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Important March 2021 dates to note and that may change your lives

March 2021
Sheila Pantry OBE

During the Covid-19 pandemic everyone has had some extra time to think and especially about the way they live their lives. During the month of March there are some special days that may alter lives of many people forever…

• 8 March 2021 – International Women’s Day
• 10 March 2021 – No Smoking Day
• 19 March 2021 – World Sleep Day

8 March 2021 – International Women’s Day – A challenged world is an alert world!

IWD 2021 campaign theme: #ChooseToChallenge

International Women’s Day is a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women. The day also marks a call to action for accelerating women’s equality. International Women’s Day (IWD) has occurred for well over a century, with the first IWD gathering in 1911 supported by over a million people. Today, IWD belongs to all groups collectively everywhere. IWD is not country, group or organization specific. Individually, we’re all responsible for our own thoughts and actions – all day, every day, even in these challenging Covid-19 pandemic days! We can choose to challenge and call out gender bias and inequity. We can choose to seek out and celebrate women’s achievements. Great examples have been shown worldwide during the 2020 pandemic and continuing now into 2021 … you will all know women who have responded to the challenges of surviving and daily striving to keep some “normality” for families, in workplaces and generally carrying on. Collectively, we can all help create an inclusive world. From challenge comes change, so let’s all choose to challenge…

Now… Strike the #ChooseToChallenge pose… Raise your hand assertively and show that you choose to challenge inequity. Show your solidarity in choosing to challenge and call out aspects that are unhelpful to women. Will you raise your hand high and pledge to #ChooseToChallenge? To see how, visit: https://www.internationalwomensday.com/2021Theme

Have a Great IWD 8 March 2021

10 March 2021 – No Smoking Day

No Smoking Day has been held on the second Wednesday in March every year since 1984. It is a day to encourage smokers to give quitting a go and promote the benefits of stopping. This year the UK Action on Smoking and Health (ASH), in collaboration with local and regional public health organisations, is coordinating activity around the theme: Quitting doesn’t have to be stressful.

ASH have produced some recent research results that revealed – that 80,000 ‘non-smokers’ regularly smoke cannabis, putting their health at risk and another report looking at the relationship between smoking and poorer mental health and wellbeing and how ex-smokers experience better mental health. Data will be available at regional and national level for England.

19 March 2021 – World Sleep Day and the Workplace

The slogan for the 14th annual World Sleep Day (WSD) is Regular Sleep, Healthy Future.

WSD is a call to all sleep professionals to advocate and educate the world about the importance of sleep for achieving an optimal quality of life and improve global health. The focus on regular sleep for 2021 is based on the benefits that regular sleep offers.

The World Sleep Society recommends the following 10 steps to achieve healthy sleep:

• Fix a bedtime and an awakening time.
• If you are in the habit of taking a nap, do not exceed 45 minutes of daytime sleep.
• Avoid excessive alcohol ingestion 4 hours before bedtime and do not smoke.
• Avoid caffeine 6 hours before bedtime. This includes coffee, tea and many sodas, as well as chocolate.
• Avoid heavy, spicy, or sugary foods 4 hours before bedtime. A light snack before bed is acceptable.
• Exercise regularly, but not right before bed.
• Use comfortable bedding.
• Find a comfortable temperature setting for sleeping and keep the room well ventilated.
• Block out all distracting noise and eliminate as much light as possible.
• Reserve the bed for sleep and do not use the bed as an office, workroom or recreation room.

Spreading the word on social media about #WorldSleepDay.

We really need to think how sleep or lack of it affects our performance at our workplace and how smoking affects your health and the implications of the legislation and workplaces and also gender equality in life and the workplace.

So, help is at hand for you – whichever industry you are working in there is guidance, advice, reports, journal articles, research reports and more are brought together in an easy-to-use web service entitled OSH UPDATE + FIRE www.oshupdate.com

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