News from around the World

News Archive

April 2011

World Day for Safety and Health at Work 2011

World Day for Safety and Health at Work is an international annual campaign to promote safe, healthy and decent work that is held on the 28 April each year. Since 2003, the International Labour Organization (ILO) observes the World Day stressing the prevention of accidents, injuries and illnesses at work, capitalizing on its traditional strengths of tripartism and social dialogue.

This celebration is an integral part of the Global Strategy on Occupational Safety and Health of the ILO. One of the main pillars of the Global Strategy is advocacy, and the World Day for Safety and Health at Work is a significant tool to raise awareness on the importance of a work that is safe and healthy. 28 of April is also a day which the world's trade union movement has long associated with commemorating victims of occupational accidents and fatalities.

The theme for this year's World Day for Safety and Health at Work is:

Occupational Safety and Health Management System: A tool for continual improvement

As every year, SafeWork, the Programme on Safety and Health at Work and the Environment of the International Labour Office (ILO), has prepared a report to serve as a background to this theme. This year, it discusses the application of an Occupational Safety and Health Management System (OSHMS) for the effective management of hazards and risks in the workplace.

An OSHMS is a preventive method to implement safety and health measures which consists of four steps and incorporates the principle of continual improvement. Its principles are based on the PDCA Cycle: PLAN, DO, CHECK, ACT.

The report recalls that the purpose of OSHMS is to establish a comprehensive and structured mechanism for joint action of management and workers in the implementation of safety and health measures. It can be an effective tool for the management of hazards specific to a given industry, process or organization.

Furthermore, the application of OSHMS can be adapted to a range of situations, from the simple needs of a small scale enterprise to the multiple needs of hazardous and complex industries such as mining, chemical manufacturing or construction.

The ILO 2001 Guidelines on occupational safety and health management systems (ILO-OSH 2001) became a widely used model for developing and implementing national standards in this area. The ILO, with its tripartite structure and its standard setting role, is the most appropriate body to develop international OSHMS guidelines. The ILO report for the World Day for Safety and Health at Work in English, French and Spanish, as well as various related promotional materials, are available in Internet. There will also be a press release, a PowerPoint and a video from the DG. We encourage your office to work together with DCOMM at ILO Headquarters to develop media materials and actions.

ILO Headquarters can provide your Office with a printable version of this year's report and poster, as well as the graphic files, if you decide to print it locally. You are welcome to adapt the materials by putting them into local languages. Your office will also receive a number of printed versions of the report, the poster and other promotional materials. We are doing our best to finalize them and send them to you in time for your activities on that date.

We invite you to visit our Web site and to use our products: www.ilo.org/safework/events/safeday/lang--en/index.htm

This year, as in previous years, tripartite events will be taking place worldwide. This year, SafeWork would like to encourage you to begin preparing activities in your region or country. Events can be organized by ILO offices, by constituents or as a collaborative effort.

As in previous years, the focus is on activities in the field. Last year, many countries celebrated World Day for Safety and Health at Work. Events ranged from speeches held by leaders from government, employers' and workers' organizations to workshops and campaigns focusing on occupational safety and health and extensive media coverage.

The activities organized by your office for the World Day for Safety and Health at Work will contribute to its success. We thank you in advance for your commitment to the celebration of this global campaign and we would appreciate receiving information of any activities that are developed in your region so that we can report them in our website.

For UK events see www.sheilapantry.com/memorial

Continuous education is good for everyone

The UK NEBOSH (National Examination Board in Occupational Safety and Health) has welcomed the findings of new Government research highlighting the benefits of post-19 further education.

The study by the UK Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) found that participants in Further Education (FE) beyond the age of 19, including in workplace settings, will generate an extra £75 billion for the UK economy during the course of their lives.

The research also revealed other benefits, including better wages and employment prospects and increased productivity.

NEBOSH Chief Executive, Teresa Budworth commented: "Although the study focuses primarily on Government funded post-19 FE, its findings present a clear message to individuals and employers.

"People who continue to learn and develop skills throughout their lives can earn more, enjoy greater opportunities and have a great deal to offer at work. Education is not simply about preparing for a career, it's a continuous part of developing one."

The BIS research paper 'Measuring the Economic Impact of Further Education' can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/further-education-economic-value-of-post-19-qualifications

NEBOSH is an independent examining board and awarding body with charitable status. It offers a comprehensive range of globally-recognised, vocationally-related qualifications designed to meet the health, safety, environmental and risk management needs of all places of work in both the private and public sectors.

Courses leading to NEBOSH qualifications attract around 30,000 candidates annually and are offered by over 400 course providers in 80 countries around the world. NEBOSH qualifications are recognised by relevant professional membership bodies including the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH), the International Institute of Risk and Safety Management (IIRSM) and the Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment (IEMA).

Contact: Julia Whiting, Communications and Marketing Manager, NEBOSH | Tel: +44 (0) 116 263 4724 | Mobile: +44 (0)7850 204072 | Email: julia.whiting@nebosh.org.uk

Government of Canada announces appointment of new president to Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety

The Honourable Lisa Raitt, Canada's Minister of Labour, has announced the appointment of Mr. Stevan Horvath as full time President of the Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety, effective April 11, 2011.

"I am pleased that Mr. Horvath has accepted this position," said Minister Raitt. "With 25 years of experience in business leadership, and 10 years of experience in the field of health and safety, Mr. Horvath will definitely be an asset to the Centre."

Mr. Horvath is presently the Vice-President of Operations for Advanced Inc., a leading supplier of audio visual solutions serving the corporate, government and education markets in Ontario. For more than 10 years, he held a number of positions, including Chairman, on the Board of Directors for the Industrial Accident Prevention Association, a not-for-profit health and safety organization operating in Ontario. Throughout his career, Mr. Horvath has also occupied several senior management positions in both private and public corporations.

Mr. Horvath holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Queen's University and an Industrial Hygiene Certificate from the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Toronto. In addition, Mr. Horvath is a graduate of the Advanced Management Program at Harvard University.

The Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety, located in Hamilton, Ontario, was created in 1978 to promote the fundamental right of Canadians to a healthy and safe working environment. Governed by a tripartite council representing the federal, provincial and territorial governments, employers and workers, the Centre provides Canadians with unbiased and relevant information that supports responsible decision making on health and safety issues in the workplace.

For more information on the Centre, please visit www.ccohs.ca.

Never be without up-to-date authoritative fire information!

FIREINF is arguably the world's premier collection of validated, authoritative information on fire and fire related information including wildland fire as well as a broad range of occupational safety and health information.

Emphasis in FIREINF is on all aspects of fire, emergency and preparedness management principles, fire risk assessment, current practices, training and research.

• FIREINF is continuously enlarged as information including new research and new ways of working is published
• It helps those responsible for fire, emergencies and preparedness in workplaces of all kinds to keep ahead with the latest information and developments
• It assists individuals and organisations that cannot afford to subscribe to a range of journals/magazines because these are indexed within FIREINF
• FIREINF contains information that has been published in the past, so an easy reference point for researchers
• FIREINF leads the searcher to quality guidance and advice from around the world, and it is used worldwide by organisations, including those teaching fire science as well as fire brigades and their union, rescue services, forensic and fire experts.

The Full Text Collection has 5 databases and The Bibliographic Collection has 12 databases. Together these sources contain over 536,000 records with links to more than 35,000 full text documents to journal articles, guidance and advice, circulars, reports, conference proceedings, research reports, statistics and codes of practice from worldwide sources, all of which may be easily accessed. One of the databases - from the British Standards Institution - contains references to over 4000 fire and fire related standards.

One way to quickly gain access to legislation, guidance and advice that is up-to-date and relevant is to take a 15-day Free Trial of FIREINF - the service that is focused, affordable, easy to use and continuously updated as new data is published.

Published by Sheila Pantry Associates Ltd. since 1997 FIREINF uses the powerful Headfast software. FIREINF is accessible via the Internet Service www.fireinf.com

Contact Sheila Pantry Associates Ltd. for 15 day FREE trials for all services that are cost effective. Why pay more for information? Go to www.sheilapantry.com/interest.html

Occupational Cancer and the NIOSH Carcinogen Policy: Guest Column by Paul Schulte, Ph.D., Director, NIOSH Education and Information Division

"In the 21st century, occupational cancer is still a significant cause of morbidity, mortality, and societal burden. While the number of current workers at risk of occupational cancer is not known precisely, the number of workers exposed to OSHA regulated carcinogens is still in the millions and the size of the population with past exposure is in the tens of millions. Estimates of the fraction of cancers attributable to occupation vary.

At least 4% (24,000) of the approximate 600,000 deaths from cancer each year in the United States is thought to be the result of exposures in the workplace [Ward et al. 2003]. It is likely that this 4% is an underestimate. The calculation of this attributable fraction was only conducted on a few carcinogens and cancer sites. Moreover, the role of work and occupational exposures of cancers in women has not been widely studied which may contribute to the underestimate. Other estimates of cancer mortality attributable to workplace exposures range as high as 10%. If the 4% estimate for deaths is the same for cancer morbidity, an estimated 48,000 new cases of cancer each year have occupational causes. This is an important contribution to the human cancer burden, exceeded only by the contribution of cigarette smoking and diet [P. Schulte and T. Schnorr, Presentation to the President's Cancer Panel 2008)."

NIOSH assessments of workplace carcinogens and the setting of NIOSH Recommended Exposure Limits (RELs) have been important tools in addressing the burden of occupational cancer. Historically, in 1976, to address the growing perception of an occupational cancer burden, NIOSH specified a policy to be used to classify substances as carcinogens and to develop RELs which allowed for "no detectable exposure levels for proven carcinogenic substances" [Fairchild 1976].

In 1995, NIOSH revised this policy to include advances in science and approaches in risk assessment and risk management (www.cdc.gov/niosh/npg/nengapdxa.html). This revised policy states that:

NIOSH recommended exposure limits (RELs) will be based on risk evaluations using human or animal health effects data, and on an assessment of what levels can be feasibly achieved by engineering controls and measured by analytical techniques. To the extent feasible, NIOSH will project not only a no-effect exposure, but also exposure levels at which there may be residual risks. This policy applies to all workplace hazards, including carcinogens, and is responsive to Section 20(a)(3) of the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970, which charges NIOSH to "...describe exposure levels that are safe for various periods of employment, including but not limited to the exposure levels at which no employee will suffer impaired health or functional capacities or diminished life expectancy as a result of his work experience."

Read More: www.cdc.gov/niosh/enews/enewsV8N12.html

Major Hazards Accidents and Incidents Database (MHAID) added to OSH UPDATE

Sheila Pantry Associates Ltd have launched the Major Hazards Accidents and Incidents Database (MHAID) as an additional database in the OSH UPDATE electronic service www.oshupdate.com

This is the 20th database in OSH UPDATE.

The MHAID database contains information on worldwide accidents or incidents involving hazardous materials that resulted in, or had the potential to lead to a significant impact on the public at large, including evacuation. The information covers all industries and transport.

MHAID database of major accidents and incidents can be used for validating assumptions and judgments in safety assessment. The contents also act as case studies and lessons learned.

The data in MHAID has been collected from regular international sources, with the emphasis where possible, in making links to the full text of the document or report of the accidents or incident.

When the report or document is out of print, also added are locations where it can be borrowed or located for loan or photocopy e.g. The British Library in London, UK.

The data goes back many years so MHAID a useful tool for those researching past accidents and incidents.

If you have information on major accidents and incidents please send details to the publishers Sheila Pantry Associates Ltd.

Sheila Pantry Associates Ltd, 85 The Meadows, Todwick, Sheffield S26 1JG, UK | Tel: +44 (0) 1909 771024 | Fax: +44 (0) 1909 772829 | Email: sp@sheilapantry.com

The Second 40 Years at US NIOSH!

On April 28, NIOSH and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) will observe their 40th anniversaries. The Occupational Safety and Health Act, signed by President Nixon on December 29, 1970, went into effect on April 28, 1971. Forty years is a significant measure of time for a society. High-tech in 1971 meant cable television, microwave ovens, car phones, and computers the size of rooms. In that pre-Internet era, workers and employers who wanted to read the Occupational Safety and Health Act had to wait for printed copies. From today's vantage point, that level of development seems hardly more advanced than the horse and buggy.

After 40 years, one can take the measure of an organization with some degree of confidence in assessing how well it has carried out its assigned and ongoing mission: Has it been sufficiently flexible to meet inevitable social, economic, and technological changes? Has it provided the benefits to society that it was intended to provide? Is it well-positioned to meet ongoing changes that the next 10, 20, or 40 years will bring?

From the Director's Desk... April 2011
John Howard, M.D. Director, NIOSH

Read More: www.cdc.gov/niosh/enews/enewsV8N12.html

Research Report: A review of methods for estimating annual VOC emissions from refinery effluent water systems

Measurement of emissions from effluent water systems is difficult, expensive and has the potential for significant errors when converting concentration measurements to fluxes. These are compounded when extrapolating short term estimates to an annual average as there are considerable temporal variations in flow and oil content in refinery effluent water.

A review of methods from estimating annual VOC emissions from refinery effluent water systems was prepared by the Energy Institute's Emissions Working Group, during the development of the Energy Institute (EI) second edition of Protocol for the estimation of VOC emissions from petroleum refineries and gasoline marketing operations (published 2010).

It reviews the methodologies available in the public domain to estimate emissions from refinery effluent water systems. There were particular concerns that the emission factor for gravity type (API) oil-water separators in the first edition of the Protocol was no longer representative of current operating conditions and could potentially be conservatively high.

For the EI Protocol, the use of emission factors is adequate for effluent water systems. This Report provides the recommended emission factors that were incorporated in the second edition of the Protocol.

This report will be of interest to refinery operators and operators of gasoline distribution terminals and service stations.

Research Report: a review of methods for estimating annual VOC emissions from refinery effluent water systems

Energy Institute, Emissions Working Group
March 2011, 1st edition
ISBN 9780852936023

Updates on Fukushima

Thanks to the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) in Japan, the UK Energy Institute is now publishing regular updates on the situation at the nuclear power plant following the terrible events of 11 March.

www.energyinst.org

Events not to be missed in May 2011

5-6 May 2011 - Risk Conference
University of Glasgow, UK
Contact: The University of Glasgow, Loughborough University and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council | www.dcs.gla.ac.uk/irmp
Readers may also wish to take a free trial of FIREINF and OSH UPDATE www.sheilapantry.com/interest.html

14-19 May 2011 - American Industrial Hygiene Conference & Exposition (AIHce 2011)
Portland, Oregon, USA
Contact: American Industrial Hygiene Association

16-18 May 2011 - The 19th Annual Canadian Environmental Conference & Tradeshow - CANECT 2011
Mississauga, Ontario, Canada
Contact: Email denise@canect.net | www.envirogate.ca/canect

16-19 May 2011 - International Firex
NEC Birmingham, UK
Contact: www.firex.co.uk

17-18 May 2011 - 2nd International Symposium on Wood Dust
Organized by The American Industrial Hygiene Association (AIHA), the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), the Institut national de recherche et de sécurité (INRS), the American Forest & Paper Association, the National Council for Air and Stream Improvement (NCASI) and the Center for Construction Research and Training (CPWB). Held concurrently with the American Industrial Hygiene Conference & Exhibition
Portland, Oregon, USA
Contact: American Industrial Hygiene Association

17-18 May 2011 - Health and Safety Conference & Trade Show: Partners in Prevention 2011
Mississauga, Ontario, Canada
Contact: Email: conference@iapa.ca | www.healthandsafetyontario.ca
Readers may also wish to take a free trial of FIREINF and OSH UPDATE www.sheilapantry.com/interest.html

17-19 May 2011 - Safety and Health Expo 2011
NEC, Birmingham, UK
Contact: www.safety-health-expo.co.uk

18-19 May 2011 - Prévent'Ouest: Theme The Congress of reference for risk control and quality of work life
Rennes, France
Contact: Officiel Prévention | Email: preventica@preventica.com | www.preventica.com/preventica-evenements.php
Readers may also wish to take a free trial of FIREINF and OSH UPDATE www.sheilapantry.com/interest.html

25-27 May 2011 - EuroFire 2011
L'École Militaire, Paris, France
Contact: Carole Franks, Conference Director, Interscience Communications Ltd West Yard House, Guildford Grove, Greenwich, London SE10 8JT, UK | Tel: +44 (0)208 692 5050 | Email: c.franks@dial.pipex.com | www.eurofireconference.com

26-27 May 2011 - 3ème Congrès Francophone sur les TMS (troubles musculo-squelettiques)
Grenoble, France
Contact: The French National Agency for the Improvement of Working Conditions (ANACT) and University of Grenoble | Email : tms@ptolemee.com

30 May - 1 June 2011 - The EuroNanoForum 2011 (ENF 2011)
Budapest, Hungary
Contact: www.euronanoforum2011.eu

31 May - 3 June 2011 - 7th WasteTech Exhibition and the alongside ISWA Conference: Solid Waste Treatment and Disposal: Leading Edge Technologies
Moscow, Russia
Contact: Exhibition Manager, Ekaterina Mareeva | Email: mareeva@sibico.com | Conference Manager, Natalia Konovalova - Email: konovalova@sibico.com | Tel: +7 495 225 59 86