Accident at Work Prevention: News Roundup

UN World Day for Safety and Health at Work

The 28th April 2014 marked the United Nations World Day for Safety and Health at Work. This is an annual event which has been running since 2003 and is observed by the International Labour Organisation (ILO).

The theme of this year’s World Day for Safety and Health at Work was chemicals at work. The date of the 28th April has long been associated with the World’s Trade Unions Movements commemoration of the victims of accidents in the workplace and of occupational diseases. You can find out more about this at www.un.org/en/events/safeworkday. The International Labour Organisation have identified chemicals for this year as being a particular issue which they wanted to address. They produced a report on this which shows that while the use of chemicals can be unavoidable the usual necessary steps should be taken to prevent and control potential risks for the worker, workplaces, communities and the environment. They note in their report that whilst chemicals have a broad range of benefits, they do have health hazards. Chemicals can cause cancers and other diseases and pose physical hazards such as environmental and wide spread contamination toxicity to aquatic life.

At Carmody Moran Solicitors we have had experience, of acting for people who sustained injury by way of chemical exposure in particular burns caused by hazardous chemical coming into contact with skin and, eye injuries from splashes.

• If you require any further information in relation to this please do not hesitate to contact one of our solicitors.

Health and Safety Authority: BeSMART.ie reaches 20,000.00 users

The Health and Safety Authorities electronic risk assessment tool BeSMART.ie, hit the 20,000 user mark on the 2nd May 2014.

The Health and Safety Authority started BeSMART.ie to try to reduce the amount of workplace accidents which have taken place over the years and is a free easy to use. It allows employers to generate their own safety statement and to carry out their own risk assessment as to hazards in the workplace in order to avoid injury at work. Each employer under the health and safety legislation must have a safety statement which the Health and Safety Authority define as a written commitment to managing health and safety in your business and how (the employer) is going to do this. The initiative’s aim is to cut down on the thousands of workplace accidents and fatalities which occur every year and is something which can only be welcomed. The Health and Safety Authority under the BeSMART.ie initiative have also produced a large number of guidelines for employers to help cut down on injuries at work by helping employers to identify hazards and to take appropriate precautions to avoid injury in the first place.