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Wednesday, September 26, 2012

workers health and safety - not a priority

Thousands of people are being killed or seriously injured at work because of drastic cutbacks at the UK Government's Health and Safety Executive (HSE), experts are warning. An 80-page report by Stirling University blames a steep rise in major workplace injuries on deep cuts in funding, staff, inspections and enforcement. Just one in 20 major injuries are now investigated by the HSE, and only one in 170 results in prosecution.

Over the past five years the number of major and fatal injuries at work in the UK has increased by 2700 per year, the report says. In the same period, the proportion investigated by HSE has fallen from 8% to 5%, while those prosecuted dropped from 1% to 0.6%. Scotland suffers higher workplace sickness rates than the rest of the UK, yet only 1% of the 2500 fatal and major injuries per year results in prosecutions. The HSE has only one part-time medic to cover Scotland's 2.5 million workers

The HSE's budget has been cut by 13% from £228 million in 2009-10 to £199m in 2011-12, with further cuts planned. Its staff numbers have been reduced by 22% from 3702 in 2010 to 2889 in June this year. The Sunday Herald reported that the number of industrial sites inspected by Scottish Environment Protection Agency had been cut by one-third in a year.

 The HSE is becoming a "threadbare" agency, say the report's authors, Professors Rory O'Neill and Andrew Watterson, from Stirling University's Occupational and Environmental Health Research Group: "Workplace safety inspections are now so infrequent it is unlikely most workers will ever encounter an inspector in a working lifetime...Between the catastrophes, the slow disaster of more routine environmental and workplace harm continues unabated and largely unpoliced" 

Prospect, the trade union that represents HSE inspectors and specialist staff, has warned that cutbacks have reduced proactive inspections of high-hazard sites by one-third, while most workplaces are exempt from unannounced, preventive inspections.

 Efforts by the health and safety watchdog to prevent the 8000 deaths caused each year by work-related cancers have been condemned as "feeble" according to Professor Andrew Watterson. An HSE board meeting report said cancers were to blame for 8000 of the 12,000 deaths a year due to occupational illnesses.

In addition, there were 14,000 new cases of workplace cancers registered every year. By far the biggest killer is asbestos, which is responsible for nearly 4000 deaths a year. Up to 1.8 million tradespeople are at risk of getting mesothelioma and cancers of the lung, larynx and stomach from exposure to asbestos in buildings. But the HSE, a government body, has recently ended its "hidden killer" campaign aimed at highlighting the dangers. Up to 800 deaths a year are caused when stonemasons, quarriers, foundry workers and others inhale silica dust. More than 600 deaths are attributed to exhaust emissions from diesel engines, including of drivers, miners and construction workers. There is evidence that the stress of prolonged night shifts can trigger more than 500 fatal breast cancers a year. Other major causes of occupational cancers are paints, welding, a toxic chemical used in dry cleaning and radon, a radioactive gas.

 Watterson wants the HSE to crack down on companies that expose workers to cancer risks. He accused the HSE of failing to respond to repeated calls for action since the 1980s, saying: "It appears to lack expertise and staff to address this subject, partly due to the rundown of its occupational medicine staff and the massive Westminster cuts that it has received." Inspectors are being pulled back from checking on plants packed full of cancer-causing chemicals, Watterson alleged.

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