Healthy Workplace Campaign
HEALTHY WORKPLACES: GOOD FOR YOU, GOOD FOR BUSINESS
Healthy Workplaces is a two-year campaign which aims to promote a management approach to risk assessment.
The two-year campaign seeks to convey clearly that risk assessment is a step-by-step examination of all aspects of work undertaken.
Risk assessment need not necessarily be complicated, bureaucratic or a task only for experts.
Why Risk Assessment?
Every 3.5 minutes, somebody in the EU dies from work-related causes!
167,000deaths are caused each year as a result of either work-related accidents (7,500) or occupational diseases e.g. asbestosis (159,500).
Every 4.5 seconds, a worker in the EU is involved in an accident that forces him/her to stay at home for at least 3 working days ie more that 7 million accidents a year.
Source: European Agency for Safety and Health at Work.
These all come at huge costs:
- Human costs
- Business costs
- Costs for society
A prevention approach based on risk assessment aims to put measures in place to prevent such accidents and diseases.
What is a risk assessment?
Risk assessment is the process of evaluating health and safety risks arising form hazards in the workplace.
A hazard is anything that may cause harm e.g. chemicals, electricity, machinery and equipment, an open drawer, aspects of work organisation, etc.
The risk is the chance or probability, high or low, that somebody could be harmed by these or other hazards.
A risk assessment is therefore a careful and systematic examination of all aspects of the work undertaken to consider what could cause injury or harm, whether the hazards could be eliminated and, if not, what preventive or protective measures are, or should be, in place to control the risks.
Employers’ duties
Employers in each workplace have a moral duty and a legal responsibility to ensure the safety and health of workers. A risk assessment enables effective measures to be put in place to protect the safety and health of workers.
These include:
- Preventing occupational risks
- Providing information and training to workers
- Putting in place the organisation and means to implement the necessary measures.
A risk assessment will help employers and other people responsible to:
- Identify the hazards in the workplace and those at risk
- Evaluate the risks associated with those hazards
- Determine what measures should be taken to protect the safety and health of employees and others
- Put in place the preventive and protective measures
- Monitor and review whether the measures in place are working
What is Dungannon & South Tyrone Borough Council doing as part of the campaign?
The campaign will run throughout 2008 and 2009 and has featured two European Weeks of Safety and Health, in October 2008 and October 2009.
Dungannon and South Tyrone Borough Council are organising information seminars to assist local businesses in completing their own risk assessments in addition to their focus during routine inspections of premises.
Who else can take part in the campaign?
The campaign is open to all organisations and individuals at local, national and European level, including:
- Employers
- Managers, supervisors and workers
- Trades unions and safety representatives
- Health and Safety professionals
- Education providers
How can you get involved?
On the campaign website at http://hw.osha.europa.eu you will find a wide variety of campaign material in 22 EU languages e.g. fact sheets, good practice case studies, cartoon videos, links to related sites.
The Health and Safety Executive website www.hse.gov.uk/risk also has lots of information on practical steps to protect people from risks. Example risk assessments for various workplaces are also available to download at www.hse.gov.uk/risk/casestudies.
The EU – Occupational Safety and Health Agency (OSHA) has put in place a number of channels and actions to give visibility to those who get involved in the Healthy Workplaces campaign. There are two levels:
- Participation: Everyone involved in the campaign can download a Certificate of Participation to print and display, along with an online flash banner for your website.
If you have any further questions or need more information please contact the Environmental Health Division. Telephone Melanie Patterson (Lead EHO for Health and Safety) on 02887 720366 or email melanie.patterson@dungannon.gov.uk.
If you have any further questions or need more information please contact the Environmental Health Service. Email melanie.patterson@dungannon.gov.uk or telephone 028 87720367.
