Paper Industries - Live issues

HSE works closely with key stakeholders in the Paper industries to progress health and safety initiatives including:

• Revitalising Health and Safety

The Revitalising Health and Safety (RHS) Strategy is a Government initiative to raise the profile of health and safety in the workplace. The Government and HSE are committed to improving standards and reducing the toll of occupational injury and ill health in British industry.

As part of the ‘Revitalising Health and Safety’ agenda HSE has identified a number of priority topics for action. These are:

• Musculoskeletal disorders (manual handling)
• Slips and trips
• Falls from height
• Workplace transport and security of loads transported on road vehicles
• Occupational stress

In the paper industries machinery safety, including safe interventions at dangerous machines, is also a live issue. Serious and fatal accidents continue to occur in the paper and recycling industries while clearing blockages and/or carrying out running repairs inside dangerous machines. Operational inspectors aim to achieve major reductions in the risk of serious or fatal injuries in specific industries, including the paper industry, by carrying out an enforcement led initiative to check that:

• the risks associated with these activities have been properly assessed
• effective control measures including robust isolation and lock off procedures are in place
• employers implement sound risk control systems to manage those procedures

Another live issue is he security of heavy loads on road vehicles.  In the past heavy loads, e.g. reels of paper, have been shed form lorries during road journeys.  Paper reels and bales of recycled paper have shifted during road transit and fallen from the lorry trailer when the side curtain has been opened ready for offloading at the point of delivery.  PABIAC will set an objective aimed at reducing these risks following the results of recent research into this topic:- ‘Load Security on Curtain-Sided Lorries’ and ‘An exploration of factors linked to loads causing harm by shifting or falling within the transport industry’

Progress

PABIAC continues to promote partnership, involvement and openness with all stakeholders. Work in support of accident reduction initiatives has provided the main focus for the health and safety activities of all the PABIAC partners. This includes training, sharing information, and annual health and safety meetings for Chief Executives.