ABSTRACT
In Chapter 1 of this book, we looked at some of the health and safety rules and regulations. In particular, we now know that the Health and Safety at Work Act is the most important piece of recent legislation, because it places responsibilities for safety at work on both employers and employees. This responsibility is enforceable by law. We know what the regulations say about the control of substances, which might be hazardous to our health at work, because we briefl y looked at the COSHH Regulations 2002 in Chapter 1. We also know that if there is a risk to health and safety at work our employer must provide personal protective equipment (PPE) free of charge, for us to use so that we are safe at work. The law is in place, we all apply the principles of health and safety at work and we always wear the appropriate PPE, so what are the risks? Well, getting injured at work is not a pleasant subject to think about but each year about 300 people in Great Britain lose their lives at work. In addition, there are about 158,000 nonfatal injuries reported to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) each year and an estimated 2.2 million people suffer ill health caused by, or made worse by, work. It is a mistake to believe that these things only happen in dangerous occupations such as deep-sea diving, mining and quarrying, fi shing industry, tunnelling and fi re fi ghting or that it only happens in exceptional circumstances such as would never happen in your workplace. This is not the case. Some basic thinking and acting beforehand could have prevented most of these accident statistics from happening.
