Continuing to deliver a safe and healthy paper industry

HSC press release C047:04 - 15 October 2004

Are you a paper or tissue manufacturer, corrugator or paper recycler? Do you want to know how to make your company a safer, healthier place to work?

If the answer is YES, come along to the open meeting of Health and Safety Commission's (HSC) Paper and Board Industry Advisory Committee (PABIAC) in Gloucester on Wednesday 10 November 2004, starting at 10.15 am. Places for this free event, being held at Gloucestershire County Cricket Club, are limited therefore booking a place is essential. A light lunch will be provided.

Paper mills have worked hard to improve their previously poor incident record. However PABIAC aims to engage the whole paper and board industry, in particular those in the corrugating and recovered paper sectors, to join paper mills in tackling their own poor incident records.

This will be the first PABIAC open meeting to include all sectors of the paper industry; topics for discussion have been selected for their relevance to all parts of the industry.

James Barrett, Head of Health and Safety Executives (HSE) Manufacturing Sector, and Chair of PABIAC, said:

"We want people in the industry to know about the work of PABIAC and how we can help to make their lives safer and healthier. The annual Open Meetings are an opportunity to involve and engage with the industry and obtain "buy in" to key programs. This year the open meeting will be covering issues that cut across the whole of the paper industry. The sessions will address transporting paper safely, take a fresh look at machinery safety to help reduce the continuing injury toll, and include a demonstration prioritising actions that can reduce manual handling injuries and employee involvement in workplace health and safety."

The meeting also allows people the chance to tell PABIAC members what other support they would like to see PABIAC provide to the industry.

Notes to editors

1. HSC oversees the work of the HSE that, in association with local authorities, enforce health & safety at work standards in Great Britain.

2. PABIAC provides expert advice to the HSC on the full range of health & safety issues affecting Britain's paper and board industry. The Committee is made up of representatives of the main employers' associations and trade unions in partnership with HSE.

3. PABIAC is a tripartite committee, made up of representatives of the Industry, Trade Unions and the HSE. Its primary aim is to reduce injuries and ill-health caused by work in the paper and board industries. It also promotes acceptable standards of working conditions and welfare in conformity with legal requirements.

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