HONcode verification for HandS

HandS Health and Safety Resources has been granted a valid and official HONcode certificate of accreditation by the HON Foundation.  The HON Foundation is a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO), internationally known for its pioneering work in the field of health information ethics, notably for the establishment of its code of ethical conduct, the HONcode.

HONcode is the oldest and the most used ethical and trustworthy code for medical and health related information available on Internet.The HONcode is designed for two target audiences: the general public and the web publisher, actively involving the site owner in the process of accreditation.

The HONcode aims to raise the quality of healthcare information available on the Net. It is a voluntary certification system based on an “active seal” concept. While primarily intended for healthcare site developers and publishers, the blue-and-red HONcode seal on subscribing sites also helps users identify sources of reliable information. It addresses, among other things, the authority of the information provided, data confidentiality and privacy, proper attribution of sources, transparency of financial sponsorship and the importance of clearly separating advertising from editorial content.

See: http://www.hon.ch/HONcode/

HandS Verification: HERE

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Clipart Section updated…

The Health & Safety Clipart page is updated today, with a series of thumbnail contact sheets of downloadable clipart on a variety of topics. The clipart images on these pages can be used free of charge. Much of this clipart comes from government and public websites that provide clip art and photos, free of copyright. The images are sorted according to the subject of the image and the name of the file generally reflects the content of the file. Unfortunately, the quality is generally a bit mediocre, but much of it is usable. Click on Clipart to see the new additions.

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August site update…

The HandS homepage is updated for August. Some dead links have been removed and other links have been updated with new urls.  Links to two behavioural safety sites are added.  One of those is provided by the HSE.  The other, while a commercial site, deserves a link by virtue of it’s large, free library of articles on behavioural safety and the provision of a number of good resources and book lists for further research on the subject.  The link to the British Standards list has also been repaired.

The Musculo-Skeletal Disorders/Hand-Arm Vibration page is also updated with a few new links.  This section will be helpful to anyone with an interest in repetitive strain injury, carpal tunnel syndrome, vibration, or the hazardous effects of hand-held power tools, manual handling or office work.

Searches on the site will be fresh, as a re-indexing of the 132 pages of HandS has been completed.  (For the best results in your searches, please make sure that you are spelling your words correctly!  Near-misses and British and American spellings will work, but you want to get pretty close to the correct spelling of a word. The search facility won’t ask you ‘Did you mean?’, like Google does!)

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Update to ‘Prosecution Results’

The Prosecution Results section at HandS, containing news of prosecutions, fines and compensation payouts in a wide range of trades and industries, has been updated this weekend to include a number of new cases from the period of February 2008 to July 2008.  The new additions begin on page 15 of the section.

 

The Prosecution Results section is provided for your research on related issues. The items may be helpful to you in presentations to safety committee or managerial meetings, or in your efforts to illustrate points and progress issues in your workplace. They could assist you in elaborating the need for thorough risk assessments, or for training that has not taken place. Some cases may also be of interest to solicitors handling cases with similar circumstances. The section is fully searchable on key words.

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Safety alert: Hand‐fed platen (die cutting) machines

Following 2 fatalities in the last 13 months, HSE has issued a safety alert for the attention of firms in the printing and cardboard packaging industries who use these machnes. Both incidents have occurred when the machine is in ‘dwell’mode.

To read the full safety alert visit the HSE website.

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New Prosecution Results section

A new section has been added to HandS Health & Safety Resources that may be of interest to you.

Prosecution Results contains examples of prosecutions, fines and compensatory payouts in a number of trades, settings and circumstances, and they are provided as an adjunct to your research on related issues. They may be helpful to you in presentations to safety committee or managerial meetings, or in your efforts to illustrate points and progress issues in your workplace. For example, they could be of help to you in elaborating the need for thorough risk assessments, or for training that has not taken place. More recent cases may also be of interest to solicitors handling similar cases. The section is fully searchable (keywords) and will be updated as often as possible.

The cases have been compiled from issues of Risks newsletter and my thanks go to Rory O’Neill, editor of Hazards magazine, and to Hugh Robertson, Senior Health & Safety Officer for the Trades Union Congress (TUC) for their kind permission to reprint the material.

A new link button to the section is located on the HandS home page, on the left side near the top.

Thank you for your continued interest and support, as HandS approaches it’s 5th year on the Net.

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An old scab postman lay dying…

An old scab postman lay dying… He sent for his son. The son rushed to his bedside and put his ear close to the old man’s lips.

“Yes Dad, what do you want to say to me?”

“Son”, he wheezed, “I’ve got one last wish, and I want you to see it’s carried out.”

“Yes, Dad, what is it?”

“When I’m gone, I want you to arrange my funeral.”

“Yes, Dad, I’ll do that.”

“And I want you to arrange that the Union Banner is draped on my coffin, and that my pallbearers are good Union members, and better still, Union Reps.”

“But Dad”, the son replied, confused, “You never supported the Union. When you started in the Post Office as a casual, it was the Union who got you a permanent contract, but you always slagged them off.”

“I know, son.”

” And the Union got you taken on full time, but you thought it was management who had given you a full time job, and although you joined the Union, it was only to get any protection going, in case you needed it.”

“Yes, son, that’s true.”  

“And when you were threatened with dismissal for sickness, it was the Union Rep who represented you and saved your job.”

“Yes, she did.”

“And you took every pay rise, and improvement that the Union negotiated, though you always said that the Union did nothing for you.”

“Yes…”

“And when the Union said a stand had to be taken against Management’s refusal to negotiate on their plans to cut wages and impose their Business Plan, you resigned from the Union ‘on principle’, as you were against strikes.”

“Yes, son, I did — the Union can’t tell you what to do.”

“And you crossed the picket line, laughing at your colleagues standing there losing pay to defend their pay, their conditions and their jobs.”

“Well, yes, I did. They’re idiots to think they can stand up to Management.”

“And you did every bit of overtime going, even coming in on your days off.”

“Yes, son, well, you have to look after yourself.”

“And if anyone called you a scab, you went running to the manager to get disciplinary action taken against them.”

“Yes–well, they shouldn’t be so nasty to me, I’m only doing my job.”

“So Dad, if you’ve hated the Union all your life, why would you want Union members to be your pallbearers?”

The old scab wheezed and gasped, turning blue, before he breathed his last, and departed this life for that hell reserved for scabs, nonces, bullying managers, torturers, concentration camp guards, fascists, greedy bosses, and the rest of the dregs of humanity. He beckoned his son to come closer, and with his last breath he whispered:

“GOOD AND DECENT TRADE UNIONISTS HAVE CARRIED ME ALL MY LIFE, AND I WANT THEM TO CARRY ME WHEN I’M DEAD, TOO.”

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HandS COSHH Page Update:

The updated Table of Approved Workplace Exposure Limits, mentioned in the previous post, is now available on the HandS COSHH page, along with two new booklets:
On occupational asthma, the “TUC Guide to Occupational Asthma for Employers, Workers and their Representatives”, a pdf file in a zipped 138kb download.  The other new booklet, on the subject of gloves, is the Ansell 7th Edition Chemical Resistance Guide, in a zipped 287kb download.

Go to the HandS site and click on the COSHH panel-button.

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Vibration permanently harms man’s hands

As reported by Rory O’Neill in the Risks Newsletter:

A 24-year-old crack tester from Doncaster who says he was forced out of his job after vibrating tools permanently damaged his hands has received a £30,000 compensation settlement. Unite member Dean Grice was employed by MSI Forks Ltd, a firm making forks for forklift trucks. He had worked for the firm since 1997. His job required him to grind out defects on the forks using pencil grinders and angle grinders - tools which vibrated in his hands. As a result, he developed hand arm vibration syndrome (HAVS - also known as vibration white finger) - a painful condition which causes the fingers to go white and numb - as well as carpal tunnel syndrome, which causes numbness, tingling and pain in the fingers. Mr Grice explained: ‘It was my GP who told me that I had symptoms of carpal tunnel syndrome and he referred me to the Doncaster Royal Infirmary. Sadly my employer refused to re-deploy me to a job where I wouldn’t be exposed to vibration so I had no choice but to resign.’ Unite regional secretary Davey Hall said: ‘This is not the first time that an employee of MSI Forks Ltd has suffered from hand arm vibration syndrome. We hope that it will now force them to ensure that correct health and safety procedures are in place.’ The two conditions are commonly associated with work with vibrating tools, and have been the subject of a series of recent industrial disease payouts.

Thompsons Solicitors news release

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Obstructed safety rep gets payout

A union safety rep on London’s Tube system who was prevented from fulfilling his health and safety role by London Underground has won thousands of pounds in compensation at an employment tribunal. London Underground was found to have ‘wilfully and deliberately’ flouted health and safety law by refusing to allow Paul McCarthy, 47, to inspect four tube lines. The tribunal said it could see ‘little if any attempt’ by London Underground to comply with health and safety law when it prevented Mr McCarthy from inspecting the Hammersmith and City, District, Metropolitan and Waterloo and City lines. As a health and safety representative it was his role to inspect the Tube network to check that it was a safe working environment for all staff. The tribunal, which awarded Mr McCarthy £11,500 plus costs, said it was surprising that senior management had not attended the employment tribunal to explain why they had decided not to comply with the law. It also found that London Underground’s defence of the claim had been ‘misconceived and unreasonable’. Mr McCarthy’s union representative, ASLEF district organiser Steve Grant, commented: ‘ASLEF will continue to defend all our members’ health, safety and welfare industrially - and if needs be, legally - regardless of where they work or what their operational grade. We will be asking the Health and Safety Executive to consider prosecutions for the people responsible for these breaches and asking LU what disciplinary action they are taking against them for compromising their employees’ safety.’

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