Safety and Health Expo 2007

May is always an exciting time at RRC Training and our preparations for the 2007 Safety and Health Expo in May are now well underway. Europe’s leading annual health and safety exhibition will be taking place from 22 - 24 May at the NEC Birmingham and is set to be one of our busiest exhibitions ever.

As one of the key exhibitors, RRC will be available during all three days on Stand G40 in Hall 9. We will have exciting competitions, free giveaways and a Tutor Drop-In area so there will be lots going on.

We will be running a competition over the three days to win one of six Ipod Nanos worth £99 each. All you need do to enter is visit us on the stand and hand in your business card. It’s as simple as that.

We will also be giving away free compilation CD-roms of our successful podcasts. As RRC regulars will know, since 1 February 2007 we have been developing monthly podcasts on a range of topical health and safety issues. These take the form of amusing conversations between our Lead Tutor, Dr David Towlson, and a fictional disgruntled businessman. These podcasts take a lighthearted look at health and safety but also cover current issues, making them a great way to stay up to date.

If you haven't got your tickets already, it's not too late. You can register for free before the event by registering online at www.safety-health-expo.co.uk.

Finally, our expert tutors will be on hand throughout the whole of Expo. Whether you want to chat about the best way to progress your career in health and safety or want some last minute help with any tricky topics before the exams this summer, we’ll be there to help.

RRC Spreads its Wings During 2007

During 2007, RRC will be opening two new centres in the South-West and North West of England to make it even easier for students across the country to attend RRC courses.

The new centres will be up and running from September 2007 and will be offering a wide range of health and safety courses, from short topic introductions to our prestigious NEBOSH National Diploma programme.

Based in Exeter and Blackpool respectively, these two new centres will also run our full range of NEBOSH and IOSH courses, including our new Supervising Safely programme, plus our two new CIEH courses (Principles of COSHH and Principles of Manual Handling).

For further information on attending courses at either of these new venues, contact a Customer Adviser on +44 (0)20 8944 3100 or e-mail info@rrc.co.uk.

Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2007: A Briefing

By Dr. Richard Griffiths, PhD, MSc, MEd, Cert Ed, Grad R.S.C, FRSH, FRIPH, CMIOSH, MIIRSM

The Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2007 (CDM 2007) came into effect on 6 April 2007, and the Approved Code of Practice (ACoP) provides practical guidance on complying with the duties set out in the Regulations. The new, simplified CDM Regulations revise and bring together into a single regulatory package the existing regulations (CDM 1994), the Construction (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1996 (CHSW), and the Construction (General Provisions) Regulations 1961, and revoke other instruments (Schedule 4; CDM 2007).

The single regulatory package now consists of the revised regulations, the supporting AcoP and a regulatory impact assessment.

Tutor Viewpoint - Brief Summary of Some Common Safety Management Systems and Related Approaches

Dr David Towlson BSc, PhD, MIOSH

HSG65

Policy

This constitutes the general objectives and intentions (vision) of the organisation – guiding principles that underpin their approach. This is demonstrated as a written statement of intent.

Organising

Successful implementation of the policy requires motivation, commitment and involvement of people, otherwise known as a positive health and safety culture. It is characterised by:

• Control – commitment from the top, allocating responsibilities and accountability to meet objectives together with instructing and supervising.
• Co-operation – consulting with and involving people, for example, in writing procedures.
• Communication – providing information.
• Competence – assessing skills and training.

New HSE Programmes Coming Soon

RRC are delighted to announce that we will soon be offering two new CIEH programmes, plus an additional IOSH qualification, to complement our existing health, safety and environmental training provision. The new programmes are:

• Principles of Manual Handling
• Principles of COSHH
• IOSH Supervising Safely

Two New Partners for RRC

We all need quality and security these days

RRC have recently announced two new partnerships with respected specialists in the fields of security management and quality assurance to complete our offering to clients.

Our first partnership is with ARC Training to offer RRC customers courses from the International Academy for Security Management. ARC Training are world leaders in security management training and their International Academy for Security Management specialises in preparing security professionals from all over the world to protect the challenging and rapidly changing business environments of the new century. They work closely with organisations like Skills for Security, Middlesex University, the Security Institute and ASIS International, and draw on the very best in international security management best practice and standards.

Our second partnership is with H&R Quality Services to offer RRC customers short specialist courses in the field of quality assurance. H&R Quality Services are specialists in quality assurance training, auditing and support activities to ISO level certification. RRC will be working with them to augment our existing quality assurance provision, as well as utilising their expertise to run a series of short courses.

Check out our website at www.rrc.co.uk over the coming few weeks for more information on both of these partnerships.

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.

RRC Newsletter Reader Survey

Help us learn more about our readers and their needs and you could be the winner of a top-of-the-range iPod! RRC are offering an iPod 30GB Video and 4 iPod Shuffles as prizes in a draw into which the names of all those completing and returning the following questionnaire will be entered.

Please note that the closing date for return of the questionnaire is 1^st June 2007.

You will need to click on the link below and save the survey to your computer, before completing it. Once complete save it again and e-mail your completed questionnaire to feedback@rrc.co.uk. Names of the winners will be given in the Summer edition of the e-Newsletter.

News In Brief

• The State Environmental Protection Agency imposed strict controls on the power industry in January and suspended approval for all new projects in four major industrial cities following China’s failure to meet its targets for saving energy and controlling pollution. The aim was to force the worst polluters to take immediate action to meet environmental standards.

• A construction site in Brazil collapsed on 12th January, burying up to seven people and several vehicles under earth and rubble and causing over 100 people to be evacuated from their homes. A hole was being excavated for a subway station when its walls collapsed without warning, creating a crater. Rescuers were searching for four people in a minibus, two pedestrians and a lorry driver. Heavy rain is thought to have contributed to the accident, which the authorities are investigating.

• Four crew members died on 15th January when a merchant ship and a hydrofoil passenger ferry collided in Italy’s Messina Strait. 89 other people were taken to hospital. The collision between the cargo ship, registered in Antigua, and the hydrofoil, operated by Italian Railways and carrying about 150 passengers, ripped open the ferry and destroyed its bridge. Three separate investigations have been opened into the accident.

• A train crash in Kentucky, USA, on 16th January caused a toxic blaze which closed a highway and forced the evacuation of people living within a one-mile radius. The thick smoke and flames were fed by chemicals leaking from 12 of the cars which were derailed in the crash. Water had little effect in extinguishing the fire and fire officials were hoping that it would quickly burn itself out so that a clean-up could begin.

• Seven female workers died in a fire at a Chinese underwear factory in January. Four other workers were rescued from the building in the industrial city of Shenzen in the south of the country. The city contains many hundreds of factories, which make goods ranging from clothing to electronics.

• A Chinese chemical factory has been fined one million yuan (£65,000), the highest penalty, following an explosion in the city of Jilin in November 2005 which killed eight people and caused 10,000 to flee. The accident released toxic chemicals into the Songhua river, leaving millions of Chinese and Russians without a water supply.

• Following an underground explosion in the Yile Coal Mine in Shuitang, Panxian County, China, on 28th January, rescue workers recovered the bodies of 15 miners. Nine men escaped alive and another one remains unaccounted for in the now collapsed mineshaft. The owner of the mine was arrested and will face charges.

• Smoking in workplaces, educational institutions and hospitals became illegal in France on 1st February, with exceptions for hotels, retirement homes and psychiatric hospitals. Cafés, restaurants and bars have a further year before a ban is imposed. Fines of €68 apply for smoking in a public place and €135 for employers.

• In an accident unlikely to be repeated, a Russian construction worker fell from a suspended work platform on a building site in Novosibirsk on 18th February, but survived a fall of 15 storeys with only a broken arm. He landed on a pile of discarded waste packaging material, covered in heavy snow, which broke the force of his impact.

• At least 48 people died in late February when a car ferry caught fire shortly after leaving the Indonesian capital of Jakarta and later sank. Some of those killed were accident investigators, journalists and cameramen who were on board when the ship sank after being towed into port. The fire broke out on the car deck of the “Levina I” and may have started in a lorry carrying chemicals. At least 290 people were rescued, of the more than 350 estimated to have been on board.

• A female zookeeper was mauled by a jaguar at Denver Zoo in the USA in late February and subsequently died in hospital. The animal was later shot dead by other keepers.

• A fire in an office block in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, at the end of February killed at least two people and injured many others. The victims jumped out of sixth-floor windows to escape the blaze, which is thought to have started on the second floor. Other people trapped climbed down cables and some were rescued from the roof of the 13-storey building by army helicopters. 2,000 employees of television companies and a newspaper were working in the building at the time.

• The International News Safety Institute reported in March that a thousand journalists and media technicians have been killed over the past ten years while reporting the news. At least 657 of them were murdered in their own countries in peacetime. Only one in four died in armed conflicts.

• On 8th March, the Bulgarian Labour Inspectorate in Blagoevgrad ordered the suspension of operations at the Oranovo mine located in the south-west of the country following fears of further explosions, after a blast on 5th March in which one miner died and 18 were injured, seven seriously. Most of the labour force had refused to continue working underground in the lignite mine due to continuing high concentrations of methane gas.

• A freight train carrying propane gas was derailed outside Oneida in New York state, USA, in mid-March, causing 12 of its carriages to burst into flames. No injuries were reported but hundreds of people within a one-mile radius of the accident had to be evacuated.

• The operator of a nuclear power plant in Japan admitted in March that a self-sustaining reaction in 1999 had been covered up. It then shut down the reactor in central Japan for inspections. There have been revelations of cover-ups at other nuclear power plants also.

• Ten people, including eight children, died in eastern India in March when their huts collapsed into a coal mine. The accident occurred at the Kusunda colliery in the state of Jharkhand as the victims slept.

• Police who regulate the traffic in Bombay, India, are suffering from hearing loss due to the incessant hooting of horns. Tests showed that only one officer between the ages of 28 and 40 who had spent at least five years in the traffic police had average hearing, the remainder being partially deaf. Noise levels average more than 90 decibels, double the level considered safe by the World Health Organisation for urban areas.

• An explosion at an arms depot near the main airport in Mozambique in late March killed more than 100 people and injured at least 300 others. Debris fell on the outskirts of the capital, Mabuto, setting houses on fire and hundreds of residents had to flee their homes. The cause of the explosion was not known but the Defence Ministry believed that high temperatures, up to 38°, might have contributed to the disaster.

• The earthen walls of a cesspit in the Gaza Strip gave way in March, flooding houses with a surge of raw sewage and killing at least five people. About 250 homes were destroyed and 1,500 people displaced by the accident. The cesspool had been constructed six months earlier to handle an overflow from older pools which were said by UN aid organisations to be dangerously overburdened. Rescue work was hampered by fear of unexploded Israeli artillery shells.

• One person died and 11 others were injured at the end of March when a tank containing liquefied natural gas exploded in a hotel in Belek, southern Turkey. The victim was an employee of the hotel and the injured included two foreign tourists.

• A collision between a pleasure boat and a ferry in Sydney Harbour, Australia, at the end of March left two people dead and two others missing. The pleasure boat disintegrated as the ferry rammed it amidships and ran over it. The ferry was returning empty to its base but there were some 15 people aboard the pleasure boat. An investigation into the collision has begun.

• The owners of a Swiss ski resort decided to give it away at the beginning of April when they could not afford to upgrade the facilities to meet health and safety regulations. The only requirements are that the new owners of the Erner Galen resort must extend the contracts of 12 employees and invest more than £600,000 in safety measures to keep the resort in business.

• On 6th April, there was an underground toxic gas release and explosion in a mine owned by the Jinhe Coal Company in the Yaojie township of Lanzhou, in the north-western Chinese province of Gansu. Ten miners were working underground at the time, but a week later only one was known to have survived. Rescue work was hampered by the high density of gas underground and coal and earth blocking the tunnels.

• A cruise ship struck rocks and eventually sank off the Greek island of Santorini in April. 1,154 passengers and 391 crew members were rescued but two passengers were reported missing. The captain of the “Sea Diamond” blamed currents off the island for the accident and has since been charged with negligence.

• An enraged elephant attacked another during a festival parade in southern India in April and subsequently killed its trainer as he tried to control it. The elephant had earlier been pelted with stones during the festival. Eighteen other people were hurt in the incident. An elephant trainer in Indonesia also died in April when his animal attacked him and trampled him to death as he tried to chain its feet. He had worked with the animal for many years without incident.

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