Editorial

Editorial Archive

Keeping new young workers, safe and healthy

August 2018
Sheila Pantry OBE

Young people are especially vulnerable in the workplace. Across Europe, 18-24 year olds are at least 50% more likely to be hurt at work than older people, and young people are also more likely to suffer from an occupational illness says the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work.

According to Canadian research, young, inexperienced workers are over five times more likely to be injured during their first four weeks of employment than other workers. And it is not just accidents that young workers are vulnerable to – they are also at risk from more slowly-developing occupational health problems.

Likewise, when introducing young people to the world of work during their work experience sessions can help them understand the work environment, choose future careers or prepare for employment. So, it is important that young people need to be offered opportunities to develop new skills and gain experience across the world of work.

So, despite the worldwide recession there will be many young people just starting work for the first time across all industries and services and they must be trained to be able to avoid accidents and long-term ill health.

Organisations deal with occupational safety and health (OSH) in different ways: some organisations have little expertise in OSH and react to problems such as occupational accidents, work-related diseases and absenteeism in an ad hoc way, whilst others strive to manage OSH more systematically, and even proactively, by implementing OSH into the organisation’s overall management.

Help is near…

To help organisations – managers, directors, supervisors and workers and especially those teaching in colleges and universities there is OSH UPDATE + FIRE – the long-established electronic collection of 26 databases of full text and bibliographic authoritative and validated information on all aspects of working life. OSH UPDATE + FIRE is constantly updated with worldwide information.

If you need information on all aspects of workplace health and safety and much more – then have a look at OSH UPDATE + FIRE which is a unique collection of information sources collected together in one place.

Information seekers will find a wealth of authoritative and validated advice from these global sources. Full text documents and references on research results, best practices, case studies, journal articles, reports, advice and guidance, legislation and much more are in OSH UPDATE + FIRE.

Information seekers will find a wealth of authoritative and validated advice from these global sources. Full text documents and references on research results, best practices, case studies, journal articles, reports, advice and guidance, legislation, accidents and incident reports and much more are in OSH UPDATE + FIRE.

Why not try OSH UPDATE + FIRE for yourself? Take a 15-day free trial. Why be without quality OSH and fire information?

Contact Sheila Pantry Associates Ltd. for 15-day FREE trials for all services that are very cost-effective and easy to use. Why pay more for information? Go to: www.sheilapantry.com/interest.html

FOCUS

This month’s OSHWORLD FOCUS is entitled Post Grenfell Fire: Modern Methods of Construction.

Update your 2018 diaries with training for workers at all levels

Whether you are a manager, director, safety representative, supervisors or worker it is time to

• check out the training needed in your workplace.
• look at the latest additions to the Diary of Events and you will see plans have been made already worldwide well into 2018 offering training courses, symposiums, webinars and conferences in many places in the world on a wide range of subjects.
• make sure you do not put off training for yourself and your staff. In these days of tighter budgets perhaps training may be put on the “back-burner” – but think again how you can keep up with the latest techniques and training opportunities.
• remember accidents and ill health in the workplace is costly.

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, we add in the web sites of these events, so you can request further information. And do let me know if you are organising any OSHE events so that these can be added to the OSHWORLD Diary.

OSHWORLD – your portal to some great informative and authoritative OSH web sites in the world

Wherever you are in the world have a look at your health, safety, chemical, fire and environment procedures in your workplace and update them. Your review may also indicate training requirements and re-thinking how systems and services can be improved. This is where the free-of-charge OSHWORLD can help you.

Resources for you to quickly access

In addition to the above 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 range of worldwide sources.

Use OSHWORLD as your portal to many hundreds of validated and authoritative web sites that you can find in the Country and Subject links we offer. New subject topics are constantly brought together on web sites, e.g. nanotechnology 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.

Visit 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.

Don’t forget to learn from history – visit www.historyofosh.org.uk
An invaluable resource for students, lecturers, trainers, health and safety professionals and others with a general interest in industrial history, the site sets out developments from the 1802 Factory Act all the way through to the most recent regulatory changes made by the UK Health and Safety Executive (HSE).

Don’t work harder – work smarter! Be ahead of the game.