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The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has withdrawn advice on the dangers of working with lead after an investigation found it greatly under-estimated health risks that could be affecting over 100,000 workers.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.

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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News from HSE’s Revitalising Network Newsletter:

“From 1 September 2009, the content of HSE’s series of priced publications will be made freely available online through the HSE website. Initially around 100 of the most popular titles will be available in a fully accessible ‘web‐lite’ format. It is expected that the remaining titles will be converted to this format by 31 March 2010. Further information will be available in due course.”

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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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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

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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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)

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.

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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