Focus

Focus Archive

Seeing and Hearing for Yourself: Keeping One Step Ahead in the Health, Safety, Chemicals, Fire and Environment Information World

September 1998
Sheila Pantry, OBE

Keeping up-to-date with the latest legislation, guidance, advice, and computerised systems can be a real struggle for anyone working with health, safety, chemicals, fire and environment information. We all need to have easy access to the latest developments and publications. Help is at hand in a number of ways. You can develop a methodology to ensure that the struggle is not too onerous. The following should be considered to suit your particular needs.

Membership of organisations

Belonging to groups, institutions and organisations such as the Occupational Safety and Health Information Group (OSHIG), the Institution of Safety and Health, Chartered Institution of Environmental Health, British Safety Council, the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents, the British Occupational Hygiene Society and many more elsewhere in the world will assist you in keeping up-to-date. More information about these organisations can be found in our lists of links.

Conferences, Exhibitions, and Seminars

Everyone is frantically busy, but going to conferences, exhibitions and seminars is not a waste of time, but gives opportunities to hear about the latest developments and initiatives which are of particular importance in our health and safety world. Networking with others also attending is another useful result of attending these meetings. But do help the organisers and book early, or the event you wanted to attend may well be cancelled because of apparent lack of support!

Exhibitions

At these exhibitions you will find SilverPlatter Health and Safety Publishing Group and their distributors such as UK Safety and Chemical Services willing to show the contents of the wealth of information in the various health, safety, fire, chemical and environment CD-ROMs. Remember that these CD-ROMs contain authoritative and validated data from many organisations such as the UK Health and Safety Executive, the US National Institution of Occupational Safety and Health, the Loss Prevention Council and many more information providers.

Dates for your diary and making your reservations

Information on conferences, exhibitions, seminars and training courses can be readily access by checking the Health & Safety World Diary of Events. There you will find some really interesting forthcoming events, such as:

27 May 1999 Fire Safety '99 New solutions and old flames
University of Leicester, UK
An afternoon seminar on community protection.
Contact: Mrs Dorothy Tomlinson Faculty of Law, University of Leicester, University Road, Leicester LE1 7RH, UK | Tel: +44 (0)116 252 2375 | Fax: +44 (0)116 252 5023 | E-mail: dkt1@le.ac.uk

5-11 June 1999 Going Global - Advancing OEH&S Sciences Internationally
Toronto, Canada
Note: American Industrial Hygiene Conference and Exposition co-sponsored by the American Industrial Hygiene Association and the American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists.

6-9 June 1999 XIVth Annual International Occupational Ergonomics and Safety Conference
Orlando, Florida, USA
Sponsored by the International Society for Occupational Ergonomics and Safety.
Contact: Professor Gene H Lee, Department of Engineering and Management Systems, University of Central Florida, 4000 Central Florida Blvd., Orlando, FL 32816-2450, USA | Tel: +1 407 823 2308 | Fax +1 407 823 3413 | E-mail: GLEE@mail.ucf.edu

All these and more are listed, with details of where to get further information, in some case you can book via the web sites, in the Health & Safety World Diary of Events. Other events are also listed on the various organisations' own web sites.

Training

Attending training courses is increasingly essential as individuals strive to keep their competences updated so as to be able to carry out their duties effectively and efficiently.

Health and safety related information is increasingly available electronically via the Web and in particular on Compact discs. What better way to get familiar with all this than attend a course such as the one on 19 November 1998, at the University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK. Workshop - Work smarter not harder - use the technology. Occupational safety, health, fire and environment CD-ROMS and using the Internet to obtain OSHE information.

This one-day workshop organised by Claremont Systems Ltd (the commercial organisation of the Department of Information Studies, University of Sheffield) and Sheila Pantry Associates Ltd. Practical "Hands on" sessions using Netscape throughout the course. Cost £95 + VAT includes buffet lunch, refreshments and documentation. Contact: Sheila Pantry Associates Ltd Tel: +44 (0) 1909 771024 or Fax: +44 (0) 1909 772829 or via E-mail: sp@sheilapantry.com

What's New?

Despite all the computerised products, there is an endless stream of new publications and training information. You can keep up-to-date by checking the Health & Safety World News and also check the many web sites from authoritative organisations such as the Health and Safety Authority in Ireland, the Canadian Centre for Occupational Safety and Health (who also have a very useful "FAQs - Frequency asked questions service"), the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health, and the International Labour Office Health and Safety Centre, all of which are listed in our lists of links.

So, help is at hand from the many health, safety, environment, fire and other organisations around the world who are striving to help you keep more than one step ahead!

The products mentioned in these articles are available for a free trial. Why not try these for yourself and check out the contents of these exciting sources of information against your own workplace needs?