Energy Institute website: https://www.energyinst.org/training/risk-management-training/human-factors-training/Tripod-Beta-Training

Sharp increase in safety fines in the UK welcomed by HSE union

The union Prospect has welcomed a sharp rise in health and safety penalties in the last year. It says the total cost of health and safety fines has tripled in the year since the introduction of new sentencing guidelines for courts in England and Wales on 1 February 2016.

Prospect, the union for Health and Safety Executive (HSE) inspectors and specialists, said this includes 19 fines of £1 million or more, compared with three in 2015 and none in 2014.

More information: https://www.tuc.org.uk/workplace-issues/health-and-safety/risks-newsletter/tuc-risks-793-25-march-2017#_Toc478034166

IOSH explains how exposure to diesel fumes at work can cause cancer

Tim Briggs, Chair of Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH) Standards gave an insight into how diesel fumes can cause cancer and provided delegates at an event held at Peterborough on 23 March 2017 with advice on how to control exposure.

Research suggests that in Britain more than 650 people a year die of lung or bladder cancer as a result of being exposed to diesel fumes at work. Around 800 new cases of cancer linked to diesel exhaust fume exposure are registered each year as well.

For more information on IOSH’s No Time to Lose campaign and to download the free diesel fume pack visit: www.notimetolose.org.uk

Suicide is a workplace issue

The UK is turning a blind eye to a major workplace killer, work-related suicide, the TUC has warned. The union body points to a series of reports this week highlighting how work factors can put large sections of the workforce at a greatly increased suicide risk, but there the problem is off the radar of the safety regulator.

TUC head of safety Hugh Robertson says a Hazards magazine report points out all deaths “with the exception of suicides” must be reported under the RIDDOR reporting regulations. This exclusion means that information on the occupational nature of suicide has been ignored, with cases seen as a personal tragedy that is the result of mental health problems rather than something which can be connected to work.

More information: https://www.tuc.org.uk/workplace-issues/health-and-safety/risks-newsletter/tuc-risks-793-25-march-2017#_Toc478034160

Construction must ‘radically reform’ to cut high suicide rates

The UK construction industry must take radical action to reduce the high number of suicides among its workforce, the union Unite has said. Its call came after a new analysis by the Office for National Statistics found that the risk of suicide among low skilled male labourers, particularly those working in construction, was three times higher than the male national average. For males working in skilled trades the highest rate of suicide was among building finishing trades, especially plasters and painters and decorators who had more than double the rate of suicide.

The figures, which cover people in England aged between 20 and 64, showed there were 1,419 suicides by those working in skilled construction and building trades from 2011 to 2015. Of these, 1,409 were men and 10 were women. Factors that can put people at risk of suicide include low pay, low job security and wider socio-economic characteristics.

More information: https://www.tuc.org.uk/workplace-issues/health-and-safety/risks-newsletter/tuc-risks-793-25-march-2017#_Toc478034161

Event: Hazards 2017 National Conference

28-30 July 2017, Stoke-on-Trent, UK

The Hazards Campaign’s national conference, with a theme this year of ‘Organising health, safety and welfare in an insecure world,’ is now taking bookings.

The event, to be held at Keele University in Stoke-on-Trent from 28-30 July, features contributions from international and national trade union leaders, academics and campaigners.

Speakers including Jessica Martinez from Hazards Campaign’s US sister organisation, National COSH, who will talk about “the joint threats we face and how we can work together to fight them.”

More information: https://www.tuc.org.uk/workplace-issues/health-and-safety/risks-newsletter/tuc-risks-793-25-march-2017#_Toc478034174

India: Leather workers risk their lives making your shoes

About 2.5 million Indian workers toil for long hours with toxic chemicals for poverty wages in the country’s leather industry, making shoes and clothes for Western brands, a study has found. A report from the India Committee of the Netherlands (ICN), a human rights organisation, called for greater transparency in supply chains.

The study mapped the leather industry hubs of Agra in India’s north, Kolkata in the east and the Vaniyambadi-Ambur cluster in the southern state of Tamil Nadu that supply hides, leather, garments, accessories and footwear for export.

More information: https://www.tuc.org.uk/workplace-issues/health-and-safety/risks-newsletter/tuc-risks-793-25-march-2017#_Toc478034177

India: The horror of the ‘modern slaves’ in brick kilns

Approximately 25 million people work in over 100,000 brick kilns across India, according to Anti-Slavery International. But these are not normal jobs. An estimated 50,000 of these are thought to be working in slavery-like conditions, said Sudhir Katiyar, project director of the Prayas Centre for Labour Research and Action.

The organisation, which focuses on promoting worker welfare across several key informal worker groups in India, says violence targets at these vulnerable brick kiln workers ranges from verbal abuse to beatings and rape. An economic and construction boom has been built largely back of cheap labour, with Indian brick kilns particularly earning a reputation as sites of extreme exploitation.

More information: https://www.tuc.org.uk/workplace-issues/health-and-safety/risks-newsletter/tuc-risks-793-25-march-2017#_Toc478034178