Careering into it As a health and safety tutor I routinely meet people who already work in the field of occupational health and safety (OHS). And one thing that always strikes me is that they are a diverse bunch with a very wide range of ages, educational backgrounds, workplaces and work/ life experiences. From 21 to over normal retirement age. From left school at 16 with diddly-squat to PhDs in biomechanical engineering. From building society office to offshore oil and gas platform. From none at all to 35 years in the chemical engineering and manufacturing industries. And some of them have had life experiences that have made the hairs on…
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New Year’s Resolution; Less Harry Potter, More Gordon Gekko
It has become something of a tradition in our household to do a Harry Potter marathon (of sorts) over Christmas. i.e watch all eight films over eight consecutive evenings over the festive period. My daughters grew up with Harry. My youngest’s impression of Moaning Myrtle is exceptional (apparently my own “Expecto Patronum!” is quite good too). Spoiler alert Harry kills Voldemort at the end. Good conquers evil. Morality wins the day. The books and the films are so satisfying because the right and proper outcome is achieved. If only it was as simple in the world of occupational health and safety. Most of you will be familiar with the moral…
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A Festive Quiz
Over the last year I have written a few blogs for RRC’s website. Most of these have been aimed squarely at students studying towards a NEBOSH health and safety qualification; though much of the advice in them is relevant to any course of study with a formal exam at the end. If you want a quick reminder of topics covered they have included: Revising and preparing for the exam (You make your own luck) Examination technique (Just read the instructions) Handwriting tips (Doctor’s handwriting) Studying as a distance learner (Studying as a distance learner – I know; not very creative – I was going to go with “The loneliness of…
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Hints and Tips to Gain a Good Mark for NEBOSH Environmental Diploma Project
In this post I thought that we could look at some good practices with regards to the NEBOSH Diploma in Environmental Management project (known as NDEM2). For this assessment NEBOSH require you to review and critic an organisations environmental management system (EMS). The assignment is required to be approximately 8000 words and must be submitted to NEBOSH electronically. The pass mark is 50%. The Guide Although what NEBOSH requires sounds relatively straight forward to interpret, in practice there is a very specific format with regards to issues that are required to be covered. Therefore, one of the first things you MUST do is to download and thoroughly read the NDEM2 assignment…
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Multi-sport European Championships
RRC tutor Carl Latimer will be representing Great Britain on 27th October at the Multi sport European Championships on the island of Ibiza. Carl will be competing in the Age Group Middle Distance Triathlon, racing against competitors who have qualified from all over Europe. Middle distance triathlon (also known as “half iron man distance”) is a gruelling event by anyone’s standards – a 1900m open water swim, 56 mile bike and a half marathon, however at this level Carl will be up against the best in his age group so the pressure will be on. In order to qualify to represent his country and pull on the coveted GB Tri suit…
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ISO 45001
“Plan; Do; Check; Act; Check it out; What; what; what; What’s it all about?” (With apologies to the Beasty Boys) In mid-March the new occupational health and safety management system (OHSMS) ISO45001 was launched by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). This replaces OHSAS 18001 to become the globally recognised OHSMS standard. ISO45001 adopts a management approach based on the Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) management cycle, mirroring the approach taken by the HSE in their guidance HSG65. In brief this management cycle can be summarised as: Plan: determine and assess OH&S risks and opportunities, establish OH&S objectives and processes necessary to deliver results in accordance with the OH&S policy; Do: implement…
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Bad Daisy! Risks Associated with Cattle
I was sitting in a neighbour’s kitchen recently with a group of folks who were talking about beating the bounds. This is an old tradition that goes back to medieval times where people walk around a parish boundary. The organiser was narrating the route and talking about possible hazards along the way and what he wanted done about them. When he got to one particular section he mentioned that he was worried about cows being in the field. He did not want dogs in with the cattle so proposed that the walkers with dogs should take an alternative route (which does not follow the boundary) to avoid agitating the cattle.…
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Pure as The Driven Snow – The Risks from Flour
In my mid-twenties I worked as a production supervisor in a bakery near Sheffield. The production line I was responsible for produced tea cakes, white baps and hot cross buns for Marks and Spencer (other retailers of perfectly fine ‘morning goods’ are available). We made a lot of hot cross buns. And by a lot I mean we produced all of the hot cross buns for every M&S store in the UK. The bakery products were all made using white flour. I like flour because I like the things that you can make with it. I like bread, I like cakes and I really like biscuits (except custard creams but…
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Poor Fire Safety is Having a Devastating Impact Across the Middle East
Over the last year we have seen numerous devastating fires across the Middle East regions. From December’s hospital fire in Saudi Arabia and the July hotel fire in Dubai, to the re-occurring fires in ‘labour camps’, with the latest one being reported as recently as September, in Jidhafs, Bahrain. So, what can be done to prevent incidents like these happening again? Fire prevention is very simple and standards could easily be improved by having the commitment and determination to establish a system and enforce all the relevant precautions. We recently launched our new Fire Safety Consultancy, which assesses fire risks and advises on the next steps to make premises safe.…
