IOSH EDINBURGH BRANCH

Revised Minutes of 179th Edinburgh Branch Meeting

Craighouse Campus, Napier University, Edinburgh – Thursday 8 February 2007 - 130pm

Sederunt:       R Lovering       S Wilson          N Barclay        B M Davies     R Thomson         P Age

L Roberts        I Wilson           P Gallacher      J Cornwall        L Young           A James J O’Kane J C Peoples             J Marshall        J Dwyer           K Flockhart          I Sinclair          A Bell               J Scott

M Downer        S Hughes        A Russell         A Dick              E Preston        B Cherrie            S Scott

L MacNeill       D Millar            P Graham        K Lloyd            V Stewart        A McLeod           G Lyall

J Fisher           G Laing            G Marshall       J Little              H Kerr              T Kinnaird           B Gippert T Ambler     J Brannigan     R McLean        T Mellon             H Pearson       R Walker         P Brown G MacGregor           H Gardner             B Jackson       W Davidson    N Goveia         S Martinez       C Black

G Anderson     A Pittendrigh    M Bancroft      M Johnstone   C McVeigh

Apologies:  Ross Innes, Brian Morris, John Robertson, Ian Paton, Dave Sinclair, Simon Heesom, Tom Neilson, Neil Doherty, Jim Hepburn, Dick Morrison, Bob Bertram, Julian Davis, Liz Crichton, Andrew Wood, Susan Nazareth, Derek Cawkwell, Scott Page, Steve Boucher, Ronald Weir, Jim Hamilton, David Williams, Alastair Baily, Shiela McColm, Susan Nazareth, Derek Cawkwell, Scott Page, Steve Boucher, Ronald Weir, Jim Hamilton, David Williams.

1. Chair: Marion Johnstone took the Chair and outlined the Safety arrangements (Fire) and reminded people to switch off Mobiles. 

2. Minutes of previous meeting January 2007

• Receipt – anyone who hadn’t received their minutes should email the Secretary.

• Accuracy:. November 2006 Proposer – G MacGregor;   Seconder – .A Dick.

• Matters arising not on the Agenda   - none

3 Correspondence

Paths to Health (see pathsforall.org.uk)

• have developed a set of tools to help workplaces in Scotland get more active.

• have a workplace grants scheme to help fund innovative projects to promote physical activity

• have a Workplace pedometer pack and free online resources and advice

• have workplace training, to help build confidence with those who would like to encourage workplace walking groups (http://www.pathsforall.org.uk)

• working with the Centre for Healthy Working Lives (formerly SHAW) to promote the products. Require advice on how we can best communicate with employers to help them get their staff more active.

3.2 Events -Full details on Branch Website

• IOSH West of Scotland Branch, in partnership with the national road safety charity BRAKE (www.brake.org.uk) has arranged 2  half day Company Driver Safety training sessions. Free of charge to our members.          Tuesday the 22nd February 2007. 

• 22nd February 2007: Scottish Ergonomics Forum: Sharing Experience Seminar: 17:00 - 20:30: Glasgow Caledonian University (room A135/6 in the Govan Mbeki Health Building). Food and drink will be provided.  

McLure Naismith - Falls from Heights - Free Seminar

• Edinburgh office: Thursday 22nd February:  5.00pm.

• Guest speaker: Isabelle Martin, HSE Inspector. The other speaker will be one of our insurance lawyers covering the litigation aspects. Reserve via Joanne Blair (tel 0131 272 8333) E joblair@mcclurenaismith.com

4. Group Reports

Forth & Tay District: Will be moving their meeting day to the first Thursday of each alternate month for 2007-08 session.

Education - Neil Doherty

• Under the Government's Revitalising Health & Safety Strategy one of the objectives was to begin to raise awareness of health and safety and risk management whilst pupils were receiving primary school education.  In Scotland, schools were to be encouraged to follow the Health Education for Living Project, by incorporating environmental and workplace safety aspects into lessons plans.  Little information is available to measure if this approach is happening or working.

• A new web site has now been launched www.wiseup2work.co.uk .  The site provides teaching notes and a pack of activities.  The site is geared to 14 -19 year olds who may be preparing to leave school, and introduces students to hazards they are likely to face, and why appropriate controls are to be followed.  The course materials are supported by IOSH and are free to all users.

Healthcare: Meeting of the Healthcare SG Scottish Sector

• Tuesday 27, Feb 2007:- 13:00 Navy House Training Room, OHSAS, Rosyth

• Reporting adverse incidents, SAN (SC) 07/01, etc.

• OHSS review, options paper - open to discussion

• Progress on membership of other NHS groups

• Report back from main IOSH Specialist Groups meeting

• Current NHS H&S issues - open forum

Environment: Julian has circulated details of a Scottish Construction Forum meeting in Inverness visiting the HQ of SNH and looking at BREEAM – Building Research Establishments Environmental Assessment Method

Rural Industries:  Liz Crichton reports that next networking meeting Wed 25 April Sherwood Pines Forest Park.  Visitor Safety – Controlling Risk. More details on their website.

Consultants: Derek Cawkwell reported the first Branch  SG meet will take place 12.00 - 1.00 pm immediately prior to the main Branch Meeting at Craighouse on March 8. This is intended to be an initial meeting of consultants to determine what they wish from the group and to meet their peers. Additionally, a member of Croner Consulting's Sales Staff will attend which may be of interest to those who wish to discuss sales / marketing techniques.

Fire Risk Management: Paul Graham gave details of the Irish Branch Seminar.

Public Services: Marion reported that the Newsletter was now available.

5. Members Items

• Anyone know of trainers specialising in Manual Handling of People – email kenneth.bowman@dsl.pipex.com

• Risk Factory:  IOSH Development Fund following application from the Branch (via Andy Sharman) was sponsoring (up to £1000) a sheet in the workbook that would be given to all children attending the Factory.

•HSE Investigation – HSE had published general guidance on how they would select incidents for investigation.

• 10 minute presentation:

Allan Dick  –  Branch Representative on the Construction SG gave a presentation about the Group.

History & background

•IOSH was founded in 1945

•It has grown steadily in membership and stature due the work and diligence of its members

•Construction Division was established in the 1960s

•In 1998 it became Construction Specialist Group

•As at 16 August 2006, IOSH Membership was 30,012

•As at 16 August 2006, Construction  SG membership was 8,052 (27%),  making us the largest SG

•With the addition of two new Specialist Groups, there are now 16 in all

What does the Construction SG do?

•Provides a forum for members of the Institution sharing an interest in construction health & safety

•Facilitates networking

•Advises Council on possible initiatives that IOSH should support

•Provides a forum for consultation e.g new legislation, etc.

•Provides links with appropriate Gov. bodies & other relevant organisations e.g. HSC/E, MCG, CITB, SSAG

•Information on seminars, courses & newsletter

Strategy for 2006

•To contribute to the national effort to save lives and reduce work related accidents and ill health

•To improve the Group’s communications both with members and stakeholders

•To identify and promote best practice in construction health & safety

Current initiatives

•Considering the establishment of a best practice resource library

•Contributing to IOSH response on key consultation documents

•Continuing collaboration with Environmental SG

•InterConstruct conference in Dublin, August 2006

•Contributing to branch seminars

Achievements

•Welfare facilities on construction sites (2000)  

•Qualifications

• Development of construction health & safety training, for example:

• NEBOSH National Certificate in Construction Safety & Health

• NEBOSH National Diploma in Occupational Safety & Health Construction Part 1

• Establishment  of a twice yearly  Newsletter

•Books - Bryan Toone   Author

• Delivery of  conferences  and seminars eg: The annual Douglas Short Memorial Lecture

•Conferences

•InterConstruct 2003,  - a very successful international construction safety conference

• European Week 2004 one-day conference

•Stakeholder links

• HSE Construction Section

• Construction Confederation

• Senior Safety Advisors Group (SSAG)

• Working Well Together (WWT)

• CITB – ConstructionSkills

• Major Contractors Group (MCG)

What does the Construction SG do?

•Qualifications

•Training programmes

•Events

•Profile

•Communication

Contact us

Construction SG Administrator, Chrissie Walton, Specialist Groups Officer, IOSH, The Grange, Highfield Drive, Wigston, Leicestershire,  LE18 1NN Tel: 0116 257 3213 Fax: 0116 257 3107 E-mail: chrissie.walton@iosh.co.uk  IOSH website discussion forums and Construction SG web pages: www.iosh.co.uk/specialistgroups/construction

6. Guest Speaker

Cameron McVean

Road Safety Officer, Lothian & Borders Police, Road Safety Unit gave a presentation entitled:

Road Safety at Work, Why Bother?

Liz Young the Branch Development Adviser briefly introduced the speaker for the afternoon to the assembled members as Cameron McVean, who in turn introduced himself by pointing out that he was not a Police Officer. He had worked for 13 years in Road Safety within the Traffic Branch of Lothian & Borders Police Force. The department did not have a huge budget and they were publicly accountable, so why did they bother? Answer – They felt the very urgent need to raise awareness of road safety amongst all groups of road users.

Young male drivers only make up 10% of licence holders but they are involved in the largest group of traffic incidents (30%), but the second largest group consists occupational drivers, who Cameron described as those who spent either 100% or at least a large percentage of their working hours driving, which would include Sales Representatives, Service Engineers, etc and could well include IOSH Members. To illustrate this point he then showed a newspaper clipping headed “Safety Expert banned for shaving in his car” relating to Edward Hutcheson who was potted leaning across the car to look at himself shaving in the drivers mirror whilst he overtook a line of cars at 70mph as he stated he was running late to give a first aid demonstration.

Size of the issue

Cameron quoted a frequent saying of – “The cost of not knowing is always greater than the cost of finding out” and indicated that this is very pertinent with respect to road safety incidents related to working activities, particularly when you consider under current health & safety legislation every car/ van/ vehicle is considered to be a “place of work”.

Fleetsure – his Road Safety Unit within Lothian & Borders Police were doing all they could to encourage pro-active look at company car driving.

For years there had been no real and accurate picture of the number of road accidents which should be considered “at work” and RoSPA were leading a charge on use of outdated information when the Government finally prompted a pilot study through “C” division and found 35% of accidents were in fact work related and this was followed by the Department of Transport poster which most members are probably familiar with =

 - This being based on the findings and the final estimate of work related deaths being in the order of 1000 per year together with 80,000 injuries during the same period.

No industry would condone this level of injury and fatality statistics.

Why are the figures so high?

The speaker suggested the major issue was one of TIME and the way that modern living seems to have us all finding ourselves short on time – needing to be somewhere else quickly and under pressure to drive other than taking full accord of the conditions prevailing.

From a recent study it has been shown that –

57% of work driver regularly traveled in excess of 80mph on motorways

8% of work driver regularly travel in excess of 90mph on motorways

20% of work drivers admit to regular use of the mobile phone while driving

The speaker also suggested that a further factor may be the condition of the vehicle itself and it is a sad fact that individuals do not take as much care looking after company vehicles as they may take over their own.

One of the disturbing factors for the speaker was, that despite such a high level of incidents (NB He insisted on calling them incidents and not accidents, as he believed there was always someone who was to blame for the incident happening) was that very few (if any) individuals ever seemed to get punished for the incident. This is totally opposed to the conditions which you will find in other walks of life. If someone at work in a machine shop causes damage costing several thousand pounds to put right they would be almost certainly held accountable for it and receive some form of disciplinary action at the least.

Excess Speed

Think about traveling in a car in the 1970’s – if you were traveling close to 60mph you would be feeling it as very fast – the noise and vibration being very noticeable. However to do that nowadays in a modern car would be a very different condition – little noise or vibration and almost no sensation of speed

BUT – speeding doesn’t cause accidents – human error does, which probably comes from the lack of sensation of speed and lack of vision of the impending conditions.

Consider walking into your kitchen at home where someone has left a cupboard door open at head height and you walk into it - outcome may be a small bruise and some choice words. However, consider running into the same cabinet door rather than walking into it and the outcome could be very much more serious. It is the same on the road. Speed does not cause the accident, but the outcome becomes more serious – also consider the speed as inappropriate for the conditions

Too much Drink or Drugs

For years there was a huge problem but no real gauge of the problem, but now we have the law in place providing some details of limits. However the law makes no distinction between illicit and illegal drugs or those taken for legitimate reasons, it only considers the effect it has on the driver and any ensuing prosecution would be shown as a “drugs” conviction.

Consider “Tixylix” – the cough & cold treatment for children

It states on the package = “Not recommended for adults or children over 10yrs”

And the warning quotes = “May cause drowsiness. If affected do not drive or operate machinery”

How many fathers may well have taken some “Tixylix” before driving to work – if they get stopped and tested they could face prosecution on a “drugs” charge

Not enough sleep

The National Press recently showed the picture of the Army Convey lorry which went wrong in East Linton – when the driver fell asleep at the wheel and drove the lorry straight into a house because he had done a full week’s work prior to going on maneuvers that weekend.

The speaker was hopeful that the days had gone where employees were expected to drive from Aberdeen to Leeds – do a full day’s work and then have to drive home again.

This will be reinforced by legislation due to come onto the Statute Books on 11^th April 2007 whereby the amount of domestic driving will have to be limited to 10 hours in any one day. (For more information refer to Department of Transport VOSA “Drivers’ Hours and Tachograph Rules for Goods Vehicles in the UK and Europe” Second Edition: Effective from December 2006 – Ref - GV 262 (Second edition 12/2006))

Seatbelts

Legislation made it mandatory to wear seatbelts in the front of a vehicle from 1982 and surveys show that this is complied with in the main, however the use of rear seat belts is patchy and currently a number of campaigns are planned to increase the use of seat belt when in the rear.

Consider the issue – The vehicle hits a lamppost or other immoveable object at 30 mph – the vehicle stops in fractions of a second, but the bodies of the occupants are still moving forward at 30 mph – the bodies of the front seat passengers then hit the seatbelt which stops their outsides, but the inner organs are still moving until they hit the inside of their rib cages – then the air-bag explodes and tries to push them back at about 300 mph – THEN they are hit at the rear by any unrestrained rear seat passengers, or bags, or loads, or their dog etc coming forward at the original vehicle speed of 30 mph

Bad Driving

It has to be considered that some drivers are “rubbish” – the sort of driver who makes you glad to get out of the car – driving too fast, swerving round corners, braking late etc.

A number of Companies offer their employees a half-day driving assessment, particularly when they feel the drivers may be less than adequate, but unfortunately this is of little use as most of the “rubbish” driver are aware of what to do to pass the test and immediately afterwards revert to their original way of “rubbish” driving. Frequently this factor is exacerbated by the shortage of time and other pressures on the individual.

Are you prepared?

Have you done everything that is reasonable to do to ensure your employees are safe on the road. Remember that a civil court action could come forward several years in the future where your driver has either injured or even killed a 3^rd party, how could you prove that the driver was safe. Did he have regular medicals, was he taking any medicine at the time, do you check their licenses at regular intervals (how else will you know he/she has got points or even has been banned), etc.

Have you policies in place for

· Drivers under 25    - statistically they are a real menace

· Spouse and family drivers – what is vehicle used for at weekends

· Checking service intervals – be proactive, Company vehicle often miss services

· Snap inspection of vehicles – e.g. tyres are often ignored

· Trips overseas

· Towing

· Section 172 RTA Compliance – Same vehicle with a number of drivers – WHO was guilty of the speeding ticket you receive - £500 fine for first offence if you cannot state who it was

Mobile Phones

Mobile phone used to be shaped and weighing similar to a house brick, but now they are so small and fancy they are not just in the hands of business men but are almost part of the school uniform right from primary school and are in such frequent use by all and sundry. A survey by the Transport Research Laboratory undertaken on a simulator driven at 70 mph showed drivers reaction times before breaking to be :-

    Normal        Under influence of alcohol       Using a hands free      Using hand-held mobile

   31m (102ft)               35m (115ft)                      39m (128ft)                          45m (148ft)

almost a 50% increase in thinking time before breaking when using a hand-held mobile

Summary

 “Driving at Work” published by HSE with input from by Dept of Transport and Road Safety is to be considered in the same way as the “Highway Code” as guidance of good practice in managing work related road safety. Being issued by the HSE there is a likely increase in their increased involvement although as yet there is no indication of this.

Harsher penalties for rogue operators – there have already been cases of Company Directors being jailed where their approach is more “get the business done”. Responsibility always lies at board level, but is this specifically defined for road safety issues.

The “Road Death Investigation Manual” used by police forces into fatal accidents includes direction on actions where there is indication of a lack of a safe system of work and possible involvement of the HSE.

A number of voluntary schemes are available (it is FleetSure in Lothian & Borders) which are aimed at improving road safety which are more than just offering in-car training. Seminars are felt to be much more effective and the speaker showed one testimonial from a delegate on one of FleetSure presentations which indicated the delegate’s change in approach to driving.

7. Closing details

Date of next meeting

Edinburgh Branch: 8 March: Electrical Safety: HSE Initiatives - John Madden, HM Principal Specialist Inspector (Electrical & Control Systems Engineering)

Closure – Take away literature -Tea/Coffee – Mingle

Max Bancroft, MRSC, CMIOSH  

Branch Secretary