News from around the World

News Archive

September 2007

European NanOSH Conference - Nanotechnologies: A Critical Area in Occupational Safety and Health, 3-5 December 2007, Marina Congress Center, Helsinki, Finland

The EuroNanOSH Conference will discuss global safety issues surrounding nanoparticles and nanotechnologies, in occupational safety and health in particular; and will provide insight into future actions for assuring the safety, and thereby the future success of nanotechnologies.

• Deadline for abstract submission on 30 August 2007
• Deadline for early registration on 15 October 2007

The Conference is arranged by the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health in collaboration with the TEKES - Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and Innovation and VTT Technical Research Center in Finland. In addition, the Conference is supported by the ISPESL - National Institute for Occupational Safety and Prevention in Italy, and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health in USA.

Welcome to the EuroNanOSH Conference!

EuroNanOSH Secretariat, Finnish Institute of Occupational Health, Leila Ahlström, Topeliuksenkatu 41 a A, FI-00250 Helsinki, Finland | Email: euronanosh@ttl.fi

EuroNanOSH sponsors

• The Finnish Work Environment Fund https://www.tsr.fi/en/frontpage
• Nordic Council of Ministers www.norden.org/en
• Tekes - Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and Innovation www.tekes.fi/en
• Academy of Finland www.aka.fi/en-gb/A
• UK Trade & Investment

Managing Competence for Safety-related Systems

The Health and Safety Executive in partnership with the Institution of Engineering Technology (IET) and the British Computer Society (BCS), has published guidance to help companies manage the competence of their staff who are involved with electronic safety-related systems (e.g. fly-by-wire in aircraft, shutdown systems in the petrochemical industry and offshore and safeguarding arrangements for machinery and industrial automation).

The new publication Managing Competence for Safety-related Systems provides the essential requirements for a successful competence management system (CMS) suitable for all staff at all levels of responsibility within organisations working on safety-related systems.

The guidance is available free on the internet www.hse.gov.uk/humanfactors/topics/mancomppt1.pdf

EU Agency targets improvement of the quality of working life in an enlarged European Union

The European Agency for Safety and Health at Work is organising seminars across the 12 newer EU Member States, Croatia and Turkey to help small businesses implement an effective health and safety policy.

Many small businesses in the EU have already discovered that good safety and health is fundamental for company success. An effective health and safety policy is not only essential for the well-being of workers, but it also ensures that enterprises and economies thrive in the long term. Companies that engage in risk prevention minimise production losses resulting from injuries or diseases, increase their productivity and at the same time reduce costs.

To spread this message more widely, the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work is working with its national network and the Euro Info Centres on the second round of the 2007 'Healthy Workplace Initiative'. Under the slogan 'Good safety and health is good for business', the campaign gives small companies easy access to quality information on how to make their workplaces safer, healthier and more productive.

During the upcoming seminars workers and employers will get the opportunity to meet professionals from the occupational safety and health sector and companies who already benefit from improved safety and health at work. Company representatives can assess risks, develop prevention plans and share good practices. Useful material such as risk assessment checklists are made available. They enable employers and employees to analyse and assess their work environment according to specific sector or hazard needs and provide advice and support for change and improvement.

Jukka Takala, the Agency's Director, comments on the campaign: "The first evaluation has shown that there is real interest amongst Europe's small businesses to improve levels of safety and health, and a real need for simple tools for them to start assessing risks in the workplace. The success of the campaign has also shown that by pooling the resources and expertise of the Euro Info Centres and the Agency's focal point network, we can make real headway in addressing their practical needs."

Heinz Zourek, Director General, DG Enterprise and Industry commented: "We strongly believe that Croatia, Turkey as well as the old Member States will benefit from this experience. A close collaboration between EICs and focal points is essential if we want to better address SMEs needs in the field of occupational safety and health".

European Agency for Safety and Health at Work, Gran Via 33, E-48009 Bilbao, Spain | Fax: +34 94 479 4383 | Email: information@osha.europa.eu | http://osha.europa.eu

SLIC campaign 2007 on manual handling

In the wake of the Agency campaign on MSDs, Europe's Senior Labour Inspectors' Committee (SLIC) is organising a campaign on manual handling. The overall goals of the campaign are:

• Better compliance in the EU with EU Directive 90/269/EEC "Manual Handling of Loads" in order to reduce musculo-skeletal disorders,
• Improving the inspection and communication methods of the labour inspectorates by learning from existing methods,
• Greater harmony in the enforcement of the manual handling of loads throughout the uropean Union

http://osha.europa.eu/en/topics/msds/slic/index_html/handlingloads

New HSE Leaflet - 'Want construction work done safely?' A quick guide for clients on the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2007

The UK Health and Safety Executive (HSE) Construction Division has produced a simple guide for construction clients on the CDM Regulations 2007. As a client, you have a big influence over how construction work is done.

The leaflet is available free to download: www.hse.gov.uk/construction/cdm/2015

The Construction Clients Group has also produced some useful guidance for "small and one-off clients":

• What you have to do if you want construction work done - and how to do it
• Questions and Answers: Directory of Information

Playing with fire? Trying to find that piece of fire information and it is not on the Internet?

Then look no further - instead have a look at FIREINF - an ever-increasing collection of UK and worldwide authoritative fire information. There is no other collection like it in the world. If you need to keep up to date with the latest fire information then this is the collection to use. FireInf contains a number of authoritative and validated databases containing full text UK and European legislation, reports, research results, guidance and advice. In addition it contains over 264,000 records of journal articles, standards, conference proceedings, research reports from worldwide sources. The various information providers are will to help with photocopies etc.

The following services are long-established and are used worldwide by a wide variety of individuals, OSH practitioners, consultancies, organisations, universities, students, researchers and lecturers:

• Fireinf (previously Fire, Emergency and Preparedness)
• OSH UPDATE
• IRISH OSH UPDATE (includes also the content of OSH Ireland)

These services are constantly updated, contain both full text and bibliographic information have been transferred onto new, easy-to-use software and host platform. All services are available for a 15-day free trial.

Prices are really competitive when compared to other worldwide services!

Contact Sheila Pantry Associates Ltd. for free trials for all services that are cost effective. Why pay more for information? Go to www.sheilapantry.com/interest.html

US National Institute for Safety and Health (NIOSH) consolidation of the NIOSH 800 number with CDC-INFO

Beginning on August 30, 2007, the NIOSH 800-number information service (1-800-35-NIOSH) became part of the toll-free CDC-INFO public information contact center. CDC-INFO is the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) consolidated call and e-mail handling center.

Established in 2005, CDC-INFO provides one-stop access to all the information resources of NIOSH and CDC. CDC-INFO call center representatives are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and answer public inquiries in English and Spanish.

NIOSH says... "Those of you who currently use the NIOSH 800-number may notice some changes in the way inquiries are processed, especially publication requests. We ask you to bear with us through the transition phase".

Please note the new telephone number: 1-800-CDC-INFO (1-800-232-4636) | Email: cdcinfo@cdc.gov | TTY: 1-888-232-6348

International Forum of Crisis Management for Infectious Disease

This will be held on 17-18 November 2007 at the University of Tokyo, Medical Campus, Tokyo, Japan. Held by Union of Risk Management for Preventive Medicine (URMPM) www.urmpm.org/Infection2007/index.html.

Programme

www.urmpm.org/Infection2007/pro.html

Registration form

www.urmpm.org/Infection2007/participation.html

Japan visa application form

www.urmpm.org/Infection2007/VisaApplicationManner.pdf

Contact: Shirley V. Villalobos Chaves, Assistant of Editor in Chief for JMS, International Secretary of Union of Risk Management for Preventive Medicine (URMPM)

URMPM Head Office: 4-36-2-103 Hongo, Bunkyoku, Tokyo, 113-0033, Japan | Email: secr-office@umin.net | (Tel) +81-3-3817-7010 (81 is the country code of Japan) | (Fax) +81-3-3817-6770 (81 is the country code of Japan)

Work, Stress and Health 2008: Scheduled for March 2008

NIOSH, the American Psychological Association, and the Society for Occupational Health Psychology will convene "Work, Stress and Health 2008: Healthy and Safe Work Through Research, Practice and Partnerships" on March 6-8, 2008, in Washington, DC USA.

This conference, the latest in a series, is designed to address the constantly changing nature of work, and the implications of these changes for the health, safety, and well-being of workers. Conference topics include: traumatic stress and resiliency, fatigue, workplace diversity and discrimination, and work-family integration. The deadline for paper, poster and symposium proposals was August 31, 2007.

www.apa.org/pi/work

CDC Publishes Guide for Next Decade of Public Health Research

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has released Advancing the Nation's Health: A Guide for Public Health Research Needs, 2006-2015.

The Research Guide identifies research areas that should be addressed during the next decade by CDC and its partners in response to current and future needs and events.

Indoor Air 2008 Conference to be held on 17-22 August 2008 in Denmark

The Bjarne Olesen, conference president, regarding Indoor Air 2008 - August 17-22nd 2008 in Copenhagen reports that there is now less than a year until the opening of the Indoor Air & Climate 2008 conference in Copenhagen. So the countdown has started.

Please promote the conference among your colleagues. The most important thing is to make potential attendees aware of the web-site: www.indoorair2008.org

The site includes information about abstracts, papers, accommodation, social events, registration fee and other details.

The deadline for Abstracts is now 15 October.

Indoor Air 2008, International Centre for Indoor Environment and Energy, Technical University of Denmark, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Nils Koppels Allé, Building 402, DK-2800 Kongens Lyngby | Tel.: +45 45 25 40 07 | Fax: +45 45 93 21 66 | Email: ssk@mek.dtu

News from Korea... About World Congress 2008...

World Congress on Safety and Health at Work 2008 and APOSHO Annual General Meeting to be held simultaneously

World Congress on Safety and Health at Work and The annual general meeting of the Asia Pacific Occupational Safety and Health Organization (APOSHO), a cooperative organization of safety and health institutions in the Asia-Pacific region, will be held simultaneously in Seoul, Korea next year.

The Ministry of Labour (MOL) and KOSHA said on 5 June that the 24th annual general meeting of APOSHO will be held for 4 days beginning 29 June 2008 in Seoul.