Editorial

Editorial Archive

Making sure that older workers have a safe and healthy workplace

February 2019
Sheila Pantry OBE

Longer working lives are the new norm for many people around the world. Today’s workforce is likely to contain a higher proportion of older workers because of factors such as increased life expectancy, removal of the default retirement age and raising of the State Pension Age, which means that many people will need, and want to continue working.

Employers and safety professionals have the same responsibilities for the health and safety of older employees as they have for all their employees and there is a wealth of information available to help employers take older workers into account when considering how to meet their responsibilities. Health and safety should not be used as an excuse to avoid employing older people. A separate risk assessment is not required specifically for older workers.

The UK Health and Safety Executive has a wealth of information including research reports that will help organisations and also safety professionals develop safe working practices that support the needs of an older worker see www.hse.gov.uk/vulnerable-workers/older-workers.htm

You will find many examples of good practices, information, guidance and advice, research reports, leaflets and much more that has been brought together in OSH UPDATE + FIRE www.oshupdate.com – THE key tool to all your health, safety and fire information requirements!

OSH UPDATE + FIRE is:

· easily searchable by keywords, titles, journal names, standard number, authors, organisations, and will keep you and your colleagues alerted to hot topics such as air pollution, robots in the workplace, stress, wellbeing and aggression in the workplace, workplace health risks, lone workers, preparedness and business continuity, risk assessment, bio-terrorism, management of road risks, all aspects of fire and related fire topics, workplace health and safety and much more.

• long established from mid 1990s with some of the databases in the collection having information going back over 80 years or more so useful for researchers
• arguably the largest electronic collection in the world covering very wide subject areas from worldwide sources. There is a special collection of OSH legislation, guidance and advice within OSH UPDATE and FIRE!
• The 26 databases and contents are from worldwide class organisations such as the US NIOSH, the UK Health and Safety Executive, the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work and many more similar organisations in the world.

This time of the year is a good time for all organisations worldwide to review their health and safety goals for 2019 and decide on the training or re-training that is needed for all levels of staff and update their information resources.

• It is always good to keep researching and finding out if there are services and other ways of keeping up-to-date in this fast-changing world of ours.
• Time is precious and many people are really stretched in their jobs and find it difficult to keep ahead in current knowledge that they should have for their jobs.
• So help is at hand for those working in health, safety and fire and fire related industries which are brought together in an easy to use web service entitled OSH UPDATE + FIRE www.oshupdate.com that is constantly updated.

Then try these long established Practical, Affordable Solutions for your health, safety, fire and environment information needs from Sheila Pantry Associates Ltd.

For a 15 DAY FREE NO OBLIGATION TRIAL contact: Sheila Pantry Associates Ltd | email: sp@sheilapantry.com | or fill in the Interest form www.sheilapantry.com/interest.html

Update your 2019 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 2019 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.

FOCUS

This month’s OSHWORLD FOCUS is entitled UK Government bans combustible materials on high-rise homes.

OSHWORLD – your portal to some great 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

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.

Well did you have a zero accident, incident-free and healthy 2018 in your workplace? Some would argue that this is not possible! But keep on trying again in 2019.

And do continue to make plans for your campaigns for 2019 and beyond!