What’s New on the Web...

New FREE NEBOSH Diploma Revision Webinar coming soon

Let’s face it, revision is never pleasant. But there are ways to make the process a little more pain-free. Our FREE recorded webinar lets you in on some of the secrets to developing a successful revision plan for the NEBOSH National Diploma, including advice on:

• Revision techniques

• Choosing what to revise

• Identifying your personal strengths and weaknesses

• Exam techniques

• Tackling exam questions

• Avoiding exam pitfalls

This webinar will be available from 1 March at www.rrc.co.uk

February Podcast now available

Our latest FREE podcast on The Environment is now available at www.rrc.co.uk/Podcasts.aspx

Businesses are often not aware of the real impact of environmental change and the common grounds between the environment and health and safety. This broadcast between David Towlson and a particularly sceptical John Carruthers explores the scientific views of global warming and the four areas of the environment affected: the hydrosphere, the lithosphere, the atmosphere and the biosphere.

News In Brief

• On 12th October 2007, an Azerbaijani Airlines helicopter crashed in the Caspian Sea soon after taking off from an oil platform. All six people onboard, four crew members and two passengers, were killed. The helicopter was a Russian-made Mil Mi-8T twin turbine transport (which is similar to the French Aérospatiale Puma). Rescue teams failed to recover any bodies. The cause of the accident was under investigation.

• A prison guard and an inmate died when a riot erupted at a prison for adolescents in Russia in October. The violence left buildings gutted at the institution in the Sverdlovsk region of the Ural mountains. It started when a group of prisoners tried to escape.

• Senior Air Force officials in the USA disclosed in October that six nuclear weapons were loaded by mistake onto a bomber in August and flown across the country. “Procedural errors” and an erosion in standards at two airbases were blamed for the incident.

• Seven people were kidnapped from an oil platform off Nigeria in late October by armed rebels. The platform belongs to Shell and those taken were a Briton, a Russian, a Croat and four Nigerians. There are frequent abductions for ransom in the area as part of a conflict over the distribution of oil revenue.

• At least 12 people were killed in the city of Yangquan in northern China in October when houses fell into a coal mine tunnel. The tunnel was being extended under a residential area of the city.

• When a cable car caught fire in the Alps in November 2000, 155 people died and only 12 survived. The car was climbing to the summit of the Kitzsteinhorn glacier near Kaprün in Austria. In November 2007, the Austrian Government and several companies implicated in the accident agreed to pay €13 million (£9 million) in compensation to the victims.

• The Italian oil company Eni reported that, on 26th October 2007, a supply vessel was attacked and boarded by armed gunmen in speedboats near the FPSO Mystras oil platform, around 85 km off the Nigerian coast. The attackers managed to climb aboard the Mystras and seized six workers, whose nationalities were Polish, Filipino and Nigerian. Another Nigerian worker was reported to be slightly injured in one leg.

• A Crossair flight from Berlin crashed on approach to Zurich Airport in November 2001, killing 24 people and leaving nine survivors. In October 2007, six managers of the former company (now part of the Swiss airline) were charged with negligent homicide and grievous bodily harm resulting from negligence. They face a possible three years in prison. An investigation concluded that the pilot was overtired and flew too low.

• The Mosul dam in Iraq is scheduled to undergo £14 million of repair work. US findings suggest that the dam is on the verge of collapse, threatening flooding along the Tigris river, but this has been denied by the Iraqi Government.

• An outbreak of foot and mouth disease was confirmed on two farms in Cyprus in early November. The authorities culled 300 sheep and goats and halted the export of meat, livestock and dairy products. It was the first outbreak in Cyprus for over 40 years.

• A confidential document leaked to the press in November revealed that BP considers there is still a fairly high probability of a “catastrophic” incident at one of its sites. It faces a shortage of engineers as it endeavours to improve its health and safety record following the fatal blast at its Texas City refinery in March 2005.

• Six labourers died in Wuxi City in eastern China in November when a lift plunged more than 20 floors to the ground during the building of a tower block. A further ten workers were injured in the accident.

• A mix-up at a hospital in Tanzania caused two patients to receive the wrong surgery. A knee patient underwent complex brain surgery while the brain patient had a knee operation. Tanzania’s Health Minister apologised for the mistake.

• A test flight of an Airbus A330 in November resulted in six people being taken to hospital after a depressurisation incident. The aircraft made an emergency landing at Toulouse Airport and hit a barrier, seriously injuring two passengers and another person on the ground.

• A dam in Liaoning province in north-east China collapsed in late November, releasing a torrent of mud and debris into two villages. Six people died, 17 were injured and another seven were missing after the accident. The dam had been holding back iron ore waste but water had been allowed to build up.

• Seven people died in late November when a section of the stands collapsed at the Fonte Nova football stadium in Salvador, Brazil. The accident occurred at the end of a game and they fell 15 metres to the ground. The stadium had been identified by architects and engineers as the worst of 29 venues in Brazil and was being considered for renovation before the collapse. Past renovation work had not dealt with its structural integrity.

• Surgery practices at a teaching hospital in the USA were being reviewed following three incidents in 2007 in which brain operations were performed on the wrong side of a patient’s head. One patient died as a result. The Rhode Island Hospital was fined $50,000 (£24,200).

• Police reported that a man died in Cheongwon, South Korea, in November when the battery in his mobile phone exploded. It was found melted in his shirt pocket. The maker of the phone maintained that such an incident was virtually impossible.

• China banned the sale and use of fireworks within a 100m radius of its 31 Olympic sites in November to ensure they are not threatened by fire. Firecrackers were already banned around hospitals, schools, diplomatic compounds and historical sites.

• According to researchers, forests in the European Union have absorbed twice as much carbon dioxide as they were expected to in the period from 1990 to 2004. Tree cover in the EU increased during that time and this contributed to an extra 126 million tonnes of carbon dioxide (11% of the EU’s emissions) being absorbed.

• Fire tore through a 28-storey building in the city of Wenzhou, eastern China, in December, killing 21 people and seriously injuring two others. The building was used for both commercial and residential purposes and over 200 people were in it at the time. It took more than 270 fire-fighters over three hours to put out the blaze, the cause of which was being investigated.

• The media defence group, Press Emblem Campaign, reported that record numbers of journalists were killed doing their job in 2007. At least 110 died in 27 countries, a 14% increase on the 2006 figures. About two thirds of the deaths occurred in Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia, Sri Lanka and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

• On 26th December 2007, eight people were taken to hospital suffering from vomiting and nausea after a chemical leak in a food packaging factory in Ravenhall, north-west of Melbourne, Australia. The Country Fire Authority evacuated 13 workers from the factory in Westwood Drive. The cause of the chlorine gas leak was unknown at the time and was not under control. Twelve fire rescue units were reported to be attending the site.

• About 100 people had to flee from the Volksbühne theatre in Berlin at the end of December when tear gas was released by mistake instead of stage fog during a production. Several of those affected needed eye treatment.

• In early January 2008, several dozen people were admitted to hospital in Mufulira, located in the northern Zambian copper belt, after drinking water contaminated by acidic effluent from Mopani Copper Mines. A similar incident nearby in Chingola in 2006 caused social unrest, and police were deployed to Mufulira in case of riots among the 800,000 residents, who were reported to be afraid to drink tap water.

• It was reported in January that a new office block in Stockholm will have 15% of its heating supplied by body heat. 250,000 commuters pass through the main train station in Stockholm every day and their body heat is to be channelled into the new building.

• A leakage of hydrogen sulphide gas took place on 9th January 2008 at the plant of the Chongqing Tesura Chemical Company in the Banan District of Chongqing, China. Five workers were killed and another 11 were hospitalised. The plant was evacuated and the leak contained. Local environmental authorities continued to monitor the density of the poisonous gas in the area. The cause of the accident was under investigation.

• The US Chemical Safety Board announced that on 14th January 2008, a BP employee was killed in a chemical explosion believed to have resulted from an overpressure incident in an ultracracker unit at the BP Texas City refinery. An investigation team had been deployed to the site.

• The EU has drafted legislation to improve the safety of toys. Manufacturers, importers and retailers will be subject to heavy fines for handling dangerous or substandard toys. The proposed legislation includes a ban on the use of cancer-producing chemicals and wider use of safety warnings.

• The Chinese authorities recently admitted that six workers have died during the building of venues for the Olympic Games. The figure was confirmed by the Beijing Bureau of Work Safety.

• Seventeen clients at a health farm in Yessentuki, Russia, were taken to hospital at the beginning of February after being given enemas with hydrogen peroxide instead of water. The clinic blamed the mistake on the fact that the chemical looked like water.

Exciting New Partnership

RRC are delighted to announce an exciting new partnership with fellow training provider, Safety Solutions. Based in Kent, Safety Solutions offer a variety of NEBOSH and IOSH day release programmes, allowing RRC to offer its customers the full complement of learning methods. Safety Solutions also run a series of complementary health, safety and environmental programmes that may be of interest to RRC students, including:

• Health and Safety related NVQs (at levels 3, 4 and 5)

• CITB Site Safety Management

• The NEBOSH Specialist Diploma in Disaster and Emergency Management

For further information on any of these courses, please contact info@rrc.co.uk.

Noticeboard

Modern Legislation

In this article we shall discuss the similarity in regulatory approach between a number of apparently disparate pieces of modern legislation, and indicate some of the practicalities of being regulated under these provisions. This article deals with:

• IPPC (Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control Regulations 2000)
• COMAH (Control of Major Accident Hazard Regulations1999)
• MSER (Manufacture and Storage of Explosives Regulations 2005)

New Examination Centre in Scotland

RRC is delighted to announce a new collaboration with Oil States Klaper Ltd (OSK) (based in Bathgate, near Edinburgh). From March 2008, we will be offering students the opportunity to complete their practical assessments for both the NEBOSH National General Certificate and the NEBOSH Certificate in Fire Safety and Risk Management at the OSK site in Edinburgh, as well as at our other exam venues in London, Coventry and Exeter.

RRC Middle East Course Dates 2008

Please click the following link to access RRC Middle East course dates and fees for 2008.

RRC ME Course Dates 2008