News from around the World

News Archive

August 2002

News from Ireland

OSH-IRELAND is available 24:7

24-hours, 7 days a week Internet-based access to OSH-Ireland is available, as well as the CD-ROM version. Why waste time looking in so many different places for a particular piece of legislation or guidance, when you can quickly access the information by searching the increasingly popular OSH-Ireland which contains 11 databases?

The latest edition, contains over 14,000 thousand pages of text - all searchable by keywords or phrases, enabling anyone to quickly gain access to the relevant section in the act, statutory instrument or piece of advice and guidance. For example, anyone searching for classification, packaging and labelling of dangerous substances will find instantly the full text of the legislation, guidance and advice from HSA, IBEC and NISO, and references to the European Legislation.

If the search was for information on machinery safety OSH-IRELAND would give the full text of the legislation, guidance and advice and the relevant NSAI standards.

The databases can be searched separately or together and the user can define a search topic by identifying the important words and related terms for each concept.

All businesses need up-to-date health and safety information and legislation, and so do academic institutions, so why not try OSH-IRELAND ........... the definitive health, safety, fire and environment information collection on a disc for your personal computer, or networked in your organisation, or via the Internet. To see the range of information in OSH-Ireland click onto www.sheilapantry.com and click onto OSH-Ireland

OSH-IRELAND aims to help health and safety practitioners and managers in their daily work is produced by Sheila Pantry Associates Ltd as partner publisher with SilverPlatter Information Ltd, and in co-operation with the Health and Safety Authority (HSA), NISO - the National Irish Safety Organisation, IBEC - Irish Business Employers Confederation, the Health and Safety Executive and the NSAI - National Standards Authority of Ireland.

OSH-Ireland contains the full text of all appropriate legislation, guidance, advice and forms from the HSA, NISO, IBEC, standards from NSAI plus other sources of information.
OSH-IRELAND also includes:

• The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) bibliographic database which contains REFERENCES to worldwide occupational safety, health, ergonomics, environment, chemical information in journals, guidance and advice documents, reports including research reports and conference papers. The Database currently has 23,000 references and each new edition will enable you to keep up-to-date with the latest information from worldwide authoritative sources such as the US National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, the UK Health and Safety Executive, the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health and the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work.
• References to appropriate British Standards Institution standards.
• Extensive List of references to appropriate National Standards Association of Ireland (NSAI) OSH standards. (Other than those included as full text documents).
• List of references to appropriate European health, safety and environment Directives which has also been extended.

Useful for training and education purposes
Education and training organisations, such as universities and further education colleges will find OSH-IRELAND invaluable in their work; likewise students will be able to see instantly the breadth of the information available without having to search for separate pieces of information from a variety of electronic and print sources.

News from the USA

Silicosis in Sandblasters: a case study adapted for use in US High Schools

The goal of this report from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) is to learn about epidemiology by studying an occupational hazard, a disease associated with the hazard, and the methods for preventing the disease. Epidemiology is the study if why and how a disease occurs and spreads in populations. More than 2 million US workers are potentially exposed to dusts containing crystalline silica. Prolonged inhalation of silica-containing dusts puts these workers at risk for the disease silicosis - a nodular fibrosis of the lungs that causes shortness of breath. More than 100,000 US workers are in high-risk occupations such as sandblasting.

US National Occupational Safety and Health - NIOSH
Silicosis in Sandblasters: a case study adapted for use in US High Schools.
DHHS (NIOSH) Publication No. 2002-105. June 2002. 21 pages
Available from: US NIOSH, Publications Dissemination, 4676 Columbia Parkway, Cincinnati, OH 45226 1998, USA. | Tel: +1 800356 4674 | Fax: +1 513 533 8573 | Email: pubstaft@cdc.gov | www.cdc.gov/niosh

News from the USA

Surveillance and Prevention of Occupational Injuries in Alaska: a decade of progress, 1990-1999

The US National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) works with numerous partners in the public and private sectors on collaborative efforts to prevent occupational injuries and fatalities in Alaska.

These efforts included development of a comprehensive, statewide surveillance systems that helped identify new and emerging problems, track hazardous conditions over time, target interventions, evaluate efforts and anticipate future problems. During the 1990s, occupational fatalities in Alaska decreased by nearly 50%. This document describes collaborative efforts that contributed to this decrease.

One primary goal for NIOSH in compiling this report was to create a resource that could be used by anyone interested in workplace safety in Alaska or other high-risk areas facing occupational injury challenges, particularly in commercial fishing, helicopter logging industries and commercial aviation.

US National Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
Surveillance and Prevention of Occupational Injuries in Alaska: a decade of progress, 1990-1999
DHHS (NIOSH) Publication No. 2002-15. 2002. 48 pages
Available from: US NIOSH, Publications Dissemination, 4676 Columbia Parkway, Cincinnati, OH 45226 1998, USA. | Tel: +1 800356 4674 | Fax: +1 513 533 8573 | Email: pubstaft@cdc.gov | web: www.cdc.gov/niosh

Titles you may have missed........

Human and Ecological Risk Assessment: Theory and practice

Edited by Dennis J Paustenbach
Wiley Interscience. 2002. ISBN 0471147478. 1556 pages

This authoritative guide to risk assessment, grounded in actual case studies of sites or issues that address a wide range of human and ecological hazards. The book assembles the expertise of more than fifty authorities from fifteen different fields. The chapters contain the most current methods for conducting hazard identification, dose-response and exposure assessment, and risk characterisation components for risk assessments of any chemical hazard to human or wildlife.

The topics addressed include hazards posed by:

• emissions
• contaminated soil and foods
• occupational hazards
• hazardous waste sites
• radiological hazards
• agricultural hazards
• consumer produced and water
• contaminated air and water

With over 1500 pages and extensive lists of references, this book will become a standard textbook.

Human and Ecological Risk Assessment: Theory and practice
Edited by Dennis J Paustenbach
Wiley Interscience 2002 ISBN 0471147478 1556 pages
Contact: Joanna Gibson | Tel: +44 (0)1243 770674 | email: jgibson@wiley.co.uk

The Complete Book of Pesticide Management: Science, Regulation, Stewardship and Communication

Edited by Fred Whitford
Wiley Interscience. 2002. ISBN 0471407283

Pesticides are an essential part of our lives, however no pesticide is risk free and all pesticides carry the potential to harm people and the environment. As long as the pesticides are properly controlled, regulated and labelled and with good consumer education, pesticides can play an important role in maintaining the quality of life we enjoy.

The text links scientific information developed from pesticide testing programmes with the safety and precautionary language commonly found on products labels. Describing how to communicate pesticide benefits and risks to the public he Complete Book of Pesticide Management provides information on how to select pesticides and protect the professionals handling these chemicals.

Contributors from government, manufacturing, retail industries, universities, trade associations, and non-profit organisations provide a balanced view of the relative risks that pesticides pose to people, wildlife and water.

The Complete Book of Pesticide Management: Science, Regulation, Stewardship and Communication, Edited by Fred Whitford
Wiley Interscience. 2002. ISBN 0471407283
Contact: Joanna Gibson | Tel: +44 (0)1243 770674 | email: jgibson@wiley.co.uk

NAIR Technical Handbook 2002 edition

by N P McColl and P Kruse
National Radiological Protection Board NRPB – W7. 2002. ISBN 0859514781. 32 pages

This Technical Handbook contains information for radiation specialists participating in the National Arrangements for Incidents involving Radioactivity (NAIR). This latest edition contains:

• Operational aspects
• Radiological protection in NAIR incidents
• Instruments and equipment
• Radionuclide data and guide to suitable detectors
• Package and source identification
• Disposal of radioactive materials involved in NAIR incidents

There is also an appendix of UN Numbers commonly used in the transport of radioactive materials.

The NRPB W series reports are the NRPB’s new series of reports which replaced the NRPB R series reports in January 2002. The new NRPB W series are now primarily available as downloadable PDF files on the NRPB website: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/national-radiological-protection-board-nrpb-report-series

Contact: NRPB Information Office, Didcot, Chilton Oxon OX11 0RQ | Tel: +44 (0)1235 822742 | Fax: +44 (0)1235 822746 | Email: information@nrpb.org

Electronic COSHH Essentials

The UK Health and Safety Executive has launched an Internet tool to help prevent the harmful effects of working with chemicals by providing advice to limit exposure. COSHH Essentials provides advice on controlling the use of chemicals for a range of common tasks, e.g. mixing or drying. The website will take you through a number of steps and ask for information about your tasks and chemicals. This will take several minutes to complete. To provide this information you will need a safety data sheet for each chemical to supply details such as risk phrases (R-phrases).

There is a worked example for you to see what happens.

www.hse.gov.uk/coshh/essentials

Hazardous Chemicals Desk Reference, 5th ed.

by Richard J Lewis, Sr.

The Hazardous Chemical Desk Reference contains safety profiles, synonyms, physical properties, standards and recommendations of government agencies for approximately 5,000 chemicals deemed both important and potential hazardous by the international scientific community. Substantially updated, the fifth edition includes the latest information from a variety of international databases and organisations, while deleting entries that have proven to be the least pertinent to practitioners.

Substances were chosen on the basis of meeting a variety of criteria including:

• Having an US Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) standard
• Having an ACGIH TLV. Listed by the International Agency for Research on Cancer Groups 1-4 assessments
• Listed on the NTP Ninth Report on Carcinogens
• Having a German Research Society's MAK or BAT listing
• Having especially dangerous toxic, reactive, or fire properties.

The Hazardous Chemical Desk Reference, by Richard J Lewis, Sr
Published by John Wiley, 2002. ISBN 0471 441651. 1695 pages. GBP130.00
Contact: Joanna Gibson | Tel: +44 (0)1243 770674 | email: jgibson@wiley.co.uk

News from the ILO

Labour Inspection: a guide to the profession

by Wolfgang Von Richthofen

It presents policy issues in an international context, while examining how the major, foreseeable developments in economics, the labour market, and technology, as well as national, sectoral and enterprise social structures affect labour inspection. This is an authoritative, comprehensive guide to labour inspection and its fundamental principles.

Taking into account substantial developments and major changes in the field, this book looks at what has occurred in both the policy and practice of labour inspection in the 21st century. It explores the often entirely new systems and strategies that have surfaced, such as "internal controls" in the Nordic countries and the merger of parts of social insurance (workers' compensation) with inspection services (in Australian and New Zealand), and explains how these and other practices may benefit countries in similar situations.

Labour Inspection: a guide to the profession, by Wolfgang Von Richthofen
ILO. May. 2002. ISBN 92 2 112710 9
Available from the ILO Office, Millbank Tower, London SW1P 4QP, UK | Tel: +44 20 7828 6401 | Fax: +44 20 7233 5925 | Email ipu@ilo-london.org.uk

or ILO, 4 route des Morillons, CH 1211 Geneva 22, Switzerland | Fax: +41 22 799 6878 | Email: pubvente@ilo.org | web: www.ilo.org/global/publications

News from the ILO

Children at Work: health and safety risks. 2nd edition

by Valentina Forastieri

The second edition of this useful and informative approach to the protection of working children through the development of a programme of occupational safety and health specifically addressed to working children. It illustrates what can be done within a framework of a national policy aimed at he elimination of child labour.

As with the previous edition, it also includes procedures to identify hazardous working conditions, and offers advice on developing improved methods and instruments to assess and protect the health of wiring children.

Children at Work: health and safety risks, by Valentina Forastieri
ILO. 2002. 2nd ed. ISBN 92 2 111399X
Available from the ILO Office, Millbank Tower, London SW1P 4QP, UK | Tel: +44 20 7828 6401 | Fax: +44 20 7233 5925 | Email: ipu@ilo-london.org.uk

or ILO, 4 route des Morillons, CH 1211 Geneva 22, Switzerland | Fax: +41 22 799 6878 | Email: pubvente@ilo.org | web: www.ilo.org/global/publications

News from South Africa

Workers Life: safety, health and environment news for the Worker in South Africa....

The latest edition of Workers Life July 2002 contains a number of topical subjects including:

• NOSA helping local authorities
• High fatality rate in Zimbabwe's mines
• Night work can have very bad effects
• Slips, trips and falls aren't funny
• How tolerable is tolerable? Discusses the introduction of Risk Assessment in section 11 of the Mine Health and Safety Act

Contact: Workers Life, NOSA, 508 Proes Street, Arcadia 0083, Box 26434 Arcadia, Pretoria 0007 South Africa | E-mail: worklife@nosa.co.za

News from the ILO

Suffer the Children.....

Susan Gunn of the ILO International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC) answers questions from Sheila Pantry, OBE

No-one really knows how many children have to work for their livings since it is often illegal and clandestine and beyond the reach of labour statistics. But this is a major problem worldwide.

Child labour continues to be a global phenomenon - no country or region is immune. Ten years after launching a worldwide campaign the ILO has launched a comprehensive new look at the problem. The findings are cause for concern; despite significant progress in efforts to abolish child labour, the report* says that alarming number of children remain trapped in its worst form. In many developed countries, agriculture is also the sector most children work.

The above article appeared in the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents - RoSPA Occupational Safety and Health Journal, April 2002, vol. 32, no. 4, 18-24.
RoSPA, Edgbaston Park, 353 Bristol Road, Birmingham B5 7ST, UK. | Tel: +44 (0)121 248 2000 | Fax: +44 (0)121 248 2001 | web: www.rospa.com

News from the UK

Back in work

CRR 441/2002 Initiative Evaluation Report

Back pain is the leading cause of sickness absence from work in the UK. It is estimated that in 1995, 10 million working days were lost because of back pain. The cost to the National Health Service of treating back pain and injury has been estimated at £481 million, and the overall cost to industry has been estimated at £5 billion. The Back in Work Initiative was established to identify and develop innovative ideas to tackle back pain in the workplace, to develop good practice and to improve workplace health. This document published by the UK Health and Safety Executive provides a summary of the projects that comprised the Back in Work Initiative. 18 of the funded projects provided results and final reports within the originally stated timeframes.

Back in Work, HSE. CRR 441/2002, Initiative Evaluation Report

News from Italy

Protection of workers in the health care industry

Problems of special interest concerning the protection of workers exposed to physical hazards in the health care sector, by C Grandi, S Iavicoli, V Molinaro, S Palmi and P Rossi are presented in an article in the ISPESL Prevenzione Oggi, No.1 2001 p. 3-44.

Contact: ISPESL, Information Centre, Via Alessandria 220/e, 1-00198 Rome, Italy | Tel: +39 06 442 50 648 | Fax: +39 06 442 50 972 | Email: tagliaferro.doc@ispesl.it | web: www.ispesl.it

News from Japan

Karoshi - death from overwork

The latest newsletter from the Japan Industrial Safety and Health Association (JISHA) shows a range of activities undertaken and draws attention to the death from overwork - Karoshi.

For copies of the JISHA's Safety and Health in Japan Newsletter contact: JISHA, (ILO-CIS National Centre in Japan), 5-35-1 Shiba, Minatoku, Tokyo 108-0014, Japan | Tel/Fax +81 3 3454 4596 | Email: kokusai@jisha.or.jp | www.jisha.or.jp