Risk, Health and Safety Information

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Health and Safety in the news this week

Workplace deaths are down – but it’s “no cause for celebration”

The HSE’s latest provisional workplace fatality figures show that 137 people died at work in 2016/17, the second lowest year on record. But many key figures across health and safety are speaking out about the “hidden figures” of between 20,000 and 50,000 deaths each year due to past poor working conditions of heart and lung diseases and work cancers.

Work related suicides are now also thought to be more than 100 per year, and over 2,500 people each year are dying from mesothelioma, with the UK having the highest incidence of disease in the world.

The headline figures

Overall fatalities:

• 2015/16 – 147 workers died
• 2014/15 – 142 workers died
• 2013/14 – 136 workers died
• 2012/13 – 150 workers died
• 2011/12 – 171 workers died

Fatalities by sector:

This year the construction and agriculture sectors had the highest number of deaths:

• 30 construction
• 27 agriculture
• 19 manufacturing
• 14 logistics
• 14 waste industry
• 33 Other

Fatalities by accident types:

• Struck by moving vehicle 31
• Falls from a height 25
• Struck by moving object 20
• Trapped by something collapsing/overturning 10
• Contact with moving machinery 8
• Contact with electricity 8

The GMB union, which has members across every sector of the British economy, said the official workplace death figures hide tens of thousands of related deaths, saying that the figure of 137 is “just the tip of the iceberg” and that every death demands justice and enforcement.

A spokesperson for IOSH said: “Work-related fatalities are entirely preventable so we must strive to reduce this number further”.

A fuller assessment of work-related ill-health and injuries, drawing on the HSE’s full range of data sources, will be provided as part of the annual Health and Safety Statistics released on 1 November 2017.

Source: www.shponline.co.uk

HSE Health and Safety Myths Buster

Supermarket deli refused to leave plastic wrapping on liver sausage stating that it was a ‘choking hazard’

A Supermarket deli refused to leave plastic wrapping on liver sausage stating that it was a ‘choking hazard’.

The HSE Myth Busters Challenge Panel decided that there is no health and safety reason for refusing to leave the original plastic wrapping on fresh liver sausage. The decision to remove the plastic wrapping from the fresh food at point of sale makes no sense, especially as the product is likely to be wrapped in some other form of plastic bag before being handed to the customer. Claiming removal of the product’s original wrapping was necessary for health and safety reasons is indeed a myth!

Source: www.hse.gov.uk