Health » Safety

Healthevent: Wa Safety Show 2008

admin — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 16:06:21 +0000

The WA Safety Show 2008 is a new kid on the block featuring most products and services under the sun that you can associate with workplace safety.

The event is to be held in mid August once every two years in Perth, Australia. An insightful conference too is to be organized alongside the trade event, which entails presentations from more than 40 industry experts on Occupational health and safety (OHS). The show is organized by the Australian Exhibitions & Conferences, which is also known for holding similar popular shows around the country, viz. The Safety Show Sydney.

Who’s likely to benefit from the show?

Ensuring workplace safety and health is a critical component of all industries, however for some it’s an absolute must. Some sectors which are more prone to occupational safety issues include manufacturing, mining, building/construction, transport/freight, etc.

About, 150 leading companies from the industry are expected to showcase 1000s of products to help organizations find solutions to ensure occupational health and safety, and statuary compliance. And according to estimates more than 3000 visitors would come to explore the latest innovations and insights in occupational health and safety.

So just about anyone from health care consultants to corporates looking forward to such interactions and insightful events would find it worthwhile. You could be a Health & Safety Manager, Owner, a CEO, Director, a Purchasing Officer, Site Manager, etc.

What’s on Display?

Well, there are products, services and even consultants are on display! Just to give you an idea, few of the products pertain to Cold Storage, Communication Devices, Cranes & Hoists, etc. Similarly services entail: Finance & Insurance, OHS Training & Compliance, Health & Safety Consultants.

As industrialization gains pace in Western Australia (WA), a greater need is being felt for products and services that would help organizations to ensure safety and health of their workforce. The WA Safety Show 2008 seems to have come just at the right time to address the needs.

To learn more about the event and insights into the health care industry, kindly visit my blog, Smiling Health

Healthevent: Wa Safety Show 2008 is a post from: Health

Better Safe Than Sorry: Health and Safety in the Modern Workplace

admin — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 05:16:16 +0000

Today, every workplace in Britain is subject to health and safety regulations, as laid out by the Health & Safety Executive (HSE), reporting to the Health and Safety Commission (HSC). Formed in 1974 following the Health and Safety at Work etc Act, their mission is to protect employees health and safety by ensuring risks in the changing workspace are properly controlled.

A fundamental principle of the British regulations on health and safety is that the responsibility for their compliance lies with those who own, manage and work in commercial and industrial concerns. This includes the self-employed, who must themselves assess the risks attached to their activity and take appropriate action. This involvement from the workforce, particularly appointed health and safety representatives, has been instrumental in raising health and safety standards in the last 30 years.

Still, accidents do happen, and high-profile industrial accidents such as the BP oil refinery explosion in Texas in 2005 remind us that adherence to health and safety regulations is more than just bureaucratic legislation to allow employers to avoid punitive measures. The US Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board, inspecting the Texas-based oil refinery, released its findings earlier this year, identifying numerous failings in equipment, staff management, risk assessment, maintenance, working culture at the site and general health and safety assessments. This negligence led to a major explosion in an isomerisation unit at the site, which claimed the life of 15 workers and left over 170 others injured.

The need to reduce risks and take appropriate action under British health and safety law lies behind the qualification so far as is reasonably practicable. This essentially requires that good practice should be followed whenever it is established, and sets the high standard that is reasonably practicable for the duty holder to take precautionary measures, such as maintaining the standard of the on-site safety equipment up to the point where taking further measures would be grossly disproportionate to any residual risk.

Ultimately a common goal for both employers and employees is to ensure a productive and safe working life for all employees and a retirement free from long-term consequences of occupational injury and disease. Changes in technology and our culture may change the way business is done and the demand for new products, but it is still vital for employers to keep up-to-date on new legislation and continuously asses risks associated with the processes within their business.

Better Safe Than Sorry: Health and Safety in the Modern Workplace is a post from: Health

A Guide Through the Health and Safety Passports Maze by Kerry Jones

admin — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 20:12:52 +0000

A guide through the Health and Safety Passports Maze

I need to see your safety passport before you can come on site. Literally hundreds of thousands of people hear that phrase or something like it everyday in the UK and yet Safety Passports can seem like a black art to some. What are they? Where do I get one and most importantly which one do I get? They are the dilemmas that most people are faced with.

Well, let me see if I can demystify the Health and Safety Passports industry a little for you!

In the UK there are three main players, each having issued over six figures worth of Safety Passports to individual contractors.

So do I need more than one passport?

The problem is that it is down to the Client as to which particular passport scheme they implement on their site. Some passports can be interchangeable with a client like the CCNSG and SPA, the one that is least interchangeable is the CSCS card, but it is always worth checking with the client first.

CCNSG

The CCNSG which was the original safety passport of them all tends to be used most in the Power Generation Industries, the steel, oil, gas, and chemicals industries. It is a generic scheme, which is not industry specific and is therefore open to clients outside of the engineering construction industry.

The Passport is obtained after taking two days basic generic health and safety training and passing a multi choice test.

CSCS Card

The CSCS card is primarily used in the construction industry. – There is no required training.

To obtain a CSCS card workers are required to have completed a 45-minute multiple-choice test on health and safety in construction. It is a screen-based test and there are a maximum of 40 questions to answer. Workers can choose to attend a construction health and safety awareness course beforehand.

SPA Passport

SPA (Safety Pass Alliance), have a modular passport which has been developed with numerous industry sectors, including Food & Drink, Quarry, Petrol Retail, General Manufacturing, Building Maintenance, Pharma, Construction, Ports, Logistics, Landfill and others.

The passport is usually two days training. The first day is “The Core Day which provides generic Health & Safety training. The second day is an industry specific day that addresses the particular safety needs of that sector. A delegates understanding is assessed by multiple choice.

So what is the Passport?

As evidence that the contractors have successfully completed the training, contractors are generally issued with a plasticised photographic pass. This enables the client to restrict entry to those who can prove they have undergone the training by producing their individual passport on site arrival.

One other question I get asked all the time is – So do they work ?

It has always been difficult to quantify the results of implementing a Safety Passport scheme on site, but over the past couple of years the SPA have been publishing results from clients. The full articles can be found on the SPA website but here are a few snippets from articles below:

The introduction of the safety passport at Nestle UK was part of a review and tightening of all our own contractor management safety procedures. This has resulted in a reduction of contractor accident statistics by 68 per cent over the last two years.

Metronet using the SPA Underground Railway Passport as part of the Health and Safety Initiative led to a 75 per cent reduction in accident statistics in only 18 months.

Leicester City Council – The first local authority in England to introduce the SPA Building Maintenance safety passport scheme for its housing maintenance operatives has seen a 32 per cent drop in its accident rates in the last three years.

So there we have it, we train literally thousands of contractors a year and I hope that I have managed to clear up some of the common questions that we get asked by those people every day of the week.

A Guide Through the Health and Safety Passports Maze by Kerry Jones is a post from: Health

Safety First at Arnold Clark

admin — Sun, 15 Aug 2010 05:13:28 +0000

Arnold Clark is the first and only automotive company to have been awarded the Five Star Health and Safety Audit Award by the British Safety Council. The motoring giant that repair, rent and sell new and used cars won the coveted award following a rigorous inspection.
The comprehensive safety evaluation from world class auditors gives organisations star ratings from one to five to indicate the effectiveness of their safety programmes. Action plans are provided which aim to help companies reduce their insurance premiums and increase repeat business from customers.
Sir Arnold Clark said, I am absolutely delighted to accept the Five Star Health and Safety Award on behalf of all the Arnold Clark employees. It is a testament to the dedication and hard work that our employees demonstrate to ensure that we maintain a safe working environment.
Brian Nimick, Chief Executive of the British Safety Council, says: A positive company image through first-class health and safety is vital. It not only makes excellent business sense to have the safest workplace possible, but it also boosts the morale of employees.
I hope other companies will take the lead from Arnold Clark Automobiles Limited and forge the way towards a safer future with a Five Star award.
Ends

For the further information please visit http://www.arnoldclark.com/used.htmlor contact Heidi Brown on 0141 433 4968 or email heidi.brown@arnoldclark.co.uk

Notes The British Safety Council is one of the world’s leading occupational health, safety and environmental organisations. Founded in 1957, it now has a turnover of more than 9 million.

Their mission is to support a healthier, safer and more sustainable society. The International Safety Awards scheme is devised to recognise and reward organisations that show a commitment to improving corporate health and safety.

Winning the Five Star Award helps organisations fight the staggering annual 18bn burden on British industry through staff leaving due to long term illness or disability. The audit can help organisations reduce accidents and improve productivity by identifying their health and safety strengths and weaknesses.

The award is also acknowledged by the Health and Safety Executive as a powerful motivator for achieving high safety standards, and enabling winning organisations to gain a range of benefits including: External endorsement of a consistent safety record, if successful year-after-year and staff pride in achieving international recognition for their efforts.

Applicants are required to submit a completed information form providing external adjudicates with a number of key documents relating to health and safety in the organization, demonstration of board level commitment to health and safety, and details of significant health and safety advances in the organisation for the qualifying year.

Safety First at Arnold Clark is a post from: Health

A Career In Health And Safety Management

admin — Sun, 08 Aug 2010 21:46:53 +0000

Responsibilities
It is the responsibility of the Health and Safety Manager to ensure the safety of everyone who enters the company’s premises. They are solely responsible for the implementation and ensuring that all the safety regulations are followed. For example, if a plant manufactures a hazardous material, then as a health and safety manager, they are responsible to ensure the safety of the workers by asking them to wear facemasks, goggles and protective clothing. If it is an office, then they are required to maintain safety by assuring that all desk drawers and file cabinets are closed, spills cleaned up and signs posted.
One of the major roles of the Health and Safety Manager is to schedule routine fire drills and also assure that each department designates a person to act as a monitor. They may also have to walk the floor regularly, to check for any violations and also to rectify any problems. The Health and Safety Manager is designated to handle the issues related to illness that may result due to unsafe working conditions. They are basically responsible for the implementation, application and maintenance of value, decision and risk management tools, procedures and techniques.
Qualifications
To undertake the role of a Health and Safety Manager, you have to acquire a college or university degree and gain several years of experience. Education is an ongoing process and must be upgraded, as new safety products enter the market regularly.
A Health and Safety professional’s responsibility is to ensure that all the fire extinguishers are in safe and working condition and that everyone knows how to find and use them. In many companies, the manager recruits new employees and also guides them with the instructions on conduct and about existing safety measures.
Job Prospects
You can also work as an Environmental Health and Safety manager in a manufacturing unit, where selection is based on education or internal promotion. The candidate would ideally need to have a degree in Industrial technology or a Business degree. But nowadays, as Environmental Degree programs have increased, candidates can find a job immediately after they complete their college education.
Protecting people, equipment and the environment is the primary motive of an Occupational Health and Safety Specialist. They are called Ergonomists, Occupational Health and Safety Inspectors, Industrial Hygienists and Environmental Protection Officers. They assist the company in creating safer and unpolluted processes. These Health and Safety Specialists scrutinize the data collected by the technicians and then improve them to protect the workers and the equipment.
The primary duty of the Health and Safety professional is to safeguard the workers and the company against the common workplace hazards. Such as:
- Injury caused from biological and chemical agents
- Protection from accidents caused by heavy metals
- Electricity hazards
In the United States, the Occupational and Health Safety Administration has been regulating the operational health and safety since 1971.

A Career In Health And Safety Management is a post from: Health

Who Needs a Health and Safety Consultant?

admin — Sun, 01 Aug 2010 20:57:27 +0000

Workplaces, which can cover factories, shops and offices but also schools, hospitals, hotels and places of entertainment, are subject to wide-ranging government regulations to maintain adequate health, safety and welfare standards. A health and safety consultant can assess how your workplace measures up against the regulations.There is more to meeting the regulations than you might think at first. Health, for example, covers such aspects of working conditions as ventilation, temperature, working in hot or cold environments, lighting, cleanliness, room dimensions and workstations.Safety looks at all potential workplace hazards, including the proper maintenance of the place of work and all equipment used within it, the state of the floors and routes for pedestrian traffic, doors and windows, and any dangerous substances or machinery that your workers might come into contact with.Welfare addresses such issues as the standard of sanitation and washing areas, provision of drinking water, accommodation for clothing and facilities for changing, and places to rest and eat meals at work.Its important to realise too that the government regulations aim to ensure that workplaces meet the health, safety and welfare requirements of the entire workforce, including any disabled people.Once appointed, a health and safety consultant will commence with a full health and safety audit of your workplace. This audit will assess how well you comply with the relevant health and safety regulations, reviewing your health and safety policies, arrangements and management system, and looking at a wide range of safety issues.The next step is likely to be a health and safety inspection. Here, the health and safety consultant will inspect your whole premises extensively, provide an overview of your health and safety status, and offer advice on how to comply with the regulations if this is falling short in any area. You should also expect your consultant to provide a full written report of findings and recommendations.You could of course handle all these functions internally. But this would mean taking up some or all of the time of one or more employees, ensuring that these people person was properly trained, and devoting management time to this issue. The alternative is to outsource your health and safety management to a reputable firm. This would avoid your organisation having to maintain a full-time internal health and safety resource. You would also have the peace of mind that comes from knowing that your companys health and safety is not compromised due to lack of expertise.Again, health and safety consultants from a high quality firm will be fully trained, highly qualified and certified to national safety standards. They will stay abreast of all legislative changes and amendments, ensuring that your workplace always complies with the latest regulations. The result: your staff can focus on their main job functions, while your health and safety management is in excellent hands.

Who Needs a Health and Safety Consultant? is a post from: Health

Employer’s Health and Safety Responsibilities

admin — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 04:41:49 +0000

Employers have responsibilities for the health and safety of their employees. They are also responsible for any visitors to their premises such as customers, suppliers and the general public. Find out more about your employer’s duty of care.

Risk Assessments

Your employer has a ‘duty of care’ to ensure, as far as possible, your health, safety and welfare while you are at work. They should start with a risk assessment to spot possible health and safety hazards. They have to appoint a ‘competent person’ with health and safety responsibilities (usually one of the owners in smaller firms, or a member of staff trained in health and safety) for businesses employing five or more people. For businesses employing five or more people, there must also be:

All employers, whatever the size of the business, must:

Making the workplace safe and healthy

So that the work premises provide a safe and healthy place to work, your employer should:

What to do next

Information provided by Direct Gov

Employers Health and Safety Responsibilities is a post from: Health

Language Translation For Health And Safety

admin — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 01:30:53 +0000

Health and safety is a daily part of modern life and an ever increasing part our working lives. In the UK you have a wide range of standard documents such as method statements, risk assessments COSSH assessments, Health and Safety Manuals etc.
Often when you purchase machinery or a substance you will find it originated in another country made by people who speak a different language. But it will (or should) come with instructions for usage in the language of its destination country. Such technical manuals will no doubt have been translated into possibly many languages. This will have been completed with the assistance of a translation agency.
However, people now migrate between countries more then ever. We need only look at the migration in the EU. For example we have Polish people arriving into Britain and workers from the Ukraine now replacing them in Poland. People are on the move.
Businesses are using this migration of skill and or cheap labour. But often the migrant worker will speak limited amounts of the new language(when they arrive) and read / write it this new tongue even less. This causes potential health and safety issues if not considered and addressed. This is where language translations should be considered.
Under English law a person is deemed to have read something if they have signed it. But surely we enter a grey area if the person can obviously not read in the language?
This is a larger concern to directors and business owners as they now can be made personally responsible for such issues as corporate manslaughter’.
We must also consider the growing claims culture’. After an incident could your migrant worker, Motivated by a large pay-out, suddenly lose their ability to communicate in English? And how will you prove that they are reducing their language abilities? Incidences of similar abuse already occur with native workers do they not?
With these issues in mind, will your insurance company start to question your policies in regards language translation? The question must be when will this issue become serious enough for them to require action.
They only true way to avoid this is to consider language translation as part of the initial employment cost of migrant workers and as part of the health and safety audit. If you cannot be sure that your employee can read documents related to the health and safety parts of their job you will need to have a translation available in their language.
Likewise, if they are to be given any interactive training, interpreting will be required if language levels are not high enough. For the larger business it might be possible to give additional health and safety training to a member of staff who can speak in these other languages and ensure they both receive the translations and understand any training given. They can then assist or manage the training of these new staff.
As stated at the beginning on this article, equipment manuals are often translated into many languages. On this basis you may be able to obtain copies of manuals with translations into the languages of your migrant team. These translations should be a consideration on future pre-purchase discussions.
Some readers may be dismissing the above statements. If that is the case, visit the HSE’s (Health & Safety Executive) website and you will see that they already show translations of various documents into 28 languages!

Language Translation For Health And Safety is a post from: Health

Health and Safety Consultant: Disadvantages of not Employing Health and Safety Consultancy

admin — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 07:19:30 +0000

No one really wants to work or be with a place that is hazardous to the health. Employees and clients alike would truly shun away from places that puts their health and safety at risk. There are working environment that are obviously hazardous for the employees such as building and construction business. Others do not reveal an obvious hazard. Only when someone gets sick or meets accidents, does the company or business realize that it was having unsafe set-up or environment. It is then important that at the start of business operation, companies need to contact health and safety consultant. This way, the company can employ healthy and safe measures for the employee, even before accidents or sickness occurs.

When the employees of the company are open to health and safety risk, it puts the company to the disadvantage. There are many reasons why.

When a company realizes these disadvantages for unhealthy and unsafe environment, it will surely look for health and safety consultant. Fortunately, there are many companies the provide health and safety consultancy. One of which is Proactive Health & Safety. This company caters to different business sectors. They are tasked to evaluate, assess, suggest, and create measures for the businesses to employ healthy and safe environment.

The Proactive Health & Safety start with an appointment. Then from there businesses can go all the way to employing the result of the health and safety consultancy. This is how simple the health and safety consultancy work. For the business, all it takes is the trust on the reliability of Proactive and they will get rid of all the disadvantages of having hazardous working environment.

Health and Safety Consultant: Disadvantages of not Employing Health and Safety Consultancy is a post from: Health

Protect Your Business With a Health and Safety Consultancy Firm

admin — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 01:40:51 +0000

It is for a fact that the current times have seen a great change to the working conditions of the employers and the employees. Most of the occupational fields are turning out to be a hazard to the people working within it. This goes especially within chemical plants and factories. It seems as if every workplace presents risks to its workers. This is due to the constant technological revolution, which has taken over almost the entirety of the worlds commercial and industrial businesses for the final quarter of the century.

The changes that have been taking place have a great impact to occupational areas. What is more, these have affected the daily lives of the workers and their employers. A few of the changes, which have taken place within work areas, have been prodded into. As a result, there is a growing understanding over some of these changes. With this comprehension and realization is the development of efforts to cope with the growing hazards of most work places. One of the issues that have risen during the present times is the health and safety of the workers. The answer to this issue is provided by a health and safety consultancy firm.

Nowadays, there are already plenty of companies and agencies that are offering health and safety consultant teams to help businesses deal with the hazards of their work place. If you are managing a company, there are certain precautionary measures that you have to follow, no matter its size. Due to the recent evolution that has been happening within occupational areas, you are faced with two most common issues in your company. These are the safety and health of your people. If you want to uphold the reputation of your business, it is important that you regularly update the health and safety standards of your company. You will be able to make this possible through the assistance of a health and safety consultancy team.

Due to the rapid evolution of technology, it seems as if everything in the world is affected. The greatest impact is observed within occupational fields, where employees are highly affected. Health issues are rising, most especially stress and fatigue. As the owner of your company, it is essential that you find a solution to this problem. With the assistance of a health and safety consultancy company, you will be able to provide your workers with training regarding their safety and health. You will also get to learn alongside with them.

A health and safety consultant will introduce methods that will allow you to cope with the risks and hazards of your workplace. You will also be taught on how to predict future changes that might bring harm to your workers. You will learn safety and health planning strategies, in order for you to keep your people constantly fit and safe as they work for you.

While choosing health and safety consultancy firms, there are several things that you have to keep in mind. However, the most important is opting for a company or team that offers comprehensive services and is willing to work side by side with you. No matter the type of your business, the consultancy agency should be capable of providing you with their services. The best safety and health consultancy teams are those that are able to offer you reliable systems, training, and guidance regarding the overall health safety of your workers.

Protect Your Business With a Health and Safety Consultancy Firm is a post from: Health