Our 24th April event, which was held in conjunction with CIA Responsible Care, took a closer look at the management of occupational health in the chemical industry and was attended by 50 people.
Vicki Beckett and Dil Sen, from the Health and Safety Executive, outlined the new priorities the HSE is attaching to effective monitoring and controls in the workplace and its expectations of companies in preventing occupational illnesses and diseases. Peter Tayler, from GlaxoSmithKline, discussed how GSK exceeded what is required for occupational health by introducing other worker benefits, such as access to sports facilities on site and employee health checks for blood pressure, BMI etc. Howard Winbow, from James M Brown Limited, spoke about the integrated hierarchy of control measures and rules they have implemented in the factory to ensure workers are protected from chemical inhalation.
Jackie Coates, from the Chemical Industries Association, spoke about the CIA Responsible Care initiative which members sign up to on joining the CIA. This is a continual improvement approach to worker health, safety and the environment. Roger Pullin, from the Chemical Industries Association, spoke about the CIA’s new OH Metric Indicator Tool, based on its sustainability agenda for healthy businesses. The tool is designed to help companies assess their own performance in relation to a set of forward-looking and challenging expectations.
Alister Scott, from Johnson Matthey, spoke about the targets JM have set themselves on the sustainability agenda, how they have adapted the CIA scorecard system to fit into the JM company structure and the resulting health management plan and continuous improvement tool that has come from using the CIA scorecard system.
Finally, we heard from Kathryn Harding, of Everwell Occupational Health, an external OH service provider, on what features of business support are available, in particular to SMEs.
