Put health first in 2010
Businesses have been urged to make 2010 the safest and healthiest year yet. John Holden, president of the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health, said businesses needed to make improving health and safety their 2010 New Year’s resolution, in particular promoting good work-life balance, a good safety culture, clamping down on bullying, and creating opportunities for people to be more healthy.
London speed limits reduce road injuries
The introduction of 20mph traffic speed zones in London has reduced road injuries by more than 40%, new research has suggested. The study published on BMJ.com found that 20mph zones prevented 203 casualties each year, and could prevent a further 692 if such zones were extended further within the capital.
Staff report working in ‘unsafe environments’
More than a third of employees believe they work in an unsafe environment, with a fifth complaining that their co-workers are “dangerous”. A poll of 1,000 UK staff by recruiter and support services company Resource GB found 40% said their firms had cut their cleaning and maintenance budgets since the beginning of the recession, with a quarter of those polled saying they now worked in dirty offices as a result.
Construction firm fined
A construction firm from Gateshead has been ordered to pay £4,500 after one of its workers was seriously injured when a forklift truck telehandler he was operating overturned. The Health and Safety Executive prosecuted Meldrum Construction Services following the incident at its site in Northumberland in July 2008. The worker was lifting roof trusses when the forklift truck telehandler that he was operating, and on which he was not trained or wearing a seatbelt, overturned. He suffered multiple fractures, leaving him unable to return to his job.
