HANDLE WITH CARE - THE HIDDEN DANGERS AT WORK

HSE press release: E090:03 - 3 June 2003

The next time you bite into a slice of bread take a deep breath first - just remind yourself of bakers who can no longer breathe properly due to excessive exposure to flour dust.

The illness is known as "bakers asthma" and is just one of many occupational illness that millions of employees in Europe unknowingly risk contracting through exposure to biological agents, chemicals and other dangerous substances at work.

That is why this year's European safety and health Week, October 13-18, is trying to get everyone to think more about what might affect them and their family. Even if you are not at risk of becoming ill yourself, you could have a vital role to play in this campaign by helping your friends and family become more aware of the hidden dangers at work.

According to recent research, one quarter of Europe's 150 million employees regularly come into contact with dangerous substances, either directly or through contact with the fumes or dust or contaminated surfaces. Cancer, skin diseases and respiratory difficulties, such as asthma, are just some of the risks.

The Health and Safety Executive's (HSE's) Deputy Director General, Kate Timms, said: "While you might think your family are risk free you might like to think again. The use of solvents by workers in printing, textiles and even dry cleaning, can have a debilitating effect on the central nervous system as well as causing skin problems. Sewage workers in turn are at risk of gastroenteritis, farmers from bacterial-related disease such as e coli and carpenters from nasal cancer. Even health service workers, hairdressers, florists and cleaners can be at risk."

But all of this is preventable and simple steps can be taken to reduce the risks. In some cases this might involve getting the boss to put the right ventilation system in place. In other cases, toxic substances can be substituted with safer alternatives. Sometimes it is also possible to neutralise the impact of a hazardous chemical by adding a different substance.

"We shouldn't take unacceptable risks as the price of progress," says
Hans-Horst Konkolewsky, director of the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work.

"The solution is to limit the potential risks through a combination of greater knowledge of the risks of dangerous substances among workers and employers, and either the elimination or substitution of these substances with less hazardous alternatives.

"This is particularly important to small to medium sized enterprises which often lack the knowledge and systems to comply with the necessary regulations."

To help employers, unions, safety representatives and others, HSE has developed a free Internet based system called COSHH Essentials which is available by logging on to: http://www.coshh-essentials.org.uk/

Kate Timms explained: "Looking on the containers of substances in the workplace will provide an active ingredient and using the website will give anyone a step by step guide to provide useful information. COSHH stands for the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations and this is the legal requirement in he UK for employers to assess and control the risks to their employees."

"The knowledge equips people to reduce the risk of most dangerous substances and points out their potential human and financial costs. We hope this campaign will bring the information to a much wider audience."

Ms Timms added: "The European Week is an important opportunity to tell people in Britain about the dangers of working with dangerous substances from hair dyes, beauty products and cleaning agents as well as paints and glue. Thousands of people are potentially affected."

An estimated 6,000 people die from cancer due to occupational causes every year - about half of these are due to working with asbestos. Other chemicals also have this potential legacy and ordinary people now have the chance to find out before their health might be affected.

"All of this is preventable," added Ms Timms, "An estimated 1.3 million companies in Britain use chemicals and many are small or medium sized firms. Many of these don't think of themselves as using chemicals - they see them simply as branded products - but that is potentially harmful chemicals by any other name.

"Employers, workers and others need to use this European week to start to make an impact on reducing ill health and ordinary people can take the lead in making sure their friends are not at risk from getting ill."

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