27 March 2004

Britain
TUC concern at HSE's "scattergun" consultations
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has launched a new interactive consultation system on its website, amid rising controversy over its "scattergun" consultation procedures.
Risks 149, 27 March 2004

Britain
Ex-potters investigate wheezy diseases
Volunteers are queuing up to take part in medical tests to identify chronic, disabling breathing difficulties in pottery workers.
Risks 149, 27 March 2004

Britain
Fire crews ballot over injured colleague
Firefighters in mid and west Wales are to be asked to back industrial action after a colleague with a bad back was dismissed.
Risks 149, 27 March 2004

Britain
Fury as Royal Mail axes thousands, hammers the rest
Top bosses in Royal Mail want managers to work extra hours, many of them without any extra pay, to offset the staffing shortages that will follow 3,000 "voluntary" redundancies. Amicus, the union representing white collar staff in the firm, reacted angrily to the plan.
Risks 149, 27 March 2004

Britain
CBI panic move on working hours out-out
Employers' organisation CBI is pressing ministers to tighten up the UK's working hours rules. The move by CBI - normally the first to cry foul at any attempt at regulation - comes in a bid to head off the TUC's high profile campaign to end the UK opt-out from the 48-hour working week ceiling.
Risks 149, 27 March 2004

Britain
Brucellosis hits Cornish farm
Cattle on a farm in Cornwall have tested positive for brucellosis, a disease which can be passed to humans with workers most at risk and which used to be common in workers, with slaughterhouse staff, meat inspectors, farmworkers and veterinarians.
Risks 149, 27 March 2004

Britain
Campaign tells MPs that HSE is not working
The Centre for Corporate Accountability (CCA) says the Health and Safety Executive has too few resources and inspectors to do its job right. It adds that the safety watchdog has opted to try and persuade employers to be safe where its own research shows enforcement is the most effective strategy.
Risks 149, 27 March 2004

Britain
Salvage company to breath test staff every morning
A Scottish company is to breath test its staff before they are allowed to start work. The move by property salvage specialists FFDR has been welcomed by a business group but has been criticised by civil liberties groups, who claim this will be the first step towards a Big Brother-style workplace.
Risks 149, 27 March 2004

Britain
Bus driver fights for toilet breaks
An ex-bus driver whose health was ruined by the lack of toilets on bus routes, is taking his former employer to the European Court of Human Rights. Arthur Martin, who worked for First Bus, had to have surgery to remove half his prostate, a problem doctors say had been caused by being denied loo breaks for long periods.
Risks 149, 27 March 2004

Australia
Union warning on psycho tests
Australia's top union body has warned against the use of psychometric and other tests as supposed safety measures. ACTU has questioned the motivation for psychometric, drug, alcohol and genetic testing at work, saying personality issues are "a tiny factor" in occupational health and safety.
Risks 149, 27 March 2004

Global
Fight to ban asbestos hots up
The latest round in the battle to ban asbestos, the world's worst ever industrial killer, is underway. Listing of white asbestos under the UN's Prior Informed Consent scheme is due to be discussed again at September 2004 Geneva meeting.
Risks 149, 27 March 2004

Iraq
Call to make media safety "top priority"
The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has warned that safety must be a top priority for media following the killing of a further five journalists and media staff in Iraq. These deaths bring to 36 the total number of media people killed during and after the Iraq war, says the IFJ.
Risks 149, 27 March 2004

USA
Chipmakers' cancer study too little, too late
A US-based microelectronics trade group has said it is to sponsor a study on cancer risks in semiconductor manufacturing facilities. Critics have charged for years, however, that the chipmaking industry has stalled efforts to create good data on cancer and other risks in the plants, with campaigners saying: "It's kind of a day late and a dollar short."
Risks 149, 27 March 2004

USA
Even asbestos epidemic figures are "kind of low"
A top US occupational health expert has indicated that shocking figures that earlier this month revealed a massive US asbestos disease epidemic, may in fact be under-estimating the true extent of the problem.
Risks 149, 27 March 2004

20 March 2004

Britain
RMT calls for urgent Tube security meeting
Tube union RMT has called for an urgent meeting of London Underground's Safety Forum to discuss security on the network in the wake of last week's Madrid bombings.
Risks 148, 20 March 2004

Britain
Post bosses warned over "spying"
It seems there is no hiding place from snooping bosses. The same day TUC warned last week that Big Brother employers are jeopardising both productivity and their workers' health, Royal Mail managers were warned about spying on striking workers.
Risks 148, 20 March 2004

Britain
Stress yes - compo no, says advisory body
The body that advises ministers on the occupational diseases that should qualify for government industrial injuries payouts has said stress should not be added to the list of "prescribed" industrial diseases, but post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) should be in very limited circumstances.
Risks 148, 20 March 2004

Britain
Six figure fine and safety award for killer company
A company awarded a top safety honour has been fined £100,000 for safety offences that contributed to the death of a worker. JDM Accord Ltd was awarded the British Safety Council's "sword of honour" in November 2003 in the same week the court proceedings commenced.
Risks 148, 20 March 2004

Britain
Clean and green or industry whitewash?
Oil company BP has received more plaudits for its corporate responsibility - despite facing continuing criticism for its safety and environmental record over the last year.
Risks 148, 20 March 2004 • More on BP's safety and environmental record • CorpWatch "Greenwash" website

Britain
Overwork behind another teacher suicide
A teacher who set herself alight had complained about pressure of work, an inquest has been told. Janet Dibb, 28, had been complaining to her father about overwork.
Risks 148, 20 March 2004 • Hazards guide to the deadly dangers of overwork, including work-related suicide

Britain
Serious incidents at prestige building sites
Accidents this week have cast a cloud over two of Britain's most high profile construction projects. A worker was killed on the site of the new Welsh assembly debating chamber, and two were injured in an incident at the Wembley Stadium site, scene of a fatality in January.
Risks 148, 20 March 2004

Britain
Britain is in a smoking "timewarp"
Britain is not doing enough to stop people from smoking, public health experts have warned. Writing in the Medical Journal of Australia, researchers said the most crucial move was to introduce smoke-free policies in public places and workplaces.
Risks 148, 20 March 2004

Australia
Goose cooked for peeking dicks
Health service bosses in Sydney, Australia, sacrificed staff and patient safety in a "Keystone Cops" effort to entrap workers whose jobs it wanted to privatise. Bosses had engaged private eyes to trail, photograph and videotape the guards illegally, before they were sacked for nipping out to buy Chinese takeaways during 12 hour shifts.
Risks 148, 20 March 2004

Australia
Serial killer escapes with fine
A fine of just Aus$60,000 (£24,500) following the death of a construction worker has sparked renewed calls for harsher penalties for Australia's killer employers. Pat Preston of construction union CFMEU said: "We need to send the message home to employers who are serial killers, who don't take into account their employees health and safety, that they will face hefty fines and jail sentences."
Risks 148, 20 March 2004

Canada
Industrial workers face a "slow-motion Bhopal"
Former workers in Canada's industrial heartland are enduring a slow-motion Bhopal. Toronto's Globe and Mail says rates of rare cancers in Sarnia, at the hub of Canada's chemical industry, are occurring at a rate nearly 35 per cent higher than the Ontario average.
Risks 148, 20 March 2004

USA
Asbestos Bill heads for Senate showdown
Although union negotiators say the funding is "grossly deficient," Republicans in the US Senate are vowing to bring a proposed $114 billion (£82.8bn) cash-capped settlement of the nation's asbestos injury claims to a floor vote by early April.
Risks 148, 20 March 2004

USA
American workplaces kill one Mexican a day
The jobs that lure Mexican workers to the United States are killing them in a worsening epidemic that is now claiming a victim a day, an Associated Press investigation has found. Though Mexicans often take the most hazardous jobs, they are more likely than others to be killed even when doing similarly risky work.
Risks 148, 20 March 2004

USA
Jury awards "popcorn lung" victim $20m
In a huge victory for US workers who face exposure to hazardous chemicals at work, a jury in Joplin, Missouri, has awarded factory worker Eric Peoples $20 million (£11m) in industrial disease compensation. Peoples, 32, had argued that his lungs were ruined as a result of mixing flavouring oils used in microwave popcorn.
Risks 148, 20 March 2004

13 March 2004

Britain
Big Brother is a big bother at work
Snooping employers are jeopardising both productivity and their workers' health. "Stop snooping," a new report in the TUC backed Hazards magazine, says that new technologies and the lack of privacy rights at work mean bosses can monitor employees constantly and secretly.
Hazards magazine's "Stop snooping" report • Risks 147, 13 March 2004 • TUC news release

Britain
Smoking should be classed as killer work chemical
The TUC is calling for tobacco smoke to be classified as a "hazardous chemical" under European law and restricted in workplaces, including bars and restaurants, like other dangerous substances.
Risks 147, 13 March 2004

Britain/Ukraine
Ukrainians face harsh conditions in the UK
The government needs to make it more difficult for unscrupulous employers to mistreat migrant workers, says "Gone west: Ukrainians at work in the UK", a tUC report based on interviews with Ukrainian migrant workers working in construction, food processing and agriculture - hazardous sectors well-known for their use of migrant labour.
Risks 147, 13 March 2004

Britain
TGWU tops £1.5 billion in compo payouts
The Transport and General Workers' Union says the £80 million in accident and injury compensation won by the union last year for individual members has taken the total won since the union was founded to over £1.5 billion.
Risks 147, 13 March 2004

Britain
Don't let employers be gender blind
General union GMB is urging safety reps to raise the profile of women's health and safety within their workplaces.
Risks 147, 13 March 2004

Britain
Workers "forced to pay for toilet breaks"
Factory workers at TTems in Blyth have been told by bosses they will have to pay back wages for the time they spend on visits to the toilet and cigarette breaks.
Risks 147, 13 March 2004

Britain
UK in the dock over work breaks law
The European Commission is taking the UK government to the European Court of Justice for allegedly failing to enforce a directive that entitles employees to breaks at work. It accuses the government of neglecting its working time rules, which unions say has cost staff millions of hours of leisure time.
Risks 147, 13 March 2004

Britain
NHS staff pay high price for dedication
One in six NHS staff have faced physical violence while trying to carry out their duties, according to an official survey of over 200,000 health service workers. That constant threat of violence and a heavy workload are factors in the high stress levels that affect no fewer than 40 per cent of those who responded.
Risks 147, 13 March 2004

Britain
Smoke ban "would save thousands"
A ban on smoking in public places would save more lives than are lost every year in road accidents, say campaigners. No Smoking Day director Ben Youdan said a would lead to 500,000 people giving up the habit, and would have four times more impact on current smoking levels than last year's tobacco advertising ban.
Risks 147, 13 March 2004

Australia
Work strain - no body should put up with it
Work strain could contribute to as many as 4,000 new injuries every week in Australian workplaces, top union body ACTU has warned. Launching a national campaign to reduce "work strain," ACTU called for new laws on work strain and psychosocial hazards and for "workers and union members to speak out about work strain and to seek compensation for a work-related injury or disease."
Risks 147, 13 March 2004

European Union
Work accident rates "remain very high"
The European Commission says workplace accident rates in Europe "remain very high." The Improving quality in work: a review of recent progress report says that while the incidence of accidents at work decreased between 1994 and 2000, there were still five million accidents in 2000 leading to 158 million lost working days.
Risks 147, 13 March 2004

Greece
Unions act on work burn-out dangers
Unions in Greece are calling for action to prevent burn-out at work. Recommendations from the Greek General Confederation of Labour (GSEE) include information provision, work reorganisation and recognition of burn-out as an occupational illness, as well as proper implementation of health and safety regulations.
Risks 147, 13 March 2004

USA
Bar ban brings massive drop in smoke exposures
An investigation of the impact of New York's 9-month-old ban on bar room smoking has found bar worker passive smoking exposures have dropped dramatically. Bar worker saliva samples showed of cotinine - a nicotine byproduct - decreased by 85 per cent in just three months after the smoking ban went into effect.
Risks 147, 13 March 2004

6 March 2004

Global
The asbestos industry's deadly message
Asbestos campaigners in Canada say they plan to refer the Asbestos Institute to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police - the Mounties - after an ill-judged and dangerous PR stunt. The global asbestos industry front organisation had mailed out a press release on asbestos paper - tests shows the paper is at least 60 per cent asbestos by weight.
Risks 146, 6 March 2004 • Global asbestos plc - it lies, it kills, it robs the dead

USA
Asbestos kills 10,000 Americans a year
The first ever analysis of US federal mortality records has found that 10,000 Americans die each year from asbestos exposure and projects that up to 10 times that many will die in the next decade. A new report "shatters the bankruptcy myth," revealing that companies tell the world they have been driven bankrupt by asbestos suits but tell their shareholders their bottom lines have not suffered.
Risks 146, 6 March 2004

Australia
Unions expose asbestos "corporate bastardry"
Allegations that Australian building materials giant James Hardie Industries has turned its back on tens of thousands of dying workers are to be investigated by a high-powered official inquiry following a union campaign.
Risks 146, 6 March 2004

Global
Worldwide threat from asbestos "timebomb"
A report in the latest issue of ILO's World of work magazine says the ILO convention no.162 on safety in the use of asbestos bans only certain types of asbestos and has only been ratified by 27 of the ILO's 177 member states.
Risks 146, 6 March 2004

Southern Africa
Fight looms as Zimbabwe defends asbestos trade
Zimbabwe's asbestos lobby is becoming increasingly concerned at speculation that South Africa is seriously considering a total ban on asbestos products.
Risks 146, 6 March 2004

Global
Sportswear industry violates the Olympic spirit
Giant sportswear brands are violating the rights of millions of workers in order to get the latest sportswear into the shops in time for the Athens Olympics, according to anti poverty campaigners and trade unions.
Risks 146, 6 March 2004

Britain
TUC challenges Labour to produce vision of work
The TUC has challenged the Labour Party to produce a programme for the workplace in its election manifesto that sets out an ambition to ensure all jobs are well-rewarded quality jobs in organisations where people are treated fairly. Health and safety features in the TUC's wish list for Labour's next term.
Risks 146, 6 March 2004

Britain
New law a "fitting memorial" to cockle pickers
The Transport and General Workers' Union has expressed delight that the Gangmasters (Licensing) Bill gained its second reading in parliament unopposed, with government and parliamentary backing. Jim Sheridan MP's private Members' bill was the the centrepiece of a TGWU gangmasters' campaign.
Risks 146, 6 March 2004

Britain
Tube staff to strike in sober sackings row
London Underground workers are to stage a one-day strike in a row over the sacking of sober maintenance staff under a "zero tolerance" alcohol policy.
Risks 146, 6 March 2004

Britain
GMB on HSE - not enough vision, not enough resources General union GMB says the UK's safety watchdog has a lack of funds and a lack of vision. It says GMB safety reps "regard the HSE's enforcement activities as weak and ineffectual."
Risks 146, 6 March 2004

Britain
HSC makes the case for worker involvement
The Health and Safety Commission is backing union safety reps and says a new statement on worker involvement and consultation "reflects the vital importance we place in having a workforce that is fully involved in health and safety."
Risks 146, 6 March 2004

Britain
Official support for Scots corporate killing law
The Scottish Executive is committed to bringing forward laws to deal with corporate killing, Cathy Jamieson, the justice minister, has said.
Risks 146, 6 March 2004

Britain
Manure attack farmer jailed
A Cornish farmer has been jailed for two years for plunging an animal health inspector and a vet into a slurry pit. Roger Baker, 61, was found guilty in January of attacking Jonathan McCulloch and Susan Potter on his land at Ventongimps, near Truro, last ear.
Risks 146, 6 March 2004

Britain
Workers driven to drink by bad jobs
Undervalued and overworked employees are being driven to drink by their bad jobs, new research shows. The findings, published in the journal Occupational and Environmental Medicine, are based on a study of 8,000 British civil servants.
Risks 146, 6 March 2004

Canada
Nurse faced SARS stress
A study has found nurses reported the most emotional distress during last year's SARS outbreak, and almost two-thirds of hospital staff were concerned for their health or their family's health.
Risks 146, 6 March 2004

European Union
Groups challenge EU paraquat approval
A coalition of international trade union organisations and environmental groups has filed a lawsuit with the European Court challenging the European Commission's decision in December 2003 to grant EU-wide approval for the deadly herbicide paraquat.
Risks 146, 6 March 2004

Ireland
"Smoke-free works" campaign launched
Ireland's health minister Micheál Martin has launched a "Smoke-free works" campaign.
Risks 146, 6 March 2004

USA
IBM settles birth defect lawsuit
Computer multinational IBM has settled a lawsuit involving a former worker who blamed her daughter's serious birth defects on exposure to chemicals at an IBM plant in New York.
Risks 146, 6 March 2004

February 2004 stories

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