Editorial

Editorial Archive

What are you going to do to tackle work-related ill health and workplace injury in your place in 2020?

January 2020
Sheila Pantry OBE

We wish All Our Readers Worldwide a very Happy, Healthy, Safe and Successful 2020

In the UK in recent decades there have been large reductions in both fatal and non-fatal workplace injuries. However, the picture for ill health is mixed. There have been reductions in the rate of total self-reported work-related illness (total includes both new and long-standing cases), particularly musculoskeletal disorders.

The rate of total self-reported work-related stress, depression or anxiety shows signs of increasing in recent years having previously remained broadly flat. Annual mesothelioma deaths increased substantially over the last few decades due to past asbestos exposures, but have remained broadly level over the last five years. For details see charts in www.hse.gov.uk/statistics/history/index.htm

As we start the New Year, we need to think about how we are going to manage work-related stress so all employees are protected. Over 11 million days are lost at work a year in the UK because of stress at work. UK Employers have a legal duty to protect employees from stress at work by doing a risk assessment and acting on it. The Health and Safety Executive Management Standards approach will help organisations comply with the law and tackle work-related stress. Tackling stress workbook gives step-by-step guidance on how to use the Management Standards approach in your workplace. Help is available to avoid everyone suffering unnecessarily.

OSH UPDATE + FIRE

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:

• 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 service having information going back over 80 years or more.
• arguably the largest electronic collection in the world in these 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 2020 and decide on the training or re-training that is needed for all levels of staff and update their information resources.

Check out these successful efforts that are in OSH UPDATE + FIRE and OSHWORLD and introduce them into your workplace!

• 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, 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 2020 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 2020 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 Celebrating 100 years:  ILO Global Commission on the Future of Work: A human-centred agenda needed for a decent future of work.

OSHWORLD – your portal to some of the greatest OSH and Fire 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 year in your workplace? Some would argue that this is not possible! But keep on trying again in 2020.

And do continue to make plans for your campaigns for 2020 and beyond!
Remember everything is possible!