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Risksissue no 173 - 11 September 2004 |
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Editor: Rory O'Neill of Hazards magazine. Comments to Hugh Robertson CONTENTS
Risks is the TUC’s weekly online bulletin for safety reps and others, read each week by over 10,000 subscribers and 1,500 on the TUC website. To receive this bulletin every week, click here. Past issues are available. This edition contains Useful links TUC courses for safety reps Disclaimer and Privacy statement. UNION NEWSIgnorant bosses put pregnant employees at riskLack of awareness could be putting the health and well-being of pregnant women and their unborn babies at risk, says the shopworkers’ union Usdaw. It says its research provides proof that many retail employers may not fully understand their obligations towards pregnant workers. Usdaw questioned over 1,200 pregnant women who work in retail outlets, the largest ever survey in the sector. It found serious safety concerns, with many retail employer unaware of what constitutes 'suitable alternative work' for pregnant employees. A common response is to assign a pregnant worker to checkout duties, it says, however research shows that the average combined weight of all goods lifted by a checkout operator during a four-hour shift is over one tonne. More than 70 per cent of respondents said they either did not get a risk assessment, or didn't know if they had. By law, all employers must conduct an individual risk assessment for pregnant workers. Two other reports published this week also found pregnant women are facing unnecessary risks at work. Tip of the Iceberg , a report from the Equal Opportun i ties Commission, warned that pregnant women can ' face pay cuts, demotion, hostile treatment or are made to work in an unsafe environment. The impact on these women's lives and on the health of their baby can be disastrous. ' A second EOC report, Time to deliver, called on the government to introduce measures including 'an increased role for the Health and Safety Executive in protecting women.'
CWU issues letter bombs warningA spate of letter bombs in the post has triggered urgent action by postal union CWU and the police. CWU members have been briefed about the need for vigilance and advised about how to identify suspect packages. Police have set up an incident room to deal with the suspicious devices. They say 26 suspect packages have now been found in recent days. Twenty four of the packages have been recovered in Bedfordshire while another was found in Hertfordshire and one in Essex. Ten were intercepted in sorting offices in Luton and Milton Keynes before they had been delivered. CWU national health and safety officer Dave Joyce, who is working closely with Royal Mail security management, said: 'Fortunately those opened by recipients did not go off and the police have been recovering them from homes and the delivery offices.' CWU safety representative Andy McArthur, the local union rep, has been working closely with management and the police. CWU says the bombs are very crude, home-made devices. 'They appear to be the work of a crank who sends them to random recipients,' said Dave Joyce. One went off when it was found by a passer-by in a skip in Dunstable. He was slightly injured. Det Chf Insp Peter Orr said: 'Potentially these packages could cause very serious injury and potentially death.' He warned the public to be vigilant and urged postal workers to report anyone posting similar packages in large amounts. Stabbing highlights need for more rail station staffThe tragic death of a member of the public stabbed on Wood Street station underlines the need for adequate staff on all railway stations, rail union RMT has said. John Coffey, 52, was robbed and stabbed to death at Wood Street station, east London, on Sunday night. Mr Coffey, who was smartly dressed in a grey suit, is thought to have been attacked on the platform and stabbed in the stomach. 'This latest violent incident underlines once more the need for a visible presence of uniformed staff on every station every minute it is open and a guard on every train,' RMT general secretary Bob Crow said. 'Station staff and guards have been cut for financial reasons by companies more worried about their bottom line than about the safety of passengers and rail workers. The simple fact is that adequately staffed, well lit stations are safer than dark, deserted ones.' He added: 'Putting people back into the system can mean the difference between an attractive and well-used transport network and continual decline fuelled by fear - it is time to invest in people again.' Two men arrested over the murder have been bailed to return to Whitechapel police station on 14 October, Scotland Yard said on Thursday . OTHER NEWSMore delays to corporate killing law
Long-term work stress is top heart attack riskStress is a cause of heart attacks, a major international study has confirmed. The Interheart study among 29,000 people in 52 countries, half of whom had experienced a heart attack, found that 'psychosocial factors' including work and home stress increased the risk of a heart attack two and a half times, while smoking increased the risk nearly three times. Annika Rosengren, professor of cardiology at Goteborg University, Sweden, led the stress aspect of the broad Interheart research project, the findings of which were published in The Lancet on 4 September. Professor Rosengren said: 'Persistent severe stress makes it two and a half times more likely that an individual will have a heart attack compared with someone who is not stressed.' She added that stress and depression together increased the risk threefold. Long-term work stress had the most dramatic effect, the research team found. Of those still working who had suffered a heart attack, 23 per cent said they had experienced several periods of work stress compared with 17.9 per cent of a control group that hadn’t suffered a heart attack. In the heart attack group, 10 per cent said they had experienced permanent work stress during the previous year, compared to 5 per cent in the control group. A study in 2002 reported that work stress doubled the death rate from heart disease (Risks 76).
Millions 'exposed to work smoke'More than 2 million people in the UK are exposed to tobacco smoke in their workplaces, anti-smoking groups say. A further 10 milion people work in places where smoking is allowed somewhere on the premises, says a new analysis from ASH and the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health. The figures were calculated from the Labour Force Survey for 2003 and the National Statistics Omnibus Survey. 'All the statistics and evidence supports the need to bring an end to smoking in all workplaces and enclosed public places,' CIEH chief executive Graham Jukes said. 'Smoking kills not only smokers but also hundreds of people who are forced to breathe secondhand tobacco pollution simply because of where they work.' ASH director Deborah Arnott said: 'It is time for central government to commit itself to a leadership role by introducing a total workplace ban.' She called on local authorities to support smoke-free workplaces. The groups have produced a new guide to help councils wanting to end smoking in workplaces and public places. Scotland smoking ban 'workable'A ban on smoking on public places in Scotland is 'workable', the Scottish Executive has said. First minister Jack McConnell said that 'there are lessons for us to learn' following his visit to Dublin to see the effects of Ireland's ban (Risks 158). A spokesperson for the executive said: 'The visit to Dublin was part of our public consultation on a potential ban, which concludes at the end of the month.' She added: 'While no final decisions have been taken, the first minister said that there are lessons for us to learn from Ireland.' A decision on the ban will be announced before Christmas. Scotland’s deputy health minister Tom McCabe told an international conference this week, organised as part of the consultation process, that more than 27,000 people have responded to the consultation - almost twenty times more than any previous Scottish Executive consultation. He said: 'We already know that smoking kills around 13,000 people each year in Scotland and is responsible for thousands of hospital admissions and that second-hand smoke is linked to a range of potentially fatal conditions.' He added: 'The Executive is committed to increasing the number of smoke-free public spaces in Scotland. What remains to be decided is how this is done, and that is why we want to hear from as many people in Scotland as possible before the end of the month.' Firms want clear guidelines on workplace drug testingFew UK companies carry out any form of drug testing in the workplace, but two-thirds want clearer guidelines on the issue, a new survey claims. Law firm Blake Lapthorn Linnell found just 10 per cent of the respondents to its survey actually carried out any form of drug testing, although 20 per cent had a policy dealing with substance abuse. The employers who did not test were overwhelmingly of the opinion that drug use was not an issue for their organisation (75 per cent). Of those employers that do test, 88 per cent would take the hardline and pursue disciplinary action if an employee tested positive, with only 12 per cent paying for the employee to undergo treatment. Almost two-thirds (62 per cent) of the employers who responded felt that the government should introduce legislation on drug testing, provided it maintained a balance between the employers' right to select workers who were not illegal drug users and the employees right to privacy. The findings are based on survey responses from almost 200 employers. Gas tests 'unethical,' inquest toldMilitary scientists who carried out nerve gas tests on humans in the 1950s acted unethically, a leading expert has told an inquest. Professor Sir Ian Kennedy said researchers were 'acting on the edge of their knowledge' when they exposed volunteers to a lethal chemical agent. The tests were carried out at Porton Down laboratories on Salisbury Plain. Sir Ian was speaking at the inquest into the death in 1953 of 20-year-old RAF serviceman Ronald Maddison. The inquest was reopened earlier this year after pressure from Mr Maddison’s family and campaigners. An original verdict of misadventure was rushed through in a secret inquest shortly after the death of Mr Maddison. He died after having GB Sarin, a lethal chemical agent, dabbed on his skin. The professor concluded: 'In my view there were trials that went too far.' The new inquest heard that Sarin tests continued after Mr Maddison's death, despite a government ban on them. Concern about the use of 'human guinea pigs' resurfaced in 2002, when it was revealed UK students had been used in pesticide safety tests. The evidence from these tests was then used in the US to argue for more lax safety standards for the chemicals concerned (Risks 71). Port operator fined £250,000 over trainee’s deathThe operator of the UK’s largest container port has been fined £250,000 after a trainee dockworker plunged nearly 120ft to his death from a crane. Felixstowe Dock and Railway Company was charged under the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 following the death of Dennis Burman, 51, of Brantham, Suffolk, who was crushed between two walkways before falling from the platform on 17 June 2003. Mandy McLean, prosecuting on behalf of the Health and Safety Executive, told Ipswich Crown Court Mr Burman was one of six trainees who had successfully completed a basic three-day induction and was undergoing a 12-day dock familiarisation course when the accident happened. On the penultimate day of the course, the six trainees were taken up a crane so they could see how it operated with particular emphasis on safety considerations for ship workers on the dock below. 'They did not implement a safe system of work for taking trainees up to the cab and bringing them down again,' Ms McLean said. 'The procedure was not set in stone.' The company admitted it had not instituted proper procedures or conducted the required risk assessments. INTERNATIONALEurope: One in seven education workers has been assaultedFifteen per cent of the 11 million employees in Europe's education sector, from teachers and cooks to administrative staff, have suffered physical or verbal abuse at work, usually at the hands of students and parents, says a new report from the European Agency for Occupational Safety and Health. The Bilbao-based agency says education staff must also contend with dangerous substances in laboratories, sports injuries, work-related stress and slips on litter-strewn floors. Its new factsheets say each year more than half a million staff in the sector have to take time off work due to work-related accidents and illness, accounting for 40 per cent of all absenteeism. Hope Daley, national safety officer for UK union UNISON, welcomed the report. 'We want employers in the sector to do more to develop strong prevention measures to eliminate or reduce such incidents and we are willing to work in partnership with them to do so,' she said. 'Our members want to go to work without the fear of injury or ill-health caused by work and we will continue our fight to ensure their health and safety is at the top of the curriculum.'
France: Farmer shoots dead two labour inspectorsTwo labour inspectors checking the contracts of seasonal plum pickers in the southwestern French region of Dordogne were shot dead by a farmer last week. Gerard Dubiau, 57, opened fire on the inspectors and then tried to kill himself after his workers were asked to produce their papers, legal sources said. A female agricultural inspector, Sylvie Trémouille, died immediately while a male colleague, Daniel Buffière, died later in hospital in Bergerac. Agriculture minister Herve Gaymard expressed his sympathy to the family and friends of the deceased. Dubiau was reported to have personal and financial difficulties, however officials said he faced problems no more severe than others in the region. Labour inspectors have been the victims of attacks worldwide. In June 2000, three meat inspectors where shot dead by a US sausage company boss. And in March this year, Cornish farmer Roger Baker was jailed for two years for plunging an animal health inspector and a vet into a slurry pit (Risks 146).
France: New law calls for management of work strainsReforms to French pension laws mean employers are now required to consult with unions on the reduction of the physical strains of the job. The legal changes, introduced a year ago, set a three-year deadline for the consultation. Under the new system, both sides must meet at least every three years and discuss working conditions and human resource management issues, the skills of older workers and work-related strain. According to a report from the European Working Conditions Observatory (EWCO), some measures to offset the effects of physically arduous working conditions - such as bonuses, reduced annual working hours, and early retirement options - were already in place prior to the reform law. However, EWCO says this is the first time there has been an explicit requirement for action to remedy physical strain. Measures to address problems could include early retirement or new work organisation and safety measures to reduce risks.
South Africa: Lax safety standards blamed for deadly chemical blastUnions are demanding answers after a blast ripped through the Sasol ethylene plant in Secunda, South Africa, this week. So far, the company has refused to say whether it will allow unions to participate in an investigation into the tragedy, which killed seven and injured over 100 workers. Attorney Richard Spoor, who has been hired by Chemical Energy Paper Printing Wood and Allied Workers Union (CEPPWAWU), said he would fight to get union members onto Sasol's internal investigation team. 'They have for years conducted their own secret investigations into accidents and they are now trying to do the same with this one,' said Spoor. Another union, Solidarity, said it would take the petrochemical giant to court if it was prevented from participating in the probe. Solidarity's safety expert, Chris Pienaar, said: 'Time is running out and we want to know anything that is discovered during this investigation so that we are prepared when the Labour Department inquiry starts.' He said without union involvement, the company might exercise 'damage control'. Both unions claim the explosion is a result of deteriorating safety standards and say unskilled subcontractors hired by Sasol exacerbate the situation. 'The explosion is just an end point in a chain of events, showing systematic and fundamental management failures,' Spoor said. Turkey: Nineteen die in mine fireAt least 19 workers died and 17 were injured in a fire at a copper mine in north-western Turkey. The blaze and subsequent explosion collapsed the entrance to the mine near the town of Kure, 300km (185 miles) north of the capital, Ankara. Thick smoke from the fire hampered rescue efforts as the men moved deeper into the mine, seeking refuge in shafts. The bodies and injured have now been recovered. The fire is thought to have started during welding work in the tunnel, 150m below the surface. After news of the fire broke, officials on the surface were in contact with the trapped miners by radio and had said they were doing well. However, as the rescue continued the true extent of the tragedy became apparent. The BBC reported that serious questions would be asked about the incident as at first it seemed many more of the men would be saved. USA: Dramatic shift away from safety enforcementThe US safety enforcement agency is planning a dramatic shift towards more 'voluntary protection programmes' (VPP) and away from inspection and enforcement. John Henshaw, the US assistant secretary of labour for OSHA, the official US work safety watchdog, confirmed in a speech to the Voluntary Protection Programs Participants' Association (VPPPA) that participation in VPP should increase from the figure of 800 participants two years ago, to 8,000 sites. Currently, there are 1,000 VPP sites nationwide. Companies that sign up have to agree to injury reductions and other measures. However, Henshaw’s justification for the programme - that it saves lives and money - has been challenged in official reports. The government’s General Accounting Office last year said there was insufficient evidence to justify these claims. And GAO says it is not confident an OSHA study due to be completed this month will furnish useful information. According to safety expert Jordan Barab, who has worked for US unions and for OSHA: 'Because VPP does not require applicants to provide data on their injury and illness rates for the years prior to participation, OSHA will still be unable to systematically assess whether improvements in their injury and illness rates resulted from programme participation.' In August, a subsidiary of Weyerhaeuser, a company that is one of the US government’s flagships for VPP, was found to have fiddled its accident reports in a bid to get VPP approval (Risks 169). In the UK, HSE has said it intends to pursue more voluntary approaches, and cites VPP as a useful model.
RESOURCESNew improved TUC websiteThe TUC has relaunched its website with a new user-friendly look and feel, ahead of next week's TUC Congress in Brighton. New site features include improved accessibility and printability, suggestions on related events and documents throughout the site, and an RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feed for news releases. The website is one of the busiest around, receiving around 150,000 visits a month and with over 20,000 people signed up to receive customised email alerts. TUC head of communications, Nigel Stanley, commented: 'This new site will be a key resource for union activists and members, government departments, journalists, and anyone interested in the world of work.' The health and safety section is far and away the most busy part of the TUC website, accounting for about a quarter of all the site traffic. The safety section of the site has been radically redesigned to give better, easier access to news and regularly updated hazards information. Risks is the TUC’s most popular email bulletin, with well over 10,000 subscribers - and is growing at a rate of five new subs a day.
CD tackles strains in the textiles and garment sectorThe global federation for textile, garment and leather workers’ unions, ITGLWF, has produced a CD-ROM on 'Repetitive strain injuries among sewing machine operators.' As well as background information on RSI, the new resource includes details of research carried out by the Specialisation School of Occupational Medicine of l’Aquila, Italy, on upper limb musculoskeletal disorders. The CD-ROM was produced with the support of the Italian union organisation FILTEA CGIL.
HSE waste web resourceA new website designed to help waste management and recycling industries has been launched by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE). James Barrett, head of HSE’s manufacturing sector, said: 'Of all the industries HSE monitors, the waste management and recycling industry has the highest fatal incident rate, figures that are well above both construction and agriculture. This is simply unacceptable. I welcome this new website as a place where the industry can obtain free advice. The industry itself must take steps to instil effective health and safety management and develop a sensible health and safety culture.' Trevor Hay, chair of the Waste Industry Safety and Health forum (WISH), commented: 'Sadly, the waste and recycling industry compares unfavourably with most other industries in its health and safety performance. This new site is designed to help the industry improve its performance and because it is so easy to get to and to use, effort will not be wasted in this rapidly growing industry.' EVENTS AND COURSESTUC courses for safety repsCOURSES FOR SEPTEMBER TO DECEMBER 2004Midlands, North, North West, Scotland, South East, South West, Wales, Yorkshire and Humberside Health and safety fringe events at TUC Congress 2004TUC has compiled a listing of the official and unofficial fringe meetings at TUC’s Congress, to run in Brighton from 13-16 September. The health and safety meetings are listed here: Monday, 13 September * 12.00 noon: GMB Northern Region - Asbestos. Venue: Clarence Room, Hilton Brighton Metropole Hotel. * 12.45pm: TGWU - The Gangmaster Act 2004: Protecting workers from rogue employers. Speakers: Jack Dromey, deputy general secretary, TGWU; Dan Rees, director, Ethical Trading Initiative; Hsiao-Hung Pai, The Guardian. Venue: The Albert Room, The Grand Hotel * 5.30pm: Usdaw - Pushing for better maternity rights. Campaigning for better maternity rights and launch of an Usdaw report, Pregnancy discrimination in retail. Speakers: John Hannett, general secretary, Usdaw; Kay Carberry, EOC commissioner and assistant general secretary, TUC; Ruba Sivagnanam, head of policy, Maternity Alliance. Chair: Marge Carey, president, Usdaw. Venue: Meeting Room 1, Brighton Centre. * 5.30pm: TUC - Smoke at work. Speakers: Deborah Arnott, director of Action on Smoking and Health (ASH); Mike Ainsley, GMB casino workers; Donna Covey, chief executive, Asthma Society; John Hall, Thompsons Solicitors. Venue: Meeting Room 4, Brighton Centre. Tuesday, 14 September * 12.45pm: Asthma UK and BFAWU - Asthma at work - your Charter. Launch of charter. Speakers: Donna Covey, chief executive, Asthma UK; Ronnie Draper, president, BFAWU. Chair: Stephen Hesford MP. Venue: Hilton Metropole Hotel, Kings Road. * 5.30pm: Internationalism at work: Justice for South African miners. The purpose of this Thompsons Solicitors’ organised event is to set out the history of asbestos mining in South Africa, and the workers' post-apartheid struggle for compensation for asbestosis and mesothelioma. The meeting will also establish the follow-on case to get compensation for other miners and better, safer, working conditions. Speakers: Tom Jones, Thompsons Solicitors; others to be confirmed. Chair: Dave Guy, Durham NUM. Venue: Meeting Room 1, Brighton Centre. * 6.00pm: Government inaction is costing workers lives! A London Hazards Centre-organised event to look at the 'nuts and bolts' improvements still needed to improve workplace safety in the UK. Speakers: Anne Jones, Simon Jones Memorial Campaign; Courtney Davis, Centre for Corporate Accountability; Mick Holder, London Hazards Centre. Venue: Old Ship Hotel, Kings Rd. Further details. Wednesday, 15 September * 8.15am: TUC/Oxfam - Toast the workers. Following the success of 'Play fair at the Olympics,' where does the campaign on labour rights go now? Speakers: Kay Carberry, assistant general secretary, TUC; Diana Holland, TGWU; Gina Hocking, Oxfam. Chair: Hilary Benn MP, secretary of state, DFID (invited). Venue: Belgrave Hotel, Kings Road. * 12.45pm: TUC/ACTSA - HIV/AIDS - the workplace response. An opportunity for trade union activists to discuss key issues ahead of a TUC conference to be held on Saturday 4 December 2004 in Congress House. Speakers: Hilary Benn MP, secretary of state for international development; Susan Leather, ILO programme on HIV/AIDS and the world of work; Aditi Sharma, campaigns director, Action for Southern Africa; trade unionist from Southern Africa. Chair: Sir Bill Morris, former general secretary, TGWU. Venue: Meeting Room 6, Brighton Centre. * 12.45pm: TUC - Drugs and the workplace. Venue: Meeting Room 5, Brighton Centre. USEFUL LINKSVisit the TUC http://www.tuc.org.uk/h_and_s/ website pages on health and safety. See what’s on offer from TUC Publications and What’s On in health and safety.Subscribe to Hazards magazine, supported by the TUC as a key source of information for union safety reps.What’s new in the HSC/E and the European Agency.HSE Books, PO Box 1999, Sudbury, Suffolk CO10 2WA. Tel: 01787 881165; fax: 01787 313995. |
The government has insisted it will press ahead with plans for new corporate killing laws, but conceded there will be further delays. The Home Office says it will publish a draft bill by the end of November but it is not expect a bill will be included the Queen's Speech. A new law has been Labour Party policy since 1997 and a manifesto commitment since 2001. The renewed pledge came after corporate manslaughter charges against Railtrack over the Hatfield train crash were dropped (Newsletter (5,000 words) issued 10 Sep 2004
