Excellent Timesonline article in defence of HSE

TIMESONLINE
April 21, 2009

Health and safety: a grave error of judgment
They have been blamed for banning everything from conkers to classical music, but alll the Health and Safety Executive is really responsible for is ‘topple-testing’ in cemeteries, its chairman says…
…
Judith Hackitt travels home to Oxford most nights by train. “There is hardly a week that goes by,” she says, “when somebody doesn’t come on the tannoy and say ‘we can’t bring the trolley round tonight because of health and safety’. And actually, no.”

No?

“No,” says Hackitt. “You can’t bring the trolley round because the aisles are stacked with people. Or, you can’t bring the trolley round because the trolley dolly hasn’t turned up for work. It’s one of the two. It sure isn’t health and safety.”

Judith Hackitt is chairwoman of the Health and Safety Executive (HSE). People, she says, are always stealing its phrase. “It’s a good one to hide behind,” she says.  There is Health and Safety, you see, and health and safety. People are forever confusing the two.

…

Last year, 229 people were killed in workplace accidents. “But actually, that is a gross underestimate,” says Hackitt. “Add to that the 2,000 people who died prematurely last year because they had been exposed to asbestos at work, the several thousand who had been exposed to other harmful substances. There are 100,000 people in Britain who have been injured at work, 28,000 with amputations. Two million off work, half of whom will never work again …” The fuss about health and safety, she says, makes it so much harder to promote Health and Safety. Forget about conkers and gravestones,” she says, “and let’s focus on the real problems. If I find all of this rubbish demoralising, imagine what it’s like for our inspectors. They’re the ones who visit families after someone has died. And to be called the Health and Safety Taleban? It’s horrible.”

I’ve only provided a couple of clips from this excellent article…
Give it a full read — see the Comments, and copy it to people.

TIMEONLINE article.

There are two seperate issues. Health and Safety and the ‘Sue’ culture. The first is use some sense and understand risks. The second came about when a certain government decided that solicitors could advertise.
- S G Robinson, Harlow, UK

Journalism feeds on negativity. In the case of safety this encourages accidents, because it discourages the necessary change in thinking that is required to reduce the level of accidents and illness created by doing ones job. Typing for a living can give you some quite painful industrial injuries.
- Karen Leader, Orpington, Kent

Rename the HSE the Occupational HSE (OHSE). The Legal fraternity, Magistrates and Judges have a lot to answer for us becoming such a litigious society and perhaps it is they who need a dose of Common Sense training. Don’t forget the insurance industry who can be just a silly and of course councils.
- Tony Horsfall, Caversham, England

Totally agree with Judith Hackitt – lets deal with the compensation culture, solicitors advertising no win no fee and employers who still see health and safety as getting in the way, while their workers are injured or worse – media – get some perspective. Well done the Times – an objective piece.
- Keith Allen, Rudgwick, UK

Consultation on recognition of Worker’s Memorial Day

The UK government announced on 28 April that it will hold a consultation to examine the official recognition of Workers Memorial Day, which commemorates the thousands of people who have been killed, seriously injured or made ill through work.  The importance of health and safety in the workplace would achieve an annual focus point through that recognition.

James Purnell, Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, who is launching the formal consultation, said:

“I would like to send my support to all those people around the world commemorating Workers Memorial Day. I want to look at how the UK could join the many other countries that officially recognise the day.

“The fact that some people go out to work and never return home to their families is a human tragedy.  Workers Memorial Day is a mark of respect to those killed and injured at work and to the bereaved.

We will seek the views of trade unions and other interested parties.  I know there is a huge amount of support for the Day and there are many ideas for consideration, including a lasting memorial to all those killed and harmed by work activity.”

Workers Memorial Day was started in Canada in 1984 and is already a recognised national day in many countries around the world including Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, Luxembourg, Peru, Portugal, Spain, Thailand, Taiwan and the USA.

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Hydraulic Safety Awareness

Dear Mr Mac,

By way of introduction, I am the Senior Aircraft Accident Investigator
within the Royal Navy Flight Safety and Accident Investigation Centre
(RNFSAIC) based at RNAS Yeovilton in Somerset.  As well as accident
investigation one of my other tasks is as the Technical Editor of the Royal
Navy quarterly in-house flight safety magazine titled ‘Cockpit’.    Recently
it became apparent to me that some of our RN aircraft maintainers and
engineers did not fully understand (or had forgotten) the risks involved
when working with and around high pressure aircraft hydraulic systems thus, as I have done with other issues in the past, I publish an article reminding people of the risks and associated mitigation.  Whilst researching hydraulic safety I came across your PowerPoint presentation ‘Hydraulic Safety Awareness’.  May I just say that what a superb, hard hitting and informative set of slides.

With your permission I would like to use some of the facts set out in your
presentation such as the hazards, temperature vs. time causing 2nd degree
burns, and so on. I do not propose using the personal detail of the case
studies and photos because we have records of our own accidents within the RN. You may be interested in 2 of which that spring to mind;  in 1998 a Sea King helicopter crashed as a result of a hydraulic leak and fireball
initiated by arcing of a chaffed pipe and electrical cable. (Happily the
crew survived without serious injury) and a near fatal accident when a
maintainer got his head trapped between the closing nose undercarriage doors on a Sea Harrier during fault rectification work.  In this case it was the quick thinking of his colleague which saved his life by emergency dumping hyd servicing rig pressure.  Nevertheless the victim suffered severe crushing and fracture of his lower jaw. The manual selector was not correctly set and locked and the jack safety gags had not been fitted. The under-carriage door jacks, although relatively small, exert a force of just over 1 ton.   

Yours,     

Bob Vickery
Lt Cdr R J Vickery RN
Senior Investigator
RNFSAIC
Mil  93510 6622
Bt   01935 456622

Hydraulics Safety Awareness PowerPoint Presentation (680kb zip)

Swine flu: to mask or not mask

Unite Health & Safety News reports that:
“The current signs are that the outbreak of H1N1 may spread quickly but initial indications seem to be that the strain that has been carried to Europe is milder than was feared at first. That could however change as the virus mutates. Meanwhile however there is no reason for any panic measures and simple good hygiene and people who are sick staying at home is the best immediate response.”

Please see below a link to the revised TUC guidance on pandemic flu:
http://www.tuc.org.uk/h_and_s/tuc-13401-f0.cfm

–in which it is stated:
“There is also no evidence that, outside health care situations, the general use of facemasks has any actual effect on protecting people or reducing the speed of a pandemic’s development. Although the evidence from the recent SARS outbreak suggests that people will seek to use them regardless of any advice on their effectiveness, they are not generally recommended by health professionals. In addition, there is evidence that some people think that if they wear a mask, even if they are ill, they can still come to work and this could actually lead to increased risk. This is not however the case in health care and where there is likely to be close or frequent contact with symptomatic patients and the use of gloves and masks may be required.

In May 2009 the HSE issued advice that stated “it should not be necessary for workers to wear masks routinely when in contact with the general public. However, there may be some situations when it will be advisable for a worker to wear a mask. Such a situation will depend on the nature of the work and where it is to be carried out.”

Refer then, to the HSE guidance to employers:
http://www.hse.gov.uk/news/2009/swineflu.htm?ebul=hsegen/05-may-2009&cr=2

Follow a link there to the HSE Biosafety website:
http://www.hse.gov.uk/biosafety/diseases/pandflu.htm

and note the section entitled: Do my employees need to wear a mask at work?
Information on face masks, and the differences between surgical masks and FFP3 masks, is found down the page, at http://www.hse.gov.uk/biosafety/diseases/pandflu.htm#15

When it comes to deciding about the use of masks, the information on the blog Promtheus Unbound looks helpful:

According to the Los Angeles Times today, both face masks and frequent hand washing provide equal levels of protection:

No single action…will provide complete protection in areas with confirmed swine flu cases, health officials said. It isn’t practical to wear a mask all the time, even a quality mask, and the devices aren’t foolproof.

“Once they get moist, they are no longer useful,” Mascola said. “Your saliva is going to be pooling in that mask. That will make is not useful because germs will be able to permeate.”

Taking a mask on and off contaminates it and makes it less useful, as well. It is effective “only for a 20-minute to a half-hour period,” she said. “Even in those places during the SARS epidemic, they found hand-washing as effective as wearing masks.”

So at least wash your hands frequently throughout the day. And here’s something ironic. Mask wearers may be lulled into a deluded and Samson-like omnipotence (”So long as my mask is on, I can go where I want and do anything”):

Masks may give people a false sense of security, said Dr. Laurene Mascola, director of acute communicable disease control for the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health.

“You would have to wear it 100% of the time that you are outside,” she said of masks and respirators.

Further, face masks and respirators shouldn’t replace other precautions.

“Somewhat lost in all the excitement is that we continue to need to take standard control measures,” said Dr. Paul Holtom, associate professor of medicine at USC’s Keck School of Medicine and a hospital epidemiologist at Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center and the USC University Hospital.

To avoid infecting others, ill people should stay home, avoid crowds, cover their mouth when they cough or sneeze, and wash their hands before touching eyes, nose or mucus membranes.

Sometimes the simplest remedies are, in fact, the best.