Health and Safety Week 2015

Health and Safety Week 2015

Health & Safety Week 2015

On Wednesday 18th March, 50 selected key influencers from across health and safety came together to celebrate the second edition of UK Health & Safety Week and confirm their commitment to the 2015 campaign.

Taking place from 15-19 June 2015, UK Health & Safety Week will once again celebrate the achievements of UK practitioners and this year will focus on Protecting Worker Health.

The launch event, hosted by UBM at their new smart building 240 Blackfriars, included presentations from Lawrence Waterman, Director of Health and Safety for the Battersea Power Station Development, Steve Perkins, the Chief Executive of the British Occupational Hygiene Society, and Gareth Mullen who heads up the Health, Safety and Wellbeing programme at Thames Water.

A particularly moving and poignant address came from Linda Lakin, who was diagnosed with mesothelioma in February 2014. She spoke of the shock and disbelief of discovering she had contracted an asbestos-related disease after unknowingly being exposed to the fibres when she worked at a dry-cleaners in the 1970s.

She explained that doctors had told her that very low-levels of asbestos exposure, just inhaling three or four fibres, could cause mesothelioma. Her story really highlighted why occupational health issues need to be at the top of the agenda for businesses.

Following her address, companies present were asked to pledge to run a ‘Health Week’ within their organisation during this year’s UK Health & Safety Week.

Heather Beach, Director, OSH Global, UBM EMEA said: “We are delighted to kick-off UK Health & Safety Week 2015, and it was great to feel such partnership in the industry between key stakeholders all committed to raise the profile of occupational health. With an estimated 13,000 people a year dying of health issues resulting from the workplace, the challenge is multi-faceted. Workers and the public need informing that this is happening; businesses need to understand the case for health when long latency can provide an excuse to tackle it, and professionals in our industry need up skilling to deal with it.”

Key industry supporters for UK Health & Safety Week 2015 include British Safety Council (BSC), British Safety Industry Federation (BSIF), the Association for Project Safety (APS), The Association of Occupational Health Nurse Practitioners (UK) (AOHNP (UK)), the British Occupational Hygiene Society (BOHS), The Chartered Institute of Environmental Health (CIEH), International Institute of Risk and Safety Management (IIRSM), Institute of Risk Management, NEBOSH, RoSPA and Safety Groups UK.

Find out more about how you can get involved in how to run a health week for Health and Safety Week 2015.

Download the Running your health week event on how to run an event.