Anti-stab protection vests supplied amid knife crime fears

It's been all over the press today - the growing fear of knife crime in Britain is forcing hospital trusts and local authorities to supply body armour to frontline workers, including A&E staff, hospital porters, teachers, benefits officers and traffic wardens.

The Local Government Association said councils had started responding urgently to staff who 'need a greater level of protection'. Already more than 20,000 sets of Home Office-approved body armour have been issued to local government staff.

The revelations came as Scotland Yard announced that knife crime had eclipsed terrorism as the number one priority for the Metropolitan police.

Experts believe councils are responding to new corporate manslaughter laws that mean organisations failing adequately to protect employees may be prosecuted.

Do you agree? Discuss here.

National Falls Awareness Day

Yes folks, it's National Falls Awareness Day today. It is led by Help the Aged in parnership with other organisations and is aimed at raising awareness about falls and promoting information on staying fit, healthy and independent in later life.

Further information can be found on the Help the Aged website.

Is your organisation involved in promoting National Falls Awareness Day? Tell me.

HSW readership survey

As part of our continued efforts to ensure that HSW magazine meets your information needs, we are inviting subscribers of the magazine to take part in our 2008 Readership Survey.

If you are a subscriber and would like the opportunity to influence the content of HSW in future issues, complete our survey.

We want your opinions!

Here at HealthandSafetyProfessional.co.uk we always listen to our readers - and now we have given you the opportunity to tell us what you think about all things health and safety with our new weekly opinion polls.

This week, we are asking if you think it is worthwhile for the HSE to pursue prosecutions of firms in liquidation where there is evidence of serious safety breaches. The question was borne out of the recent prosecution of North West Aerosols, which was fined a measly £2 for the death of a worker because the company's directors put the firm into voluntary liquidation four months after the incident.

Tell us what you think by visiting http://www.healthandsafetyprofessional.co.uk/

Protecting our professional reputation

It's that time in the publishing cycle where I start writing the news for the IIRSM Newsletter. I ran a Google search on recent health and safety stories and this is what it came up with:

Clock run stopped
A unique event to celebrate the 150th anniversary of Tredegar Town clock has been cancelled on health and safety grounds. To celebrate the milestone ...

Donkey derby falls foul of health and safety
This was after insurers backed away from the race due to the UK’s stringent health and safety legislation. Now the inflatable animals look set for another ...

Under-threat theatre cancels show
The Little Theatre in Rhyl has postponed its latest production by a month following a bitter row over health and safety with Denbighshire Council ...

"It is a huge contradiction that news reports simultaneously focus on serious and substantial safety issues (sometimes overstated or poorly researched) at the same time as repeatedly criticising safety people as over-zealous killjoys," Paul Hopkin, IIRSM Chairman, recently told HSW magazine.

And he couldn't be more right. As safety professionals, let's continue to promote sensible risk management and protect the reputation of health and safety. If we don't do it, who will?

Apologies for the lack of posts...

...but I've recently been sunning myself in Cuba. Oh, and Birmingham. On arrival back to the UK from a fabulous holiday in Cuba, I found myself on a train to the Midlands for this year's Expo - hence the lack of posts.

Speaking of the Expo, thanks to all those who took the time to visit our stand to say hello to the team - and for your feedback on the new website. It was great to meet so many of you!

Bad practice on construction sites

As you'll all probably know, the HSE has been out in force inspecting sites over the last few months. Inspectors have found that approximately one in three sites and one in four contractors inspected were found to be working below the acceptable standard.

The HSE has published good and bad practice pictures - it's ludicrous that so many sites are still operating so dangerously. Here are some of the very, very bad...

The modern take on RSI

Check out this picture published in the Metro this morning - definitely a modern-day version of RSI!

The human spider - just plain stupid?

Anyone see that Channel 4 documentary last Thursday about the French guy with a death wish?

A married father of three, Alain Robert's terrifying brand of "free climbing" - climbing without tools or safety devices of any kind - has taken him up some of the most daunting buildings in the world. He performs his dangerous work despite suffering from epilepsy.

His often illegal antics and his ability to scale just about any kind of building quickly earned him the nickname 'the human spider'.

His terrifying brand of "free climbing" - climbing without tools or safety devices of any kind - has taken him up some of the most daunting buildings in the world, including the Sears Tower, Canary Wharf and the Eiffel Tower. Robert has been arrested countless times and admitted defeat only once – in Paris after the weather conditions made it too hot for him to continue, leading to him having to be rescued. Robert has only ever had two accidents, both during training when harnessed.

What a nutter.

Definitely NOT an April fool

Pinch, punch, first day of the month...and it's April Fools Day to boot. But one statistic that quite clearly is not a joke is the recent IIRSM poll. A huge 44 per cent of IIRSM members who voted in last month's opinion poll do not think the new Corporate Manslaughter Act, due to come into force next week, will improve safety. What do you think? Let us know in our discussion forums at www.healthandsafetyprofessional.co.uk