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2012: the road to the games

Louis Wustemann | Features | HSW | 30.04.2008

It's been described as the equivalent of building two Terminal 5s in half the time. The transformation from scratch in six years of 2.5 square kilometres of industrial land in east London into performance space for the world's greatest athlete is a huge challenge. We begin a five-year chronicle of the steps to safeguard workers on the UK's biggest construction project.

Veolia sends assistance

Sara Bean | Features | HSW | 30.04.2008

Sara Bean talks to Europe's biggest waste handler about how roving safety assistants are helping keep accident rates down in its 80 UK sites.

Safety data sheets: part 2

Lawrence Bamber | Features | HSW | 07.04.2008

Whether you are likely to be compiling data sheets or interpreting them in the workplace, Element B2 of the NEBOSH syllabus says students must be able to outline their contents. In the second of two articles, Lawrence Bamber sets out the common contents of a safety data sheet.

Lowering the tones: noise in the entertainment sector

Becky Allen | Features | HSW | 07.04.2008

From this month, the music and entertainment sector has to fall in with new noise regulations. The change represents a potentially baffling challenge to the sector, and looks set to produce major changes both in attitude and practice in music venues across the UK. Becky Allen finds out how the Royal Opera House has coped.

A psychological approach to risk perception

David Fellows | Features | IIRSM Newsletter | 14.03.2008

The range and scope of individual psychology is large and diverse and ranges from the almost mystical to clinical or work based psychology. But what impact does it have on health and safety in the workplace? David Fellows FIIRSM asks.

Getting safety right on a multi-occupancy site

Lucie Ponting | Features | HSW | 07.03.2008

In a multi-occupancy site, individual employers need to work with each other, as well as with landlords and contractors, so that everyone knows exactly who is responsible for what and where. Without this, hazards can too easily slip through the net until something goes wrong or someone gets hurt. Where do your safety duties begin and end? Lucie Ponting finds out.

Staying in one piece: slips, trips and falls

Eddie Bailey | Features | HSW | 07.03.2008

Slips, trips and falls currently account for one fatality a week and 38% of all major workplace injuries. Last month the HSE launched a campaign, Shattered Lives, which is aimed at creating a step-change in the attitudes of both businesses and their workers in several sectors. The HSE's Eddie Bailey explains how it will help practitioners win hearts and minds.

Leeds Hospitals' burning issue

Sara Bean | Features | HSW | 06.03.2008

Peter Aldridge understands better than most how the Fire Safety Order works. He was awarded the Chubb-sponsored Fire Safety Manager of the Year prize at the annual Fire Industry Awards last June. Sara Bean talks to the award-winning fire safety manager about the challenges of complying with the new regulations.

When things go wrong - health and safety sentencing

Howard Fidderman | Features | HSB | 27.02.2008

Nine years after the Court of Appeal concluded that fines for health and safety offences were too low, how have the courts been sentencing employers convicted of health and safety crimes? And what will be the impact of the new sentencing guidelines for manslaughter when they come into force later this year? Howard Fidderman believes that sentencing should not be left to the courts.

Are your homeworkers secure?

Howard Fidderman | Features | HSW | 11.02.2008

Last month we looked at the more traditional health and safety aspects of homeworking, particularly equipment and electrical issues. In this concluding feature, Howard Fidderman considers the issues that have increased in importance - although not always in risk - over the past decade, including security and communications challenges.

Keeping safety high on the board agenda

Jocelyn Dorrell | Features | HSW | 11.02.2008

The supplier of half the UK's sugar has developed a model of director responsibility that goes way beyond any guidance, where board members are each responsible for discrete areas of safety such as fire or contractor management. Jocelyn Dorrell talks to British Sugar's company safety manager about the firm's director-led approach to safety management.

Demolition began with workers still inside

Features | HSP | 05.02.2008

A Hertfordshire trader who began to demolish a building while workers were still inside must pay £25,000 in fines and costs. An HSE investigation revealed SJB had not checked the area or issued any warning before beginning the work, with the inspector adding that it was a great mercy that no member of the public was injured.

Firm fined £20,000 after four hurt in floor collapse

Features | HSP | 28.01.2008

Construction firm Excelcare Developments has been fined £20,000 for safety failures which led to four workers being seriously injured when the floor they were working on collapsed. HSE Inspector Amanda Huff described the accident, which happened at a site in Bromley, as avoidable, adding that the firm broke every rule going.

Asda pays £267,000 for car park death

Features | HSP | 22.01.2008

Supermarket chain Asda has been fined £225,000 plus costs after admitting safety failures over the death of Kenneth Farr, who was killed when a security barrier smashed through the windscreen of his car as he drove into the car park of Asda's Cardiff Bay store.

SMEs: making small beautiful

Paul Reeve | Features | HSW | 14.01.2008

there is an array of health and safety information aimed at small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) and there is no doubt that some of it, for example the HSE's web-based information, is very good. In the first of a new series simplifying health and safety management for small businesses, Paul Reeve outlines the basics of a management system

Liverpool Council's ticket to drive

Jocelyn Dorrell | Features | HSW | 14.01.2008

The corporate manslaughter legislation has put driver safety in the spotlight. Jocelyn Dorrell reports on Liverpool City Council's behicle safety training programme, which involves every employee who drives as part of their job.

In peril on the sea

Becky Allen | Features | HSW | 11.01.2008

Lifeboats are archetypal pieces of safety equipment - they exist to protect lives. So why, asks Becky Allen, do they also kill and maim dozens of seafarers?

House of hazards?

Features | HSW | 11.01.2008

Numbers of home teleworkers have increased rapidly in the past decade as employers embrace flexible work patterns, pushed on by government encouragement and business demands. In the first of two articles, Howard Fidderman says discharging your duty to safeguard homeworkers is not so hard.

In safe hands

Chris Packham | Features | HSW | 11.01.2008

Much has been written about latex allergy, often referring to the epidemic that occurred from wearing natural rubber latex gloves. Unfortunately, some of what has been published doesn't correspond with the scientific evidence. Chris Packham looks at whether natural latex gloves really represent a health hazard.

What's in store for 2008

Features | HSW | 10.01.2008

We offer you the best guesses of some of the most senior figures in health and safety - including the HSE's chief executive and experts at the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), the Trades Union Congress (TUC) and the EEF manufacturers' organisation - of what will be the pressing issues this year.

The right connections

Lucie Ponting | Features | HSW | 03.01.2008

Workplace Health Connect, the government's ambitious £20-million two-year pilot project to help small and medium-sized businesses tackle key workplace health issues, gets the thumbs up from employers, reports Lucie Ponting, though it might be better renamed Workplace Safety Connect.

Safety by the book

Jocelyn Dorrell | Features | HSW | 18.12.2007

While libraries may traditionally be slow-paced, managing safety at the British Library is anything but. Many of these challenges stem from the sheer size of the British Library's undertaking. Jocelyn Dorrell talks to the British Library's head of safety about the challenges of protecting 2,000 staff, 400,000 visitors and 150 million items.