Health and safety programmes

The safety culture of an organisation is the product of the individual and group values, attitudes, competencies and patterns of behaviour that determine the commitment to, and the style and proficiency of, an organisation s health and safety programmes. Organisations with a positive safety culture are characterised by communications founded on mutual trust, by shared perceptions of the importance of safety, and by confidence in the efficacy of preventative measures. 

Poor management of health and safety may, in mai r cases, be attributed to perceiving safety as a separate function to other functions within an organizatioa As a result, maty health and safety programmes have tried to promote safely through slogans such as Safety First . Ask yourself the question why should safety be first, or last for that matter . 

Establish, implement, and maintain a formal, written site health and safety programme, encompassing applicable areas of loss prevention, that is consistent with the organization s health and safety policy. 

Establish controls to ensure uniform adherence to health and safety programme elements. These controls should include corrective action and follow-up. 

Review as appropriate the health and safety programme s effectiveness and make adjustments where necessary. 

Training is a vital part of any health and safety programme and needs to be constantly reviewed and updated. Many health and safety regulations require specific training (e.g. manual handling, personal protective equipment and display screens). Additional training... 

Understanding all these aspects is as important in achieving successful health and safety programmes and maintaining the control strategies they generate as any other part of the business enterprise. 

Fishwick, L. and Bamber, L., Common Ground - Practical ways of integrating the environment into your health and safety programme (Part 1), Health and Safety at Work 1996,... 

Audit and Review 5.1 Are there arrangements to audit the entire health and safety programme periodically 5.2 Does a senior manager/director review health and safety performance 5.3 Do senior managers go outside the organisation to gain an objective view of its performance ... 

Health and safety programmes for museums Emergency evacuation plans... 

People are the most critical element in the health and safety programme. Employees must be actively involved, and complement management responsibility by making suggestions for improvements... 

The UK Government has, for more than six years, funded the Valid Analytical Measurement (VAM) Programme, which is aimed at improving the quality and comparability of analytical measurements. The work undertaken within VAM is key to the underpinning of a modern physico-chemical and biochemical National Measurement System, By disseminating the activities of VAM across international boundaries and linking with other national measurement system VAM also aims to ensure the comparability of data worldwide. Thus VAM provides an infrastructure under which reliable measurements can be made for trade, regulation and health and safety provision. 

International Programme on Chemical Safety (IPCS) (1994) Phenol. Health and safety guide no 88. WHO, Geneva... 

The IPCS INCHEM was produced through cooperation between the International Programme on Chemical Safety (IPCS) and the Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety (CCOHS), and directly responds to one of the Intergovernmental Forum on Chemical Safety (IFCS) priority actions to consolidate current, internationally peer-reviewed chemical safety-related publications and database records from international bodies, for public access (IPCS INCHEM 2007). 

WHO. 1989. IPCS. International Programme on Chemical Safety. Health and Safety Guide No. 26. 9pp. 

Morpholine Health and Safety Guide, IPCS International Programme on Chemical Safety, Health and Safety Guide No. 92, World Health Organization Geneva, Switzerland, 1995 (www.inchem.org/documents/hsg/ hsg/hsg09 2.htm). 

Other OECD activities in the environment, health, and safety areas are concerned with pesticides chemical accident prevention, preparation, and response pollutant release and transfer registers harmonization of regulatory oversight in biotechnology, and the safety of novel foods and feeds. These activities are closely connected with the work in the Chemicals Programme, and are carried out in cooperation with other parts of the OECD and other international organizations. 

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