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Despite the best attempts of the British weather to disrupt everyone's travel plans with heavy rain and floods, IOSH and many of its members made the traditional trip to Harrogate for two days last month. In a change from previous years, the Royal Hall hosted two one-day conferences on 7/8 November with a major health and safety exhibition in Halls A and B of the International Centre.
The first day, Tuesday, was organised by the Yorkshire branch of the Institution. Entitled "Fit to survive? - loss control in perspective", the seminar focused on matters relating to emergency planning, recovery and loss control. Immediate past president Nina Wrightson opened the session by recalling some major accidents that have occurred over the last 25 years. It was an evocative presentation that warned of the need to learn the lessons from past disasters and not to just hope that it won't happen again - a point reiterated throughout the day, especially during the case studies.
The IOSH Construction Specialist Group sponsored Wednesday's proceedings and under the banner "Positive results", examined contemporary construction sector issues. Wednesday afternoon incorporated the well-received Douglas Short Memorial Lecture given by Michael Huvane, European director of safety from JMJ Associates. Huvane opened his talk on an integrated approach to safety by stating that the only appropriate commitment to safety must be the elimination of all accidents. To illustrate how this "integral approach" can work, he spoke of a construction project at the Intel factory in Ireland which, despite one million man-hours of work, was completed without a single accident - a quite considerable achievement.
As the conference and exhibition came to a close, the time had come for IOSH to bid a fond farewell to Harrogate - for the time being at least. The annual conference and exhibition are to be moved annually around the country from next year, and on 7-8 March 2001, Bournemouth will play host to the Institution.
For further information on IOSH 2001 at the Bournemouth International Centre, contact Alison Hendy at IBC, tel: 020 7453 5403.
