Good health is good business (1999)

[Music] [Music] of the 27 million people who worked in Great Britain last year one in 20 suffered an illness caused by that work that's a loss of18 million working days and a cost to Society of up to some1 billion in 1995 the health and safety executive launched a campaign good health is good business to tackle this serious problem of work-related illness and to persuade managers of a simple truth that their businesses will suffer if their work makes their employees ill with possibly disastrous consequences for their long-term Health when my hands all like split the skin was like totally dried up and it was just start splitting really hard and like bleeding little blisters weeping your lungs just tighten up it's like you somebody's trying to strangle you you know fighting for air and you just can't get it my social life went I didn't go out I I just refused to go out my wife used to go and get me two or three tens of beer at the weekend and that and why don't you go I I can't go out like this I can't pursue things I wanted to do my career-wise sport wise I mean I can't do them because I got to take medication all the time it felt at its worst I could I could have had my hands amputated and I'd have been no worse off than what I was you know when I was at his worst I presumed um my place of work was a safe place and um I was proved wrong and I'm now paying the price with uh ill health and no job the biggest cause of illness at work is strain injury an estimated 1.2 million workers suffer arm shoulder back and leg problems brought on by their work more than half blame lifting and carrying activities an estimated 10 million working days a year are lost to these musculosceletal disorders but there are solutions we used to lift approximately 250 sheets an hour uh consequently through that I had a shoulder injury through lifting above shoulder height constantly I had to stop playing football jobs about the house the eyi and gardening had to stop as well we decided that we would have to introduce some form of automation on the end of the line so we started to look at the possible benefits on on productivity in the past because of manual handling of the sheets the rate of the machine operating was slower because we had to manually handle the sheets onto the stacks so we looked at the type of Machinery that was available calculated the possible cost benefits of introducing it and we're able to justify the £120,000 expenditure and pay it back within two years with the palz are now in operation the sheets run along the paltier and are automatically stacked the injury to me shoulder has cleared up I can now do jobs around the home I DIY and gardening so now that we've got our brand new palletization machine not only have we got the 20% Improvement in productivity that we wanted but we've also removed all the back and shoulder problems that we had before we're happy the workforce are happy end of story but Solutions don't always need to be expensive working in cramp conditions like loading a van is an all too common cause of strain injury simple measures like replacing worn out wooden flooring with steel profile flooring across which loads can slide easily or better still changing to a sideloading van can lessen the risks where lifting is inevitable keeping bundles small and marking a maximum load height on roll cages to stop overloading can prevent consequent back strain making sure that equipment is checked and well serviced will also help prevent injury it's easy to check that wheels are free running and that any debris is removed and not left lying around on the workplace FL floor bend the knees and drop the load between it keeping yourself stable at all times and if lifting can't be avoided training workers how to do it properly can eliminate a lot of problems strain injury may be the biggest cause of work induced Illness but it can be tackled in quite common sense ways similarly the risk of RSI type pain can be avoided by regular job rotation so repetitive tasks are not done for too long noise is another major cause of injury in the workplace some 170,000 people consider that they're suffering hearing loss or other ear conditions caused by their work and noise hazards can occur in some unexpected places the S are very clean at feeding time therefore because if they're clean they scream a lot and it is a scream literally you can act shake with the noise believe it or not noise is that deafening is that many sours in there but it literally shakes you which is why you do need ear Defenders definitely personal protective equipment or PPE for short may not be a complete answer and may need to be combined with other measures it's best to eliminate the risk altogether the first step is to find out where you have a problem as they did in this noisy printing plant now our main problem is the the turbo here um for noise level one of the the problems that a a printing Factory has is noise and we've um to to make improvements in the the level of Noise We have removed the noisy air pumps from each of the presses and put them into a soundproof room this was a relatively inexpensive uh operation and we've made a huge reduction in the amount of noise uh in the machine room and once action has been taken to deal with the potential Hazard managers should always follow up to see that what they've done is working but there are many areas of Industry where the dangers may be less obvious breathing in or handling many substances both natural and chemical can lead to serious illnesses like asthma and dermatitis where you're handling products that may cause harm to your workers the first priority must be to check the possible side effects of anything that you're using hi I just wanted some information on one of the products I've seen two and three people leave at one time because of Occupational dermatitis so it's important that we do something about it occupational dermatitis hits an estimated 66,000 people a year and loses business half a million days but sometimes potential health hazards are less obvious the operatives were experiencing uh problems with this with with a smell they couldn't identify what the smell was we got an expert into to test the system uh and found out that it was actually from alahh gas which was being produced off the glue line um and we had we we decided to do something about that so we got the experts in and they suggested that we put a hood over the machine with an inline fan and ducked it to the outside the operatives said that they noticed a difference and we were all happy with that many industries make routine daily use of industrial solvents it's estim ated that over 7 million workers across industry are exposed to potential damage to the eyes skin Airways and lungs but there are alternatives we started using the aromatic free cleaning agent over 6 months ago we use it on the automatic system on our five-color press we use it manually both on a blanket wash and roller wash on our two-color presses we introduced the products on health and safety grounds and also on a cost cutting exercise it is more expensive per liter but we use far less and it works out a lot cheaper just after we had the pressing scored I was getting lots of breathing problems sore throat chest infections that I couldn't K since I've been using the new product this improved significantly agriculture too has a high exposure to potentially dangerous substances and where hazardous procedures are involved training workers in the correct technique is vital [Music] drugs and other hazardous substances must always be safely locked away and where the use of potentially harmful pesticides is unavoidable safety features like personal protective equipment and this low-level induction Hopper help reduce risks to a minimum employers are responsible in law for the safety of their employees hazardous procedures should be carried out at times when they will be least affected like the low-level spraying of this greenhouse overnight and all employees must be made aware of potential risks hand in the chemical follow the instructions most important thing of all where the use of hazardous chemicals is an inevitable part of a process it's essential to observe the control of substances hazardous to health or Kos regulations these are rigorously enforced by hsse injury to a member of your Workforce can cost you dearly whenever possible have an emergency spillage kit available on the shop floor providing a plentiful supply of suitable gloves and making sure they change frequently is another essential as is providing suitable washing facilities for your workers a further cause of Occupational ill health comes from the prolonged use of powered handheld tools an estimated 1.2 million workers are at risk of developing hand arm vibration syndrome a permanently disabling range of conditions that affect the hands and arms the management of health and safety at work regulations require assessment of the risks from tools producing heavy hand arm vibration it may be possible to change old tools for more modern ones which do less damage for the new needle scaler the vibration levels obtained are shown by the red line which is some 5 to 10 times lower than the line for the all needle scaler and obviously the more modern equipment is less damaging to the hands regular tool maintenance and ensuring that workers stop frequently and exercise their hands will also help but the most important thing as with any other occupational injury is that any symptoms are reported early now as you know this is this is sharp enough to be unpleasant does that feel sharp yeah I want you to tell me as I come down your hand if it changes in any way it just goes nor it goes numb on your thumb now we'll try each of the fingers in turn just goes numb setting up regular health screening of workers is vital carrying out regular examinations can help niit potential health problem problems amongst your employees in the bud before they become serious and if there isn't a doctor or nurse on the premises inspections can be carried out by someone suitably trained such as a supervisor on the factory floor it makes good business and humanitarian sense this year health and safety executive and local Authority inspectors will visit some half a million premises their job is not just to enforce the law they want to make sure that the aims of the good health is good business campaign are fully implemented if as an employer you ignore the potential risks within your premises this could lead not just to avoidable ill health amongst your Workforce but to absenteeism loss of productivity and a business that is performing less well than it ought to be right so this is the paint mixing so the good health is good business campaign makes excellent sense not just in legal terms but on economic and humanitarian grounds I see and will all of these rely on an isoc sinate containing hardener uh yes they will and we have a guide here that enables us but so these are the hazard data sheets then which tell you exactly correspond to all all of these individual cans I see there are four steps you should take to make sure your business is safe first find out if you have a a problem secondly decide what action to take there are a wide variety of choices open to you thirdly take action it may be less costly than you fear and will certainly make good business sense and fourthly and most importantly of all check to make sure that what you've done is working properly it's also your responsibility to fully inform your workers of any risks they may be running and inspectors will make sure they've been told of these risks the good health is good business campaign has made significant progress but there is more to be done and now is the time to do it act now and everyone will be happy [Music]