Health and Safety Consultants

Asbestos, also known as the hidden killer, is responsible for the deaths of 20 tradesmen each week in the UK. Make sure you are clued up the facts so you can protect yourself and others around you.

What is Asbestos and where can it be found?

Asbestos is a naturally occurring mineral fibre. There are three main types; Chrysotile, Amosite, and Crocidolite usually called white, brown and blue asbestos respectively. Although its use is now banned by law asbestos was commonly used as a building material for its flame retardant and insulating properties. Asbestos was used extensively as a building material in this country from the 1950s through to the mid 1980s and was used in fire doors, ceiling tiles, internal walls and panels.

How does Asbestos get in to the body and what effect can it have?

Although the body will get rid of most of the larger fibres that can enter the nose and the mouth, tiny fibres can pass in to the lower parts of the lungs. They can stay there for a number of years and in some cases can work their way through the lung lining.  The body naturally gets rid of any fibres that might be taken in with food and water. Asbestos fibres cannot be absorbed through your skin.

Exposure to fibres can lead to lung cancer, fibrosis of the lung or result in asbestosis or mesothelioma, which is a growth in the lining of the chest wall or abdomen.  It is now thought that repeated low level exposures such as could occur during routine repair work may also lead to asbestos induced cancers. 

What is the risk from the Asbestos in my office or the building where I work?

As long as asbestos is intact it will not release significant level of fibre. Disturbing asbestos in any way, such as damage or removal, is far more likely to generate the release of fibres. Therefore unless the asbestos can be easily removed it is often safest to leave it in situ.

What should I do if the Asbestos containing material is damaged?

 Buildings should have been surveyed for any asbestos containing materials and appropriate warning notices posted if any was discovered. If any material containing asbestos becomes damaged it is possible that fibres can be released in to the atmosphere. The room containing the damaged material should be vacated, the door sealed and any windows closed. It should be reported immediately to the Facilities Administrator. Personnel should not enter the room until the appropriate testing and/or maintenance has been undertaken and they have been advised that it is safe to do so.

What is the risk to my health?

The risk to your health from a single exposure to asbestos is very small.  In order to detect the physiological changes that could be caused by exposure to asbestos it would be necessary to undergo regular X-Ray examination. Repeated X-ray examination would pose a more significant risk to your health than the risk associated with exposure to small quantities of asbestos. It is therefore unnecessary to undergo any health monitoring or screening.

 If you are exposed to asbestos you may wish to have this recorded in your Personnel file, occupational health record or your GP’s notes. 

 How can I find out if there is asbestos in my building?

 Asbestos registers should be held for all owned and leased buildings.

Off site working

Some employees may need to visit buildings that are to be demolished or refurbished. It is important to study the building asbestos register before undertaking any work that may disturb any asbestos containing materials.

It is no surprise that more than a third (35%) of all sickness absences from work fall on a Monday.  A consulting firm, Mercer conducted a UK Sickness Absence Survey which is based on an analysis of sickness management records for 11,000 individual employees across a range of private sector organisations.  January was the worst month for absenteeism.

It is interesting to note that the main causes of sickness absence were musculoskeletal problems followed by viral infections and stress-related illnesses.  Musculoskeletal problems, in the form of strain or injury to bones, muscles and joints accounted for nearly a quarter of all days lost (24%).

We live in the age of computers, especially at work where constant computer use, poor workstation configuration, inappropriate chair, unsatisfactory working technique, and poor posture are all risk factors that can contribute to musculoskeletal problems.

Good health and safety practices at work can help reduce this type of ailment.  Proper computer workstation assessments will instill good working practices into computer users.  Looking after staff welfare is important both from an injury prevention perspective and to increase morale; these should have a positive effect on reducing staff absenteeism.

Angie Hodgkinson-Day, a chef at one of Jamie Oliver’s restaurants, had boiling oil poured over her feet during a training day. The accident occurred when Angie Hodgkinson-Day asked a kitchen porter to pour oil away from the deep fat fryer. Instead of following the correct procedure and waiting for the oil to cool over night, the oil was removed when it was still boiling hot.  It emerged that the kitchen porter had not received any health and safety training.

Angie had to stay in hospital for 10 days and needed skin grafts to her left foot.  Jamie’s restaurant was found guilty of breaching health and safety law, and was fined £8,500 plus £3,910 costs.

Edinburgh Council has been fined £14,000 for putting 14 of its workers at risk of exposure to asbestos.  The council’s joiners were carrying out refurbishment work at Castlebrae Community High School, when one of the laboratory doors they were instructed to remove, started leaking white dust.  The council did not have clear procedures in place for informing workers that the substance was in the building and they failed to keep accurate records of the location and condition of the asbestos. The council was found guilty of breaching the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2006.

This is not the first time the council has had to pay out over work carried out at the school. Back in February this year, they were fined £17,000 after unqualified workmen were sent in to remove toxic material.

Over the next year, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) plans to double inspections of licensed asbestos removal contractors and is appointing more fixed term inspectors as part of their new asbestos Hidden Killer campaign. We would like to remind you that under the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2006 all contractors removing asbestos must be licensed by the HSE.  All new licence holders and contractors renewing their licenses are likely to be checked by the HSE. You have been warned!

A rice manufacturing company in Rochester, Kent, has been fined £140,000 after one of its employees got trapped in a conveyor for several hours and later died from shock. Balwinder Singh Aulkh entered a rice silo to check for a blockage, after noticing that the rice was emptying at a slower rate than usual.  He entered the silo through a door, which should have been locked, quickly sank into the rice and was dragged into the conveyor.

He was trapped in the conveyor for a number of hours before his leg was amputated at the scene and he died from shock while being transported to the hospital.

The factory failed to install adequate machine guarding and pleaded guilty to breaching reg. 11(1) of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998.  Fitted padlocks and an interlock system have been installed since the accident, which isolate the moving parts of the machine.

Mike Walters, Principal Inspector at HSE, said: “This incident could so easily have been prevented if Veetee Rice Ltd has ensured that a suitable system was in place to prevent access to the silo unless the screw conveyor was electrically isolated. If the company had fitted a simple padlock on the access hatch to the rice silo – which could have cost as little as £10-£15 – then this tragic incident would not have happened.”

A website for the British Biscuit Advisory Board was launched last month sending up biscuit safety.  According to reports in the national press this was taken seriously by some council workers with some organising supervised tea breaks and completing an online questionnaire about biscuit related injuries.

Northern Foods who manufacture Fox’s Biscuits launched the British Biscuit Advisory Board website as part of a £3m promotional campaign, however it audaciously warned consumers about the dangers of either eating, dunking or reaching for biscuits. The campaign took the health and safety angle a stage further by sending a workplace biscuit risk assessment test to a large number of council workers across the country relating to the dangers of biscuit consumption in their workplaces.  Also, hundreds of workers completed an online questionnaire only to find out that it was a hoax.

One of the ideas behind the website was the excesses attributed to health and safety.  In reality accidents associated with biscuits are very small indeed.  Health and safety is a serious subject and the Regulations are there to prevent accidents and injuries in the workplace.  There is always a danger that people take things to extremes which overrule common sense.

Many UK businesses ignore work-related stress despite the fact it results in more than 13.5 million working days being lost every year, costing employers £38.3bn, a quarter of the UK’s total sick bill, according to The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE).   

Stress affects employees’ commitment to work, their performance, productivity and attendance levels, not to mention the cost to the business.  NICE has cited bad management as the single biggest cause of the problem. Our consultants witness the negative effects stress can have on individuals and businesses on a day to day basis, which is why we urge all of our clients to tackle work related stress before it becomes a problem.  So what steps can be taken to ensure stress does not affect your business?

Providing positive feedback, allowing flexible working, giving extra days off and investing in training for managers are just some of the steps NICE are asking employers to consider.  These simple measures could cut the impact of work related stress by a third.  Employers who don’t take stress seriously leave themselves open to compensation claims from employees who have suffered ill health from work-related stress. A former employee of the NHS was recently awarded compensation for life, after he suffered from a psychological condition that was reported to be caused by stress at work.

By introducing some simple steps you will be ensuring that stress never becomes a problem for your business or employees.

Introduction

We are all aware that fire can be a killer, but even if no one is injured, a fire in the workplace can cause devastation to people’s lives. There are around 43,000 commercial property fires in the UK every year and 80% of companies that have a major fire go out of business within a year. Getting fire safety right is therefore essential to protect people’s lives and livelihoods.

Legal Requirements

The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order requires a fire risk assessment to be made in premises other than domestic dwellings. The responsibility for conducting the fire risk assessment falls to the ‘responsible person’ – the person, or more usually the organisation, that has control of the premise, or part of the premise. Therefore, in a typical multi occupancy building, the Landlord or Building Manager would be responsible for the building as a whole and more particularly the communal areas, while each tenant of the building would be responsible for their own office or area. The fire risk assessment should be reviewed annually.

The Fire Safety Order also requires the ‘responsible person’ to have in place and maintain general fire safety precautions that will ensure people’s safety.

General Fire Safety Precautions

The ‘responsible person’ should ensure that:

• there are adequate means of escape – ways of safely getting out of the building or to some other safe place;
• there is some means of raising the alarm so that everyone in the building can get to a safe place in good time;
• where the risk is sufficiently high there is a means of early detection of any fire;
• the premise has fire resisting structures and fittings to ensure that fire does not compromise escape routes and is contained in one part;
• those people within the building are made aware of what actions they need to take in the event of a fire through training and signs.

It has to be ensured that the fire safety precautions operate efficiently and these precautions are maintained:

• An installed fire alarm has to be tested regularly – usually on a weekly basis. Any fire alarm and detection system should also be inspected at least every six months by a qualified engineer.
• Any installed emergency lighting should be tested regularly for function (usually monthly) and because they are fitted with a battery they should also have regular (at least annual) duration testing of the battery.
• Fire resisting doors (commonly called fire doors) should generally be kept closed (unless fitted with a door retainer which releases the door when the fire alarm is activated, and this has been subject to a risk assessment), and should be checked regularly that they are in good condition and that self closing devices operate correctly.
• Escape doors should be checked regularly to ensure that they open when needed and are not obstructed.

Employees should also be regularly trained in fire prevention, the actions to take on discovering a fire, and the actions to take upon hearing the fire alarm. This training should be reinforced through regular practice fire drills.

Fire can cause the death, disability and devastation in the work place. Make sure you do your best to prevent fires happening and to ensure that people can escape safely should a fire start.