The core legislation, is the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 (the HSWA). While technically post-dating entry to the EU in 1973, the HSWA was the amalgamation of a mass of legislation and regulations that had previously existed but only generally applied to high risk industry sectors – mining, railways, factories, agriculture and nuclear, […]

Stress is often discussed in relation to sickness absence. However, it’s less reported how it can endanger lives. Whether it is work-related stress or stress that people bring to work, stress can put at risk the safety of both employees and members of the public. Matthew Holder, Head of Campaigns and Engagement at the British […]

When the most dangerous thing associated with a programme employing 12,000 staff and involving 80 million man hours over five years is a sandcastle, you know you’ve done a good job in terms of health and safety. While the 13 ft-by-6.5 ft sand sculpture on Weymouth beach – built to mark 100 days to go […]

China’s newest glass-bottomed walkway is a real hair raiser. Situated off the side of China’s Tianmen Mountain, the 100-meter-long, 1.6-meter-wide skywalk is situated high above Hunan’s Zhangjiajie National Forest Park. Dubbed the “Coiling Dragon Cliff” skywalk, the clear glass walkway overlooks a sheer drop that would turn any stomach. Coiling Dragon Cliff looks out on Tianmen Tongtian […]

Every day hundreds of thousands of Britons put their coffee cup into a recycling bin. They’re wrong – those cups aren’t recyclable, and the UK throws away 2.5bn of them a year. It must stop, writes Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall. One chilly morning last March – exactly the sort of morning when a warming cafe latte could […]

Would you put your phone in a cement mixer? British phone retailer Tuffphones has unveiled a new range of hard-wearing handsets aimed at construction workers and outdoors enthusiasts. It’s the latest addition to a range of extra-durable Android devices in the growing market for rugged phones. The BBC took them to a building site to […]

A report by the Business, Innovation and Skills committee has accused Sports Direct, one of Europe’s biggest retailers, of not treating its workers like humans, after an investigation revealed “extremely disturbing working practices” and serious health and safety breaches at the company’s Shirebrook Warehouse. MPs are now saying that the company’s founder, Mike Ashley, must be […]

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last few weeks, you’ll probably have heard of Pokémon Go – a global phenomenon that, for those of us who grew up swapping cards in the school playground, makes it feel like we’ve made a swift and unwelcome return to the 90s. With one small change: […]

A building site manager who had a “total disregard of health and safety” has been convicted of gross negligence manslaughter following the death of a 40-year-old worker who died when he fell through a skylight. Site manager Faruk Patel “continued to put workers’ lives at risk even after a fatal accident on the site” the Health […]

The new ISO 14001 standard, published in September last year, is the first update in a decade. As well as offering easier integration between ISO 14001, ISO 9001 and the new OHSAS 18001 replacement, ISO 45001, published later this year, it brings with it additional requirements, grouped around five key areas: leadership, strategic context, interested […]