October 2009

“Most of my day-to-day work involves refurbishing and repairing old properties. The stripping out of old kitchens and bathrooms etc – not to mention the demolition of walls, results in clouds of dust. We keep windows and doors open where we can – but we still breathe in a lot of muck – are we damaging our health and if so, what measures can we take to reduce the risk?”

One of the most common illnesses resulting from prolonged exposure to building dust is silicosis, caused by crystalline silica. This is present in sand, sandstone and granite, clay, shale, slate, concrete and mortar and the use of power tools to cut or dress stone opens up workers to high exposure. People with silicosis suffer from scarring of lung tissue which leads to breathing difficulties.

The most common is progressive silicosis, caused by exposure over a longer period. Victims suffer severe shortness of breath and the effect continues to develop after exposure has stopped. It is also irreversible.

You should certainly reduce your exposure to silica. In most cases it is possible to control this using dust suppression techniques or local exhaust ventilation. Exhaust ventilated tools are widely available, and capturing or controlling the dust at source is nearly always better than attempting to control exposure by ventilating the whole area.

Respiratory protective equipment (RPE) may need to be provided as well. Guidance on the selection and use of RPE is contained in the HSE booklet: Respiratory protective equipment: A practical guide.

Where workers are regularly exposed to respirable crystalline silica then health surveillance which includes a respiratory questionnaire and lung function testing should be provided, plus, if on an individual basis the doctor thinks it’s necessary, a chest X-ray.

For more detailed information refer to the HSE Guidance Note: Respirable crystalline silica.

May 2009

A new film demonstrates the behavioural changes businesses need to make to reduce deaths and accidents in the construction industry.

ConstructionSkills and UCATT have joined forces to encourage construction firms to improve on-site communication in a bid to reduce numbers of accidents in the industry.

Through the Worker Engagement Toolkit, a new film developed by ConstructionSkills and the Union of Construction, Allied Trades and Technicians (UCATT), construction firms can learn that communication between employers and workers can dramatically increase health and safety awareness, and therefore lead to a reduction in the number of accidents. In addition, effective worker engagement can help to increase turnover, and help firms to safeguard their business during tough times. The interview-led, 30-minute film examines all levels of a variety of businesses, speaking to managing directors, foremen and workers, and offers working examples of how accidents have reduced over time when worker engagement has been effectively carried out. The Health and Safety Executive was also involved in developing the DVD, which has been identified by the Strategic Forum for Construction Worker Involvement Group as the best toolkit on the market.

Good communication prevents accidents

Recent research by Glasgow Caledonian University, commissioned by the HSE, found that the lack of communication between management and the workforce was an on-going problem that led to accidents taking place when simple communication could have prevented them. As a result ConstructionSkills and UCATT have been working together to address the root causes of the patterns in behaviour that can lead to accidents occurring.

Kevin Fear, Head of Health, Safety and Environment at ConstructionSkills said:

“This Toolkit aims to encourage firms to take on-site health and safety a step further and implement worker engagement at a higher level, in order to help eliminate the number of accidents across the industry. We have already seen evidence that worker engagement is vital in terms of driving down accident and fatality rates, and as the industry’s Sector Skills Council, we want to promote this across the board using this film as a guide. With entire workforces becoming more open and honest, both productivity and safety can be improved.”

Alan Ritchie, General Secretary of the Construction Union, UCATT, said: “All the evidence shows that construction sites which are well organised, where workers are directly employed and where there are a high number of independent health and safety representatives, are far safer than casualised sites where bosses pay lip service to safety.

“This new DVD is a useful tool in reinforcing the message to employers that effective worker involvement is a major factor in reducing deaths and injuries at work.”

About ConstructionSkills

ConstructionSkills is the Sector Skills Council (SSC) for the construction industry. As a partnership between CITB-ConstructionSkills, CIC and CITB Northern Ireland, it is UK-wide and represents the whole industry from professional consultancies to major contractors and SMEs.

About UCATT

UCATT represents 125,000 members employed in the construction industry throughout the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland. UCATT’s General Secretary Alan Ritchie is the Chair of the Strategic Forum for Construction (SFfC) Encouraging Worker Involvement Working Group.

The first 20 copies of the DVD are free on a first come first served basis after which it will cost £20 and is available to buy from ConstructionSkills at: http://www.cskills.org/supportbusiness/publications/index.aspx?productid=3537

October 2009

It is becoming very difficult to tender for work for councils, housing associations and larger clients without submitting your company to the scrutiny of third party safety assessment auditors. The workplace has become a very litigious place to operate in and the procuring client has to reduce the risk of accidents and ill health, together with limiting the liability of a negligence claim.

The Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 specifies a strict legal duty of care for employers, or persons instructing work, to provide safe systems of work for the benefit of the workforce and also to those who may be affected by the work process. Clients (or instructing procurement teams) in the first instance have to prove that they have appointed properly resourced companies who are trained and competent to carry out the “contracted out” function or project.

WHAT YOUR ASSESSOR OR POTENTIAL CLIENT WANTS TO SEE

A signed and dated safety policy, which includes:

1. An organisation chart showing how your company divides up its legal duties and management responsibilities

2. A list and record of the training, vocational awards, certification and certificates of accreditation for specialist skills. In-house induction training, tool box talks checklist and safety awareness records and certificates should also be sent to the assessor - they show how your company deals with organising and training your workforce

3. The CV or accreditation of your third party safety advisors and/or your in-house safety manager.

Task relevant and site specific risk assessment procedures

Risk assessing work processes forms part of the safe working procedures and management systems of a company. Date your risk assessment to show when it was carried out, and give the name of the person who undertook it. The risk assessment itself should always show what residual risk the work person will be exposed to if the control measures are carefully observed. The Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 states that it is a legal requirement to carry out risk assessments as your insurance cover is conditional on your correct identification of the inherent risks of your work.

COSHH Information
(Control of substances hazardous to health)

For some work tasks, using acid based substances or solvent based materials are unavoidable. The assessor wants to see that you take formal steps to identify and consider safe working processes to reduce the risk of working with materials that might be hazardous to the health of the work force or people in the vicinity.

The assessor needs evidence that you carry out safe systems of work which are applied in a proactive manner. Binding up generic documentation and guidance will not convince even the most inexperienced safety auditor who will probably analyse your information with software designed to ensure that your responses are coherent, and in line with CDM Regulations and other regulations which demand that a company has demonstrable safe systems of work.

This section of your tender should include your waste removal plan, to show how you deal with regulatory requirements, and that you undertake the efficient dispensation of good environmental management techniques in a way that will not harm the environment.

Environmental management

Some assessors might ask for evidence of your proactive attitude to environmental management. They may want to verify that you have reached ISO14001 standard, or that you have undertaken an independent review of waste removal, recycling and energy use (See This month's 'Princebuild' article). 

FEEDBACK PROCESS

All your policies should include a proactive feedback process that is shown to work; ie one which generates a record to form an audit trail of responses, if the safe working procedures or system of work fail.

If anything does go wrong and an accident happens, a safety investigator or the safety inspector will look at the audit trail of an event leading up to the accident, so make sure that your audit trails and records show why you made certain decisions. Not only does the law require you to keep records, it can save an enormous amount of time if the prosecuting agency decides you have not acted in a reckless manner.

OTHER DOCUMENTS

Always qualify your safety assessments with a ‘non exhaustive’ description, because each service bid will have different technical needs. The descriptions here mainly relate to the duty of care directors hold, the safe systems of work we employ in the workplace and how we proactively operate those systems; culminating in the need to keep records and show how we made decisions.

Assessors might ask to see other documents such as:

1. How you present your safety policies, new process information and workplace guidance to your workforce. (Employee handbooks, induction and management meetings etc)

2. Evidence of safety meetings attended by a good cross section of the company

3. Evidence about how you select and maintain safe working equipment and carry out PAT testing

4. Fire risk assessment in the office, workplace and mobile work site

5. Emergency procedures for staff and client’s employees

6. Risk assessment checklists which should be recorded in your company archives

7. Any job specific safety guidance manuals, specialist working procedures or common guidance for specific tasks, and information about how this knowledge is transferred to the workforce.

FOR MORE INFORMATION

• Improve your existing knowledge and safety documentation by visiting websites such as www.hse.gov.uk, www.envirowise.gov.uk

• Have discussons with your team about how you can refresh your safe working procedures and the formal information you use in the workplace

• Make your working documents eye catching - use colour and pictures to convey the safety message to users and safety auditors.

If you need help on the road to compliance, contact PH&S on 020 8778 7838 or visit www.healthandsafety.co.uk

They can mentor you, your managers and employees to help you to fill in the applications and put you on the right track.