Len Hall Chemical Consultant - Health and safety advisor with knowledge of the latest regulations and legislation

Management of Health and Safety at Work Manual

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LEN HALL CHEMICAL CONSULTANT
HEALTH AND SAFETY ADVICE TO CHEMICAL AND DISTRIBUTION INDUSTRIES

Health and Safety Advisor

The Management of Health and Safety Regulations 1999 requires all companies who employ more than five people to appoint a suitably qualified safety advisor. It is the HSE's preference that such appointees should be from within the company, however many employers do not have suitably qualified employees or if they do they have other functions to perform within the company.

Since the U.K. joined the European Union and especially since the early 1990's the rate at which legislation has been introduced in order to achieve harmony across Europe has been quite severe. In the main the legislation calls for assessment of the work situation and taking appropriate action to minimise the risk arising from the situation.

An assortment of health and safety regulations were introduced into U.K. law in 1992, namely
The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1992 (superseded by the 1999 regulations),
The Manual Operations Handling Regulations 1992,
The Personal Protective Equipment at Work Regulations 1992,
The Health and Safety (Display Screen Equipment) Regulations 1992,
The Health, Safety and Welfare Regulations 1992 and
The Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1992.
In the main these regulations are very prescriptive in what they require employers to do but because of the way that they are written they apply to almost all employers.

The Management of Health and Safety Regulations alone contain 14 key elements that employers have to address ranging from emergency planning to special arrangements for young persons.

In addition to the European Union inspired regulation there is a multitude of other legislation, at the last count amounting to 325 items, which may need to be considered by an employer. Legislation such as Chemicals (Hazard Information and Packaging for Supply) Regulations 1996 (CHIP), Control of Substances Hazardous to Health regulations 1994 (COSHH) and the Noise at Work Regulations 1989.

This represents just a flavour of the considerations that the Health and Safety Advisor will have to consider. They are all based on carrying out risk assessments. As a chemist with operational experience I am well qualified to help companies in coming to terms with Health and Safety in the workplace.