EU orders UK to tighten asbestos laws

The European Commission has requested that the UK amend its regulations on asbestos at work because they do not comply fully with the parent EU Directive.
Delivered in the form of a reasoned opinion under EU infringement procedures, the Commission wants the UK to change provisions in its legislation that exempt some maintenance and repair activities from the application of the EU Directive on the protection of workers from asbestos.
It follows a complaint received by the Commission that Article 3(3)(a) and (b) of the asbestos Directive 2009/148/EC has not been correctly transposed into UK law. Article 3(3) offers the possibility for an exemption from three obligations set out in the Directive for activities that involve only sporadic and low-intensity exposure to asbestos – for example, in the case of some maintenance and repair activities.
However, in the Commission’s view, the UK law omits specific parts of Article 3(3)(a) and (b), and so widens the scope of the exemption. The Commission says the UK legislation focuses on the measurement of exposure to asbestos but not enough on how the material can be affected by the work involved. The Directive deals with both exposure and the material.
The UK now has two months to bring its legislation into line with EU law, or risk the matter being referred to the EU’s Court of Justice.
Commenting on the development, TUC general secretary, Brendan Barber, said: “This is another nail in the coffin of the myth that the HSE has been ‘gold-plating’ regulation. European regulations are there to protect workers, and governments should see them as being minimum standards rather than trying to weasel out of their commitments.”
Alan Ritchie, general secretary of construction-workers’ union UCATT, added: "Construction workers, especially those involved in maintenance work, are now at the greatest risk of being exposed to asbestos and developing asbestos-related diseases.
“It is essential that they are given the greatest possible training, education and protection when it comes to dealing with asbestos. UCATT’s advice is clear: if you are not a specialist, do not work with asbestos. If, at any point, you think you are working with asbestos, stop work immediately and get it checked out.”
A spokesperson for the HSE said: “The reasoned opinion is a long and complex legal document and we need to look at it carefully before we decide how to respond.”

Source: SHP

Occupational Safety and Health Consultants Register up and running

This register is now up and running. This came about because of Lord Young's report which suggested that individual consultants were to blame for the silly stuff like banning conkers whereas really the compensation culture needs to be addressed first. However, people who have chartered status as a health and safety consultant (like me) can now register. Eventaully, the public will be able to access this register.
Trade associations don't have to register and, one supposes that Lord Young decided they were quite able to select advisors who are suitably qualified.
The general consensus is that this register will have no effect.

Changes to RIDDOR

The following changes are proposed to RIDDOR:

• Change reporting threshold from over 3-days to over 7-days
  SSS stance: In favour. This reduces the workload on industry and removes the confusion when 3 days includes a weekend. However, data will be lost and there is the danger that 3 days will be regarded as not serious.
  
• Include a requirement to investigate reportable incidents
  SSS stance: In favour. All incidents must be investigated, but this must be to an appropriate level.
  
• Include travelling on company business as a work activity
  SSS stance: In favour. Travelling on company business can be a serious source of incidents.
  
• Improve the sharing of information from the HSE
  SSS stance: In favour. It's been a long-standing gripe of ours that the HSE do not share all this information that RIDDOR brings in.

SSS has responded to the consultation process.

Air conditioning checks

If your air-conditioning system has an output of over 12kW, you need to meet certain requirements for inspecting the energy efficiency of your systems. If you have more than one air-conditioning unit within a building they are considered to be a single system.

In England, Northern Ireland and Wales, from 4 January 2011, if your air-conditioning system has an output over 12kW it must be inspected at least every five years. If your system was first put into service on or after 1 January 2008, it must have its first inspection within five years of the date when it was first put into service.

Inspections must be carried out at least every five years by an accredited energy assessor who will assess the efficiency of the system and advise on improvements.

Source: NetRegs

INTACT 7.0 released

The integrated action mananagment system, INTACT, is now available as version 7.0.
What we've done is to take 4 sets of requirements developed to meet the requirements of 4 companies and to merge them into the standard version. The new features cover the areas of:

• Training - advanced listing and team briefing reports
• Quality assurance - advanced data entry, analysis and reporting

Examples of the additional features are:

1. With the team briefing, INTACT now gives a listing of all people who have missed a briefing.
2. With QA, INTACT can now provide rework and scrap tickets, removing the need for duplicate data entry.

2 new PEFC standards

There are 1 new and 1 updated PEFC standards:

• PEFC ST 2002:2010 Chain of Custody of Forest Based Products (replaces Annex 4)
• PEFC ST 2001:2008 PEFC Logo Usage Rules - Requirements (2nd edition)

The standards are to be welcomed as they now are formatted like other standards and we no longer have Annex 4 as the PEFC standard.

Clause 6.8 Sub-Contracting has been added to PEFC ST 2002:2010; before this, there was no PEFC requirement for sub-contracting. For those companies that already have an SSS system for sub-contracting of FSC products, your existing system already meets the requirements of PEFC but it may need references added.

The main requirement for those companies with systems compiled by Strategic Safety Systems for FSC/PEFC is that the references will have to change; for a start Annex 4 will need changing to PEFC ST 2002:2010, but all the clause numbers are different.

Clause 6.8.2 is rather clumsy and may be interpreted as not allowing sub-contractors to ship onwards to the next link in the chain; the product must be returned to the company owning the certificate.

New features added to INTACT

For some time now, we've realised that links between the audit schedule and the audit form could make the audit entry process more user friendly.
What we've done is to:

• Make a link so that, if you double click on a system in the audit schedule, it takes you to the audits for that system, and
• When you click on the Sign Off button on an audit, it updates the schedule so that the present audit is signed off with today's date and a new one scheduled 1-year hence.