Meet the RRC Tutors at Safety & Health Expo, Birmingham NEC

9-11 May 2006 - Hall 9, Stand G40

May is the time in the calendar when we all prepare for the Safety and Health Expo at the Birmingham NEC. Europe's leading annual health and safety event has a reputation for providing a one-stop shop for all those with an interest in health and safety and has become an unmissable event in the diaries of many health and safety professionals.

As usual, representatives of the RRC Health and Safety Tutor Team will be on the RRC stand for the duration of Expo to talk to both existing students and health and safety professionals interested in RRC's NEBOSH and IOSH courses, including our exciting new range of block release programmes.

We will be holding free Revision Classes each day on a range of topics and tutors will be on hand to provide any last minute help or give you guidance on what steps to take next.

Our FREE Revision Classes will be taking place at 11am, 12 noon and 2pm each day and will cover the following topics:

Diploma Double Success Story for RRC Training

Two of RRC Training's NEBOSH Diploma students have been singled out for special commendation, reinforcing RRC's position as a leading provider of health and safety training in the UK.

Martin Speirs was awarded a distinction in the Diploma Part 2 - one of only five of the 137 students who took the qualification in the UK this year to be given a distinction. In addition, RRC Training's Diploma Part 1 student, Paul Moore, has been named best candidate for the Diploma Part 1 for the whole of 2005.

Both Martin Speirs and Paul Moore will be named as award winners at the NEBOSH graduation ceremony on 9th May at the University of Warwick.

The similarity between Paul Moore and Martin Speirs extends beyond them both being award-winning students with RRC Training, to their reasons for deciding to study for a NEBOSH Diploma.

Both wanted to enhance their career prospects and believe the NEBOSH Diploma to be the gold standard for health and safety qualifications, a belief backed up by the fact that 525 students sat exams in 2005.

Tutor Viewpoint - Arson and Education

Dr N J A Gutteridge PhD, MIOSH, RSP

The School

The total loss of a school building by fire can be a traumatic and devastating experience. Unfortunately, this is an all too common occurrence and leaves a trail of educational programme disruption. There is the loss of children's coursework, teachers' curriculum plans and teaching notes, and other irreplaceable documents, reports and records. Damage often results in computerised documentation losses with valuable IT systems and equipment left unusable.

The list of physical damage and related problems can easily go on but of more concern is the effect on people. Depending on the particular circumstances such as a fire during school hours, there can always be injuries or worse arising from a fire and its products of combustion. There are additional pressures for those who have school management responsibilities. One immediate priority is to resurrect the children's schooling in another suitable location. The stress issues for school administration personnel are not the only problem. Parents and guardians face challenges to domestic and work arrangements and their children face an uncertain time particularly when close to examination dates. The impact of the loss of the facilities affects other existing community arrangements, i.e. evening adult education and business groups meetings.

Figures Prove Benefits of Health and Safety Training

It's official - quality training can dramatically improve a company's health and safety performance and reduce workplace injuries. Figures just released by ALSTOM Power Turbo-Systems - Power Plant Construction Business provide demonstrable proof that a bespoke corporate health and safety training programme, designed and delivered by RRC Training, has significantly contributed to the reduction in the number of lost time injuries suffered by ALSTOM employees and its contractors.

Data which shows the combined Lost Time Injury Frequency Rate (LTIFR) for the employees and contractors of ALSTOM Power Turbo-Systems Power Plant Construction Business over two years shows that in the last twelve months the number of lost time injuries has fallen by almost half, from over seventy in the previous period to under forty since the RRC/ALSTOM EHS Elevator Training programme was launched in March 2004. The LTIFR has also dropped from 3.1 to 1.75 lost time injuries/1,000,000 hours worked. This makes the LTIFR now well below the HSE's National UK All Construction rate and the LTI rate of the Engineering Construction Industry Association.

Course Dates for RRC Middle East

We are pleased to announce new course dates for RRC Middle East. All dates given are for Block Release programmes.

News

• Two miners died in a coal mine in West Virginia, USA, in January 2006 when scorching heat and thick smoke from a conveyor-belt fire prevented their escape. Their deaths brought the number of miners killed in the state in a month to 14.

• The International Federation of Journalists reported in January 2006 that 89 media professionals were killed in 2005 because of their work - a year of "unspeakable violence". Thirty-five of them died in Iraq.

• A worker in Austria plunged 130 ft from a helicopter in January 2006 but suffered no injuries because deep snow cushioned his landing. He had been suspended by a rope to repair the helicopter when he slipped free.

• The Norwegian Supreme Court jailed the builder and supplier of a playground swing for six months in January 2006 following an accident in 2003 in which the swing collapsed, killing a 12-year-old girl. Both men were also ordered to pay compensation.

• In mid-February 2006, an empty Fokker 50 aircraft belonging to Scandinavian Airlines was found lying on its fuselage and tail near an Oslo airport gate. A spokeswoman for the airline blamed "an error in maintenance overnight".

• An EU directive making employers responsible for protecting workers from radiation threatened to force building workers to cover up on sunny days. The directive has now been amended to exclude "natural radiation" such as sunlight, enabling builders to continue to work without shirts.

• Damage estimated at about £70,000 was caused in a Bavarian village in late February 2006 when a tank containing more than 50,000 gallons (240,000 litres) of slurry burst. The liquid pig manure flooded the courtyards and streets of Elsa to a depth of 20 inches (50 cm).

• Two security guards died and two others were injured when suicide bombers attacked an oil refinery in Saudi Arabia at the end of February 2006. The attack caused a small fire but it was brought under control and did not affect the operation of the Abqaiq plant in the Eastern Province, which handles two thirds of Saudi Arabia's production.

• A partly constructed church collapsed in the Ugandan capital, Kampala, in early March 2006, killing at least 27 people. A brick wall fell onto the congregation at an evening service during a heavy rainstorm with high winds. Eighty-six people were injured and taken to hospital.

• James Levine, director of the New York Metropolitan Opera and the Boston Symphony Orchestra, tripped and fell as he left the podium of Symphony Hall in Boston at the end of a concert in March 2006, injuring his right arm. He required surgery for a torn rotator cuff and will be unable to conduct for the rest of the opera season.

• A Frankfurt court ruled in March 2006 that employees at an office party are at work until the boss leaves. It ordered a company to pay compensation to an employee who suffered skull damage when he slipped on a restaurant step at the office Christmas party.

• A Mallorcan construction worker was killed on 25th March 2006 whilst working on a domestic property in Formentera. The man was working in an excavation for the installation of a basement at a house, when an excavator fell three metres into the excavation after the driver lost control of the vehicle, crushing the worker beneath it.

• On 30th March 2006, a forklift truck driver died in a fatal rollover accident at the Port of Napier, Hawke's Bay, New Zealand. The truck was transporting a large container and overturned when it encountered a hole in the wharf, or a metal plate covering such a hole collapsed. The roof of the vehicle was crushed in the incident.

• On 1st April 2006, a blast took place at a privately-owned explosives plant in the city of Zhaoyuan in Shandong Province of eastern China. Of the 31 workers present on the site, 20 were killed on the spot and nine were still missing five days later. The cause of the blast is under investigation.

• Four construction workers were arrested at the beginning of April 2006 following an accident at a nightclub and restaurant complex in Reina, Turkey, in which a wall collapsed onto a nearby house, killing the three occupants as they slept. The dead were a couple and their six-year-old child. The workers had been building a new wall at the complex.

• On 4th April 2006, the collapse of a roof at the Vikram Iron Works in Tumkela, 40 miles from Rourkela, Orissa, India, killed three workers and left ten others with serious injuries. There were several hundred production workers present on the premises at the time of the accident.

• On 4th April 2006, it was reported that a fatal electrical accident had claimed the life of an employee of the Dubai Contracting Company working at a site in Al Satwa, United Arab Emirates. A local police investigation of the accident was on-going.

• On 11th April 2006, an explosion at the Haroshets Explosives factory, 20 miles south of Haifa in Israel, left one worker dead and four injured at the plant, which used to manufacture explosives for the quarry industry but has recently come under the control of the Ministry of Defence. The accident was thought to have occurred during research and development work.

• The Portuguese Government has announced plans to ban smoking in workplaces, shopping centres and restaurants, and on public transport. The necessary legislation is expected to come into effect next year, following a period of public consultation.

• A boat carrying 150 passengers and goods across Lake Volta in Ghana capsized on 8th April 2006, leaving 120 people feared drowned. It is thought to have been overloaded and to have hit a stump.

• More than 30 people employed at Hong Kong Disneyland to play Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and other characters have complained of muscle, neck and waist problems due to working long hours and wearing heavy costumes. Their employer maintains that it follows "regulatory guidelines and market practice". Their trade union, however, claims that they are being denied time off to recover.

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