HSE withdraws lead safety advice

As reported in the Risks Newsletter 432…

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has withdrawn advice on the dangers of working with lead after an investigation found it greatly under-estimated health risks that could be affecting over 100,000 workers. The HSE move came after a report by academics at Stirling University said the official health and safety warnings about the dangers of lead were so complacent the watchdog was guilty of ‘extreme recklessness’ with workers’ health. The current UK maximum exposure limit for males is set at 60 microgrammes of lead in 100ml (µg/100ml) of blood, at which level workers must be suspended until their blood lead level falls. But the Stirling University report, ‘Dangerous lead’, points to substantial scientific evidence that much lower levels – as little as 10 to 20 (µg/100ml), a fraction the current UK standard – can cause chronic, long-term ill health. ‘Lead and you’, HSE’s main guidance for workers on the issue, takes a different line. It says: ‘Serious ill-health problems rarely occur unless people have at least 100 microgrammes of lead per decilitre of blood.’ After publication last week of the Stirling report, which was also featured on Channel 4 News and in The Guardian, HSE admitted the leaflet is misleading and has since removed it from the HSE website. However, despite a series of recommendations from HSE expert committees that the lead standard should be reviewed in the light of evidence of risks significantly below the currently permitted exposure levels, HSE maintains it has ‘no intention’ of doing anything about it, the Stirling report says. HSE’s attitude was described as ‘blinkered’ and ‘wrong’ by Professor Andrew Watterson, whose University of Stirling department analysed the data. ‘HSE medical staff identified evidence of the health threats which existed to a significant number of workers several years ago,’ he said. ‘Yet remarkably HSE policy still remains unchanged.’

• Dangerous lead, Hazards magazine, October-December 2009. Channel 4 News report and video clip. The Guardian. HSE statement. Green jobs blog.

 

HandS links with SOHSA

Established in 1922, the Sheffield Occupational Health and Safety Association’s mission is to “protect people’s health and safety by ensuring risks in the changing workplace are properly controlled”. The aim of SOHSA is to support local companies and individuals in their quest for improved health and safety performance and thirst for relevant knowledge, offering benefit to members across Sheffield and South Yorkshire.

Present group members include safety professionals in engineering sectors, construction, scientific laboratories and research, heavy industries (including steel and glass manufacture), hospitals and first-aid, local councils, theatre, education and training, retail, legal and office sectors.

The excellent SOHSA website includes Association announcements, downloads, an events diary, e-Newsletter, and health and safety news – the very latest news from a range of sources — Safety Forums and more. SOHSA invites members to ask for advice, share information and offer support with other like-minded occupational health and safety professionals.

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A dead rabbit gets swifter, better justice

I couldn’t let this one slip by without re-printing it here. (Thanks to Rory O’Neill, editor of Hazards magazine, for permission to use such articles from Risks, the TUC’s weekly online bulletin for safety reps and others.)

Safety campaigners have reacted furiously after the death of a rabbit was treated more seriously by the courts than the death of a construction worker. Families Against Corporate Killers (FACK), which speaks for the bereaved relatives of workplace fatality victims, was speaking out after Discovery Homes (Scotland) Ltd was fined £5,000 and the firm’s director Richard Pratt £4,000 on 8 June after the death of employee Andrezej Freitag. On the same day Steven Appleton was jailed for causing unnecessary suffering to a rabbit at Magistrates Court in Caerphilly after he stamped it to death. He received a six month custodial sentence. FACK member Sharon Norman, whose father Gordon Field was crushed to death at work, has written to prime minister Gordon Brown to protest. She said: ‘When I read the two news reports and the outrageously different penalties handed down by our courts to the killer of a rabbit and the killers of a man, I was so angry and I had to email the prime minister. I asked him to explain to me how this could be right.’ She added: ‘Every year many more people are given custodial and suspended sentences for animal cruelty than have ever been given such sentences for killing a worker. We don’t condone animal cruelty but cruelty to people that devastates families must surely be more serious?’ She added it took three years after her dad was killed at work for his negligent employer to be fined, ‘yet the rabbit killer was tried, convicted and sentenced in a few months.’

• FACK news release and website. The death at work of Gordon Field, Sharon Norman’s father [pdf]. Contract Journal. BBC News Online

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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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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.

HSE Leaflets for Safety Reps

Selecting Protective Gloves…

VDU Workstation/Display Screen Equipment Checklist for Safety Reps…

Consulting Employees on Health & Safety…
An overview of employers’ duties to consult with their employees on health and safety matters.

Hand-Arm Vibration…
Updated advice for employees.

Provision of Welfare Facilities at Fixed Construction Sites

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TUC Issues New Noise at Work Guide for Reps

The TUC has issued a new guide for safety reps on Noise at Work. This briefing document gives information to health and safety representatives on what the law is and what they can do to ensure that their employer does not put the hearing of their workers at risk.

Where there is an issue of noise exposure it is important that employers get competent advice. Noise control is more that checking levels with a meter and issuing ear plugs. Controlling noise requires professional help and expert advice. Employers should consult with health and safety representatives over the arrangements for the appointment of competent people.

Health and safety representatives should also be aware of the training and information arrangements where there is any potential risk and should ensure that their employer has given all their workforce appropriate training and information.

Health and safety representatives can identify if there is a problem with noise by carrying out a survey with workers who may be affected or by using body and risk mapping techniques. They can also do a special inspection that concentrates on noise.

Health and safety representatives should report their concerns and those of their members to management in writing.

Download the guide here:
http://www.tuc.org.uk/extras/noiseatwork.pdf
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New law introduces stiffer penalties

As reported in the Risks Newsletter 378…

The Health and Safety (Offences) Bill became law on 16 October, when it received Royal assent. The Bill, put forward by Labour MP Keith Hill cleared it last hurdle earlier that month, when it passed a third reading in the House of Lords. Under the new legislation, the Health and Safety (Offences) Act 2008, the maximum fine in magistrates’ courts will be raised to £20,000 for most offences and imprisonment will be made an option for a wider range of breaches. The Act, which applies throughout the UK, makes most offences triable either way’, which in effect means unlimited fines. TUC head of safety Hugh Robertson said the realising the benefits of the new law would require the courts to treat safety offences as serious crimes.

The TUC welcomes the fact that this bill has finally made it on to the statute book,’ he said. ‘The need to increase fines was first recognised by the government over eight years ago and trade unions have been campaigning hard for stronger penalties to be available for those who are convicted of criminally putting the health or safety of their workforce at risk.’ He added, however, ‘these increased penalties will only make a difference if courts actually impose fines that act as a meaningful deterrent rather than just a slap on the wrist as is so often the case today.’ Health and safety minister Lord McKenzie said: ‘These changes will insure that sentences can now be more easily set at a level to deter businesses that do not take their health and safety management responsibilities seriously and further encourage employers and others to comply with the law.’ The minister added: ‘Furthermore, by extending the £20,000 maximum fine to the lower courts and making imprisonment an option, more cases will be resolved in the lower courts and justice will be faster, less costly and more efficient. Jail sentences for particularly blameworthy health and safety offences committed by individuals, can now be imposed reflecting the severity of such crimes, whereas there were more limited options in the past.’

• DWP news release. Health and Safety (Offences) Bill [pdf].

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TUC guide to risk assessment

The TUC has produced a guide to risk assessment. It says the new resource provides safety reps with the tools to ensure their employer has done a suitable risk assessment and taken appropriate measures to implement the measures required. TUC adds that the guide ’should also help safety reps to challenge the employer if they do not do a suitable assessment or do not act to remove the hazards identified in the risk assessment.’

TUC guide to risk assessment [pdf]
TUC guide to inspections [pdf]
TUC risk assessment courses

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Most workers turn in when sick

As reported in the Risks Newsletter 375…

Nearly threequarters (72 per cent) of UK employees go to work despite feeling so ill they could legitimately stay at home, a survey has revealed. The poll of 2,000 workers by medical insurance provider Axa PPP Healthcare indicated that the main reason for this ‘presenteeism’ was people saying they didn’t want to let down their colleagues. A quarter of respondents said they just had too much work to do to take time off. One in seven were worried their sick leave records could be used against them if their employer came to making people redundant. One in five also admitted to using some of their annual leave days to cover up sick days, for fear of not getting paid or losing their job. Dudley Lusted of AXA PPP Healthcare said the survey showed ‘most employees continue to turn up for work when they’re feeling under the weather. And, if they do have to take time off, they can be trusted to come back as soon as they feel well enough to work again.’ He added: ‘It’s wrong to subject hard working people to over zealous absence management methods such as having to report in sick to an occupational nurse ‘helpline’ or even be subjected to a lie detector test! Smart employers will make sure their managers are properly trained and supported to manage  attendance positively and, when people are off work sick, concentrate on managing those employees those attendance should give genuine cause for concern.’ The report echoes the findings of TUC research, that concluded punitive sickness absence policies were counter-productive, forcing the working wounded to take their bugs to work with them and hampering a proper recovery.

• Personnel Today. The Telegraph.

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