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Podcasts

Another three podcasts are now available to download free from the website. The latest episodes cover the following topics:

February 2009: International Health and Safety

The English Jacobean poet John Donne once wrote that “no man is an island”. Though this is a statement of the obvious (most men are not in fact even remotely island-shaped), there was perhaps a deeper meaning. In today’s world, we cannot ignore the international scene. In this podcast we talk about the influence of organisations such as the ILO and the development of internationally recognised health and safety qualifications. Dee Arp of NEBOSH joins us to talk about what internationally relevant qualifications NEBOSH offer.

January 2009: Exam Help From Goldilocks

David Towlson persuades us that childrens’ stories have a particular place in training. He is joined by Dee Arp of NEBOSH as they attempt to convince the sceptical Toby Moore of the value of a closer understanding of Goldilocks and The Bears and exactly how it can help in exams.

December 2008: Noise In The Entertainment Industry

The Control of Noise at Work Regulations came into effect in April 2006 but there was a two year transitional period to apply the regulations to the music and entertainment sectors. This podcast is a glimpse into the world of entertainment and how the regulations now affect the business. David Towlson is joined by Pinky Blue. We look at what will change in her world and how she and her band Kafka's Five need to take the Control of Noise at Work Regulations into account.

These FREE podcasts are available at www.rrc.co.uk/Podcasts.aspx

News In Brief

• Three workers were killed and two others injured in a scaffolding collapse at a worksite in Umm Al Hassam, Bahrain, on 27th October 2008. Two of the dead workers were employed by Al Hidaya Construction Company and the third was employed by a manpower agency. The incident took place while the men were installing wall cladding to fix glass tiles on the 7th to 10th floors. A plank on the scaffolding moved and the workers lost their balance, causing the collapse. The accident was being investigated by the police and the medical examiner.

• On 31st October 2008, the Chinese media reported three separate coal mining incidents. An explosion, shaft cave-in and flood at the Yaotou mine in Chencheng trapped 28 miners, depriving them of ventilation. Only seven men from a work shift of 35 managed to escape. In another incident at the Qinghai Coal Mining colliery in Xiangning, seven miners were trapped in a flooded shaft; and another flood at the Mazhuang Colliery in Jiyuan City trapped 20 miners below ground. All the mines had valid operating licences.

• German prosecutors began a manslaughter investigation in November 2008 following the deaths of 20 pensioners in a coach fire on a motorway near Hanover. Officials believe the fire may have been caused by a passenger secretly smoking in the lavatory. Flames appeared to have been sucked up from there as if in a chimney, engulfing the upper floor of the coach. A spark from under the vehicle may also have been to blame. Twelve other people were injured in the accident.

• A teenager who ran away from a boot-camp-style school in Milwaukee, USA, in November 2008 hid in a bin filled with cardboard. He was then accidentally dumped into the back of a recycling truck and crushed but survived.

• On 2nd November 2008, a migrant worker died in an accident at the Kuwait Paraxylene Production Co. plant on the Shuaiba Industrial Area in south Kuwait. No details were made available in a press statement via the newswire Bloomberg. The operator of the plant, Equate Petrochemical Co. (a joint venture between Petrochemical Industries Co. and Dow Chemical Co.) said that an investigation had been launched into the cause of the accident. Kuwait Paraxylene Production is part of the Olefins II chemical project, which began operations in August 2008.

• The Norwegian company, Fred Olsen Renewables, a wholly owned subsidiary of Bonheur and Ganger Rolf, announced in Oslo on 5th November 2008 that it had secured £303 million in debt financing for the construction of a 138-megawatt wind farm to be sited around 40 km east of Edinburgh and 10 km south of Dunbar in Scotland. The fact that such a banking deal is still achievable in the current state of turmoil and uncertainty in the financial markets indicates that there is still an appetite for investment in renewable energy, and financiers recognise its importance.

• Four workers died in Indian-controlled Kashmir, near the border with Pakistan, in November 2008 when a bridge under construction collapsed. Nineteen others were reported missing as rescuers searched the banks of the icy river for survivors.

• Fifteen people died in 2006 when an ice rink collapsed under snow in Bavaria. A German engineer who helped to build the rink was given an 18-month suspended jail sentence in November 2008 for involuntary manslaughter.

• An American wildlife biologist who performed an autopsy on a mountain lion in his garage subsequently died of the plague. The National Park Service had not warned him of the disease risks and he had handled the lion without protective equipment.

• It was reported in November 2008 that militants responsible for bombing pipelines and kidnapping oil workers in the Niger Delta of Nigeria are to be sent on anger management courses after agreeing to halt hostilities. They will be sent abroad to receive lessons on Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther King and will go to Norway and the USA to learn skills.

• Seven people died in November 2008 when an Airbus A320 passenger jet crashed into the sea off southern France. The Air New Zealand aircraft had been leased to the German charter firm XL Airways and was being flown by two German pilots. The other five people onboard were observers from New Zealand. The aircraft had been undergoing servicing at EAS Industries in Perpignan and had completed circuits for about 90 minutes before it crashed.

• Eleven young schoolgirls died of carbon monoxide poisoning in their dormitory in northern China on 2nd December 2008. They had been warming themselves around a charcoal heater in freezing temperatures. A twelfth girl at the Duiziliang Middle School in Shaanxi province survived after ten days in a coma.

• On 3rd December 2008, the Italian energy company Eni SpA declared force majeure on between 15,000 and 18,000 barrels per day of its oil production in Nigeria. The company did not explain the reason for the shutdown or state how long it would last. Sabotage, vandalism and attacks on oil workers are endemic in the country, and the safety of workers has to be protected at gunpoint. Eni produced 122,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day in Nigeria in 2007.

• The European Court of Justice (ECJ) in Luxembourg ruled on 9th December 2008 that France had acted unlawfully in that its Government had refused to apply a law which came into force in 2002, setting out how genetically modified crops can be planted in areas where other conventional crops are being grown. The European Commission had won a court order against France on this matter in 2004, but the French Government still delayed implementing the ruling until July 2008. The ECJ ordered France to pay a fine of €10 million (US $12.9 million).

• Eight members of the tiny Onge tribe died in December 2008 when they drank a chemical which they mistook for alcohol. It was washed ashore on their reserve in a brown glass bottle. The Government of the remote Indian islands of Andaman and Nicobar ordered an investigation into the deaths. Fewer than 100 members of the hunter-gatherer tribe remain.

• An 11-year-old schoolboy from Changchun in eastern China had to have an arrow removed from his skull in December 2008 after he was shot through the eye by a fellow pupil. The accident occurred during archery practice. The boy survived after a four-hour operation.

• The new Thuwal landfill site for construction waste was opened in the third week of December 2008 by Jeddah Municipality in Saudi Arabia. The site has an area of one million square metres and a capacity of around three million cubic metres of waste. The municipality authorities created the dump to hold waste materials from infrastructure works on hundreds of construction sites throughout the area. All contractors and construction companies working in the area were cautioned against abandoning their building waste elsewhere and will face penalties if they do.

• A faulty fireworks display at the Tresnja theatre in Zagreb, Croatia, in December 2008 caused a group of children aged 13 and 14 to be taken to hospital suffering from smoke inhalation. The incident occurred during the staging of Oliver Twist.

• A trainer who hit one of his trio of performing monkeys with a stick found himself on the receiving end when they twisted his ears, pulled his hair out and bit him, finally hitting him with the stick until it broke. The animals were performing by riding mini bicycles in a market in Sizhou, eastern China. The trainer is now under investigation for animal cruelty and the monkeys are liable to be confiscated.

• Members of the South Korean Parliament became involved in a brawl in December 2008 over a free-trade accord with the USA. The ruling party had barricaded a meeting room and opposition members tried to force their way in with a sledgehammer. It was necessary for security guards to quell the disturbance by spraying those trying to force their way in with fire extinguishers.

• The world’s largest Ferris wheel, located in Singapore, broke down in December 2008 leaving over 100 people stranded for six hours. Some were rescued by the civil defence force while others abseiled down to safety. The Singapore Flyer is 165 metres (540 ft) high.

• A five-storey apartment building collapsed in southern Ukraine in December 2008, killing at least 27 people. The collapse followed an explosion, thought to have been caused by a gas leak. The accident, in the Black Sea resort of Yevpatoriya, occurred in the late evening, when most of the 62 inhabitants of the building would have been at home. Twenty-one people were rescued from the rubble.

• Air traffic controllers in the southern Philippines arrived late for work in December 2008, causing an aircraft to remain circling the airport. It was unable to land on time as there were no air traffic controllers on duty to answer its request to approach the runway. The Philippine Airlines aircraft was flying from Manila to Zamboanga City airport. The air traffic controllers were still in a Christmas holiday mood.

• Fifty people employed by a local clothing factory in Cadiz city of Negros Occidental province in the Philippines sustained injuries while attending a Christmas party on 29th December 2008. According to a police report the bamboo floor of a floating cottage at the Seafront Resort in Cadiz, which was the venue for the party, suddenly collapsed when around 200 people crowded onto the platform to attend the prize draw of a raffle. The floating cottage had a safe capacity of 50 persons and there was no supervision or management to control the number entering.

• On 5th January 2009, two people were killed and a boy was critically injured when a boiler exploded at the Zonaki Rice Mill in Goal Gaonareain, Bokshiganj Upazila district in Bangladesh. The dead were the daughter of the mill owner and a mill worker; the boy was standing outside his house adjacent to the rice mill. The cause of the incident was unknown.

• On 4th January 2009, the floating production, storage and offloading unit “Juscelino Kubitschek” (also known as P-34) offshore from Brazil was shut-in after a valve failure released oil and water under high pressure, killing one worker and injuring two others. Petrobras announced on 6th January that it would restart production on the P-34 platform the following day. The Jubarte oilfield is located 130 kilometres off the southern coast of Espirito Santo in the Campos Basin and the platform was producing light sweet crude at a rate of between 12,000 and 14,000 barrels per day.

• An outbreak of legionnaires’ disease at the Hippocration private hospital in Nicosia, Cyprus, has claimed the lives of three babies. The hospital has been closed while the source of the outbreak is identified.

• Fire raged through dozens of homes in a shanty town in Karachi, Pakistan, in January 2009 when a power wire fell onto roofs. At least 38 people died in the blaze and another 25 were injured.

• Sixty-four people were killed in 2007 when a bridge collapsed in central China. The general manager and chairman of a construction company involved were found guilty of dereliction of duty and taking bribes and jailed for 19 years in January 2009.

• A museum in the Finnish Åland islands stored a Russian grenade from the First World War for more than 30 years. In January 2009, it was discovered to be live and had to be disarmed by explosives experts.

Safety Culture - A Tale of Two Builders

By Alan Bessell, BSc (Hons), DipSH, CFIOSH,CH&S Practitioner

The accepted definition of the term ‘safety culture’ talks of shared values and beliefs; alternatively the phrase often provokes a simple reference to ‘the way we do things around here’. I’m happy with these definitions but I don’t think either clearly expresses the absolutely vital role played by management, or perhaps more importantly, by the most senior person(s) in the organisation. This influence can best be understood by looking at groups and group behaviour.

I’ve always been greatly impressed by the work of Maslow as set out in his hierarchy of needs. As I’m sure you will recall (with the addition of “your Honour” this is often the curtain-raiser for a Barrister who is about to cite an obscure piece of case law - and I’m playing the same game!) Maslow considered physiological needs first.

Noticeboard

Slips, Trips and Falls

By Wendy Claxton BSc (Hons), Dip2.OSH, CMIOSH

Perception plays an important part in health and safety. If you asked most employees and indeed employers what the single most common cause of major injury in the workplace is then there may be a variety of answers including fall from heights, use of machinery, fire, manual handling etc. Most people would be surprised to hear that slipping and tripping is the most common cause of major injury in the UK workplace.

According to the UK Health and Safety Executive over a third of all major reported injuries each year in the UK are caused as a result of a slip or trip. This costs employers over £512 million in lost production and other costs.

Fast Track to a NEW Diploma in Management

RRC are delighted to announce that we are working with Manchester Metropolitan University and the Management Development Partnership to offer NEBOSH Certificate holders the opportunity to use their qualification as a starting point for a general management qualification.

This innovative online course allows NEBOSH Certificate holders to supplement their certificate by completing a number of work-based activities as part of a development log. This goes on to form a third of the new Diploma qualification. The remainder of the programme consists of two modules covering a range of management topics.

The programme is delivered through an online virtual learning environment and is available anywhere in the world so long as you have access to the internet. You can join the programme at any time and could complete in as little as 5 months.

For further information e-mail info@rrc.co.uk or call +44 (0)20 8944 3100.

RRC Middle East Course Dates 2009

Please click the following link to access RRC Middle East course dates and fees for 2009.

RRC ME Course Dates 2009