Editorial
Dying for a job?
Sheila Pantry OBE
September 2007
Every three and a half minutes, somebody in the European Union (EU) dies from work-related causes. That's more than 150,000 deaths a year as a result of either work-related accidents (8,900) or occupational diseases (142,000).
The International Labour Organisation (ILO) estimates that globally there are over 2 million work-related deaths per year.
All these figures are well known to be under-reported.
Workers and employers need to be made aware of the risks that they face, and how to manage them. But health and safety bodies in the individual EU Member States cannot do this alone. That is why the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work was set up, in 1996.
The Agency's mission is to make Europe's workplaces safer, healthier and more productive. They do this by bringing together and sharing knowledge and information, to promote a culture of risk prevention.
Likewise the ILO does the same thing globally through its Worksafe programmes and the Network of health and safety information centres.
But ALL countries and organisations need to set up services and systems to ensure that they too bring together and share knowledge and information, to promote a culture of risk prevention.
Sadly in some rich countries there now seems to be a view that health and safety information and knowledge is "out there on the Internet and is FREE OF CHARGE". So they do not really need health and safety information to be produced and disseminated.
Even those who are NOT information specialists should know that this is just another MYTH... and that governments and the budget holders should recognise that leaving it to" others" to do is not going to change things in their own country. What they will find is rising numbers of fatalities, injuries and long-term ill-health.
So why wait until your workers start and become yet another grim statistic?
Finding it hard to keep up-to-date with the avalanche of OSH information? You can find quality guidance and advice produced by organisations and government bodies from around the world in reliable sources in collections of validated and authoritative information such as FIREINF, OSH UPDATE and IRISH OSH UPDATE. These collections are continuously enlarged as new information is published and contain information that is not normally found on web sites.
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This month's OSHWORLD FOCUS is on Training - especially those new to the workplace.
The OSHWORLD Diary of Events continues to show the many courses, conferences and seminars are being held around the world to enable people to keep up to date with the developments. Any new items carry the tag NEW! Remember that some major events are being planned now well in 2008.
Training needs should be constantly updated. It is essential that everyone is trained to do their job correctly. Keep up-to-date to see what is happening worldwide by clicking regularly on www.oshworld.com/diary.html
Your OSHWorld Portal
We hope that you find the information in OSHWORLD 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 worldwide 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. avian flu and the workplace.
Most information services have a reference shelf where you can quickly check the reference sources - so OSHWORLD brings you a collection of Reference sources and also teaches you how to Search the Internet.
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 - your portal to validated and authoritative information. Remember also to look at our other really useful sites - www.sheilapantry.com and why not make a free entry about your company's products in www.shebuyersguide.com.
Most of all why not try out a 15-day free trial to www.fireinf.com or www.oshupdate.com.
Don't work harder - work smarter! Be ahead of the game.
Are you aiming to have a zero accident, incident-free and healthy year in 2007 in your workplace? Some would argue that this is not possible!