The Plastics Industry employs around 220,000 in the UK across 6000 businesses and 97% are SMEs. The total value of the processing sector is estimated to be £12.4 billion.

In the UK, just over half of the consumption of polymer raw materials are used to produce packaging or building products.

In the Plastics Industry the main causes of injury are:

• During manual handling (the largest cause of all injuries in the industry 34%)
• Slipping or tripping (25% of major injuries)
• Machinery related (17% of major injuries)
• Struck by something including knife-cuts (14% of all injuries)

The main causes of ill health are:

• Occupational asthma, and respiratory irritation from exposure to plastic fume
• Dermatitis, in particular in fibre reinforced plastic product manufacture
• Exposure to noise at work

These web pages contain information about health and safety for the Plastics Industry. They also provide details on how to obtain further health and safety information via HSE's free and priced publications .