Health and Safety Statistics 2018

Published by the Health & Safety Executive on 31 October the latest statistics on work-related health and safety in Great Britain, including the following key annual figures (2017/18):

• 1.4 million working people suffering from work-related ill health
• 2,595 mesothelioma deaths due to past asbestos exposures (2016)
• 144 workers killed at work
• 555,000 injuries occurred at work according to the Labour Force Survey
• 71,062 injuries to employees reported under RIDDOR
• 30.7 million working days lost due to work-related ill health and workplace injury
• £15.0 billion estimated cost of injuries and ill health from current working conditions (2016/17)

hse.gov.uk

‘I’m David and I need some help’

‘I’m David and I need some help’ – in the powerful penultimate scene of the BBCs bodyguard we see David, having saved the day, head into Occupational Health and ask for help.

The Society of Occupational Medicine are calling for universal access to occupational health – because we all might at some point need help, but hopefully not in quite so dramatic fashion as David!

Click here to read the full story.

After-Hours Emails Negatively Impact on Employee Wellbeing

A study has found a link between emotional exhaustion and the organisational expectations of after-hours emails. It identifies email-related expectations as a job stressor along with other already established factors such as high workload, interpersonal conflicts, physical environment and time pressure.

It was found that it isn’t the amount of time that is spent on email that is the stress-inducing factor but the anticipatory stress due to an expectation of out of hours response to emails.

As a result, employees are unable to detach and feel exhausted regardless of the time spent on after hours emails. Managers can utilise strategies to help employees to detach from work out of hours.

sciencedaily.com

Mental Health

Mental health in the workplace:

Revised mental health guidance for managers jointly developed by mental health charity MIND and the CIPD has been produced. It sets out practical steps that employers can take to create a mentally healthy workplace plus guidance on preventative steps that can be taken.

Click here to see the guidance.

Mental Health at Work is a new online gateway to resources and information:

It was highlighted in the 2017 the Farmer-Stevenson review “Thriving at Work” that an estimated 300,000 people lose their jobs each year due to mental illness. The mental health charity Mind state that employers want to make mental health a priority but a third do not know here to go for information and guidance.

Collaboratively MIND and 11 key programme partners and funded by The Royal Foundation with Heads Together including the CIPD have developed a new online gateway to resources.

Occupational Asthma

Occupational asthma is a serious condition and is the most frequently reported work-related lung disease in the UK and can result in severe disability for workers. The groups most at risk include animal handlers, bakers and pastry makers, cleaners, nurses, chemical workers, food processing workers, hairdressers, health care workers paint sprayers, woodworkers and welders.

Employers should be aware of their responsibilities under health and safety laws and regulations and as part of secondary prevention should arrange regular health surveillance for workers who are at risk of developing occupational asthma. Not only does health surveillance offer early identification of health effects, thereby offering the best chance of preventing workers from getting worse, but it also provides additional information to inform employers if their control measures are effective.

whyoccupationalhealth.co.uk

Click here for your guide to occupational asthma.

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