Editorial

If you think safety is expensive, try having an accident...

September 2004
Sheila Pantry OBE

'If you think safety is expensive, try having an accident...' is the title of a seminar that takes place in the UK on 13 October 2004 and has been organised by the IOSH (Institution of Occupational Safety and Health) Midland Branch's North District (see Diary of Events for details).

Complementing the European Week for Safety and Health at Work, this half-day seminar is intended to raise awareness of occupational accident issues, their potential effects and how to manage them. The seminar will be of particular interest to managers, directors and health and safety professionals or anyone with responsibility for post-accident management in the workplace. The topics at the seminar could be used anywhere in the world and include

the authority body - in this case the UK's Health and Safety Executive's role in preventing and investigating accidents and ill health at work
Who pays the price?
Psychiatric injury
Insurance requirements

Nanomaterials - A Risk to Health at Work? First International Symposium on Occupational Health Implications of Nanomaterials to be held on 12-14 October 2004, Palace Hotel, Buxton, Derbyshire, UK is being organised by the UK Health and Safety Laboratory (HSL) in collaboration with the UK Health and Safety Executive and the US National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health. Key themes will include:

Current and future developments in the nanotechnology industry;
Health effects of existing nanomaterials and potential health effects of new materials;
Exposure assessment and control of nanoparticles;
Workshop on identifying gaps in knowledge of health effects, assessment and control;
Workshop on regulatory implications of nanomaterials.

There will also be a poster exhibition for those with relevant new work to report. See Diary of Events for further details. It is good to see events such as these taking place - reminding people at work, and those responsible for people at work that there are great improvements yet to be made and warning at the same time that new technologies, new materials present new challenges that need urgent attention.

Reminder ..... 2004 European Week takes place in October 2004

For further information about the European Agency's 2004 European Week of Health and Safety which takes place in October 2004, visit: https://www.healthy-workplaces.eu/en/european-week-safety-and-health-work. The web site also provides information on how to improve safety and health standards, including good practice examples and related links.

World events

For other events around the World click onto the Diary of Events and you will see plans have been made already worldwide up to, and including 2005 to have training courses, symposiums and conferences in many places in the world on a wide range of subjects. OSHWORLD is always pleased to receive news of your seminars, conferences and training courses.

Don't forget that on 10 and 11 November 2004 there will be a major conference EUROHSE 2004 held in London. Already bookings have been made. So do not wait until it is too late to get into this important event. The 2003 conference was deemed to be a great success by those attending. On 9 November 2004 the Food Safety in Europe 2004 www.fse2004.com conference will be held.

Your OSHWorld Portal takes you to the latest sources of information...

OSHWORLD continues to gather information which I hope you find useful in your daily work. Globally there are continually new titles, news items, new products so remember to look at the News to find the latest information from a number of sources.

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. New subject topics are constantly brought together on web sites, e.g. drugs and alcohol abuse in the workplace.

OSH Reference Shelf

Most information services have a reference shelf where you can quickly check the reference sources - so OSHWORLD brings you a collection of Reference sources.

Click onto the various Bookshops to order any new document as they are being published. Many of these Bookshops have a constant stream of new titles available.

Please send any suggestions or comments about OSHWORLD www.oshworld.com - your portal to validated and authoritative information. Remember also to look at our other really useful sites - www.sheilapantry.com and www.shebuyersguide.com.

And for those working in the Construction Industry Sector we hope you are planning to raise standards of OSH on your site during the European 2004 Year of Construction Safety.

Have a zero accident and incident-free year in 2004 in your workplace!