tag:theconversation.com,2011:/fr/topics/health-and-safety-2941/articlesHealth and safety – The Conversation2023-11-02T17:55:20Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2168172023-11-02T17:55:20Z2023-11-02T17:55:20ZWhakaari/White Island court case will change the level of accepted risk in NZ’s tourism industry<p>An Auckland court has <a href="https://www.1news.co.nz/2023/10/31/whakaari-owner-found-guilty-of-health-and-safety-charge/">found Whakaari Management Limited (WML) guilty</a> of breaching workplace safety laws relating to the Whakaari/White Island eruption in 2019. This decision could have implications for anyone involved in adventure tourism in New Zealand. </p>
<p>When <a href="https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/493874/everyone-was-screaming-and-running-whakaari-eruption-survivor-tells-court-of-harrowing-scenes">Whakaari erupted on December 9 2019</a> there were 47 people on the island. The eruption killed 22 of them and injured 25, some severely. The island was at alert level VAL 2 (moderate to heightened volcanic unrest) when it erupted.</p>
<p>As owner of the island, WML was charged with failing to adequately minimise the risks to tourists. </p>
<p>The court’s guilty verdict will likely result in significant changes to the NZ$26.5 billion tourism industry. So how did we get here and what is likely to change?</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1719178818949357948"}"></div></p>
<h2>New Zealand’s most active volcano</h2>
<p>The Buttle family has owned Whakaari since 1936. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/sep/05/new-zealand-judge-dismisses-charges-against-white-island-volcano-owners">Brothers Peter, James and Andrew Buttle inherited the island in 2012</a> and own it through a family trust. The trust leased Whakaari to WML (with the Buttles as the company’s directors). </p>
<p>WML had licensing agreements with tour companies to run commercial walking tours. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-were-tourists-allowed-on-white-island-128621">Why were tourists allowed on White Island?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Of the 47 people on the island when it erupted, 38 were part of a tour organised through the Royal Caribbean cruise ship Ovation of the Seas. <a href="https://theconversation.com/call-for-clearer-risk-information-for-tourists-following-whakaari-white-island-tragedy-128772">Questions quickly arose about how aware tourists</a> were of the risks and who might be held responsible.</p>
<p>WorkSafe New Zealand originally charged 13 parties under the <a href="https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/2015/0070/latest/DLM5976660.html">Health and Safety at Work Act</a>. Six eventually <a href="https://www.worksafe.govt.nz/about-us/news-and-media/significant-guilty-pleas-in-whakaari-case/">pleaded guilty</a> to the charges and six, <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/world/oceania/brothers-who-own-deadly-new-zealand-volcano-have-charges-dismissed-20230905-p5e26f.html">including the three Buttle brothers</a>, had their cases dismissed. </p>
<h2>The case against WML</h2>
<p>WML was charged with breaching two sections of the act. The company was found guilty of one charge while the other was dismissed. </p>
<p>A key question in the <a href="https://www.districtcourts.govt.nz/assets/Uploads/Media-Information/2023/Whakaari-info/WorkSafe-v-WHAKAARI-Management-Limited-trial-jud-20231031.pdf">court case</a> was what responsibility WML bore when it licensed others to run the tour operations on the island. </p>
<p>WML argued it was only a landowner and not responsible for tourists’ safety. The company also claimed it had no physical presence on Whakaari or involvement in day-to-day tourism operations. </p>
<p>However, Judge Evangelos Thomas did not accept WML’s “passive owner” argument. The judge pointed to several factors as evidence, including:</p>
<ul>
<li>its business was to generate income through the enabling of commercial
walking tours on Whakaari</li>
<li>it entered into the licence agreements and had termination rights for breaches</li>
<li>it maintained a direct and continuing relationship with tour operators</li>
<li>it engaged with tour operators and other relevant entities, including Geological and Nuclear Sciences (GNS), civil defence and various agencies interested and involved in increasing tourist numbers to Whakaari</li>
<li>it had occasional direct engagement with WorkSafe and GNS.</li>
</ul>
<p>The judge also noted an earlier eruption in 2016 should have had all Whakaari stakeholders on notice for sound risk assessment. This eruption occurred when Whakaari was at VAL 1 (minor volcanic unrest). Fortunately it occurred at night when there were no visitors on the island. </p>
<p>Judge Thomas argued this showed the volcano </p>
<blockquote>
<p>could erupt at any time and without warning, with the risk of death or serious injury to tourists or tour guides who may be there at that time. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>WML should have engaged experts in volcanology and health and safety to advise on risks presented by tours to Whakaari, the judge found.</p>
<p>Sentencing will happen in February with a maximum possible penalty of a $NZ1.5 million fine.</p>
<h2>Adventure tourism rules have already changed</h2>
<p>This tragedy has already impacted the adventure tourism sector of New Zealand. </p>
<p>In August, the <a href="https://www.beehive.govt.nz/release/improvements-confirmed-adventure-activity-sector">workplace relations and safety minister announced</a> government changes to the rules for adventure tourism operations. Minister Carmel Sepuloni said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Adventure activity operators will now be required by law to communicate serious risks to customers, meaning prospective participants can be fully informed of risks before buying a ticket, in the time before the activity begins and throughout the activity, including if the risks change. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>WorkSafe was also given expanded powers to suspend, cancel or refuse registrations for adventure operators who cannot provide activities safely.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/whakaari-tragedy-court-case-highlights-just-how-complex-it-is-to-forecast-a-volcanic-eruption-161995">Whakaari tragedy: court case highlights just how complex it is to forecast a volcanic eruption</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>It is clear more rigorous risk assessments are required in New Zealand’s tourism industry. Responsibility for safety will no longer fall on tour operators alone. </p>
<p>All facets of the tourism supply chain, from land owners to tour operators to transport providers, will need to fulfil certain responsibilities to ensure the safety of their customers and workers. This will include careful consideration of the definition of “serious risk” and the many possible sources of risk. </p>
<p>Agencies such as the <a href="https://www.metservice.com/">Meteorological Service</a> and <a href="https://www.gns.cri.nz">GNS</a> will need to update adventure tour operators on a day-to-day basis. Natural hazards and risks such as extreme weather events, as well as volcanic and seismic risks, will need to be understood, factored into the planning of tour operations, and clearly communicated. </p>
<h2>Reducing the risk in adventure tourism</h2>
<p>Risk is an exciting attraction of adventure experiences for tourists in New Zealand. But public perception of risk is not the same as actual risk. </p>
<p>Some adventure tourism businesses offer experiences, such as bungy jumping, based on high perceived risk. But in reality these are low risk due to long-standing safety protocols. </p>
<p>Others, such as tours to geologically active locations, offer low perceived risk but there is the potential for periodic and unpredictable high actual risk. </p>
<p>Operators providing such experiences will now be obligated to shoulder greater responsibilities in ensuring such risks do not cause real harm. </p>
<p>All aspects of risk associated with the full spectrum of tourism businesses and tour operations, including but not limited to adventure tourism activities, will now need to be considered more carefully in Aotearoa New Zealand.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/216817/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Everyone involved in the tourism industry will need to manage risk differently after a court found the landowners of Whakaari/White Island guilty of breaching the Health and Safety at Work Act.Freya Higgins-Desbiolles, Adjunct Senior Lecturer in Tourism Management/ Adjunct Associate Professor, University of South AustraliaJames Higham, Professor of Tourism, Griffith UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2035822023-04-18T16:12:06Z2023-04-18T16:12:06ZThe hidden danger of asbestos in UK schools: ‘I don’t think they realise how much risk it poses to students’<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/520743/original/file-20230413-20-dirux3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=16%2C101%2C3554%2C2093&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A Department for Education survey suggests more than 80% of state schools in England still have asbestos on their premises.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/canterbury-kent-england-oct-24-2021-2085375118">Lucy M Ryan/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><blockquote>
<p>Being diagnosed came as a complete shock. You do not imagine that you are going to go into a school to teach children and come out with an industrial disease.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Carole Hagedorn had taught foreign languages in schools in south-east England for more than 30 years when she was diagnosed with malignant <a href="https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/mesothelioma/">mesothelioma</a> – a cancer caused almost exclusively by exposure to asbestos fibres in the air.</p>
<p>Mesothelioma develops rapidly and has no cure. Symptoms include chronic productive coughing, breathlessness, chest pain and fatigue. While treatment innovations are progressing, the disease is not curable and about <a href="https://www.rcplondon.ac.uk/projects/outputs/national-mesothelioma-audit-report-2020-audit-period-2016-18">60% of patients</a> die within a year of receiving a diagnosis.</p>
<p>The particular threat posed to teachers and school workers was highlighted in <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/global/2023/jan/15/uk-unions-call-in-cancer-expert-over-fears-of-asbestos-risk-to-female-teachers">a recent analysis</a> which suggested that the risk to women in their late-40s to mid-60s who have worked in schools is statistically significant. This builds on <a href="https://www.fieldfisher.com/en/injury-claims/insights/hse-statistics-show-male-carpenters-and-female-tea">earlier data</a> that had identified a potential elevated risk for female teachers and education professionals.</p>
<p>Hagedorn, who died in 2014, told the <a href="https://www.tes.com/magazine/archive/asbestos-victim-facing-death-heed-my-warning">TES</a> she had been shocked by her diagnosis, which is more usually associated with men who have worked in heavy industries. Having been forced to retire due to ill-health, she said she was angry at being viewed as “some sort of collateral damage or natural wastage in the education game”.</p>
<p>But it is not just teachers and school workers who are of concern – many children may have been exposed while at school. However, since mesothelioma is regarded as an industrial disease and being a child is not an occupation, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) keeps no data on deaths from mesothelioma due to exposure to asbestos as a school pupil.</p>
<p>Following her diagnosis, Hagedorn warned in the <a href="https://www.standard.co.uk/hp/front/dying-teacher-asbestos-in-schools-will-kill-pupils-6771486.html">Evening Standard</a> in 2009:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Children are thought to be much more susceptible than adults. However, we probably won’t know for another 20 or 30 years how many will already have contracted this cancer from exposure in schools.</p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/520739/original/file-20230413-18-6y9ct8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Asbestos chrysotile fibres." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/520739/original/file-20230413-18-6y9ct8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/520739/original/file-20230413-18-6y9ct8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/520739/original/file-20230413-18-6y9ct8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/520739/original/file-20230413-18-6y9ct8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/520739/original/file-20230413-18-6y9ct8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/520739/original/file-20230413-18-6y9ct8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/520739/original/file-20230413-18-6y9ct8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Chrysotile (white asbestos) fibres.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/asbestos-chrysotile-fibers-that-cause-lung-1871676343">Wirestock Creators/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Why children are particularly vulnerable</h2>
<p>In March 2011, the UK’s <a href="https://www.supremecourt.uk/cases/uksc-2009-0232.html">supreme court ruled</a> that Dianne Willmore had been exposed to asbestos while she was a pupil at Bowring Comprehensive in Liverpool in the 1970s. As a result, she developed what the court called the “hideous disease” of mesothelioma.</p>
<p>Willmore had died in 2009, aged 49 – just hours after the court of appeal first decided she was entitled to compensation. One of the UK’s leading experts on asbestos-related cancers, <a href="https://royalsociety.org/people/julian-peto-14115/">Julian Peto</a>, later estimated to a parliamentary select committee that <a href="http://www.rbasbestos.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/appg-booklet-final-17-mar-14-asbestos-in-schools-2-1-.pdf#:%7E:text=In%202013%20a%20leading%20epidemiologist%20gave%20evidence%20to,the%20exposures%20continue%2C%20then%20so%20will%20the%20deaths.">between 200 and 300 former pupils</a> would die each year as a result of their exposure to asbestos while at school in the 1960s and ’70s.</p>
<p>Today, deaths of former pupils from mesothelioma due to asbestos exposure are still not officially recognised. Instead, they remain hidden among the UK’s unusually high “background rate” of the disease, not included as a specific ONS category. Yet children are particularly vulnerable to asbestos – a point made starkly ten years ago in a <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/315919/vulnerability_of_children_to_asbestos.pdf">report</a> for the Department for Education (DfE):</p>
<blockquote>
<p>[Exposure] of children to asbestos is likely to render them more vulnerable to mesothelioma than exposure of adults to an equivalent asbestos dose.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Mesothelioma risk from asbestos is unlike lung cancer risk from smoking. If a smoker gives up, the risk of lung cancer declines over time. By contrast, the risk of mesothelioma from an exposure to asbestos <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00420-019-01433-4">accumulates over time</a>. A five-year-old child who is exposed to asbestos has been estimated to be <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/315919/vulnerability_of_children_to_asbestos.pdf">five times more likely</a> to develop mesothelioma during their lifetime than an adult who is first exposed at the age of 30.</p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/288776/original/file-20190820-170910-8bv1s7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/288776/original/file-20190820-170910-8bv1s7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288776/original/file-20190820-170910-8bv1s7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288776/original/file-20190820-170910-8bv1s7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288776/original/file-20190820-170910-8bv1s7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288776/original/file-20190820-170910-8bv1s7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288776/original/file-20190820-170910-8bv1s7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><strong><em>This article is part of Conversation Insights</em></strong>
<br><em>The Insights team generates <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/insights-series-71218">long-form journalism</a> derived from interdisciplinary research. The team is working with academics from different backgrounds who have been engaged in projects aimed at tackling societal and scientific challenges.</em></p>
<hr>
<p>In the absence of hard data on deaths from mesothelioma due to exposure as a pupil at school, a document from the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is widely <a href="https://nepis.epa.gov/Exe/ZyNET.exe/9100BENP.TXT?ZyActionD=ZyDocument&Client=EPA&Index=1976+Thru+1980&Docs=&Query=&Time=&EndTime=&SearchMethod=1&TocRestrict=n&Toc=&TocEntry=&QField=&QFieldYear=&QFieldMonth=&QFieldDay=&IntQFieldOp=0&ExtQFieldOp=0&XmlQuery=&File=D%3A%5Czyfiles%5CIndex%20Data%5C76thru80%5CTxt%5C00000012%5C9100BENP.txt&User=ANONYMOUS&Password=anonymous&SortMethod=h%7C-&MaximumDocuments=1&FuzzyDegree=0&ImageQuality=r75g8/r75g8/x150y150g16/i425&Display=hpfr&DefSeekPage=x&SearchBack=ZyActionL&Back=ZyActionS&BackDesc=Results%20page&MaximumPages=1&ZyEntry=1&SeekPage=x&ZyPURL">cited</a>. Using US data to develop a model of the risk presented to both workers and pupils in schools, the report concluded that around 90% of premature deaths due to asbestos exposure at school occur in people who were exposed as children.</p>
<p>Putting the Peto and EPA estimates together, the Joint Union Asbestos Committee subsequently reported that over the period 1980-2017, the number of UK mesothelioma deaths as a result of exposure to asbestos as school pupils <a href="https://norac.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Continuing-Government-Failure-leads-to-rise-in-school-mesothelioma-deaths-JUAC-REPORT-02-07-2021-FINAL.pdf">was between 3,890 and 9,000</a>.</p>
<p>In 2021-22, we conducted <a href="https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/media/36602/download?attachment">our own review</a> of media and legal coverage of 84 people who had developed mesothelioma after being exposed to asbestos while working in UK schools. These included heart-rending interviews with patients and relatives who, despite their own suffering, were keen to highlight wider concerns about the threat that asbestos in schools might pose to children.</p>
<p>For example, Mick Adkins, an electrician contracted to work in Birmingham schools and who died of mesothelioma, told the <a href="https://www.thefreelibrary.com/I+got+cancer+from+schools%3B+EXCLUSIVE+THE+ASBESTOS+TIMEBOMB+%27Builders...-a0161338347">Sunday Mercury</a> in 2007:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>How many schools are swamped with asbestos? We literally caked them in it when I was building them, so God only knows how many people, young and old, have been exposed to it over the last 40 years.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>And Freddie Davis – husband of Pearl, a former primary school teacher in Gillingham and Chatham who died of mesothelioma – <a href="https://www.irwinmitchell.com/news-and-insights/newsandmedia/2017/february/husband-appeals-for-help-after-teacher-wife-dies-following-asbestos-cancer-diagnosis-jq-504632">reflected after her death</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>What was also incredibly upsetting to Pearl was the idea that children may have been put at risk on those premises. It doesn’t bear thinking about.</p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/520727/original/file-20230413-20-gqkc7s.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="An asbestos enclosure" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/520727/original/file-20230413-20-gqkc7s.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/520727/original/file-20230413-20-gqkc7s.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/520727/original/file-20230413-20-gqkc7s.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/520727/original/file-20230413-20-gqkc7s.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/520727/original/file-20230413-20-gqkc7s.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/520727/original/file-20230413-20-gqkc7s.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/520727/original/file-20230413-20-gqkc7s.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A protective enclosure for the removal of asbestos.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2a/UK_Asbestos_Removal_Enclosure.jpg">Fevs101/Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Why there is so much asbestos in UK schools</h2>
<p>The presence and problem of asbestos in schools has been known about for many years. A 2019 DfE <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/906343/AMAP_Report_2019.pdf">survey</a> suggested that around 81% of primary and secondary state schools in England still have asbestos “present on their estate” – despite the use of asbestos in any form <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/asbestos-properties-incident-management-and-toxicology/asbestos-general-information">having been banned</a> in the UK since 1999.</p>
<p>Commercial exploitation of asbestos in the UK <a href="https://blogs.imperial.ac.uk/imperial-medicine/2018/02/02/the-asbestos-story-a-tale-of-public-health-and-politics/">began in the 1870s</a>. Its resistance to high temperatures and fire made it valuable in steam-powered industries. The same properties later made it useful as a fire retardant and heat insulator in buildings.</p>
<p>Between 1920 and 1970, the UK was the largest importer of asbestos <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4221761/">in Europe</a>. This period includes the massive post-war rebuilding programme which made widespread use of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prefabs_in_the_United_Kingdom">prefabrication</a>, or system building, to rapidly erect buildings including many homes and schools, often with asbestos incorporated.</p>
<p>The UK’s relatively cold climate also meant that better insulating – but <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/dds2/SAMANCTA/EN/Safety/Asbestos_EN.htm">more dangerous</a> – types of asbestos were used. And its links with former colonies, particularly Australia and South Africa, allowed the UK to import asbestos at cheaper rates <a href="https://lucionservices.com/insights/deadly-exposures-uk-misses-the-mark-with-asbestos-controls">than the rest of Europe</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/520728/original/file-20230413-18-ix7bwy.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Curved asbestos sheeting" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/520728/original/file-20230413-18-ix7bwy.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/520728/original/file-20230413-18-ix7bwy.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=874&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/520728/original/file-20230413-18-ix7bwy.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=874&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/520728/original/file-20230413-18-ix7bwy.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=874&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/520728/original/file-20230413-18-ix7bwy.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1099&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/520728/original/file-20230413-18-ix7bwy.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1099&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/520728/original/file-20230413-18-ix7bwy.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1099&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Curved asbestos sheets for the construction of temporary houses after the end of the second world war.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2b/Post_War_Planning_and_Reconstruction_in_Britain-_Construction_of_Temporary_Housing_D24195.jpg">Ministry of Information via Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As a result of this high usage, the UK now has one of the world’s <a href="http://www.ibasecretariat.org/lka-global-mesothelioma-landscape-2015.pdf">highest rates of mesothelioma</a>. In 2020, there were <a href="https://www.globalenvironmental.co.uk/asbestos-related-deaths-in-the-uk-continue-to-rise/#:%7E:text=There%20were%202%2C544%20mesothelioma%20deaths,deaths%2C%20and%20459%20female%20deaths.">2,544 mesothelioma deaths</a> registered. The annual UK total has now been increasing year-on-year for more than 50 years, such that the 2010s saw more than eight times as many deaths from mesothelioma as the 1970s.</p>
<p>The very first UK death from lung fibrosis caused by asbestos was <a href="https://blogs.imperial.ac.uk/imperial-medicine/2018/02/02/the-asbestos-story-a-tale-of-public-health-and-politics/">reported</a> back in 1899. The first UK government regulations aimed at controlling exposure to asbestos were introduced in 1931, and carcinoma due to asbestos exposure was <a href="https://pmj.bmj.com/content/80/940/72">first described in 1935</a>. By 1960, it was known that asbestos exposure at low levels could cause mesothelioma.</p>
<p>Yet three years earlier, the Consortium of Local Authorities Special Programme (<a href="https://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/wiki/CLASP">Clasp</a>) had been introduced in England with the aim of developing prefabricated school buildings using a modular design around a steel framework.</p>
<p>The open and light nature of these structures made them vulnerable to fire – and so, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consortium_of_Local_Authorities_Special_Programme#Asbestos_in_CLASP_buildings">asbestos was extensively used</a> within them for its retardant properties. It was embedded in ceiling panels, wall boards, pipe lagging, and to cover any structural gaps. The asbestos used in Clasp buildings included large amounts of the even more dangerous <a href="https://www.pennmedicine.org/cancer/types-of-cancer/mesothelioma/asbestos-cancer/types-of-asbestos#:%7E:text=Amosite%20asbestos%2C%20also%20known%20as,that%20can%20be%20easily%20inhaled.">amosite</a> type, also known as “brown” asbestos.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/520801/original/file-20230413-22-z1wqbv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="System-built school premises" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/520801/original/file-20230413-22-z1wqbv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/520801/original/file-20230413-22-z1wqbv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/520801/original/file-20230413-22-z1wqbv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/520801/original/file-20230413-22-z1wqbv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/520801/original/file-20230413-22-z1wqbv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/520801/original/file-20230413-22-z1wqbv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/520801/original/file-20230413-22-z1wqbv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">This Clasp schoolroom built in Derbyshire in the 1970s was demolished in 2018.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/91/GlossopdaleCommunityCollegeHadfieldSportsHall.jpg">Fitzyraz via Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Thousands of Clasp buildings – mainly schools – were constructed, particularly in coal mining areas such as Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire that were likely to be affected by subsidence (the modular design allowed for easier replacement and repair). An <a href="https://greenfieldremovals.com/clasp-buildings-of-the-50s-simple-cost-effective-dangerous/">estimate in 2016</a> suggested that around 3,000 of these buildings were still in use.</p>
<p>While <a href="https://www.innovaresystems.co.uk/2016/07/21/modular-building-can-meet-school-demand-must-look-like-normal-buildings-says-mike-green-director-efa/">further schemes</a> similar to Clasp continued into the 1970s, system building in general fell out of favour. However, up to the UK’s outright ban on asbestos in 1999, it was still being used in specific building features such as radiator panels. Today, system-built schools remain of particular concern to health researchers as they age and deteriorate.</p>
<h2>In-situ management: the problem for schools</h2>
<p>Under the present <a href="https://www.hse.gov.uk/asbestos/regulations.htm">Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012</a>, those responsible for the maintenance and repair of non-domestic premises, such as schools, are required to follow a policy of “<a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/412466/The_management_of_asbestos_in_schools_a_review_of_Department_for_Education_policy.pdf">in-situ management</a>”. This is based on the idea that asbestos presents little risk provided it is in good condition and not disturbed.</p>
<p>The estimated four in every five UK state schools that have asbestos on their estate are required to have an <a href="https://www.hse.gov.uk/asbestos/managing/write.htm">asbestos management plan</a>, designed to ensure its condition is regularly monitored. Should its condition deteriorate, then the asbestos would be removed alongside compulsory monitoring of air quality. Between September 2022 and March 2023, the Health and Safety Executive carried out 400 school inspections to make sure asbestos in schools was being correctly managed.</p>
<p>But our research shows that such management plans can, in some cases, become little more than box-ticking exercises, not necessarily performed well. As Carol Anthony, whose husband Alan, a teacher, died of mesothelioma in 2011, later <a href="https://silo.tips/download/asbestos-incidents-and-failures-of-asbestos-management-in-schools">reflected</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>We cannot be certain of where in schools there is asbestos because inadequate records were kept in the past, and it can be unwittingly disturbed during a building programme. In the case of my husband, the solicitors tried to track down the source of asbestos in the London school where he worked, but there was only a very scanty record – and by that I mean scrappy notes on a sheet of A4 paper.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>And even well-kept management plans run into the problem that schools typically experience high levels of damage and deterioration. Asbestos <a href="https://www.gavinpublishers.com/article/view/the-experiences-of-presentation-diagnosis--treatment-and-care-for-school-based-education-workers-with-mesothelioma-a-scoping-review">can be found</a> in panelling under radiators, within electric storage heaters with blowers, and in music room walls and ceilings, for example. All may be vulnerable to curious or mischievous schoolchildren.</p>
<p>A teacher of 27 years in north Lincolnshire, Elizabeth Belt, who died of mesothelioma in 2015, gave a statement before her death which <a href="https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/teacher-dies-after-being-exposed-7225791">outlined</a> many occasions when she believed she had been exposed to asbestos. For example:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>A boy had made a hole in the wall at one time and pupils would kick at the walls. There were holes in the corridor walls.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Similarly, Joan Henry, a drama teacher in Havering, east London, who died of mesothelioma in 2009, had <a href="https://www.gavinpublishers.com/article/view/the-experiences-of-presentation-diagnosis--treatment-and-care-for-school-based-education-workers-with-mesothelioma-a-scoping-review">noted</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Frighteningly, the disturbance was what could be described as natural “wear and tear” – pupils disturbing it with bags, rulers etc.</p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/520795/original/file-20230413-18-hlbgcr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Pipes surrounded by asbestos insulation." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/520795/original/file-20230413-18-hlbgcr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/520795/original/file-20230413-18-hlbgcr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/520795/original/file-20230413-18-hlbgcr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/520795/original/file-20230413-18-hlbgcr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/520795/original/file-20230413-18-hlbgcr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/520795/original/file-20230413-18-hlbgcr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/520795/original/file-20230413-18-hlbgcr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Old pipes surrounded by asbestos insulation.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/picture-pipe-containing-asbestos-insulation-2200176187">James Ebanks/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The behaviour of children – a legal issue</h2>
<p>The “mischievous” nature of children was first established to be of legal significance <a href="https://asbestoslawblog.files.wordpress.com/2020/08/asbestos-in-schools-a-breach-of-absolute-statutory-dutyfinal2.pdf">in 1893</a>, when a case concerning the responsibilities of a schoolmaster acknowledged that:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Children by their ordinary nature had a tendency “to do mischievous acts and [a] propensity to meddle with anything that came their way”.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The legal importance of this is that those responsible for health and safety in schools, such as education authorities, are required to allow for how children behave when devising management plans. But there is little evidence that they do this in the asbestos plans kept by schools.</p>
<p>The Willmore <a href="https://www.supremecourt.uk/cases/uksc-2009-0232.html">supreme court hearing</a>, for example, cited several acts of mischief and bullying that may have exposed her to asbestos dust:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>[Willmore] was exposed to asbestos several times. Asbestos insulation ceiling tiles had been taken down and stacked in a busy corridor while electricians worked on cables … Bullies took children’s satchels and blazers and hid them in the ceiling tiles. And there had been vandalism in the girl’s toilets, where asbestos ceiling tiles <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/education/2011/mar/09/asbestos-school-compensation-dianne-willmore">were also stacked</a>.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>And this point is supported by a <a href="https://silo.tips/download/asbestos-incidents-and-failures-of-asbestos-management-in-schools">collated report</a> of 291 failures of asbestos management in schools that resulted in the release of asbestos fibres between September 2000 and March 2014. This report was written by Michael Lees, a founder member of the <a href="http://www.asbestosinschools.org.uk/background-and-cv-of-this-site/">Asbestos in Schools Group</a>, whose wife Gina was a nursery school teacher who died at the age of 51 following exposure to asbestos at work. In a 30-year teaching career, she had worked at 25 schools, most of which contained asbestos.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/520753/original/file-20230413-16-ix7bwy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Damaged school building" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/520753/original/file-20230413-16-ix7bwy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/520753/original/file-20230413-16-ix7bwy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/520753/original/file-20230413-16-ix7bwy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/520753/original/file-20230413-16-ix7bwy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/520753/original/file-20230413-16-ix7bwy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/520753/original/file-20230413-16-ix7bwy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/520753/original/file-20230413-16-ix7bwy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A damaged old school building in Wolverhampton.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/abandoned-building-inside-located-england-wolverhampton-655275790">Sigitas Duoblis/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>There are also concerns about the level of knowledge among those who work in schools containing asbestos. The Health and Safety Executive’s <a href="https://www.hse.gov.uk/asbestos/managing/tell.htm">guidelines</a> require only fairly minimal interventions – for example, that the employee responsible for the asbestos plan:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>… should stick labels on anything that contains or might contain asbestos if it is located where people are likely to disturb or damage it. Get these from safety sign companies.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>It seems unlikely that this takes adequate heed of the “mischievous” nature of children. In addition, there seems to be little requirement for education or training regarding asbestos.</p>
<p>Elizabeth Bradford worked as an infant school teacher for many years, including in a building prefabricated from asbestos-containing materials on which she pinned children’s work. In a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P6TPkfKAG-A">video</a> recorded in 2011, she said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I was asked if I’d ever worked with asbestos and I said no. But then I remembered – going back many, many years – that I had actually worked in a classroom which was, I felt, lined with asbestos. In fact, I had been told it was asbestos, but that it was white asbestos and it was safe, and I’d taken that on trust.</p>
</blockquote>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/P6TPkfKAG-A?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Interview with infant teacher Elizabeth Bradford.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>According to the <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK304374/">International Agency</a> for Research on Cancer and the <a href="https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789241564816">World Health Organization</a>, all types of asbestos cause cancer in humans, but the risk increases with type. The ratio of risk for white (chrysotile), brown (amosite) and blue (crocidolite) asbestos has <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11108782/">been estimated</a> at 1:100:500. The danger is related to each material’s “<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friability#:%7E:text=In%20materials%20science%2C%20friability%20(%2F,or%20contact%2C%20especially%20by%20rubbing.">friability</a>”, as well as to the toxicity of the fibres that are released and inhaled.</p>
<h2>A rare and aggressive cancer</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/mesothelioma/">Malignant mesothelioma</a> is a rare and aggressive cancer with a high symptom burden. It most commonly affects the lungs, although it can also affect the abdomen and testes. It causes a range of debilitating symptoms including breathlessness, pain, fatigue and cough – which can often emerge quite suddenly.</p>
<p>According to the <a href="https://www.ukata.org.uk/documents/404/Mesothelioma_mortality_by_occupation_statistics_in_Great_Britain_2022.pdf">ONS</a>, 463 former or current teaching and educational professionals (male and female) died from mesothelioma between 2001 and 2020. However, this is likely to be a significant underestimate – in part because the deaths of people over the age of 75 are not recorded by former occupation. And of those cases that are recorded, only the final occupation is mentioned, so this total also doesn’t include people who moved on from teaching to another career.</p>
<p>Bernard Dawson, a father of five and grandfather of seven, taught maths and science for more than 50 years in Greater Manchester and Lancashire schools. Soon after retirement, he was diagnosed with mesothelioma but died aged 81, so would not have been included in the ONS statistic above.</p>
<p>When teaching, Dawson regularly used asbestos mats for Bunsen burners and recalled seeing asbestos dust in store cupboards. After his death in 2016, his widow Maureen told the <a href="https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/exposure-asbestos-classrooms-thought-led-11311320">Manchester Evening News</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>He never smoked, rarely drank and liked to keep fit … but almost overnight he turned into a decrepit old man. He would cough so much that he couldn’t catch his breath. He was so tired and weak and scared because he didn’t want to leave me and the boys.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>One problem for those who have not worked in the recognised high-risk industries, such as construction, is that the “index of suspicion” among health professionals may be low. In other words, symptoms that would trigger immediate suspicion in a former carpenter may not do so in a former nurse or teacher. There is also evidence that women in general may be viewed with a lower index of suspicion regarding possible symptoms of mesothelioma.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/tQXDq6WYGEc?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Report featuring an interview with former school teacher Rosie Peters.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>While no statistical research has yet investigated this, qualitative studies of school and hospital workers (including <a href="https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/media/36602/download?attachment">ours</a>), as well as of <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33945895/">women</a>, have identified numerous examples. As retired school teacher <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQXDq6WYGEc&list=WL&index=6">Rosie Peters</a> said in an interview less than a year before her death due to mesothelioma:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The chest surgeon … couldn’t believe a teacher would have it because I wasn’t in any of the industries known for this disease.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>People outside high-risk industries may also struggle to get compensation for the disease. While lawyers have <a href="https://www.lawgazette.co.uk/news-focus/news-focus-a-white-collar-wave-of-mesothelioma-claims/5113384.article">noticed an increase</a> in “white collar” cases of mesothelioma sufferers seeking compensation, a difficulty in such cases is establishing precisely whether and when any exposure took place that can be pinned to managerial negligence.</p>
<p>Northumberland teacher Patricia Cameron was exposed to asbestos when hanging pupils’ clothes up to dry on asbestos lagging in the school boiler room in the 1970s. She was still working as a teacher when she began to suffer symptoms, including “return[ing] from work complaining of breathlessness”.</p>
<p>Following her death some 25 years after the exposure to asbestos ended, an inquest ruled that Cameron died of industrial disease – yet the subsequent claim for compensation ended <a href="https://www.irwinmitchell.com/news-and-insights/newsandmedia/2008/february/teacher-exposed-to-asbestos-dies-of-mesothelioma">without Northumberland County Council admitting liability</a>. However, in this case, her family was still awarded compensation.</p>
<h2>The risk to caretakers, cleaners and dinner ladies</h2>
<p>A further reason for the persistent underestimation of UK deaths from mesothelioma among school workers is that not all non-teaching staff are included in this <a href="https://www.ukata.org.uk/documents/404/Mesothelioma_mortality_by_occupation_statistics_in_Great_Britain_2022.pdf">data</a>. Nineteen of the 84 cases we found in our <a href="https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/media/36602/download?attachment">review</a> were non-teaching staff, including caretakers, cleaners and dinner ladies.</p>
<p>In fact, the nature of some of these roles may make exposure to asbestos more likely. Caretakers, cleaners and contractors such as electricians have identified exposure during work in boiler rooms, or around insulated heating pipes, as possible sources of exposure.</p>
<p>Margaret James had been a caretaker at a junior school in Llandudno from 1976 until 1992. Unknown to her, she was exposed to asbestos when completing numerous tasks including cleaning up after tradesmen following the building of a second school on the site. A <a href="https://www.rwkgoodman.com/info-hub/mesothelioma-claim-asbestos-school-cleaner-caretaker-within-five-months-instruction/">legal report</a> stated:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The building had suspended ceilings which were constructed of asbestos ceiling tiles. Once the school was operational, tiles would sometimes fall down and it was Margaret’s job to put them back up. The edges of the tiles were fibrous and dusty to touch when they were handled. In addition, one of the routine tasks Margaret did was to sweep out the boiler room and, in school holidays, dust down pipes throughout the school. These were lagged with asbestos and led to Margaret being exposed unknowingly to toxic dust.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>She became ill with shortness of breath and a chesty cough in 2019. Scans revealed a build-up of fluid on her lung, and a biopsy confirmed she had mesothelioma. The report concluded:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>An offer to settle was made in April 2020 and the council’s insurers made a counter offer in early May 2020, which was accepted by Margaret. The claim settled within five months for in excess of £120,000 and damages were also recovered for the hospice. Sadly, Margaret passed away only a few days later.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>A recommendation to remove all asbestos</h2>
<p>In April 2022, a UK Work & Pensions <a href="https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm5802/cmselect/cmworpen/560/summary.html">select committee report</a> recommended the gradual removal of all asbestos from UK buildings over the next 40 years – with priority placed on the most hazardous types of asbestos, and also those buildings at particular risk, including schools.</p>
<p>The UK government rejected <a href="https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm5803/cmselect/cmworpen/633/report.html#heading-1">this recommendation</a>, pointing to the very low risk of exposure where in-situ management is effectively implemented. The Health and Safety Executive suggests that a “rush to remove asbestos” would pose a more significant risk in terms of asbestos exposure. However, our analysis suggests this does not take full account of the condition, and day-to-day use, of many UK schools. </p>
<p>There are grounds to believe that the current policy of in-situ management is inadequate and, as buildings deteriorate, likely to become increasingly so. The policy came under further pressure in November 2022, when the first annual data analysis report into <a href="https://issuu.com/stevesadley/docs/atac_asbestos_report_nov2022?fr=sMDVkZTIwNzQwNjQ">asbestos in UK buildings</a> highlighted that:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Of the 710,433 items of asbestos found, 507,612 (71%) were recorded as having some level of damage.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The chair of the select committee, Stephen Timms MP, <a href="https://www.politics.co.uk/opinion-former/press-release/2022/07/25/the-government-and-hse-reject-recommendations-for-reform-of-the-uks-asbestos-management-system/">expressed extreme disappointment</a> at the government’s decision, commenting:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>To put it bluntly, the UK has one of the worst asbestos legacies in the world – and our current lack of an informed strategy for dealing with this is shocking. For any project involving old buildings it will mean increased costs, delays, and even untimely deaths. Industry, campaigners, patient organisations and unions are united in their disappointment of this missed opportunity.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>A <a href="https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cdp-2023-0079/">parliamentary debate</a> led by Loughborough MP <a href="https://www.janehunt.uk/news/member-parliament-loughborough-visits-national-charity-asbestos-related-cancer">Jane Hunt</a> again addressed concerns about asbestos in the workplace on April 19, 2023. Trade unions whose members work in the education sector have long sought changes in the current policies of management and monitoring. As well as calling for the removal of asbestos from these environments, they also seek better monitoring of air quality in the meantime, and greater education of those who work and are schooled within them.</p>
<p>The permitted level of exposure to asbestos fibres in the air, set by the HSE, is currently in accordance with EU rules. However, these levels were based on what was technically feasible to monitor when the rules were set. This has now changed and many countries, including France, Holland and Germany, have much stricter levels.</p>
<p><a href="https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_22_5679">The EU is proposing</a> to lower its current maximum level, and is also encouraging the removal of asbestos from all buildings. No such proposals have been approved in the UK.</p>
<p>A spokesperson for HSE said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Asbestos was banned in Great Britain by 1999 and stringent regulatory controls are now in place to prevent people being exposed today. We understand the concern about asbestos in school buildings. Risk of exposure is low as long as schools follow the regulations and have the right measures in place. We provide clear <a href="https://www.hse.gov.uk/services/education/asbestos.htm?utm_source=govdelivery&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=school-inspections-22&utm_term=resources-1&utm_content=education-13-jul-22">guidance</a> and <a href="https://www.hse.gov.uk/services/education/asbestos-faqs.htm?utm_source=govdelivery&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=school-inspections-22&utm_term=resources-1&utm_content=education-13-jul-22">advice</a> to those who manage buildings that contain asbestos, and our recent inspection campaign checked whether schools had the right steps in place and were following the law.</p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/520724/original/file-20230413-16-gkx2e5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Two young workers mixing asbestos insulation" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/520724/original/file-20230413-16-gkx2e5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/520724/original/file-20230413-16-gkx2e5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=620&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/520724/original/file-20230413-16-gkx2e5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=620&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/520724/original/file-20230413-16-gkx2e5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=620&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/520724/original/file-20230413-16-gkx2e5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=779&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/520724/original/file-20230413-16-gkx2e5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=779&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/520724/original/file-20230413-16-gkx2e5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=779&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Two young workers mixing asbestos insulation in a Tyneside shipyard, 1943.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8a/Cecil_Beaton_Photographs-_Tyneside_Shipyards%2C_1943_DB126.jpg">Cecil Beaton via Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>‘You don’t expect to go to school and come out with what I’ve got’</h2>
<p>HSE predicts that the total number of mesothelioma deaths across England, Scotland and Wales will <a href="https://www.hse.gov.uk/statistics/causdis/mesothelioma/mesothelioma.pdf">decline steadily</a> over the next three decades, with the rate falling faster among men than women. As asbestos is no longer used in new buildings, the number of people diagnosed after manufacturing or using asbestos products, such as (mostly male) construction workers, should tail off significantly.</p>
<p>However, the anticipated decline in mesothelioma cases may yet stall unless the issue of background exposure to asbestos in public buildings, including schools, is tackled. Despite the ongoing work of the parliamentary committee, there has been a striking lack of intervention and research in this area.</p>
<p>Peto has <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/global/2023/jan/15/uk-unions-call-in-cancer-expert-over-fears-of-asbestos-risk-to-female-teachers">proposed</a> new research to build on <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6280925/">The Inhaled Particulates Study (Tips)</a>. This would involve taking tissue samples from teachers without a mesothelioma diagnosis during lung surgery for other conditions, and analysing them for asbestos fibres as an indication of exposure in schools.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/asbestos-in-schools-what-you-need-to-know-120042">Asbestos in schools: what you need to know</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>While there is no cure for mesothelioma, treatment innovations are progressing, including surgery trials such as <a href="https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/10/9/e038892">Mars 2</a> and targeted therapies including the <a href="https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT05455424">Nero</a>, <a href="https://www.mesothelioma.uk.com/mitope-clinical-trial-brings-a-new-treatment-to-patients-suffering-from-malignant-pleural-effusion-and-malignant-mesothelioma/">Mitope</a> and <a href="https://crukradnet.colcc.ac.uk/2022/08/11/new-clinical-trial-hemithoracic-irradiation-with-proton-therapy-in-malignant-pleural-mesothelioma-hit-meso/#:%7E:text=The%20new%20study%20will%20be%20focusing%20on%20HIT-MESO%3A,are%20limited%20treatments%20and%20survival%20rates%20are%20low.">HIT-Meso</a> trials. Carole Hagedorn, the teacher quoted at the start of this article, is <a href="https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/505275/Pioneering-treatment-gives-dying-wife-five-more-years">reported</a> to have undergone a <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3741797/">radical pleurectomy</a> in 2011 – a treatment which included having her lung lining removed in an attempt to eliminate much of the cancer. </p>
<p>But as she <a href="https://www.standard.co.uk/hp/front/dying-teacher-asbestos-in-schools-will-kill-pupils-6771486.html">highlighted</a> before her death, the most important issue is to stop more young people becoming victims in later life. It is unacceptable that the level of exposure of pupils in UK schools is still unknown – and imperative that the public are made aware of the risks of asbestos exposure in all working, living and educational environments, past and present.</p>
<p>Without a programme of safe removal of asbestos, there are likely to be many more experiences like that of Chris Willis. He was diagnosed with mesothelioma aged 29, and claimed this was from being exposed to asbestos while at school. He died in 2022, leaving behind a young family. Following his diagnosis, Willis had told the <a href="https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/north-east-news/kenton-terminal-cancer-school-asbestos-20718127">Newcastle Chronicle</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>You don’t expect to go to school, get an education, and come out with what I’ve got. I don’t think schools realise how much asbestos is still dormant in buildings, and how much risk it poses to students.</p>
</blockquote>
<hr>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/313478/original/file-20200204-41481-1n8vco4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/313478/original/file-20200204-41481-1n8vco4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=112&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313478/original/file-20200204-41481-1n8vco4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=112&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313478/original/file-20200204-41481-1n8vco4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=112&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313478/original/file-20200204-41481-1n8vco4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=140&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313478/original/file-20200204-41481-1n8vco4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=140&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313478/original/file-20200204-41481-1n8vco4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=140&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><em>For you: more from our <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/insights-series-71218?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=InsightsUK">Insights series</a>:</em></p>
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<li><p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/a-toxic-policy-with-little-returns-lessons-for-the-uk-rwanda-deal-from-australia-and-the-us-201790?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=InsightsUK">‘A toxic policy with little returns’ – lessons for the UK-Rwanda deal from Australia and the US</a></em></p></li>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>While evidence grows about the impact of asbestos exposure on teachers and other school workers, the risk to schoolchildren remains worryingly under-reported and under-researched.Bethany Taylor, Research Fellow Mesothelioma UK Research Centre, University of SheffieldAngela Tod, Professor of Older People and Care, University of SheffieldPeter Allmark, Researcher, University of SheffieldLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1955912023-01-13T12:21:33Z2023-01-13T12:21:33ZDecade of progress on making England’s homes safer threatened by austerity and the pandemic<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/501353/original/file-20221215-14-f4qc59.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Investing in housing should be just as important in public health messaging as exercise and having your five a day.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/outdoor-basketball-court-housing-rockingham-estate-1762641146">I Wei Huang | Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In her ruling on <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-awaab-ishaks-death-says-about-the-state-of-social-housing-in-the-uk-expert-qanda-193746">the death</a> of two-year old Awaab Ishak in Rochdale in 2020, senior coroner Joanne Kearsley <a href="https://www.judiciary.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Awaab-Ishak-Prevention-of-future-deaths-report-2022-0365_Published.pdf">concluded</a> that the child had died as a result of “prolonged exposure to mould in his home environment”. </p>
<p>According to the English Housing Survey, in 2020, 116,000 other social renting households in England faced condensation and mould bad enough to count as a “serious” hazard to health, as defined by the official housing health and safety rating <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/housing-health-and-safety-rating-system-hhsrs-guidance">system</a>(HHSRS). The survey also found 137,000 homeowners and 191,000 private tenants – for a total of 1.8% of all households in England – are impacted by serious damp and mould. </p>
<p>In total, the survey found that 2.5 million homes in England had serious hazards in 2020. If this sounds awful, nonetheless it marks a huge improvement on the <a href="https://view.officeapps.live.com/op/view.aspx?src=https%3A%2F%2Fassets.publishing.service.gov.uk%2Fgovernment%2Fuploads%2Fsystem%2Fuploads%2Fattachment_data%2Ffile%2F1098575%2F2020_Housing_quality_report_Annex_Tables_Chapter_2.ods&wdOrigin=BROWSELINK">4.8 million</a> found in 2010. <a href="https://www.bre.co.uk/filelibrary/pdf/87741-Cost-of-Poor-Housing-Briefing-Paper-v3.pdf">Going by figures</a> from the Building Research Establishment (BRE), this progress probably saved the NHS about £20 billion over the decade. </p>
<p>However, widespread housing health problems persist because the risks of unsafe housing are overlooked, responsibility is dispersed and funds are tight. Progress on reducing HHSRS hazards at home <a href="https://housingevidence.ac.uk/publications/improving-compliance-with-private-rented-sector-legislation/">slowed</a> over the late 2010s as budget cuts made due to the government’s austerity programme began to hit. With the added impact of the pandemic, progress may now have even started to reverse.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Roofs against a forest background with blue skies and cloud." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503987/original/file-20230111-15-dzlag6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503987/original/file-20230111-15-dzlag6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503987/original/file-20230111-15-dzlag6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503987/original/file-20230111-15-dzlag6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503987/original/file-20230111-15-dzlag6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503987/original/file-20230111-15-dzlag6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503987/original/file-20230111-15-dzlag6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The rooftops of a post-war 1950’s suburban housing estate on the fringes of Eastbourne in East Sussex.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/suburban-rooftops-old-town-eastbourne-england-1480271705">pxl.store | Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>One in ten at risk</h2>
<p>In 2020, <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/dwelling-condition-and-safety">9.4% of all households</a> in England lived with some kind of serious health and safety risk. These include risks of fire, electrical faults and building collapse to excessive cold, heat or noise, infections, poisoning, falls, overcrowding, and entry by intruders. </p>
<p>Of all private renters, 13.2% had a serious hazard at home, followed by 10.2% of owners and 5.3% of social renters. Further, 14.2% of black households and 12.5% of low-income households were at risk.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.bre.co.uk/filelibrary/pdf/87741-Cost-of-Poor-Housing-Briefing-Paper-v3.pdf">A landmark report</a> by the BRE in 2011 showed that the effects of serious dampness alone were costing the NHS an estimated £20 million a year (at 2021 prices). Seriously hazardous and poor housing overall was more expensive for the NHS than physical inactivity – and as bad as smoking, drinking and obesity. </p>
<p>In addition to the savings already made over the last decade, <a href="https://www.bre.co.uk/filelibrary/pdf/87741-Cost-of-Poor-Housing-Briefing-Paper-v3.pdf">according to the BRE</a> the NHS could save a further £1.8 billion a year (at 2021 prices), if all outstanding serious housing health hazards in England were been removed. This means the improvements would effectively pay for themselves by 2030. </p>
<h2>Systematic underinvestment</h2>
<p>Part of the problem is who pays for housing improvements. From <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/Geo5/9-10/21/enacted">1919 to 1951</a>, it was the UK’s Ministry of Health that was <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0033350604001957">responsible</a> for government action on housing. As historian Alan Holmans showed in his 1987 book, <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Housing-Policy-in-Britain-A-History/Holmans/p/book/9780367682200">Housing Policy in Britain</a>, the ministry and local councils both spent vast sums to demolish slum homes and build hundreds of thousands of new ones. </p>
<p>Today, however, the up-front costs of regulation and improvement of housing conditions fall on central government, local authorities, landlords and homeowners. None of these get the financial savings of improvements to health, which, instead, accrue gradually over years to the NHS, and often go unrecognised. All these groups are therefore tempted to delay or cut investment, and end up systematically underinvesting. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Protestors with banners in front of a court building." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503989/original/file-20230111-4890-5dhh3c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503989/original/file-20230111-4890-5dhh3c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503989/original/file-20230111-4890-5dhh3c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503989/original/file-20230111-4890-5dhh3c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503989/original/file-20230111-4890-5dhh3c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503989/original/file-20230111-4890-5dhh3c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503989/original/file-20230111-4890-5dhh3c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">In August 2020, people protested the reversal of the brief COVID-related ban on evictions in England.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/manchester-uk-august-24-2020-greater-1801951594">John B Hewitt | Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>There have been numerous attempts to combat this problem. For example, multiple UK health, social care and housing organisations have agreed <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/improving-health-and-care-through-the-home-mou">a formal plan</a> to improve health through the housing. Clinical commissioning groups have enabled doctors to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/dec/09/boiler-on-prescription-scheme-transforms-lives-saves-nhs-money">prescribe new boilers</a>. </p>
<p>However, experiments, reforms and improvements rely on investments of time and money, and are less likely to take place when public bodies are hit by austerity measures, or the kind of financial pressures brought on by the pandemic. </p>
<p>In 2020/21, the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities budgeted only only 52%, in real terms, of what it had allocated in 2009/10 for communities activities, including support for new housing. Its budget for local government, including preventing homelessness, was only <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/public-expenditure-statistical-analyses-2011">67%</a> of what <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/public-expenditure-statistical-analyses-2022">it had been</a>. </p>
<p>In 2012, the regulatory body for social housing in England (then the Homes and Communities Agency) ceased most proactive monitoring of fire safety, repairs, housing quality, neighbourhood quality, tenancies and tenant involvement. The current social housing regulator, meanwhile, <a href="https://www.gov.uk/topic/housing/social-housing-regulation-england">can only respond </a> to individual complaints raised by tenants. </p>
<p>Further, the <a href="https://housingevidence.ac.uk/publications/improving-compliance-with-private-rented-sector-legislation/">local authority budgets</a> for monitoring and enforcement have been drastically reduced. Repairs backlogs have built up in all tenures during the pandemic.</p>
<p>In her ruling, the Rochdale coroner <a href="https://www.judiciary.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Awaab-Ishak-Prevention-of-future-deaths-report-2022-0365_Published.pdf">said</a> that HHSRS standards are “outdated”, and that the most recent evidence does show even more danger from damp. </p>
<p>Research also reveals harms from housing insecurity, poor neighbourhood quality and unaffordability, which are not taken into account in current housing standards. For example, the financial stress resulting from the 2016 cuts in the local maximum housing benefit for private tenants has been shown to have caused <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5023793/">an estimated 26,000 extra cases</a> of mental ill-health in Great Britain. </p>
<p><a href="https://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/CBP-9227/CBP-9227.pdf">Plans to reform</a> social housing regulation, in train since 2017, are going through parliament. Protection of private renters in England from <a href="https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-8658/#:%7E:text=The%20Conservative%20Manifesto%202019%20promised,the%202019%2D21%20parliamentary%20session.">no-fault evictions</a>, which was promised in the 2019 manifesto, may yet come to fruition. </p>
<p>However, with current rates of inflation and the cost of living crisis, neither private households, landlords or central government are likely to make enough of the money needed to actually transform housing safety.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/195591/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Becky Tunstall does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The number of homes with serious hazards has been nearly halved, but improvements have slowed and may be in reverse.Becky Tunstall, Professor Emerita of Housing, University of YorkLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1945702022-11-21T06:56:53Z2022-11-21T06:56:53ZThe UK’s privatisation drive cost lives, research suggests<p>The UK’s most active period of privatisation saw health and safety disasters and fatalities increase dramatically. In <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/20/13138">recently published research</a>, we identified 27 multifatality disasters between 1979 and 1997 leading to 763 deaths. These figures were the highest compared with three other European countries.</p>
<p>During that period, the then prime minister <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/273189804_Margaret_Thatcher_and_Thatcherism_Dead_but_not_buried">Margaret Thatcher</a>, followed by John Major, led the drive for sustained and intense privatisation of state-owned enterprises. Under both leaders, transport, construction, care homes and some hospital and health services were sold or <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2034701/">partially sold to the private sector</a>.</p>
<p>Profits and cost-cutting were put before people as the government <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1748-5991.2012.01164">weakened health and safety regulations</a>. Private sector companies could cut costs further by reducing staff levels and health and safety resources, knowing there would be fewer inspections, fines and enforcement of regulation.</p>
<p>This period corresponded with a significant rise in the number of disasters, and resulting deaths, compared with other periods in recent history. Between 1979 and 1997, the UK’s annual death rate related to health and safety disasters was 322% higher than it was from 1998 to 2007, when the privatisation drive was less intense.</p>
<p>Using the international <a href="https://www.emdat.be/frequently-asked-questions">emergency events database</a>, we looked at multifatality disasters where 10 or more people died. We examined disasters from across countries and sectors, but only those due to technical causes (failures in management, safety systems and equipment). Disasters from natural causes (floods or landslips) were left out.</p>
<h2>Safety failures</h2>
<p>When regulation and scrutiny is reduced and cost-cutting is king, we should not be surprised that multifatality disasters increase. There are numerous examples of how health and safety shortcuts took lives in the years during and after the privatisation drive. </p>
<p>The period we examined saw an unusually large number of fatal rail crashes. British Rail was privatised between 1994 and 1997 – but prior to that date, the government was already pressing to make industry conditions favourable to privatisation by cutting costs.</p>
<p>The 1988 crash at Clapham Junction was one consequence of this approach. It was the result of a deficient safety culture where wiring and signal failures regularly went undetected by independent checks and inspections, and where maintenance staff and electricians worked week after week without a break. </p>
<p>After an inquiry found British Rail <a href="https://www.railwaysarchive.co.uk/documents/DoT_Hidden001.pdf">responsible for the crash</a>, the government still did not approve recommended measures to improve rail safety. Once services were privatised, safety failures contributed to later disasters at <a href="https://www.railwaysarchive.co.uk/documents/HSE_HatfieldFinal2006.pdf">Hatfield</a> (2000) and Potters Bar (2002). Ultimately, Railtrack was returned to public ownership in 2002.</p>
<p>Our findings suggest this privatisation culture contributed, both directly and indirectly, to loss of life during this period. The lax attitude to health and safety – driven by privatisation ideology – also influenced government oversight of private companies.</p>
<p>The 1987 MS Herald of Free Enterprise ferry sinking killed 193 passengers and crew. It was caused by a range of factors including a company culture of ignoring important expert advice, <a href="https://www.gov.uk/maib-reports/flooding-and-subsequent-capsize-of-ro-ro-passenger-ferry-herald-of-free-enterprise-off-the-port-of-zeebrugge-belgium-with-loss-of-193-lives">according to a government investigation</a>. </p>
<p>In 1988, the explosion of the North Sea Piper Alpha oil platform <a href="https://www.hse.gov.uk/offshore/piper-alpha-public-inquiry-volume1.pdf">killed 167 people </a>. Though it involved an American private company, because it was operating in the North Sea the UK government had oversight – and its offshore safety regulatory regimes were fatally deficient. A <a href="https://www.hse.gov.uk/offshore/piper-alpha-public-inquiry-volume2.pdf">government inquiry</a> uncovered poor maintenance and safety practices, and dozens of regulatory failures to identify those deficient procedures. </p>
<p>The Piper Alpha disaster is an example of where oversight of the private sector, in line with privatisation ideologies, failed. This led to offshore safety regulations being introduced in 1992. However, implementing these in a deregulatory climate proved difficult.</p>
<p>The impacts of this era are still felt today. In 1997, the Major government privatised the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Building_Research_Establishment">Building Research Establishment</a>. This has had adverse implications for testing of construction materials and public and worker safety, right up to the <a href="https://www.housingtoday.co.uk/news/serious-concerns-raised-about-bre-five-years-before-grenfell-fire-inquiry-hears/5115993.article">Grenfell disaster</a>. The company was responsible for testing the cladding used on the tower.</p>
<p>Of course, not all major disasters during this period can be directly linked to privatisation and deregulation measures, but these examples show how health and safety suffered under the ideology of the time. </p>
<h2>Global picture</h2>
<p>We compared the UK data on multifatality disasters with other European countries like Germany, France and Italy, which did not adopt the same privatisation strategies. The UK had a disproportionate number of disasters and fatalities – in some cases, twice as high as these countries for the same period. For example, the UK rate was 225% higher than that of Germany between 1979 and 1997. </p>
<iframe title="Fatalities resulting from multifatality disasters (1970-2007)" aria-label="Table" id="datawrapper-chart-4uDkJ" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/4uDkJ/2/" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" style="border: none;" width="100%" height="386" data-external="1"></iframe>
<p>UK privatisation was, and continues to be, accompanied by the removal or softening of regulatory requirements and the weakening of regulatory agencies through budget and staff cuts.</p>
<p>Governments after Major’s were less aggressive with their privatisation policies. However, the current UK government is proposing to exempt more than 40,000 businesses from <a href="https://iosh.com/news/iosh-calls-on-uk-prime-minister-to-reverse-reporting-exemptions/">reporting requirements</a> and regulations on health, safety and the environment.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.cibsejournal.com/news/privatisation-eroded-building-control-rigour-inquiry-told/#:%7E:text=Privatisation%20'continuously%20eroded'%20the%20',ongoing%20inquiry%20into%20the%20fire">Grenfell</a> and the healthcare worker and care home fatalities <a href="https://www.bma.org.uk/news-and-opinion/covid-19-conceals-deepening-privatisation-of-the-nhs">during the pandemic</a> are further grim reminders of the costs that workers and the public can pay for such policies.</p>
<p>Our findings should deter, or at least delay, the aggressive initiatives the government is now proposing. More privatisation, deregulation and cost-cutting for critical safety services could have serious consequences.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/194570/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Cost-cutting and deregulation corresponded with hundreds of health and safety fatalities.Andrew Watterson, Chair in Health Effectiveness, University of StirlingMatthias Beck, Professor of Management, University College CorkLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1903302022-09-27T19:02:51Z2022-09-27T19:02:51ZWorkplace bullying should be treated as a public health issue<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/485418/original/file-20220919-12904-64tzb2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C8%2C5447%2C3404&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Despite numerous high-profile cases of workplace bullying in recent years, bullying and harassment remain widespread.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/workplace-bullying-should-be-treated-as-a-public-health-issue" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>No one should have to be subjected to violence or harassment in the workplace. But workplace harassment is surprisingly widespread in Canada. In 2018, Statistics Canada found that <a href="https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/75-006-x/2018001/article/54982-eng.htm">19 per cent of women and 13 per cent of men experienced harassment</a> in their workplaces.</p>
<p>Bullying goes beyond <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/job.1976">workplace incivility</a>. While incivility can be addressed through education on workplace etiquette, <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/basics/emotional-intelligence">emotional intelligence</a> and discipline, <a href="https://www.abc-clio.com/products/a5184c/">bullying is intentional interpersonal mistreatment</a> that involves offensive, hostile and assaulting conduct directed at someone for a minimum period of six months.</p>
<p>Multiple high profile incidents of workplace bullying have been in the media over the past few years, from the alleged toxic workplace culture created by <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/julie-payette-governor-general-harassment-allegations-1.5657397">former Gov. Gen. Julie Payette</a> and the <a href="https://winnipeg.ctvnews.ca/workplace-harassment-a-factor-in-suicide-death-of-winnipeg-reservist-canadian-armed-forces-1.4221474">suicide of a Canadian Armed Forces reservist</a> linked to constant harassment by co-workers, to the alleged toxic work culture at Bell Media and backlash against the firing of <a href="https://www.thestar.com/business/2022/08/26/investigations-probed-toxic-workplace-allegations-at-bell-media-prior-to-ouster-of-lisa-laflamme.html">CTV News anchor Lisa LaFlamme</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A blue snow-covered sign that says Rideau Hall in gold lettering" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/485417/original/file-20220919-6421-3rgne6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/485417/original/file-20220919-6421-3rgne6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=430&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/485417/original/file-20220919-6421-3rgne6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=430&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/485417/original/file-20220919-6421-3rgne6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=430&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/485417/original/file-20220919-6421-3rgne6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=541&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/485417/original/file-20220919-6421-3rgne6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=541&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/485417/original/file-20220919-6421-3rgne6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=541&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Julie Payette resigned as Governor General in 2021 amid allegations of workplace harassment and bullying from current and former staffers at Rideau Hall.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Despite these high-profile cases, not much has changed aside from empty statements from <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/6488391/rcmp-bullying-harassment/">leadership condemning bullying</a>, <a href="https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/executive-to-take-leave-amid-fallout-from-lisa-laflamme-s-departure-from-bell-media-1.6044655">periods of reflection</a> and referral to <a href="https://www.macleans.ca/politics/ottawa/bullying-and-harassment-still-major-problems-within-rcmp-says-watchdog/">third-party investigators</a>. </p>
<p>We need to move beyond awareness campaigns, legislation, high-profile media attention and court action to protect people from workplace bullying. The solution might lie in viewing workplace bullying not as a workplace issue, but as a public health issue. </p>
<h2>Bullying has impacts on health</h2>
<p>Like other health issues, the impact of workplace bullying has measurable diagnostic implications and the clustering of adverse physical and psychological symptoms of bullying victims is definable. Multiple studies have shown that it can negatively impact <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-0935-9_5">a person’s mental health</a> and can even lead to <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.28933/ijprr-2020-01-1205">long-term psychological trauma</a> </p>
<p>In addition, bullying has been linked to various <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpsychores.2010.06.007">health conditions</a> including <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/eurheartj/ehy683">cardiovascular disease</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9450.2011.00932.x">musculoskeletal complaints</a>, <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/43999191">sleep issues</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.5964%2Fejop.v15i4.1733">generalized physical pain.</a> </p>
<p>All too often, we see the worst life-altering impact of bullying: <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-0935-9_8">death by suicide</a>. For those who are already struggling with mental health issues and suicidal thoughts, <a href="https://www.suicideinfo.ca/local_resource/workplace-suicide-prevention/">workplace bullying can increase the risk of suicide</a>.</p>
<p>In 2018, the Saskatchewan Workers’ Compensation Board paid compensation to a woman <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/4012406/saskatchewan-widow-wcb-compensation-husbands-suicide-linked-workplace-bullying/">after her husband’s suicide was linked to workplace bullying</a>. The man’s workplace was the <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/radio/docproject/the-grader-operator-s-widow-1.4647084/her-husband-took-his-own-life-after-he-was-bullied-on-the-job-1.4647320">target of several allegations of workplace bullying</a>. It is clear workplace culture has to change.</p>
<h2>Bullying impacts businesses as well</h2>
<p>Workplace bullying also significantly impacts the organizations that victims work for. It is well-documented that <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Bullying-and-Harassment-in-the-Workplace-Theory-Research-and-Practice/Einarsen-Hoel-Zapf-Cooper/p/book/9781138615991">bullying can negatively affect a person’s perception of their performance and self-worth</a>. This negative perception of a victim’s identity can impact their work productivity.</p>
<p>Around <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.4018/978-1-6684-3937-1.ch025">10 to 52 per cent of a victim’s time at work is deemed unproductive</a> because of the amount of time they spend defending themselves, seeking support, experiencing poor job satisfaction and higher depression and anxiety levels.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A man with his head down in his hands is surrounded by pointing fingers" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/484970/original/file-20220915-37506-vx0wjd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=29%2C29%2C6602%2C4384&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/484970/original/file-20220915-37506-vx0wjd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/484970/original/file-20220915-37506-vx0wjd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/484970/original/file-20220915-37506-vx0wjd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/484970/original/file-20220915-37506-vx0wjd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/484970/original/file-20220915-37506-vx0wjd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/484970/original/file-20220915-37506-vx0wjd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Bullying doesn’t just impact a victim’s personal life — it can also significantly impact their productivity at work and the firm they work for.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Over the last 20 years, the field of research on bullying has shifted. Due to the <a href="https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16111945">increasing number of studies</a> linking this issue to mental health issues, researchers developed effective interventions, like <a href="https://www.worksafebc.com/en/health-safety/hazards-exposures/bullying-harassment/resource-tool-kit">workplace bullying tool kits</a> and <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/employment-social-development/programs/workplace-health-safety/harassment-violence-prevention/sample-policy.html">policy templates</a> that can help workers. </p>
<p>Some of these interventions include developing strategies to <a href="https://www.crisisprevention.com/en-CA/Blog/Strategies-to-Stop-Workplace-Bullying">prevent bullying</a> and educate abusive managers about the negative effects of their behaviour. In addition, governments have <a href="https://www.worksafebc.com/en/health-safety/hazards-exposures/bullying-harassment">passed legislation</a> to dissuade bullying at work, holding organizations more accountable. But bullying still persists.</p>
<h2>Bullying is a public health issue</h2>
<p>It’s clear the current workplace health and safety framework isn’t working — people keep getting hurt. Human resource departments are key actors in addressing workplace bullying. But more often than not, field complaints are often <a href="https://doi.org/10.3390/soc11040143">mishandled</a>, <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Bullying-and-Harassment-in-the-Workplace-Theory-Research-and-Practice/Einarsen-Hoel-Zapf-Cooper/p/book/9781138615991">improperly dismissed</a> or simply ignored.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.cpha.ca/what-public-health">Public health</a> is a broad term that refers to the way society prevents illness and injury. It involves a variety of programs and policies that promote the well-being of all Canadians. Workplace bullying is <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/topics/violence/default.html">a type of preventable violence</a> that, by its very definition, <a href="https://doi.org/10.3389%2Ffpubh.2021.812979">meets the criteria</a> of a public health issue. The health hazards of workplace bullying result in long-term, cumulative exposures and poorer <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.avb.2020.101508">population health outcomes</a>. </p>
<p>It is time to champion change through a public health lens. Under the auspices of the <em><a href="https://lois-laws.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/P-29.5/">Public Health Act</a></em> and related provincial authorities, directing appropriate financial and legal resources necessary for preventing, intervening and addressing workplace bullying could finally realize substantive change.</p>
<p>A public health mandate with a universal <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/about/publichealthapproach.html">prevention focus</a>, <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/eis/field-epi-manual/chapters/Interventions.html">intensive intervention</a> treatment and ongoing <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/training/publichealth101/surveillance.html">public health surveillance</a>, with the regulatory authority to intervene, would make a significant difference in decreasing the prevalence of workplace bullying.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/190330/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jason Walker does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>It’s clear the current workplace health and safety framework isn’t stopping people from getting bullied. It’s time to treat bullying as a public health issue and address the problem more effectively.Jason Walker, Associate Professor, Department of Psychology, University Canada WestLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1854372022-06-24T12:02:21Z2022-06-24T12:02:21ZWorkers’ rights: how a landmark UN decision on safety and health will actually affect employees<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/470736/original/file-20220624-14-rilbj3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=25%2C25%2C5642%2C4087&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The ILO decided a safe and healthy work environment should be a fundamental right at its June 2022 conference.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/national-flag-ilo-on-flagpole-2164465563">Millenius/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In what has been called the “<a href="https://iosh.com/news/osh-human-rights/">biggest moment for workers’ rights</a> in a quarter of a century”, the International Labour Organization (ILO) <a href="https://www.ilo.org/global/about-the-ilo/newsroom/news/WCMS_848132/lang--en/index.htm">adopted</a> a safe and healthy work environment as one of its five fundamental principles and rights at work for all at its June 2022 international conference. This is the first extension of workers’ human rights in almost 25 years and it means governments must now commit to respect and promote the right to a safe and healthy working environment.</p>
<p>Almost <a href="https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---dgreports/---dcomm/documents/publication/wcms_686645.pdf">3 million</a> people die due to accidents and illnesses every year while trying to make a living. An additional <a href="https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---dgreports/---dcomm/documents/publication/wcms_686645.pdf">374 million</a> workers are injured or made ill by their work. Overwork on its own kills more than <a href="https://www.who.int/news/item/16-09-2021-who-ilo-almost-2-million-people-die-from-work-related-causes-each-year#:%7E:text=%C3%82%C2%A9-,WHO%2FILO%3A%20Almost%202%20million%20people%20die%20from,work%2Drelated%20causes%20each%20year&text=Work%2Drelated%20diseases%20and%20injuries,International%20Labour%20Organization%20(ILO).">745,000 people</a> a year through increased risk of stroke and heart attack. If occupational safety and health (OSH) had been given more attention during the COVID-19 pandemic, thousands of lives <a href="https://www.ilo.org/global/about-the-ilo/newsroom/news/WCMS_837406/lang--en/index.htm">could have been saved</a>. </p>
<p>The ILO decision could make a huge difference in preventing <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-61693783">mine collapses</a>, <a href="https://cleanclothes.org/news/2018/11/24/tazreen-fashions-6-years">factory fires</a> in the textile industry or by ensuring that hundreds of workers’ lives are not lost <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2021/feb/23/revealed-migrant-worker-deaths-qatar-fifa-world-cup-2022">building the stadiums</a> to host the next men’s World Cup football tournament. Making OSH a human right also recognises the workplace psychosocial risks many workers experience – stress, burnout and isolation – which have been <a href="https://theconversation.com/were-all-exhausted-but-are-you-experiencing-burnout-heres-what-to-look-out-for-164393">made worse by the pandemic</a>. </p>
<p>The ILO, <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-international-labour-organization-was-founded-after-the-spanish-flu-its-past-lights-the-path-to-a-better-future-of-work-140461">established in 1919</a> as part of the Treaty of Versailles, became a <a href="https://www.ilo.org/global/about-the-ilo/history/lang--en/index.htm">specialised agency</a> of the United Nations in 1946, tasked with the adoption and supervision of international labour standards and the promotion of decent work. Its 187-strong membership includes 186 of the UN’s 193 members, plus the Cook Islands. </p>
<p>In the 1990s, as many sought a social dimension to the new economic world order following the fall of the Berlin Wall, a clarion call was raised for a global charter of workers’ rights. The <a href="https://academic.oup.com/ejil/article/8/1/118/651419?login=true">demise of the social clause</a> – an effort to link labour standards and trade liberalisation - at the World Trade Organization (WTO) in the 1990s placed the ball firmly in the ILO’s court. Its unique tripartite structure of governments, trade unions and employers took up the challenge of devising a response to globalisation and its victims.</p>
<p>Fuelled by its <a href="https://www.ilo.org/dyn/normlex/en/f?p=1000:62:0::NO:62:P62_LIST_ENTRIE_ID:2453907:NO">founding mandate</a> that: “Poverty anywhere constitutes a danger to prosperity everywhere”, the ILO adopted the <a href="https://www.ilo.org/declaration/thedeclaration/textdeclaration/lang--en/index.htm">1998 Declaration</a> on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work. This commits the ILO’s 187 member states, regardless of their level of economic development, to respect and promote principles and rights in four categories: child labour, forced labour, discrimination and freedom of association and collective bargaining.</p>
<p>Such protections remain vital. While illegal in most countries, <a href="http://www.antislaverycommissioner.co.uk/media/1683/sedex-recognising-forced-labour-risks-in-global-supply-chains-october-2021.pdf">forced labour</a> is still widespread in many parts of the world. Similarly, <a href="https://www.un.org/en/observances/world-day-against-child-labour">child labour</a> is not yet illegal in all countries and remains a concern for governments, regulators and watchdogs in many countries.</p>
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<img alt="Medical professional with clipboard, stethoscope, mask, outside hopsital." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/470737/original/file-20220624-12-olrhhk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/470737/original/file-20220624-12-olrhhk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/470737/original/file-20220624-12-olrhhk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/470737/original/file-20220624-12-olrhhk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/470737/original/file-20220624-12-olrhhk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/470737/original/file-20220624-12-olrhhk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/470737/original/file-20220624-12-olrhhk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Many lives could have been saved if occupational safety and health had been given more attention during the COVID-19 pandemic.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/young-female-ems-key-worker-doctor-1714681855">Cryptographer/Shutterstock</a></span>
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<h2>The fifth pillar of human rights</h2>
<p>The recognition of OSH as the fifth pillar of human rights will have major implications for businesses, international trade agreements and governments. The 1998 Declaration is the point of reference for many private and multi-stakeholder forms of labour regulation. This includes the UN’s <a href="https://www.unglobalcompact.org/what-is-gc/mission/principles">Global Compact</a> (a non-binding instrument with more than 16,000 company signatories), the <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/documents/publications/guidingprinciplesbusinesshr_en.pdf">Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights</a> (which outlines the corporate responsibility to respect human rights), <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?catId=978&langId=en&company=&hdCountryId=0&companySize=0&sectorId=0&year=0&esp=0&geoScope=0&refStandard=&keyword=&mode=advancedSearchSubmit">transnational company agreements</a> and many codes of conduct by multinationals along global supply chains. </p>
<p>Most trade agreements also take the ILO 1998 Declaration as the foundation of their <a href="https://mulpress.mcmaster.ca/globallabour/article/view/2401">labour rights provisions</a>. The ILO <a href="https://www.ilo.org/ilc/ILCSessions/110/reports/texts-adopted/WCMS_848632/lang--en/index.htm">has said</a> the declaration should not unintentionally affect the rights and obligations of one of its members in relation to existing trade and investment agreements between states. But many new trade agreements may include a legally binding labour provision on a safe and healthy working environment. </p>
<p>For governments, therefore, the pressure is on. While the 1998 declaration only asked member states to “<a href="https://www.ilo.org/declaration/thedeclaration/textdeclaration/lang--en/index.htm">respect, promote and realise</a>” the fundamental principles, a huge wave of ratifications followed. For example, the Minimum Age Convention had only been ratified by 58 countries by 1997. Today that number has <a href="https://www.ilo.org/dyn/normlex/en/f?p=NORMLEXPUB:11300:0::NO::P11300_INSTRUMENT_ID:312283">risen to 175</a>. Other labour standards identified as fundamental such as the Forced Labour Convention have now been ratified by <a href="https://www.ilo.org/dyn/normlex/en/f?p=1000:11300:0::NO:11300:P11300_INSTRUMENT_ID:312174">179 member states</a> and the Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention has universal ratification by the <a href="https://www.ilo.org/dyn/normlex/en/f?p=1000:11300:0::NO:11300:P11300_INSTRUMENT_ID:312327">187 member nations</a> of the ILO. We are likely to see the same response now OSH is a fundamental principle, especially since even in the EU many countries <a href="https://www.etuc.org/en/pressrelease/landmark-un-workers-safety-vote-leaves-eu-playing-catch">have not ratified</a> key OSH labour standards. </p>
<h2>A vital first step</h2>
<p>The recognition of a safe and healthy work environment as a human right is a first step, but not an end in itself. In an era of governments promoting the use of cheap labour to compete for investment, states could implement these labour standards as a form of “<a href="https://www.gov.uk/research-for-development-outputs/aligning-rights-and-interests-why-when-and-how-to-uphold-labor-standards">social camouflage</a>” to reduce criticism from the international community, while failing to actually enforce their provisions. Similarly, while OSH might become a pillar of the private regulation of labour standards, using this model alone to ensure a minimum level for labour standards has proved to be <a href="https://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501754524/private-regulation-of-labor-standards-in-global-supply-chains/">woefully inadequate</a> in the past. </p>
<p>Concerted action by the international community is therefore needed. The decision taken by the ILO speaks volumes for its continued relevance. This move stands as a strong commitment by workers, employers and governments to recognise that they can do much more to ensure safety and health at work and help prevent the deaths and injuries of millions across the globe.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/185437/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Huw Thomas has previously worked with the International Labour Organization (ILO). He has received funding from the Economic & Social Research Council.</span></em></p>Making a safe and healthy work environment a human right is only the first step in ensuring governments protect workersHuw Thomas, Lecturer in Work, Employment, Organization & Public Policy, University of BristolLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1810502022-04-11T21:44:26Z2022-04-11T21:44:26ZThe overwork pandemic: Ashley Bloomfield’s resignation highlights burnout on the COVID-19 front line<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/457293/original/file-20220411-24-e0sgm2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">GettyImages</span> </figcaption></figure><p>In Japan it’s known as <em>karōshi</em>. In China, <em>guolaosi</em>. The South Koreans call it <em>gwarosa</em>. The literal English translation is “<a href="https://www.wired.co.uk/article/karoshi-japan-overwork-culture">death from overwork</a>”. </p>
<p>While we might hope this term wouldn’t resonate in New Zealand, the recent resignation of Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield and two of his deputies, <a href="https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/464754/more-leading-ministry-of-health-officials-resign">citing stress and exhaustion</a>, suggests otherwise. </p>
<p>Bloomfield has rightly received widespread praise for his efforts in combating the COVID-19 pandemic. But do we really want our leaders working 24/7 to the point of exhaustion and ultimately resignation?</p>
<p>Short term stress can often be a useful thing. It gets adrenaline and cortisol pumping around our body, increasing our alertness and energy levels, and potentially <a href="https://news.berkeley.edu/2013/04/16/researchers-find-out-why-some-stress-is-good-for-you/">improving our performance</a>. But prolonged levels of stress without sufficient recovery can lead to <a href="https://www.who.int/news/item/28-05-2019-burn-out-an-occupational-phenomenon-international-classification-of-diseases">burnout and exhaustion</a>.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, organisations have not adapted to the prolonged stress associated with COVID-19. Consequently, many people are responding to the current situation as if it were a sprint, when we’re actually running an ultra-marathon.</p>
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<h2>Moral stress and injury</h2>
<p>In 2019 the World Health Organization defined burnout as a syndrome caused by chronic workplace stress. Burnout is characterised by physical exhaustion, increased mental distance from work, increased negative or cynical feelings about it, and reduced productivity or <a href="https://www.who.int/news/item/28-05-2019-burn-out-an-occupational-phenomenon-international-classification-of-diseases">difficulty focusing on work</a>. </p>
<p>You may recognise these symptoms in your own life even if you’re not working in healthcare. Research shows <a href="https://news.aut.ac.nz/news/can-summer-tame-the-flames-of-burnout">increasing rates of burnout</a> across many sectors in Aotearoa.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/experts-are-back-in-fashion-now-more-than-ever-we-need-to-question-them-138113">Experts are back in fashion – now more than ever we need to question them</a>
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<p>Nurses, doctors and other healthcare workers have long expressed concerns about their huge workloads and associated <a href="https://www.1news.co.nz/2022/04/03/fed-up-nurses-say-they-are-understaffed-and-overworked">mental burnout</a>. For many of these workers, burnout and fatigue have been an understandable response to years of being underpaid and under-resourced. </p>
<p>But COVID-19 has led to the adoption of a term previously used in military psychology, “<a href="https://www.phoenixaustralia.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Moral-Stress-Healthcare-Workers-COVID-19-Guide-to-Moral-Injury.pdf">moral stress and moral injury</a>”, to describe the heightened response of healthcare workers caught at the front line of the pandemic. </p>
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<img alt="Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield speaking at a podium." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/457289/original/file-20220411-16-5ga2p5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/457289/original/file-20220411-16-5ga2p5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=373&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457289/original/file-20220411-16-5ga2p5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=373&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457289/original/file-20220411-16-5ga2p5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=373&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457289/original/file-20220411-16-5ga2p5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=468&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457289/original/file-20220411-16-5ga2p5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=468&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457289/original/file-20220411-16-5ga2p5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=468&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield announced plans to resign on April 6, after leading New Zealand’s COVID response from the start of the pandemic.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com.au/detail/news-photo/director-general-of-health-dr-ashley-bloomfield-speaks-news-photo/1236760006?adppopup=true">Mark Mitchell/Getty Images)</a></span>
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<p>Moral injury can occur when a person has to compromise or work contrary to their own moral beliefs or values, such as having to compromise on optimal care for patients due to insufficient resources. This dissonance can lead to complex emotions, including the feelings of guilt, shame or embarrassment, anger, contempt or disgust. </p>
<p>This sort of injury can affect a person’s <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/jts.22405">social, psychological and spiritual</a> well-being and is linked to a range of <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33931926/">poor health outcomes</a>. </p>
<p>Understanding this concept can help make sense of why healthcare workers may oscillate between tears, exhaustion, angry outbursts and guilt.</p>
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<img alt="Person in scrubs with head in hands. A second person has their hand on their shoulders." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/457290/original/file-20220411-22-bipx8r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/457290/original/file-20220411-22-bipx8r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457290/original/file-20220411-22-bipx8r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457290/original/file-20220411-22-bipx8r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457290/original/file-20220411-22-bipx8r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457290/original/file-20220411-22-bipx8r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457290/original/file-20220411-22-bipx8r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Healthcare workers have faced a dissonance between their morals and how they have been asked to work.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com.au/detail/photo/asian-surgeon-sitting-with-head-in-hands-royalty-free-image/103919098?adppopup=true">ER Productions Limited/Getty</a></span>
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<h2>Combating burnout and moral injury</h2>
<p>Efforts to reduce or prevent workplace burnout and moral stress start with employers meeting their responsibilities to protect their workers’ psychological wellbeing under the <a href="https://wellplace.nz/facts-and-information/mental-wellbeing/legal-responsibilities">Health and Safety at Work Act</a>.</p>
<p>Citing his own journey with stress and anxiety, Bloomfield shared the importance of switching off and setting boundaries with work. He gave his executive team an extra week of annual leave in 2020 and explicitly instructed them to <a href="https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/podcasts/2020/08/dr-ashley-bloomfield-opens-up-about-his-anxiety-and-the-importance-of-taking-a-break-in-a-podcast.html">rest during that time</a> – an example of how leaders can be role models of how to circuit-break cumulative stress by taking decent breaks.</p>
<p>But organisations need to go a step further. </p>
<p>As well as enabling employees to set good boundaries at a personal level (saying no, taking breaks, engaging in healthy habits), there should be an organisation-wide process for identifying and responding to work-related psychological risk factors. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-recover-from-burnout-and-chronic-work-stress-according-to-a-psychologist-133259">How to recover from burnout and chronic work stress – according to a psychologist</a>
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<p>The first global standard for psychological health and safety at work calls these “<a href="https://www.standards.govt.nz/shop/iso-450032021">psycho-social risk factors</a>”. They include high workloads, exposure to emotional distress at work, tight deadlines, lack of control or role clarity, and poor support pathways.</p>
<p>Mitigation of psychological risks ensures they are effectively minimised and well-being prioritised. This in turn allows for the creation of high-performing teams who feel psychologically safe, are physically and mentally healthy, and are able to create, innovate and reconnect with the meaning behind their work. </p>
<p>Crucially, employees are also better <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35244087/">protected against burnout</a>, making them much more likely to stick around in their jobs.</p>
<h2>Validation and appreciation</h2>
<p>“Validating” might sound fluffy, but the <a href="https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/12/201214123517.htm">science underpinning</a> this concept is sound. Emotional validation is recognising and accepting, but not necessarily liking or agreeing about, employees’ thoughts, feelings and behaviours. </p>
<p>When organisational leaders do this well, the validation helps to acknowledge and dial down strong negative emotions like anger, frustration or being overwhelmed, reducing the impact of these feelings.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-the-four-day-week-is-not-the-solution-to-modern-work-stress-167721">Why the four-day week is not the solution to modern work stress</a>
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<p>Appreciation needs to be offered carefully, given the risk it may sound patronising or minimising. Research found that employers should praise and reward aspects of performance that are <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1996-02773-003">under an employee’s control</a>. </p>
<p>Employers should also praise behaviour rather than the person, as well as recognising the effort, not the end results. It’s also important that employers ask their people what kinds of appreciation and recognition will be validating and meaningful, rather than assuming they know.</p>
<p>Bloomfield will leave a lasting legacy in New Zealand’s public health system. His departure also creates an opportunity to shine light on workplace psychological health and safety so we don’t lose more people to burnout.</p>
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<p><em>Gaynor Parkin and Dr Amanda Wallis from <a href="https://umbrella.org.nz/">Umbrella Wellbeing</a> contributed to this article.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/181050/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dougal Sutherland works for Victoria University of Wellington and is an Associate at Umbrella Wellbeing </span></em></p>The resignation of the director-general of health and two of his deputies highlights the risk of burnout during the pandemic. What can employers do to help overwhelmed workers?Dougal Sutherland, Clinical Psychologist, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of WellingtonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1455902020-09-11T15:32:43Z2020-09-11T15:32:43ZGreencore factory: timeline of a coronavirus outbreak shows staff must be listened to<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/356755/original/file-20200907-16-1bgooy2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Nearly 300 workers at Northampton's Greencore factory tested positive for coronavirus.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Google Street View</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The coronavirus outbreak at the Greencore factory was so bad that the UK government recently published new health and safety legislation for England <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2020/921/made">in direct response to it</a>. The sandwich factory based in Northampton had nearly 300 workers test positive for COVID-19 in mid-August. </p>
<p>As researchers of employment and management who’ve been following this case, we suggest this situation was by no means destined to unfold as it did. Indeed, we believe it could have been prevented had the voice of workers, articulated through their union, the <a href="https://www.bfawu.org/">Bakers, Food and Allied Workers Union (BFAWU)</a>, been listened to and acted upon by the management in the lead-up to the outbreak.</p>
<p>A timeline of the outbreak at Greencore reveals some of the missed opportunities to properly listen to staff concerns – something our research shows has a big impact on workplace health and safety. This case also presents lessons for the economic recovery ahead for how to return to workplaces safely and prevent mass outbreaks.</p>
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<li><p><strong>March 31:</strong> BFAWU starts <a href="https://www.facebook.com/BfawuGreencoreNorthampton/posts/131572775078083">to campaign</a> for full pay for furloughed workers after the company announced it will not top up pay beyond the 80% provided by the government. According to a BFAWU official, this <a href="https://www.socialistalternative.net/2020/08/25/support-the-campaign-justice-for-greencore-workers/">resulted in 60% of Greencore workers</a> receiving less than minimum wage during the lockdown, which made it harder for them to comply with subsequent requirements for self-isolation as staff were compelled to continue working to make ends meet. </p></li>
<li><p><strong>April:</strong> In a series of meetings, BFAWU <a href="https://www.facebook.com/BfawuGreencoreNorthampton/posts/142693623965998">raises concerns</a> about staff access to risk assessments, testing, distancing, personal protective equipment (PPE), temperature checks and the impact of distancing on the pace of work.</p></li>
<li><p><strong>May 7:</strong> BFAWU <a href="https://www.facebook.com/BfawuGreencoreNorthampton/photos/pcb.143403540561673/143403490561678">raises concerns</a> about the effectiveness of the company’s contact-tracing process, the lack of a written COVID-19 procedure and the lack of company sick pay for most workers during self-isolation because of their “flexi-contracts”. </p></li>
<li><p><strong>July 27:</strong> Four Greencore workers <a href="https://thoughtsofaleicestersocialist.wordpress.com/2020/08/29/how-not-to-handle-a-covid-19-outbreak-the-example-of-greencore-food-group/">test positive</a>, followed by another four two days later. By August 4 there are <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGIy6MNSIWU&">24 cases</a>.</p></li>
<li><p><strong>August 10-12:</strong> <a href="https://www.greencore.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Coronavirus-testing-for-all-colleagues-at-Northampton-English-final.pdf">Greencore arranges</a> for private company Randox to test 1,100 workers, which together with NHS testing identifies <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGIy6MNSIWU&">287 cases of COVID-19</a>. Those who test positive and their households are told to self-isolate but the factory remains open.</p></li>
<li><p><strong>August 18:</strong> BFAWU submits a <a href="https://www.facebook.com/BfawuGreencoreNorthampton/posts/174746164094077">formal grievance</a> over the lack of sick pay. While it seems that most managers receive company sick pay, many shop floor workers had to rely on statutory sick pay of £95.85 a week.</p></li>
<li><p><strong>August 21:</strong> It emerges that there are links between Greencore cases and cases <a href="https://www.northamptonchron.co.uk/health/coronavirus/greencore-employees-were-car-sharing-staff-another-northampton-workplace-has-also-had-coronavirus-outbreak-2949914">at other nearby factories</a>. Greencore says it has seen no evidence of this. Meanwhile, employment agencies are asked to <a href="https://www.northamptonchron.co.uk/health/coronavirus/recruitment-agencies-asked-restrict-workers-bid-stop-covid-19-transmission-2949863">stop sending workers</a> to multiple factories to prevent the spread of the virus. </p></li>
<li><p><strong>August 21:</strong> Following pressure from BFAWU, Greencore announces an immediate cease to production at its Northampton site to allow staff to self-isolate for 14 days. It <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-northamptonshire-53907729">later emerges</a> that some workers in security and dispatch continued working to “monitor and maintain the site” under official agreement. This is despite claims they mixed with workers in other departments.</p></li>
<li><p><strong>August 28:</strong> The government publishes <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2020/921/made">new regulations</a> requiring anybody who worked at Greencore between August 7 and August 21, and other members of their household, to self-isolate until September 5, under threat of a £100 fine, unless they meet criteria for an exemption.</p></li>
<li><p><strong>September 1:</strong> BFAWU <a href="https://www.facebook.com/BfawuGreencoreNorthampton/posts/178841550351205">submits a collective grievance</a> stating that some health and safety procedures are not being followed and that the full results from a second round of COVID-19 testing, <a href="https://www.northamptonchron.co.uk/health/re-testing-greencore-employees-who-tested-negative-still-ongoing-says-public-health-northants-2951731">which started on 19 August</a>, have still not been shared.</p></li>
</ul>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Factory worker takes temperature of colleague and holds out hand sanitiser." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/356825/original/file-20200907-22-1d2e4ev.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/356825/original/file-20200907-22-1d2e4ev.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=396&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/356825/original/file-20200907-22-1d2e4ev.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=396&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/356825/original/file-20200907-22-1d2e4ev.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=396&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/356825/original/file-20200907-22-1d2e4ev.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/356825/original/file-20200907-22-1d2e4ev.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/356825/original/file-20200907-22-1d2e4ev.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Health and safety has taken on new meaning since coronavirus.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/factory-worker-man-checking-fever-by-1733743910">Shutterstock.com</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Protecting staff and the public</h2>
<p>Since March, workers at Greencore challenged the adequacy of COVID-19 protections through the BFAWU union. Although they were not able to prevent a serious outbreak of COVID-19, they won improvements, setting up a <a href="https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/greencoreoutbreak">hardship fund</a> to provide immediate support, and advising on the importance of contact tracing beyond the household. To the extent that Greencore listened to them, this helped protect workers and the wider public.</p>
<p>Greencore <a href="https://www.greencore.com/update-regarding-covid-19-outbreak-in-northampton-20-august-2020/">says</a>: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>We have worked closely with the Department of Health & Social Care, Public Health England and other government bodies, who have been hugely <a href="https://www.northamptonchron.co.uk/health/coronavirus/northants-director-public-healths-comments-about-greencore-staff-are-unacceptable-says-campaign-group-2945000">supportive of our response</a>. If there was any sense that we weren’t implementing the necessary protections then they would of course not allow us to continue to operate. All of our sites have wide-ranging social-distancing measures, stringent hygiene procedures and regular temperature checking in place. </p>
<p>We have also engaged tirelessly with the BFAWU to answer their questions and concerns throughout this process and indeed have valued their input. We have a number of union representatives who are now supplementing our regular safety teams and supervisors to ensure that all of extensive measures that we have in place are being adhered to.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>However, the fact that workers felt the need to resort repeatedly to formal grievances suggests the company could have acted more quickly and the union suggests that some issues are still not resolved.</p>
<h2>‘On mute’</h2>
<p>When the gradual lifting of the UK lockdown was announced in early May, the prime minister encouraged people who had been unable to work remotely to begin talking to their employers about the practicalities of a safe return to the workplace. Given the <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0925753518307239">growing amount of research</a> on the benefits of employees being able to voice their concerns for a company’s health and safety, the wider importance of these conversations and managing the return to work is vital to recognise. </p>
<p>Greencore workers had a voice through their union representatives. But for many others elsewhere, airing concerns can be difficult, or even impossible, if managers do not make the space for it. </p>
<p>People in low-paid manual work are <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/11/manual-workers-likelier-to-die-from-covid-19-than-professionals">up to four times more likely to die</a> from the virus than professionals. Many of these workers were <a href="https://www.peoplemanagement.co.uk/news/articles/frontline-workers-less-able-to-raise-safety-concerns-research-shows">“on mute”</a> before the pandemic and continue to lack a voice at work. </p>
<p>The consequences have been devastating for some, with low voice contributing to high mortality within the <a href="https://www.amnesty.org.uk/press-releases/uk-among-highest-covid-19-health-worker-deaths-world">UK health and social care sector</a> and curtailing the influence of those from black and ethnic minority groups who are <a href="https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/healthandsocialcare/conditionsanddiseases/articles/coronaviruscovid19infectionsinthecommunityinengland/characteristicsofpeopletestingpositiveforcovid19inenglandaugust2020">up to 50% more likely to die</a> from the virus than white counterparts. </p>
<p>The Greencore case highlights the importance of organised workers’ voices in this crisis. It also suggests that without sufficient economic security, crucially including full sick pay for all workers who need to self-isolate, other measures to encourage or enforce self-isolation are unlikely to be effective.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/145590/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tom Vickers is Convenor of the Work Futures Research Group and a member of the Centre for People, Work and Organizational Practice at Nottingham Trent University. He has received funding from the Economic and Social Research Council, the British Academy, the Leverhulme Trust and the British Sociological Association.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Helen Shipton is Co-Director of the Centre for People, Work and Organisational Practice in Nottingham Business School, Nottingham Trent University and Vice Chair of the British Academy of Management. She has received funding from the Economic and Social Research Council, the British Academy/ Leverhulme Trust, the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development and the Lloyds Foundation.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Wilson Wong has received research funding from the EU Objective 2 programme. He is a member of the CIPD, Prospect Trade Union, and Chair of the Human Capital Standards 1 and Deputy Chair Knowledge Management Standards 1 Committees at the British Standards Institution.</span></em></p>The Greencore case also presents lessons for the post-coronavirus economic recovery ahead.Tom Vickers, Senior Lecturer in Sociology and Convenor of the Work Futures Research Group, Nottingham Trent UniversityHelen Shipton, Professor of International Human Resource Management, Nottingham Trent UniversityWilson Wong, Visiting Professor, Nottingham Business School, Nottingham Trent UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1447182020-09-02T14:02:26Z2020-09-02T14:02:26ZUnionized workers are more likely to assert their right to a safe and healthy workplace<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/355889/original/file-20200901-16-zikxo7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=49%2C40%2C2946%2C2043&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Many essential workers believe joining a union could provide more protections. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/CORRECTIONVirusOutbreakCaliforniaMcDonalds/61f94f359a0a4a6a8fb6a5e8a0a399d1/photo?Query=coronavirus%20worker%20safety&mediaType=photo&sortBy=&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=118&currentItemNo=21">AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>The <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/topics/research-brief-83231">Research Brief</a> is a short take about interesting academic work.</em></p>
<h2>The big idea</h2>
<p>Unionized workers are more likely than their non-union peers to speak up about health and safety problems in the workplace, according to a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0019793920953089">just-published, peer-reviewed study</a> I conducted with <a href="http://eng.kiet.re.kr/optional/engemployee/view_pop.jsp?idx=3303">Jooyoung Yang</a>, who was a Ph.D. student in applied economics at the time of the research. </p>
<p>To reach this conclusion, we examined over 70,000 unionization votes from 1985 to 2009 and focused on elections where the tally in favor or against was very small. This allowed us to zero in on the impact of unionization itself on worker behavior. We then compared these workplaces with the number of inspections conducted by state or federal occupational health and safety enforcement agencies that resulted from an employee complaint. We found that unionized workplaces were 30% more likely to face an inspection for a health or safety violation. </p>
<p>The likely reasons why, in my view, are that unions can help organized workers <a href="https://www.coshnetwork.org/know-your-rights">learn about their rights</a>, file complaints and provide greater protections against illegal retaliation by employers. </p>
<p>[<em>Deep knowledge, daily.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=deepknowledge">Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter</a>.]</p>
<h2>Why it matters</h2>
<p>The health and safety of workers is always a concern, but the current pandemic makes the issue more important than ever, especially for essential workers in <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/69/wr/pdfs/mm6935e2-H.pdf">health care</a>, <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/community/organizations/grocery-food-retail-workers.html">retail</a> and <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/community/schools-childcare/index.html">child care centers and schools</a>. But beyond them, all workers – including those with typically safe office jobs – are at increased risk of catching the coronavirus. </p>
<p>The costs of providing sufficient protective gear or taking other steps to ensure worker safety can be high, which means <a href="https://www.vox.com/coronavirus-covid19/2020/5/7/21250387/essential-worker-ppe-amazon-walmart-employees-protection-hazard-pay">some companies have at times resisted</a> doing all they can to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/jul/24/covid-19-workers-dangers-unions">protect their employees</a>. What’s more, <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2020-08-27/covid-pandemic-u-s-businesses-issue-gag-rules-to-stop-workers-from-talking">they are trying to prevent</a> their workers from learning about cases of coronavirus in their workplace and <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/07/20/how-trump-is-helping-tycoons-exploit-the-pandemic">have been lobbying governments</a> for immunity from any liability. </p>
<p>That means it’s even more vital that workers are able to raise their voices when they feel that their workplace is unsafe. Our research suggests belonging to a union can play a big role in ensuring those voices are heard. </p>
<p>This may also be why we’ve seen more workers <a href="https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/k7e4gn/coronavirus-has-caused-more-than-150-strikes-this-map-is-tracking-them-all">going on strike</a> and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/28/opinion/coronavirus-amazon-wildcat-strikes.html">asserting their rights</a> to safer and healthier workplaces. </p>
<h2>What’s next</h2>
<p>Currently, I am working on two related follow-up projects.</p>
<p><a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3673495">One aims to build</a> and analyze more comprehensive measures of labor rights violations by connecting records from the various federal agencies that protect workers, such as
the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the National Labor Relations Board. <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3596666">The other</a> studies how workers share information with one another about their employers on Glassdoor and how useful the job search site is to job seekers.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/144718/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Aaron Sojourner receives funding from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and the McKnight Foundation and the study discussed here received funding from the U.S. Department of Labor. He is affiliated with the Constellation Fund.</span></em></p>The coronavirus pandemic highlights the importance of ensuring safe workspaces, and a new study suggests unionization leads workers to speak up about poor conditions.Aaron Sojourner, Associate Professor and Labor Economist, University of MinnesotaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1371992020-05-06T15:07:11Z2020-05-06T15:07:11ZHealth and safety in the spotlight as South Africa’s miners go back to work<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/333131/original/file-20200506-49579-1jljhhb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Workers from Kinross Gold Mine, South Africa. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Brooks Kraft LLC/Sygma via Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>South Africa was put under strict social and economic lockdown on <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/03/south-africans-brace-21-day-lockdown-virus-cases-rise-200324073801136.html">26 March</a>. By the end of April the government announced that it was easing some of the restrictions. This included allowing certain key sectors to begin operations once again. One of them was mining.</p>
<p>Mining is an important contributor to the South African economy. It employs around <a href="https://www.mineralscouncil.org.za/industry-news/publications/facts-and-figures">450,000</a> people and makes a direct contribution of <a href="https://www.mineralscouncil.org.za/industry-news/publications/facts-and-figures">8.1% to GDP</a>. Approximately 78% of these people work on gold, platinum and coal mines that are largely underground operations. </p>
<p>Under the regulations easing the lockdown, mining can resume operation at 50% capacity and must provide health and safety protection from COVID-19. But the government guidelines were not binding on employers.</p>
<p>This decision led a trade union, the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union, to take a case to the country’s Labour Court. At issue was the adequacy of the voluntary guidance about the COVID-19 response to protect mineworker health.</p>
<p>The case challenged the preparedness of the sector to protect workers. </p>
<p>The threat posed by COVID-19 on mines is considerable. Working conditions underground are cramped, transportation is in packed cages, and there is a <a href="https://www.miningreview.com/health-and-safety/no-need-for-reinvention-to-cope-with-the-covid-19-pandemic/">high incidence</a> of respiratory diseases.</p>
<p>The union argued that the hazard posed by the pandemic was too substantial for voluntary guidance and that both the mineral resources minister and the chief inspector of mines had failed to institute the necessary mandatory measures under the country’s Mine Health and Safety Act.</p>
<p>The judge <a href="http://www.saflii.org/za/cases/ZALCJHB/2020/68.html">agreed</a>. As a consequence, measures to address COVID-19 are now compulsory for all mines. </p>
<p>One aspect of the union’s argument for compulsory guidance was that worker health and safety representatives appointed under the Mine Health and Safety Act would be unable to hold the employer to account without enforceable standards. Research <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0301420717303483">we have done shows</a> that worker health and safety representatives on South African underground mines are indeed in a weak position. Even with enforceable standards they will face <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0143831X08092460">an uphill task</a>. </p>
<p>Case study <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0143831X19830491">research</a> we conducted on four underground mines revealed the important, but hugely compromised role of health and safety representatives in a health response. </p>
<h2>Health and safety representatives</h2>
<p>The powers of safety representatives are largely universal. They include representing workers on all matters related to health and safety, conducting inspections and withdrawing workers from a dangerous workplace. They have the right to training and to resources to support them in their role. </p>
<p>On a large underground mine with more than 1,000 employees there are between two and four full-time representatives per shaft and sometimes hundreds of workplace representatives – those who take on the role of representative alongside his or her job of employment. </p>
<p>These arrangements are subject to agreements signed between the employer and recognised trade unions at a mine site. These agreements typically cover the number and election of representatives and their training and resourcing. Representatives are elected by workers and while the employer must ensure their training and resourcing, there is no requirement for workplace representatives to be paid. Full-time representatives are paid by the employer and this resembles arrangements for shop stewards.</p>
<p>Consultation by the employer with autonomous employee representatives is a central tenet of the Mine Health and Safety Act. </p>
<p>Our research made three major observations about worker representatives when it comes to health issues.</p>
<p>Firstly, that representatives were engaged in activities to address the existing triple disease burden on mines: occupational (lung disease and noise induced hearing loss), communicable (HIV and tuberculosis) and noncommunicable (diabetes and hypertension) diseases. </p>
<p>Workplace representatives acted as frontline health workers responding to the ill-health and emotional problems of production workers. They advised and counselled workers, encouraged visits to the clinic, escorted workers to the surface should they fall unwell, and reorganised workloads in the production team when workers were upset, weak or tired.</p>
<p>Full-time representatives acted as the compassionate voice for workers. This involved, for example, escorting individual workers to face bullying supervisors to address health related problems. </p>
<p>Secondly, representatives took on the responsibilities of the employer too. Full-time representatives took daily instructions (including some about health) from safety management. Representatives conducted inspections, gave education talks and policed the behaviour of workers on behalf of the employer. They also engaged in inappropriate problem solving, such as encouraging workers to use a cloth as a dust mask in the absence of personal protective equipment. </p>
<p>Representatives were often <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0301420717303483">left feeling</a> they would get into trouble with the employer if something went wrong. Representatives who challenged the production imperative by withdrawing workers from a dangerous workplace felt unsupported by the employer. We found approximately 30% of mineworkers who had withdrawn from a workplace went back despite believing it was still dangerous. Workers had <a href="http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?pid=S2225-62532019000100005&script=sci_arttext&tlng=es">little confidence</a> that their health and safety representative could get the workplace fixed. </p>
<p>Thirdly, representatives were dominated on a daily basis by the employer and faced retaliatory employer actions. Supervisors threatened representatives who exercised their powers or had them removed from a workplace. In some instances, they lost their jobs. </p>
<p>We found that worker representatives were not an autonomous voice for worker concerns and therefore could not hold the employer to account. Nor could representatives rely on trade union support. The employer actively discouraged their reporting into trade union branch structures. </p>
<p>Employer appointed service providers, rather than trade unions, provided training and delivered the accredited skills programme. Not one representative in our research knew their powers correctly under the law – even after training. Neither did they have instruments for routine tests, such as for dust, or access to the internet to support their role.</p>
<h2>Dangers</h2>
<p>For worker representatives to fulfil their role, mandatory standards for COVID-19 protection are a first step. But more needs to be done.</p>
<p>International evidence <a href="https://www.palgrave.com/gp/book/9780230001947">shows</a> there are broad preconditions necessary to support the effectiveness of worker representation. These include trade union training and support for worker representatives; a supportive steer from the regulator, which could include dedicated guidance about the role and resourcing of worker representatives; and an appreciation by the employer of the autonomous role of representatives. </p>
<p>Mine health and safety has become more complex under COVID-19. A bold step to resource and equip health and safety representatives is now needed.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/137199/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nancy Coulson currently receives funding from the Mine Health and Safety Council to conduct a training needs assessment for health and safety representatives on mines . </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nicola Christofides receives funding from the World Health Organization. </span></em></p>The threat posed by COVID-19 on mines is considerable. The main reasons are cramped working conditions underground, transportation in packed cages, and a high incidence of other respiratory diseases.Nancy Coulson, Visting Senior Lecturer Wits Mining Institute, University of the WitwatersrandNicola Christofides, Associate Professor, School of Public Health, University of the WitwatersrandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1209132019-08-12T14:20:39Z2019-08-12T14:20:39ZSouth Africa’s construction industry could become safer. Here’s how<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/285516/original/file-20190724-110158-1w5wz55.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Construction workers in Cape Town. It's a dangerous job.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Nic Bothma/EPA</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Construction is tough, sometimes dangerous work. Globally, the construction industry accounts for <a href="https://ascelibrary.org/doi/full/10.1061/%28ASCE%29CO.1943-7862.0000482?src=recsys">about 7%</a> of employment. But it’s responsible for between <a href="https://ascelibrary.org/doi/full/10.1061/%28ASCE%29CO.1943-7862.0000482?src=recsys">30% and 40%</a> of all work-related fatalities. The figure is at its highest in developing countries. This is because contractor organisations in those countries tend to lack a safety culture. Health and management systems are also less robust there than in developed nations.</p>
<p>This is obviously a huge problem. First, of course, there’s the loss of human life. But there’s an economic effect too. Accidents disrupt site activities. Projects can then run behind schedule, leading to cost overruns. This affects productivity and the industry’s reputation as a whole.</p>
<p>In South Africa, the construction industry accounts for around <a href="http://www.cidb.org.za/publications/Documents/Construction%20Monitor%20-%20October%202018.pdf">8%</a> of total formal employment and around <a href="http://www.cidb.org.za/publications/Documents/Construction%20Monitor%20-%20October%202018.pdf">17%</a> of total informal employment. It is also the <a href="http://www.cidb.org.za/publications/Documents/Construction%20Health%20and%20Safety%20in%20South%20Africa.pdf">third most dangerous</a> sector for workers after the transportation and fishing industries.</p>
<p>In a recent <a href="https://scholar.sun.ac.za/handle/10019.1/105803">study</a>, I tried to find out why health and safety performance is not up to standard in South Africa’s construction industry. I looked at how contractor organisations manage health and safety. I also compared the effectiveness of different management arrangements. This is important: there’s no uniformity around health and safety management programmes and practices within the construction industry.</p>
<p>What emerged was that health and safety management within the construction industry has not developed at the same pace as in other industries. Additionally, it hasn’t kept up with technological advances like robotics, 3D printing and data analytics. These innovative technologies have been well adopted by the automobile and manufacturing industries – and have reduced employees’ exposure to dangerous tasks.</p>
<p>However, in a country beset by <a href="https://mg.co.za/article/2019-08-05-unemployment-in-south-africa-is-worse-than-you-think">high unemployment</a> and inequality, automation can be a sensitive subject.</p>
<p>Another problem I found is that legislation governing health and safety management in the construction industry focuses on individual projects. It doesn’t place any obligation on contractors to implement health and safety management systems, nor to maintain these competencies within their organisations in the long-term. </p>
<h2>Several problems</h2>
<p>One of the issues I identified was how South Africa’s medium and large contractor organisations manage their own health and safety systems. In some cases, they outsource this work to health and safety management consultants who provide advisory and administrative support. But such arrangements focus on legislative compliance. They don’t do much to drive continuous improvement in the organisation’s health and safety performance.</p>
<p>In other instances, safety management happens internally through contractors’ own organisational structures. This approach also has many problems. Companies just don’t allocate enough resources for proactive health and safety management. Accountability mechanisms are few and far between. There aren’t many incentives for employees to get involved in health and safety management activities. Health and safety training aren’t a priority, either.</p>
<p>Some of the other issues I identified related to the business environment. These included the widespread practice of subcontracting and price-based competition. Both have a negative effect on the industry’s safety performance.</p>
<p>There are critical deficiencies in the management of subcontractors. And the absence of a uniform basis for costing health and safety when tendering for a project means that contractors often under-budget for this crucial aspect of their work.</p>
<p>The country also doesn’t have enough suitably qualified health and safety professionals who are registered with the <a href="http://sacpcmp.org.za/">South African Council for Project and Construction Management Profession</a>. This body is statutorily mandated to regulate the practice of health and safety professionals within the construction industry. I was told by several interviewees that there just aren’t enough registered health and safety professionals for the number of ongoing construction projects. </p>
<p>So how can the country’s construction industry become a safer place to work in?</p>
<h2>Potential solutions</h2>
<p>First, specific policies are needed that will improve health and safety leadership by top management, safety professionals and operational managers within contractor organisations. Policies like this should provide guidance on the minimal requirement for systematic health and safety management to be voluntarily adopted by contractors. The country could draw from the European Union’s <a href="https://osha.europa.eu/en/legislation/directives/the-osh-framework-directive/1">framework directive</a> on occupational health and safety.</p>
<p>There should also be an industry-wide framework for pricing the cost of health and safety. Employer associations such as the <a href="https://www.safcec.org.za/">South African Federation of Civil Engineering Contractors</a> and the <a href="https://www.masterbuilders.org.za/">Master Builders Association</a> should collaborate with industry regulators and clients’ organisations to develop a framework for the just and efficient costing of health and safety management requirements in tender documents. </p>
<p>Subcontractor organisations should provide for the cost of health and safety management in their rates to principal contractors. They should also employ the services of a full-time health and safety management professional. Studies have found that several functions performed by such internal safety professionals promote <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022437510000794?via%3Dihub">safety culture within organisations</a>.</p>
<p>Stakeholders like the Department of Labour, employer associations, labour unions, tertiary institutions and industry bodies will need to come together to address the lack of suitably qualified and registered health and safety professionals. These bodies can facilitate the necessary training and accreditation to meet the construction industry’s needs. </p>
<p>Organisations which regulate the construction industry and labour unions must also work to limit the number of precarious short-term employment contracts within the industry.</p>
<h2>Effective interventions</h2>
<p>There’s also a lot of work to be done by principal contractors. These organisations need to introduce mechanisms that will manage their subcontractors’ health and safety more efficiently.</p>
<p>Such mechanisms need to do two things. First, they must satisfy legislation mandated documentation and audits. Second, they must track and demand demonstrated improvements in health and safety performance. </p>
<p>Contractor organisations should also have an annual budget that funds proactive health and safety management interventions.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/120913/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Patrick Nwabueze Okonkwo does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>There’s no uniformity around health and safety management programmes and practices within the construction industry.Patrick Nwabueze Okonkwo, Post Doctoral Research Fellow, Stellenbosch UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1197842019-08-09T14:41:54Z2019-08-09T14:41:54ZMedical skin creams could be a lethal fire risk when soaked into fabric – here’s what you need to know<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/287362/original/file-20190808-144868-rwrhqu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C3000%2C1989&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/old-women-applying-lotion-on-hand-438938872?src=r7YjXez6vBkiIIF9byXniQ-1-40">Rarin Lee/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Care providers were alerted to a house fire involving one of their patients at 4am on May 30, 2015. The fire and rescue services discovered a 74-year-old lady who had succumbed to a blaze that developed rapidly while she was still lying in bed. She had been bed bound, known to smoke in bed and was being treated for a skin condition. </p>
<p>A year later, a 61-year-old man who was also a smoker, bed bound and had emollient applied to his skin by carers was found dead in his bed after an intense fire. A year after that, an 82-year-old man died with third degree burns when his dressing gown came into contact with a lighter. He was also receiving daily applications of a cream and ointment.</p>
<p>What do all of these tragic deaths have in common? The victims were all being treated with creams for their skin conditions. While the fires were caused by smoking, the authorities reported that they were made more intense by the presence of these emollients. </p>
<h2>A hidden danger</h2>
<p>In the UK, one in five children and one in 12 adults will suffer <a href="http://www.eczema.org/about-us">from eczema</a> and <a href="http://www.bad.org.uk/for-the-public/patient-information-leaflets">2-3% of the population have psoriasis</a>. Medical creams, lotions and ointments are widely used to treat these conditions and can be prescribed or bought over the counter. They often include instructions to apply liberally, with multiple applications during the day. This results in the product soaking into clothing, dressings and bedding.</p>
<p>Several deaths from fires have been linked with the use of these skin emollients. A <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-39308748">BBC freedom of information request</a> revealed that 37 fire deaths since 2010 have been linked to creams that contain paraffin. But fire reports don’t require such information to be included and not all fire services responded to questions. So the actual number of deaths and injuries may be higher.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-batteries-have-started-catching-fire-so-often-68602">Why batteries have started catching fire so often</a>
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<p>It isn’t just products that contain lots of paraffin that pose a risk – those with a low paraffin content and even those without paraffin at all could be dangerous. <a href="https://www.uk-afi.org/seminars/annual-training-conference-2019">Our research shows</a> that all fabrics ignited quicker after contact with emollients – regardless of the paraffin level – than completely clean fabrics. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0379711218303400">In our initial tests</a>, we let a flame directly touch cotton sheeting that emollients had dried into for 24 hours. The fabric ignited too quickly to measure, but once we had the flame positioned 7cm from the edge of the soaked fabric, we found that ignition happened after only ten seconds, compared to over a minute with the same cotton sheeting that was completely clean.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/287222/original/file-20190807-144868-v87ih6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/287222/original/file-20190807-144868-v87ih6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=335&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/287222/original/file-20190807-144868-v87ih6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=335&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/287222/original/file-20190807-144868-v87ih6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=335&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/287222/original/file-20190807-144868-v87ih6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=421&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/287222/original/file-20190807-144868-v87ih6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=421&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/287222/original/file-20190807-144868-v87ih6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=421&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Fabric test burns after 20 seconds. The non-paraffin cream ignited at eight seconds, the 21% paraffin base cream at 11 seconds and the clean cotton at 52 seconds.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Sarah Hall</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
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<p>The fabrics we tested included various thread counts of cotton and polyester blend sheeting and t-shirts – all are common in households and all ignite much quicker when skin creams are present. We also found that once the flame has extinguished, some of the fabrics smoulder for longer when the products are present – potentially burning for longer near the skin, causing significant burns and life-threatening injuries.</p>
<p>These findings have spurred the NHS and fire and rescue services to <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/emollient-cream-build-up-in-fabric-can-lead-to-fire-deaths">reassess their safety advice</a>. Flammable residues are thought to be removed from fabrics if <a href="https://www.nationalfirechiefs.org.uk/News/latest-research-shows-hidden-fire-risk-of-emollients/220630">they’re washed at the highest temperature</a> possible, but research is still ongoing.</p>
<p>It’s important to remember that these products – on their own and in containers – aren’t a fire risk. The risk emerges when fabrics are soaked with them and allowed to dry. As the creams have soaked into fabrics, reducing the time it takes for the garments to ignite, <a href="https://www.judiciary.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Hills-2015-0317.pdf">elderly and immobile</a> victims haven’t been able to remove their clothing quickly enough to prevent injury or death. </p>
<p>People shouldn’t stop using much-needed medication, but they should know how to use the products safely. Our advice is to wash your clothes at high temperatures as often as you can to reduce the build up of the creams. Most importantly, keep any fabrics away from naked flames and cigarettes – you’re likely to have less time to react in the event of a fire than you think.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/119784/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sarah Hall conducted this work with research assistant Kirsty Blackburn.
</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Joanne Morrissey does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Common emollients used to treat skin conditions are a hidden fire risk in most homes.Sarah Hall, Senior Lecturer and Head of the Forensic and Investigative Sciences Research Group, Anglia Ruskin UniversityJoanne Morrissey, Senior Lecturer in Crime and Investigative Studies, Anglia Ruskin UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1080622018-12-26T19:28:17Z2018-12-26T19:28:17ZStick to the path, and stay alive in national parks this summer<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/251680/original/file-20181220-45388-1gmerbt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=3%2C0%2C2265%2C1693&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Step carefully.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Many Australians will take a trip to one of our national parks over the holidays. In New South Wales alone, there are <a href="https://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/research-and-publications/our-science-and-research/our-research/social-and-economic/social/domestic-visitation">more than 51 million</a> visits to national parks each year. Few if any of us would expect not to make it out of one alive.</p>
<p>But national parks claim lives around the world every year. In the United States, an average of <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/travel/how-many-people-actually-die-in-national-parks">160 visitors each year</a> die in a national park. Australia’s numbers are unsurprisingly smaller – there have been <a href="https://www.environment.gov.au/system/files/resources/1ab9ba54-8234-46d6-a93f-38b38769ff18/files/dnp-annual-report-2017-18.pdf">13 deaths in national parks since 2013</a> – but the common theme is that these fatalities are usually avoidable.</p>
<p>Wherever death and injury are avoidable, it pays to alert people to the dangers. In Australia the main risks – falling off cliffs and waterfalls, deadly snakebites, getting lost – can all be reduced by one crucial piece of advice: stick to the path.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/good-signage-in-national-parks-can-save-lives-heres-how-to-do-it-right-93483">Good signage in national parks can save lives. Here's how to do it right</a>
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<p>It sounds simple enough. But in fact, visitors failing to heed advice about walking trails is a significant problem for national park managers. Venturing off-trail poses significant danger to visitors, and puts unnecessary strain on emergency services and police.</p>
<p>Our <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0261517716301121?via%3Dihub">2017 study</a> was the first to gather some hard numbers on the reasons why people tend to disobey the signs. We surveyed 325 visitors at Blue Mountains National Park on their attitudes to off-trail walking.</p>
<p>So, what’s behind our compulsion to get off the beaten track? First, 30% of respondents told us that off-trail walking can result in a shorter or easier walking route, whereas 20% said straying from the path can afford a closer look at nature.</p>
<p>Second, visitors are heavily influenced by other visitors and friends – the “monkey see, monkey do” effect. They are much more likely to leave the track if they see someone else do it first.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/251681/original/file-20181220-45419-15ikjip.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/251681/original/file-20181220-45419-15ikjip.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/251681/original/file-20181220-45419-15ikjip.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/251681/original/file-20181220-45419-15ikjip.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/251681/original/file-20181220-45419-15ikjip.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/251681/original/file-20181220-45419-15ikjip.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/251681/original/file-20181220-45419-15ikjip.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">It might make for a great photo, but the dangers are obvious.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
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<p>Third, in the absence of a handy toilet, many visitors venture off-trail for a private “comfort break”.</p>
<p>Finally, visitors rely heavily on signage to help them stay on the designated trail. Some 13% of our survey respondents said they would venture off-trail if there was a lack of adequate signs.</p>
<h2>What might change our behaviour?</h2>
<p>There are several tactics park authorities can use to reduce off-trail walking at national parks. They can use direct management techniques such as capping site capacity to avoid congestion – basically, regulating the maximum number of walkers in a given area, so the paths don’t feel too congested. They may consider zoning orders to permit or limit certain events to control capacity. </p>
<p>Ropes or low barriers along the walking trail can give a clear indication of the trail’s boundary. Of course, there is a fine balance between building structural barriers and maintaining the feeling of natural wilderness in a park. </p>
<p>Social media marketing might also work well. Suggested slogans such as “A true mate sticks to the trail” or “Be safe and stay on the trail with your mates” might help influence visitors’ behaviour. Park visitors are ever more connected to social media – Parks Australia’s social media channels <a href="https://www.environment.gov.au/system/files/resources/1c555a10-dea0-4121-a408-00952eaeae12/files/dnp-annual-report-2016-17-web.pdf">reach an estimated 30 million people</a>.</p>
<p>Signs should also let walkers know exactly what they are getting themselves into, by posting clearly the length and typical duration of walking tracks, and the distance to popular destinations such as lookout points. These signs should be posted both at the beginning of trails at at intervals along it, particularly at junctions or river crossings.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/our-national-parks-must-be-more-than-playgrounds-or-paddocks-14389">Our national parks must be more than playgrounds or paddocks</a>
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<p>When it comes to our national parks it’s best to assume that, as with most things in life, humans will look for alternatives to what is expected. It’s human nature to want to bend the rules in what we might wrongly think is a harmless way.</p>
<p>Bushwalking in a national park is a great way to spend some time this summer. But when going off-trail could turn a tranquil walk into a deadly accident, it pays to stay on the beaten track.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/108062/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Edmund Goh does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Heading off on a bushwalk in a national park over the summer break? Don’t be tempted to bushwhack it. Research shows many walkers don’t realise the danger of straying off the beaten track.Edmund Goh, Deputy Director, Markets and Services Research Centre, Edith Cowan UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1038452018-10-24T14:14:09Z2018-10-24T14:14:09ZWhat Kenya needs to do to better protect those working in the oil sector<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/240415/original/file-20181012-119144-mkc6vv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Kenya is ill-prepared for the environmental, health and safety impacts that accompany oil production.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Signature Message/Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>After decades of failed attempts, Kenya finally <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/africa/2012/03/2012326174456726672.html">struck oil six years ago</a>. <a href="https://nationaloil.co.ke/pdf/NOCK_Newsletter.pdf">Commercially viable</a> reserves were discovered in Turkana – the northwest of the country– by British oil company, Tullow Oil. The basin is estimated to contain about <a href="https://www.tullowoil.com/operations/east-africa/kenya">560 million barrels of oil</a>.</p>
<p>While commercial production is a few years away, there’s <a href="http://extractives-baraza.com/assets/content/PDF/epwg/EHS-Discussion-Paper-Policy-Dialogues.pdf">growing</a> concern that Kenya isn’t ready for the environmental, health and safety risks that accompany oil production. </p>
<p>A <a href="http://extractives-baraza.com/assets/content/PDF/epwg/EHS-Discussion-Paper-Policy-Dialogues.pdf">recent forum</a> involving key stakeholders – community, civil society organisations and the Ministry of Health – outlined some of these concerns. These
include that; workers aren’t well protected, waste isn’t being well disposed of and water sources could be <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/water-quality-quantity-versus-turkana-oil-production-daniel-lagat/">contaminated</a>. Other problems identified included the fact that those regulating these issues don’t have clear mandates and that policies and standards that deal with managing risks don’t exist or aren’t clear. </p>
<p>Kenya has several state agencies that try to regulate the industry. This means that there’s an uncoordinated approach and a great deal of uncertainty. A framework is needed that speaks specifically to environment, health and safety for the oil sector. It must have a clear division of roles and responsibilities, ensuring the sector is efficient, and encouraging investment. </p>
<h2>Oil spills and pollution</h2>
<p>A key concern for communities in the Turkana area is how waste and pollution will be managed. This includes; the disposal of drill cuttings, reduced air quality due to flaring of gas and negative impacts on human and animal health. </p>
<p>There’s also concern over the technology used to handle hazardous waste as it doesn’t meet the standards of those in other countries. For instance, <a href="http://extractives-baraza.com/assets/content/PDF/Publications:%20Government/Final%20SESA%20Report%20March%202017.pdf">most</a> waste oil treatment facilities don’t meet international standards and are run by the informal sector. </p>
<p>Trying to deal with these risks is challenging and there are significant gaps in policies and laws. </p>
<p>For example, there’s a general <a href="http://kenyalaw.org/kl/fileadmin/pdfdownloads/bills/2017/Petroleum_Exploration_DevelopmentandProductionBill_2017.pdf">requirement</a> that contractors be prepared in case of an emergency – like a fire. But there’s no direction of who is responsible for what and the procedures that must be followed. Kenya’s National oil Spill Contingency Plan is meant to make this clearer, but it has been in draft form for over four years. </p>
<p>There also needs to be clarity on who is responsible for damage incurred as a result of oil spills or other pollution. Currently the <a href="https://kma.go.ke/index.php/marine-environment/oil-spill-response">Kenya Maritime Authority</a> is responsible for coordinating this, but they are a maritime agency – authority should rest with the National Environment Management Authority.</p>
<h2>Worker safety</h2>
<p>There also need to be more policies that protect the health and safety of workers. An <a href="http://www.kenyalaw.org/klr/fileadmin/pdfdownloads/Acts/OccupationalSafetyandHealth(No.15of2007).pdf">occupational safety and health act</a> in on the statute books. But there are no policy guidelines that look at how health and safety is monitored. These are needed to govern the industry’s hazardous work operations like; rigging safety, flaring of gas, drilling or chemicals handling. </p>
<p>Policies should be created by the Ministry of Petroleum and Mining in collaboration with the other relevant ministries – like environment and health. </p>
<p>Other policies that need to be reviewed include those related to reducing the risk of fires – <a href="http://kenyalaw.org/lex/sublegview.xql?subleg=No.%2015%20of%202007#KE/LEG/EN/AR/O/NO.%2015%20OF%202007/SUBLEG/HC_17">current legislation</a> only deals with small workplace fires – and those related to first aid. </p>
<p>Regulations must also be drawn up to cover community health and safety. These don’t exist yet the impact of oil and gas operations goes beyond the workplace.</p>
<p>Finally, there are <a href="http://extractives-baraza.com/assets/content/PDF/Publications:%20Government/Final%20SESA%20Report%20March%202017.pdf">not enough</a> health facilities and emergency service providers should accidents occur.</p>
<h2>Regulation issues</h2>
<p>Three key bodies are meant to regulate environment, health and safety issues in the sector. These are the <a href="https://www.erc.go.ke/">Energy and Regulatory Commission</a>; the <a href="http://www.labour.go.ke/directorate-of-occupational-safety-and-health-services-doshs/">Directorate of Safety and Health Services</a> and the <a href="https://www.nema.go.ke/">National Environmental Management Authority</a>. But their activities aren’t coordinated. This means that companies aren’t being held to proper enforcement and compliance regulations. </p>
<p>Regulations can also clash. For instance, the <a href="http://www.kenyalaw.org/klr/fileadmin/pdfdownloads/Acts/OccupationalSafetyandHealth(No.15of2007).pdf">occupational safety and health laws</a> require workplaces that use or produce toxic substances to <a href="http://extractives-baraza.com/assets/content/PDF/Publications:%20Government/Final%20SESA%20Report%20March%202017.pdf">ensure</a> they’re safely collected, recycled or disposed of. But there isn’t currently a body that can actually process waste coming from the oil and gas sector. The closest facility is in <a href="http://www.oilinuganda.org/features/environment/uganda-gets-its-first-oil-waste-treatment-plant.html">Uganda</a>. </p>
<h2>Developing policy</h2>
<p>There are attempts to improve on policy. Kenya’s occupational safety and health act, for example, is <a href="http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/862581530195474639/pdf/Plan-Archive-14.pdf">under review</a>. But it’s not easy.</p>
<p>Developing policies, and ensuring they’re adhered to, is a major challenge as government regulatory bodies lack skills and manpower. The Directorate of Safety and Health Services, for instance, <a href="https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/@ed_protect/@protrav/@safework/documents/policy/wcms_187632.pdf">has</a> 71 professional officers to inspect about 140,000 workplaces. This is a huge challenge for inspectors working in the remote areas where oil exploration is taking place. They <a href="http://extractives-baraza.com/assets/content/PDF/Publications:%20Government/Final%20SESA%20Report%20March%202017.pdf">can take</a> one to two years before they visit, leaving most workers exposed to hazards.</p>
<p>The goods news is that steps are being taken. the <a href="http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/862581530195474639/pdf/Plan-Archive-14.pdf">environmental and occupational health and safety</a> policies are under review by two different set of consultants to establish more robust policies and guidelines. </p>
<p>Legally, efforts are also being taken to coordinate an approach. The <a href="http://kenyalaw.org/kl/fileadmin/pdfdownloads/bills/2017/Petroleum_Exploration_DevelopmentandProductionBill_2017.pdf">new bill is</a> being considered by the Senate. Among other things it proposes a new Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority. </p>
<p>Over the last three years, a technical assistance project has also <a href="http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/531591529359535996/pdf/Disclosable-Version-of-the-ISR-Kenya-Petroleum-Technical-Assistance-Project-KEPTAP-P145234-Sequence-No-07.pdf">trained</a> 220 government officers in lead agencies responsible for enforcement of environment, health and safety regulations. </p>
<p>These developments are all encouraging. But it’s important that policymakers don’t adopt a one-size-fits-all approach but rather develop methods that adequately address the specific needs and priorities of the oil industry and the risks it brings. </p>
<p><em>Laura Muniafu, of Strathmore University’s Extractives Baraza, assisted in the writing of this article</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/103845/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Melba K. Wasunna does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Kenya must address the needs and priorities of the oil sector in regards to environment, health and safety.Melba K. Wasunna, Director and Lecturer, Extractives Baraza, Strathmore UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1009022018-08-02T13:37:36Z2018-08-02T13:37:36ZWhy small businesses really do struggle to understand red tape<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/230214/original/file-20180801-136661-zdamz9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/red-tape-around-briefcase-labeled-brexit-1038794731?src=GDsjsSNbfh7p0UD3tCA6mw-1-6">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Regulations are a part of everyday life. They cover everything from the <a href="https://www.ofwat.gov.uk/regulated-companies/price-review/">cost and quality</a> of the things we buy, to <a href="https://www.gov.uk/browse/employing-people/contracts">conditions of employment</a> and the way our <a href="https://www.planningportal.co.uk/info/200128/building_control">homes are constructed</a>. Yet most of the time they go unnoticed. </p>
<p>As a set of rules which specify the minimum standards companies and individuals should follow, regulations are put in place because they are deemed to be in the broad public interest. Yet they only work when they are followed – and this only happens when the people responsible for implementing them understand what they should be doing. </p>
<p>A gap in knowledge could be the difference between one firm correctly using safety equipment and another firm putting their employees and customers at risk by not even knowing such equipment exists. Part of the difficulty in complying with regulations is they can be complex and often changed. This means firms have to work hard to keep their knowledge and procedures up to date. What was required ten or 20 years ago is often no longer the case now. </p>
<p>Small firms often find regulation particularly challenging simply because they don’t have the capacity to devote time or money to learning about it. It doesn’t help that regulations are often considered as unnecessary “red tape”, full of rules which appear to lack common sense. Should it really be illegal, for example, for companies selling bottled water to inform potential customers that drinking it will <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/eu/8897662/EU-bans-claim-that-water-can-prevent-dehydration.html">help with rehydration</a>?</p>
<p>Even the recent changes in General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) – all those emails asking you to sign up to mailing lists – which were publicised for years before the deadline, were complex. There is still plenty of confusion about what is actually required, so unsurprisingly, many firms have <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-44208456">struggled to meet</a> their new obligations.</p>
<p><a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1467-8551.12314">Our research</a> on some of the smallest firms in the UK tourist sector found that many owners and managers demonstrated considerable overconfidence when it comes to regulations. Many admitted having imperfect regulatory knowledge in areas fundamental to their operations, but still continued to run their businesses anyway. </p>
<p>This is worrying. All firms should have a functioning knowledge of the basic rules on employment, fire safety, discrimination, and health and safety. Would you prefer to stay at a bed & breakfast run by people who didn’t they should have conducted a <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/11085/payingguests.pdf">fire risk assessment</a> (and subsequently developed plans and installed equipment), or at an alternative establishment which complies with such requirements?</p>
<p>Trade associations are often considered a key source of support for small firms, assisting with limitations firms face because they are small. During our study we found that they do indeed provide lots of helpful information on things like rules and regulations. </p>
<h2>Understanding the rule book</h2>
<p>Yet, surprisingly, we found that membership of trade associations doesn’t really improve what micro-firm owners and managers actually <em>know</em> about regulation. It just makes them think they know more.</p>
<p>This means they risk making poor business decisions, potential prosecution for breaking the law, and even unnecessarily risk public safety – all because of their own misunderstanding of what the law really requires. This is likely to be caused by information overload and a false sense of security created by receiving – but not necessarily reading – the detailed information provided.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/230248/original/file-20180801-136661-p1r136.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/230248/original/file-20180801-136661-p1r136.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/230248/original/file-20180801-136661-p1r136.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/230248/original/file-20180801-136661-p1r136.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/230248/original/file-20180801-136661-p1r136.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/230248/original/file-20180801-136661-p1r136.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/230248/original/file-20180801-136661-p1r136.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Pick the one which understands the regulations.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/traditional-bed-breakfast-sign-surrounded-by-141263332?src=FASAQXfRe3lFq4Gshl2eAg-1-0">Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>We also found that firms with a positive approach towards regulation generally had greater knowledge, so perhaps a healthy attitude is an important part of learning more. </p>
<p>This all suggests that we need to move away from viewing rules and regulations as being meddlesome and unwelcome red tape. Instead, businesses need to consider them positively as sensible measures which protect them – and the public. Trade associations could play a key role here, given their regular communication and trusted status with member firms. But they also need to find new ways of making sure the information they provide is both understood and acted upon.</p>
<p>While the debate about <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/eu-referendum-2016">Brexit continues</a> in the UK, politicians should keep in mind that firms are struggling to learn about and implement rules and regulations which already exist. </p>
<p>If Brexit results in significant changes in what companies should be doing – even if that means cutting red tape as some politicians claim – then the smallest companies are likely going to find it hugely challenging to make sure they know what they should be doing, never mind actually doing it.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/100902/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Phil Tomlinson receives funding from the Regional Studies Association under the RSA Expo scheme and from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) to fund two business acceleration hubs in the South West of England.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>J. Robert Branston and Marc Betton do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>And Brexit could make things even more challenging.J. Robert Branston, Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) in Business Economics, University of BathMarc Betton, Researcher, University of BathPhil Tomlinson, Associate Professor in Business Economics, Deputy Director Centre for Governance, Regulation and Industrial Strategy (CGR&IS), University of BathLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/927292018-06-03T17:22:57Z2018-06-03T17:22:57ZConsider this advice before travelling abroad for health care<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/218571/original/file-20180511-52177-sixmya.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">This photo was taken at a resort just outside Chennai, India that caters to medical tourists following discharge from hospital.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(V.A. Crooks)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>I will never forget the first Canadian medical tourist I interviewed. I was gripped when this person told me about travelling abroad for invasive surgery, accompanied by their spouse. While in India, this spouse required emergency surgery to address a chronic condition that had worsened. </p>
<p>This situation sounded so distressing and the researcher in me wondered: Could the mental and physical stress of caregiving in an unfamiliar, international context have negatively impacted the spouse’s health to the point that surgery was required? </p>
<p>There are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1108/TR-04-2014-0015">many reasons why patients opt to seek health care abroad</a>. In some cases it is because they cannot access timely surgery locally. In others, they are seeking an experimental procedure that is not available at home, such as an unapproved stem cell therapy. </p>
<p>For most of the last decade I have been involved in extensively studying medical tourism. I have spoken with patients, policy-makers, doctors, nurses, tourism officials, travel operators and many others in well over a dozen countries. Much of this research has examined <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2012-002302">ethical</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1186/1475-9276-9-24">equity</a> questions related to medical tourism. For example, trying to understand if and how <a href="http://www.dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12939-015-0147-1">local patients</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1186/1475-9276-12-2">health-care providers</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1186/s12992-015-0113-0">health systems</a> can benefit from medical tourism in the Caribbean.</p>
<p>One thing I have learned is that many medical tourists do not travel on their own. Many travel with a friend or family member. </p>
<p>Friends and family provide support and companionship. They serve as a source of familiarity and comfort. They can assist with very practical matters, such as confirming travel plans and keeping people at home informed about the medical tourists’ health status. My own research has found that these <a href="https://equityhealthj.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/1475-9276-12-94?site=equityhealthj.biomedcentral.com">roles and responsibilities</a> can be quite extensive. </p>
<p>I would like to take a step back and offer a more critical perspective on this practice of informal caregiving by friends and family members in the context of medical tourism. </p>
<h2>‘Shadow workers’ in a multi-billion dollar industry</h2>
<p>It is <a href="http://medicaltourismassociation.com/blog/medical-tourism-a-multibillion-dollar-industry-at-your-disposal/">often reported</a> that medical tourism is a multi-billion dollar global industry. (Though, let’s be careful not to rely too much on the numbers that are reported because, <a href="http://www.dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2015.11.019">most of the quantitative figures that exist are wrong</a>.) </p>
<p>Clinics, hospitals and entire countries are actively trying to attract medical tourists through costly advertisement campaigns and other promotional efforts. But what about the friends and family who accompany them?</p>
<p>I rarely see mention about friends and family in the brochures, websites, e-mails and trade shows that advertise medical tourism services. </p>
<p>There is no formal guidance on what they can expect while they are abroad. No formal resources to prepare them to do things like change wound dressings in hotel rooms or navigate airports with someone recovering from surgery. </p>
<p>These friends and family are, in many ways, “shadow workers” in a multi-billion dollar global industry. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://doi.org/10.1186/1744-8603-9-31">unpaid care work they provide to medical tourists is invaluable</a>. And I have no doubt that many patients would not even consider medical tourism without someone to accompany them on what can be a painful and challenging journey. </p>
<p>Yet, in my opinion, the industry does little to protect them.</p>
<h2>Nine factors to consider</h2>
<p>I think there are many things that can be done to transition these friends and family members from unpaid “shadow workers” to prepared members of medical tourists’ support networks. </p>
<p>My collaborative research shows that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-017-4442-1">one tangible action is to develop resources to help these individuals make informed decisions</a>, become prepared travellers and caregivers and stay safe and healthy. </p>
<p>I was recently involved, with a research team, in interviewing Canadians who had accompanied a family member or friend abroad for medical tourism. Their stories contained very important pieces of advice for people considering taking on this role. We gathered this advice together and published it in an academic article. </p>
<p>We also put together a simple, one-page information sheet that offers <a href="http://www.sfu.ca/medicaltourism/Caregiver-Info-Sheet_c.pdf">nine specific factors that I strongly urge friends and family to carefully consider before accompanying a medical tourist abroad</a>.</p>
<h2>Read, share, discuss</h2>
<p>The information sheet we developed can be shared widely. The text can be copied and pasted freely onto the websites or promotional materials of clinics and hospitals seeking to treat medical tourists. </p>
<p>I invite people to read it, share it and talk about the content. </p>
<p>This sheet also serves as companion to another information sheet we developed —for <a href="http://www.sfu.ca/medicaltourism/ThinkingAboutMT.pdf">Canadians thinking about participating in medical tourism</a>.</p>
<p>The global medical tourism industry relies on the unpaid labour provided by patients’ friends and family members. Their unpaid labour needs to be acknowledged. Their needs must be assessed. Their health and safety needs to be protected. </p>
<p>I push for these things to happen when I meet with medical tourism sector representatives, and I call on others to push for the same.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/92729/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Valorie A. Crooks receives funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research, and the Canada Research Chair Secretariat. </span></em></p>Informal caregivers play a vital role in medical tourism yet find themselves unprotected as “shadow workers” in a multi-billion dollar industry.Valorie A. Crooks, Full Professor, Simon Fraser UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/932742018-04-10T19:59:59Z2018-04-10T19:59:59ZMaterials that make heat worse for our kids demand a rethink by designers<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/213784/original/file-20180409-114084-uf2ikn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">'Soft fall' surfaces are widely used in play areas where children might fall, but can also get very hot in the sun, which undermines this safety benefit.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/brisbanecitycouncil/7445738782">Brisbane City Council/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>It is with some relief that Australians are leaving behind the excruciatingly hot days of summer. But did you ever stop to think about the role of design in making matters better – or worse? Spending all day in air-conditioned rooms before walking out to a car that has baked in the sun all day is an exercise in extremes that many of us have faced. It’s easy to forget these conditions are shaped and mediated by design.</p>
<p>Campaigns warn us about the dangers of leaving children in hot parked cars. However, there are many more designed microclimates in the city where “real feel” temperatures far exceed reported air temperatures. One example, where children spend many hours of the day, is the childcare centre, where we found some artificial surfaces can become dangerously hot.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/building-cool-cities-for-a-hot-future-57489">Building cool cities for a hot future</a>
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<p>Our preliminary study over the <a href="http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/current/month/nsw/archive/201801.summary.shtml#recordsTmaxAvgHigh">record-breaking summer</a> of 2017-8 assessed the thermal characteristics of outdoor play spaces in three childcare centres in Western Sydney. We discovered that summer temperatures can vary dramatically, depending on the materials and environments being measured. </p>
<p>We measured air and surface temperatures to generate detailed information about the effects of heat on shaded and non-shaded surfaces at each facility. These included artificial materials such as “soft fall” surfaces and Astroturf, “semi-natural” materials such as bricks and woodchips, and natural materials, including sand and grass.</p>
<p>In full sun, the artificial surface materials became dangerously hot. Soft fall surface temperatures reached 71-84°C on days when air temperatures were in the low 30s. Astroturf heated up to nearly 100°C. Plastic toys in direct sun reached temperatures up to 73.7°C – that is one hot rubber duck! </p>
<p>You can see the effect of different surfaces in the thermographic image below. It shows tens of degrees of difference between soft fall and thick grass in full sun. </p>
<h2>Hot materials undermine safety benefits</h2>
<p>Soft fall, as the name suggests, is widely used to create “safer” environments for children should they fall. Rising heat undermines this safety benefit. Because it transforms the material into a source of potentially significant harm it also reduces the time that can be spent playing outdoors.</p>
<p>Contrary to their current widespread use, this study found that artificial materials like soft fall and Astroturf should be used sparingly and only in shaded settings. Shade does make a significant difference to the temperatures recorded, but shaded soft fall and Astroturf were still hotter than shaded natural surfaces. Perhaps unsurprisingly, a centre with an old camphor laurel tree supplying ample shade in the play space recorded the lowest daytime air temperatures.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/if-planners-understand-its-cool-to-green-cities-whats-stopping-them-55753">If planners understand it's cool to green cities, what's stopping them?</a>
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<p>A thermally healthy outdoor play space is <a href="https://academic.oup.com/her/article/23/6/952/551561">crucial for supporting children’s social, physical and cognitive development</a>. However, the extreme temperatures recorded in this study turn such spaces into hostile environments that leave <a href="https://www.westernsydney.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0020/1161470/cooling-the-commons-report.pdf">little option but to move indoors</a> to cope. </p>
<p>Indoor activities tend to be more sedentary, which is linked to reduced physical fitness and rising obesity. We already spend around <a href="https://indoor.lbl.gov/publications/national-human-activity-pattern">90% of our time indoors</a> in environments (including cars) that depend on air conditioning for habitability. </p>
<p>Of course, you can only air-condition a space effectively if it is enclosed. The <a href="http://www.cell.com/trends/ecology-evolution/fulltext/S0169-5347(15)00038-5?_returnURL=https%3A%2F%2Flinkinghub.elsevier.com%2Fretrieve%2Fpii%2FS0169534715000385%3Fshowall%3Dtrue">rise of the “indoor biome”</a> has been associated with poor air quality and a <a href="https://societyforhumanecology.files.wordpress.com/2017/12/call-for-papers_special-issue-her.pdf">raft of other complex hazards</a>. </p>
<p>Yet childcare centres with cool, comfortable outdoor play spaces, designed to enable both mobility and a <a href="http://researchdirect.westernsydney.edu.au/islandora/object/uws:26313">connection with nature</a>, are far from the norm in our rapidly densifying cities. The newest centre in our study, for example, had the smallest outdoor activity space, with the least shade, very limited natural ground cover and the greatest proportion of soft fall. This raises questions about the impact of design trends on the quality of outdoor activity spaces.</p>
<p>It is worth noting too that, given the level of demand, there is often little choice about where a child might be offered a place.</p>
<h2>Climate change makes design even more important</h2>
<p>How accountable should designers be for the everyday living environments that they create? For example, could the designers of the past have known about the environmental, social and cultural impacts of one of the most transformative designs of the 20th century, the car? </p>
<p>Perhaps not, but things have changed. The need to adapt to a changing climate makes good design important for our survival. And that, in turn, demands designers take greater responsibility for the harms arising from their work.</p>
<p>In the United States, a <a href="https://www.clf.org/publication/climate-adaptation-liability-legal-primer-workshop-summary/">recent report</a> from the Conservation Law Foundation and Boston Green Ribbon Commission attaches a new urgency to the role of adaptation strategies in regulation, planning and design. The report finds that voluntary measures have not created a noticeable difference in planning, design or development practices. These continue to operate according to climate patterns of the past rather than the present or future. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/when-the-heat-is-on-we-need-city-wide-plans-to-keep-cool-70738">When the heat is on, we need city-wide plans to keep cool</a>
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<p>In Australia, the National Construction Code has <a href="http://www.abcb.gov.au/Resources/Publications/Corporate/Media-release-NCC-2016-Volume-One-Amendment-1-adoption">been amended</a> to require more stringent testing of external walls and cladding, following the 2017 <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/grenfell-tower-39675">Grenfell Tower fire</a> in the UK and 2014 <a href="https://www.melbourne.vic.gov.au/sitecollectiondocuments/mbs-report-lacrosse-fire.pdf">Lacrosse Apartments fire</a> in Melbourne, Australia. But the code still <a href="http://www.abcb.gov.au/Resources/Publications/Consultation/Resilience-of-Buildings-to-Extreme-Weather-Events">does not account for</a> “hail, storm tide, or have specific requirements related to heat stress”.</p>
<p>Resilience to current and anticipated environmental change requires updated design standards. Designers need to be better trained and supported to foresee harms and respond creatively to conditions we may not have experienced before, even if their clients do not request this. </p>
<p>After all, the lifespan of many designed products, structures and environments can far exceed a human lifespan. This means design decisions being made now leave a legacy for future generations. With <a href="https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/2017GL074612">50°C summer days</a> predicted to occur regularly before mid-century, we need to design our cities differently, now. </p>
<p>This hands a duty of care to all involved in the planning, designing and building professions. It has not traditionally been a compulsory part of their practices, but should be.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-reality-of-living-with-50-temperatures-in-our-major-cities-85315">The reality of living with 50℃ temperatures in our major cities</a>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/93274/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Commonly used surfaces in play areas, such as “soft fall” materials and Astroturf, can heat up to 80-100°C in the sun. This makes them a hazardous design choice, especially as the climate gets hotter.Abby Mellick Lopes, Senior Lecturer in Design, Western Sydney UniversityMatthew Blick, Research Assistant, School of Social Sciences and Psychology, Western Sydney UniversitySebastian Pfautsch, Research Theme Fellow - Environment and Sustainability, Western Sydney UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/827152017-08-21T13:30:25Z2017-08-21T13:30:25ZBig Ben silenced: Britain’s bong furore is a sign of national insecurity<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/182776/original/file-20170821-27160-1kwep4u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Loud and proud.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/close-big-ben-early-morning-6-518224789?src=rPb9WbEqcZSj0vM132VqLg-1-81">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Big Ben, the iconic bell in the Elizabeth Tower of the British Houses of Parliament, <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-40995854">has fallen silent</a>. Its familiar chimes will not be heard again for four long years. </p>
<p>The last extensive works were carried out 31 years ago, and <a href="https://www.parliament.uk/about/living-heritage/building/palace/big-ben/elizabeth-tower-and-big-ben-conservation-works-2017-/all-your-questions-about-the-works-answered/">officials have since found</a> numerous significant problems – and could yet find more. There are cracks in the masonry, leaks, erosion, and severe rusting. The clock is to be dismantled and its hands and pendulum repaired. The tower will also be brought in to line with modern fire prevention guidance, and health and safety measures. </p>
<p>It has been decided that after years of neglect, Big Ben is in need of a big fix.</p>
<p>Since it first rang in 1859, during the reign of Queen Victoria, the bell has stood proudly at the heart of the Palace of Westminster. The clock tower came to symbolise not just the seat of government, but London – then the capital of the British Empire.</p>
<p>It’s true that Big Ben has been silent on a number of occasions since – but never for such a long period of time. </p>
<p>During the Blitz of 1940-41, when the Houses of Parliament were badly hit by bombs, Big Ben stood defiant. It was damaged, but the clock kept on ticking, and the bell continued chiming. Like St Paul’s Cathedral nearby, it symbolised a spirit of defiance and survival, no matter what the fascists threw at the city. </p>
<p>Prefacing BBC wartime news reports, its deep booming peals resonated across Britain and on the BBC World Service. They were the reassuring sound of a democracy under siege, overcoming the enemy. Since the war, Big Ben has continued to mark BBC radio news bulletins, and was part of the soundtrack, as it were, of ITV’s News at Ten on television. Big Ben has chimed its way into the British national consciousness.</p>
<p>The media interest in Big Ben’s four-year silence is a strong indicator of its importance. Television news channels have run features on it. Broadsheet and <a href="https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/4251521/silence-chime-londons-big-ben-four-years/">tabloid newspapers have questioned</a> why the bell will remain dormant for so long. Prime Minister <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/aug/16/big-ben-backlash-mps-review-plans-silence-bell-four-years">Theresa May argued</a> that “it can’t be right for Big Ben to fall silent for four years”. Even experts in the clock-making industry <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/08/17/nonsense-silence-big-ben-says-clockmaker-tended-decades/">have stated forthrightly</a> that the bells don’t need to go quiet for so long. </p>
<p>MPs who approved the £29m renovation project claim they weren’t informed that Big Ben would be out of action for so long. On the first day of the bell’s silence, a small group of politicians, calling themselves “traditionalists” stood beneath the tower, heads bowed, in protest. (Meanwhile <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/big-ben-brexit-bong-conservative-mps-britain-tory-eu-idiots-a7901551.html">pro-Brexit MPs want to organise a pause</a> in the renovation schedule that would allow Big Ben to sound out on the day Britain leaves the EU.) </p>
<p>The renovation contractors argue that Big Ben’s deafening sounds would create health and safety problems for those carrying out the essential maintenance work. They say it wouldn’t be practical to sound the bells once the workers have gone home for the night.</p>
<p>So unless there is a change of plan, the live reassuring chimes of Big Ben will be denied to London residents and to the tourists who flock to Westminster. </p>
<p>No doubt recordings will continue to be used to introduce news bulletins. But the actual silence is somehow symbolic of something that isn’t right with the world – or more specifically, with Britain. </p>
<h2>Bongs gone</h2>
<p>The current UK government is in disarray, and the seriousness of the maintenance issues affecting the clock tower appear to reflect that. How could the houses next door have let the problem reach almost critical proportions? </p>
<p>The neglect of Big Ben symbolises a failure of management in the heart of Westminster. Britain is facing huge problems over the next few years. The government has proved incapable of devising a clear policy on Brexit. Almost every month the capital city and other towns and cities across Britain and Europe are threatened by another form of fascism – religious terrorists who hate modern democracy and want to impose an authoritarian theocracy across the world. And now, thanks to neglect and poor management, a much loved bell tower, once a symbol of victory over extremism, will fall silent.</p>
<p>The sonorous booms of Big Ben are the sound of tradition. They are a sonic reminder of the gravitas of parliament (albeit a gravitas undermined by recent incompetence). Those who mock or misunderstand the significance of shared national icons across a multicultural landscape fail to grasp that in a fast changing and insecure world, Big Ben appeals (no pun intended) to people from many different countries and cultures. </p>
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<p>It is an essential component of the landscape of London, and of the pantheon of national icons that present “Britishness” to the rest of the world. Its silence will be a soundless reminder of current insecurities – and an interruption to the projection of Britain as a self-confident nation.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/82715/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mark Clapson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The bell is a noisy and much loved national icon.Mark Clapson, Reader, Social and Urban History, University of WestminsterLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/790772017-06-12T13:20:56Z2017-06-12T13:20:56ZThis standard will have more signatories than the Paris Agreement – but you’ve probably never heard of it<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/173340/original/file-20170612-10232-c4830v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption"></span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/part-engineering-project-414291772?src=3srBqr5u-9hixrMnCOZ74w-1-0">RomanR/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Try to talk to the average person on the street about international safety standards and they will probably give you a blank look. Product and manufacturing rules and regulations have never been the most exciting conversation starter. But standards are actually incredibly important. Whether you realise it or not they shape the world that we live in, and how we interact with it. And Standard <a href="http://www.iso9001.com/">ISO9001</a> is one that affects every single item you use, whether at home, in work, or elsewhere. </p>
<p>Standards don’t exactly have a small remit: as mentioned, these rules apply to all products that we use, and dictate how they are designed. They apply to everything from the latest technology like smartphones and laptops to the more mundane things in life. The house you live in, for example – the biggest single purchase that many of us will make in our lifetime – has to conform to dozens of rules on things you might not even consider, like the quality of glass used in windows. </p>
<p>Basically put, standards are guidelines and documents that tell companies what they must do to achieve accreditation. In effect it’s like an organisation passing an examination and gaining a qualification. These standards cover a whole range of things, from the way a company makes sure its products meet a certain quality (ISO9001 standard), to environmental management (ISO14001 standard), and health and safety (ISO45001 standard). </p>
<p>Admittedly, it’s still not the most juiciest of topics. But these global rules make sure companies across the world are manufacturing and building everything from contact lenses to oil rigs in a way that is not only safe, but of the highest quality. In effect standards act as a benchmark and indicate that a company is serious about what it does and how it does it. </p>
<p>And though many people aren’t aware that these specific standards exist – who can blame them because there are 22,000 of them that apply all across the world after all – most will agree that making sure businesses design and deliver products and services in the best way for the world, and their customers is of paramount importance.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/173338/original/file-20170612-10193-1352kp9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/173338/original/file-20170612-10193-1352kp9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/173338/original/file-20170612-10193-1352kp9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/173338/original/file-20170612-10193-1352kp9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/173338/original/file-20170612-10193-1352kp9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/173338/original/file-20170612-10193-1352kp9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/173338/original/file-20170612-10193-1352kp9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Without ISOs, you could never be certain what you buy is up to scratch.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Pressmaster/Shutterstock</span></span>
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<p>Today, manufacturers all over the world are expected to stick to the International Standards Organisation’s quality management standard ISO9001. This governs the management of all quality processes from buying in materials, processing them and handing the finished item over to customers. Each stage and step is controlled so that consumers can be assured the company that is selling to them has the credibility and processes in place to offer the best quality. </p>
<p>However, there is one big drawback to these kinds of regulations: they can be quite complex for a layman to understand. A laptop computer for example is supported by 251 technical standards alongside ISO9001 which govern the quality processes employed when it is being assembled. </p>
<p>Also, no standards are set in stone forever: understandably they change and evolve to meet the demands of new technology, and changes in the way that businesses work. Despite this complexity, millions of businesses worldwide have become certified to ISO9001 – the most popular standard in the world. Without this standard it is unlikely that any business would have survived.</p>
<p>Just think of a smartphone: it wasn’t that long ago that some of its features, like touchscreen or fingerprint recognition, were regarded as new and novel technologies. Without a new standard to ensure that companies were using the best tech to begin with, improving its features would have been a hard task. Features would not have evolved and the quality of the product would not be as high. By having a rule like ISO9001 in place, companies like Apple, Samsung or the like can build on the best specifications and create new ways of harnessing innovation that keep up with what demanding customers want and need. Without ISO9001, it would be near impossible to ensure that all the products on offer from a company tomorrow are better than today’s. </p>
<p>But times are changing, and the ISO is now seeking to support ISO9001 by giving more help to managers with the guideline ISO9004. This standard will help businesses design the best processes to create new products, and thrive in an international marketplace.</p>
<p>When implemented, over 200 countries will sign up to ISO9004. By comparison, only 175 countries signed up to the Paris Agreement on climate change <a href="http://newsroom.unfccc.int/paris-agreement/175-states-sign-paris-agreement/">in 2016</a>. And, unlike some international treaties, no extra domestic laws are needed to ratify ISO9004, so as soon as the standard is signed, every company within those 200 countries will be expected to stick to it.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/79077/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nicholas Rich does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>ISOs rule how people interact with the world.Nicholas Rich, Professor in Operations Management, Swansea UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/559012016-03-29T11:37:09Z2016-03-29T11:37:09ZSuicide on the railways can be prevented – here’s what’s being done already<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/115440/original/image-20160317-30206-19f69st.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">PA</span> </figcaption></figure><p>The <a href="http://www.crisiscareconcordat.org.uk/">Mental Health Crisis Care Concordat</a>, signed by 22 national bodies, acknowledged that there was a need for a new approach from services in their response to those in acute mental distress. </p>
<p>Organisations that sign up to the agreement, which was set up in February 2014, commit to work together to improve mental health services by focusing on: access to support before crisis point – making sure people with mental health problems can get help 24 hours a day and that when they ask for help, they are taken seriously; that a mental health crisis is treated with the same urgency as a physical health emergency; that people are treated with dignity and respect, in a therapeutic environment; and that they will work to prevent future crises by making sure people are referred to appropriate services.</p>
<p>A personal crisis can sometimes feel so overwhelming that an individual considers taking their own life. The language used in reporting and discussing suicide is vitally important because the stigma attached to suicide <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/dec/16/men-stigma-suicide-michael-mansfield">remains very powerful</a>. This is particularly the case when they take place in more public settings such as on the railway. TV presenter Jeremy Clarkson, for example, described people who ended their lives on the railway <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/media/2011/dec/03/jeremy-clarkson-accused-trivialising-suicide">as “selfish”</a> because of the disruption they caused. </p>
<p>Network Rail, the organisation that has overall responsibility for managing the railway system, is a signatory of the concordat. The railway industry is complex with a web of different operating companies that employ over 100,000 staff across the country, with millions of passengers each day. National Rail has a pivotal role working with other organisations such as the British Transport Police and Samaritans <a href="http://www.samaritans.org/for-business/rail-suicide-prevention/engaging-rail">to reduce the number of suicides</a> on the railway. In October 2015, the passenger announcement broadcast on mainline trains and stations <a href="http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/service_disruptions/80984.aspx">was changed</a> to “emergency services dealing with an incident” to discourage attempts. </p>
<p>Some <a href="http://www.intlrailsafety.com/vancouver/pdf/irsc13-88.pdf">80% of suicide attempts</a> on the railway network are fatal. And the effects of suicide ripple outwards, having a devastating impact on the family and loved ones of the person who has died. </p>
<p>The impact of such events is also felt by professionals and witnesses. The traumatising effect on drivers <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2011/dec/05/jeremy-clarkson-rail-suicide">was powerfully outlined</a> by train driver Karl Davis, who wrote a response to Clarkson’s remarks, from bitter experience. Some staff are so traumatised that they never return to work. Then there are the economic costs, such as delays, lost working days for employees and the repair of trains, calculated <a href="http://www.theyworkforyou.com/lords/?id=2015-12-21a.2303.2">to be in the region of £60m</a>. </p>
<h2>What to do about it</h2>
<p>As well as training staff, there is a need for organisations to support staff where such deaths have occurred. Samaritans organise to visit after an incident to offer support to staff and passengers, and the organisation has been <a href="http://www.samaritans.org/for-business/rail-suicide-prevention/suicide-prevention-training">involved in training</a> over 11,000 rail staff on how to identify, approach and support a potentially suicidal person. The aim of the course is to give staff the skills and confidence to intervene. </p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/115485/original/image-20160317-30231-1tl7j9d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/115485/original/image-20160317-30231-1tl7j9d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115485/original/image-20160317-30231-1tl7j9d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115485/original/image-20160317-30231-1tl7j9d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115485/original/image-20160317-30231-1tl7j9d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=508&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115485/original/image-20160317-30231-1tl7j9d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=508&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115485/original/image-20160317-30231-1tl7j9d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=508&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Suicide is preventable.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-353063300/stock-photo-two-male-hands-reaching-out-to-one-another-almost-touching-in-front-of-dark-clear-empty.html?src=5koclPhVPZ40uZmnDugoMg-1-42">Reaching out by Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p><a href="http://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/deaths/bulletins/suicidesintheunitedkingdom/2014registrations">ONS figures</a> indicate that there were 6,122 suicides in the UK in 2014. In 2014-15, the number of suicides on the railway <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/487497/rail-trends-factsheet-2015.pdf">was 293</a> (around 4.7%). </p>
<p>Network Rail in partnership with the British Transport Police and Samaritans have identified priority locations. A range of responses are being developed. These include physical changes, such as more fencing, barriers at the end of platforms and alterations to the design of stations. Other initiatives include motion-activated speaking signs, and the use of blue LED lights that can have a calming effect. Responses also include links with local groups. </p>
<p>Work is also being undertaken with Transport for London <a href="http://www.samaritans.org/for-business/rail-suicide-prevention/london-underground">who have responsibility for the London Underground</a>. British Transport Police have also developed a suicide prevention programme in which officers are trained to identify potentially vulnerable or suicidal individuals. And officers <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/public-leaders-network/2016/feb/03/uk-mental-health-crisis-police">work alongside mental health professionals</a> to ensure that access to appropriate services is arranged. </p>
<p>The causes of suicidal behaviour are complex and require a multi-faceted policy response. This includes offering support to those in distress. One of the most commonly held beliefs about suicide is that talking about it will automatically plant the idea or encourage others to harm themselves. This is completely erroneous and something that <a href="http://www.samaritans.org/news/nation-listeners-no-one-wants-talk">a new Samaritans campaign</a>, “We don’t just hear you, we listen”, seeks to address. </p>
<p>As Samaritans CEO Ruth Sutherland said: “Life’s pressures can build, without you even realising. It’s all too easy to turn away, ignore how you’re feeling, and put on a brave face … simply being listened to can help you put into words what’s really going on in your life and help you find a way through.”</p>
<p>The work outlined above is based on the belief that suicides are preventable and that there are things that we can do to reduce the number of these awful personal tragedies. This is a vitally important message to take away, as potentially we can all play a part in preventing future tragedies. </p>
<p><em><a href="http://www.samaritans.org/how-we-can-help-you/contact-us">Click here</a>, if you would like to contact the Samaritans.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/55901/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ian Cummins does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Suicide on the railways costs lives – and prevention is about much more than erecting more fencing.Ian Cummins, Senior Lecturer in Social Work, University of SalfordLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/553252016-02-24T14:56:30Z2016-02-24T14:56:30ZWhat happens when you have to recall Mars bars from across 55 countries?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/112728/original/image-20160224-16436-uvhfs4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Recipe in need of improvement.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-228950422/stock-photo-tambov-russian-federation-september-snickers-and-mars-minis-candy-bars-heap-full.html?src=0wjTxkcR5F452fD04fPPGw-1-81">Mars by Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Confectioner Mars <a href="http://www.food.gov.uk/news-updates/news/2016/14904/mars-chocolate-uk-is-recalling-products-produced-in-the-netherlands-that-might-contain-pieces-of-plastic">has ordered a huge recall</a> of fun size Mars, Snickers and Milky Way bars after a customer discovered a small piece of plastic in a Snickers bar in Germany. The plastic was traced back to a faulty machine in a factory in the Netherlands and the recall was made across 55 countries. </p>
<p><a href="http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2002:031:0001:0024:en:PDF">European law</a> makes it clear that food that is unsafe should not be sold. Food will be seen as unsafe when it is contaminated with anything that is not part of the recipe – and in this case there was the risk that a consumer eating the bar might inadvertently eat a piece of plastic and choke. Where food presents a risk – no matter how small – to the health of consumers it should be removed from shop shelves and recalled from the hands of consumers. In the UK, the failure to recall where consumers’ health is at risk is a <a href="http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2013/2996/made">criminal offence</a> and in the EU this varies depending on member country. However, there is an obligation to recall where consumers health is at risk in all 28 member states, but the sanctions vary. </p>
<p>Recall is not unusual. There have been <a href="https://webgate.ec.europa.eu/rasff-window/portal/?event=searchResultList">more than 25 food recalls in the EU this year</a> according to the EU’s Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed database. What is unusual is the scope of the recall, which is a major logistical operation.</p>
<h2>How does a recall work?</h2>
<p>A recall works through information. <a href="http://www.food.gov.uk/sites/default/files/multimedia/pdfs/fsa1782002guidance.pdf">Food Standards Agency guidance</a> says that the information should clearly inform the consumer of the risk and inform the consumers of the reasons behind the recall. In this case consumers have been informed through <a href="http://www.food.gov.uk/sites/default/files/mars-recall.pdf">a Mars press release</a>. Any press release should give as precise information as possible to allow shops and consumers to assess whether their food is within scope. In the case of Mars, they have provided “best before” dates. The media is not required to carry recall notices – they may choose to however, in news pages for example, or businesses may pay to get ad space. </p>
<p>Recall of food is different to recall of other consumer products. In large consumer products, such as a car, the product will generally be repaired and returned to the consumer with the defect fixed. In a food recall the food will generally be destroyed. </p>
<p>A recall can work in two ways: consumers can be asked to return the food to the manufacturer (or to the retailer) in return for a refund; or destroy the food and the manufacturer will put a mechanism in place to allow them to reclaim the money they paid to buy the food. If the second approach is adopted consumers might not reclaim their refund. For example, if proof of purchase is required, consumers may not have their receipts.</p>
<h2>What might be the effect on Mars?</h2>
<p>The recall will be costly. When Cadbury recalled chocolate found to be contaminated with <em>Salmonella Montevideo</em> in 2006 it was thought to have cost them <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/business/2006/aug/03/food.foodanddrink">at least £20m</a>. On top of this cost <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/6900467.stm">it was also fined £1m</a>, although some of this fine was attributable to hygiene failings at Cadbury’s Marlbrook plant. Mars will have to pay the costs of the recall, including publicity, logistics and refunds. This will have a direct impact on its bottom line.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/112731/original/image-20160224-16436-11nhclo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/112731/original/image-20160224-16436-11nhclo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=366&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/112731/original/image-20160224-16436-11nhclo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=366&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/112731/original/image-20160224-16436-11nhclo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=366&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/112731/original/image-20160224-16436-11nhclo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=460&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/112731/original/image-20160224-16436-11nhclo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=460&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/112731/original/image-20160224-16436-11nhclo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=460&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Cadbury’s been through it.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/6900467.stm">Chocolate by Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In the short term there may be a reduction in consumption of the products – and they may need to spend more on marketing to rehabilitate the reputation of brands that are damaged by the recall. Some consumers could alter their consumption preferences, either away from chocolate or to other brands. However, in the long term, consumers have shown willingness to purchase brands affected by recalls – either because they don’t see the recall as too shocking or because they see it as responsible corporate action, which provides reassurance that goods on the market are safe. Consumption of Cadbury products recovered after the 2006 recall and Mars will be hoping for the same.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/55325/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Richard Hyde does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Mars’ product recall will be an expensive business.Richard Hyde, Assistant Professor in Law, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of NottinghamLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/544922016-02-10T17:30:38Z2016-02-10T17:30:38ZGermany train crash: ways in which rail safety systems can fail<p>Whenever we hear of an accident such as <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-35530538">the head on train collision</a> that occurred in Bavaria on Tuesday our first thoughts must be with the victims who were killed or injured, and their friends and families. But as with all accidents an investigation is now underway, which should bring answers to how such a tragedy can happen. </p>
<p>In recent decades, there has been significant investment in safety systems to prevent incidents occurring, or to mitigate their impact. These include: developing new materials and structures to strengthen rail carriages to make sure that in the case of a crash, the damage is limited; Automatic Train Protection (ATP), which asks drivers to acknowledge that they have seen an oncoming red signal, and automatically applies brakes if a signal has been passed at danger; and physical interlocking which prevents signals allowing two trains to occupy the same section of track, and which maintains distance between them. </p>
<p>The basic principle of signalling which is used in most parts of Europe at present is the <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/moving-block-vs-fixed-signalling-which-better-naeem-ali">“fixed block” system</a>, where trains are kept a number of blocks apart. A signaller will set a route, and the engineering within the rail system will ensure that the signals display the correct instructions to the train driver. So if a route is set for a train, a signal will display as green; once the train has passed that signal, it will revert to red, the next signal behind will be amber, and the one behind that, double amber. </p>
<p>This fixed block system is gradually being replaced in parts by the <a href="http://www.networkrail.co.uk/aspx/12275.aspx">European Rail Traffic Management System</a>, which operates on a moving block principle, but the idea is still that engineering and technology will maintain a safe distance between trains. In the case of the Bavaria rail crash, it is not yet completely clear exactly which type of technology was implemented on the stretch of track where the accident occurred. The incident occurred on a single track part of the line, which would normally operate using a <a href="https://www.safety.networkrail.co.uk/Services/Jargon-Buster/R/RA-RE/RETB">“token block”</a> system which only allows one train on a particular section of track. </p>
<h2>Search for a cause</h2>
<p>Modern railways are well-engineered systems that allows many of the previously human tasks involved in train driving to be supported, or in some cases replaced by technology. Train drivers are expected to be familiar with routes, to enable them to anticipate the performance of the train at particular points in the journey, and apply the brake and throttle at points that deliver the most fuel efficient and comfortable journey. </p>
<p>Reports suggest that the trains in the Bavaria crash not only <a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/train-collision-in-germany-kills-several-people-police-say-1455006633">had ATP technology</a>, but also had technologies which <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-35530538">help drivers to manage the speed of the train</a>. It is these systems that <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2016/02/10/germany-train-crash_n_9200696.html">some have jumped on</a> in the search for a cause – but which we will have to wait for the investigation to reveal. </p>
<p>However, an <a href="https://www.ise.ncsu.edu/nsf_itr/794B/papers/Bainbridge_1983_Automatica.pdf">“irony of automation”</a>, as noted by Lisanne Bainbridge in 1983, is that if we introduce a large amount of technology into a previously manual system, the nature of the work task changes, and there is a danger that drivers can becomes less able to intervene and to problem solve quickly when incidents occur.</p>
<p>We are still in the early days of investigation of the Bavaria incident. But in many cases, after major accidents, the cause of incidents are often reported as “human error”. In the case of the Bavaria crash this possibility will certainly form a part of the investigation. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/110986/original/image-20160210-12185-2jdvms.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/110986/original/image-20160210-12185-2jdvms.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=348&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/110986/original/image-20160210-12185-2jdvms.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=348&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/110986/original/image-20160210-12185-2jdvms.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=348&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/110986/original/image-20160210-12185-2jdvms.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=437&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/110986/original/image-20160210-12185-2jdvms.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=437&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/110986/original/image-20160210-12185-2jdvms.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=437&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The great train wreck of 1918 in Nashville, Tennessee, that resulted in 101 lives lost.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:1918trainwreck.jpg">Unknown staff photographer, The Tennessean/Kaldari</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>With the exception of deliberate sabotage or acts of aggression such as terrorism, post-incident analyses often highlight not only the human actions that may have contributed to an accident, but also the factors surrounding that human behaviour. As someone who studies human factors, I am interested not only in which actions occurred, but also why and how they could be prevented or mitigated in the future. The factors that cause an incorrect action might be whether a person was distracted or stressed for example. We should also ask whether routine behaviours were practised that were strictly speaking against the rules but were culturally accepted as the standard way to complete a task – perhaps to ensure that a system is efficient, or to overcome limitations in a system’s design. And most importantly, how can we ensure that complete systems, where people and technology work together, are designed in a way that minimises the likelihood of incidents occurring? Working out if any of these questions apply in the German case will take some time.</p>
<h2>Human intervention</h2>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/110989/original/image-20160210-12165-c9d7nn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/110989/original/image-20160210-12165-c9d7nn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/110989/original/image-20160210-12165-c9d7nn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/110989/original/image-20160210-12165-c9d7nn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/110989/original/image-20160210-12165-c9d7nn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/110989/original/image-20160210-12165-c9d7nn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/110989/original/image-20160210-12165-c9d7nn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">There to intervene.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-278259866/stock-photo-train-driver.html?src=Qr_jmS23IC0wYUl09FaS3g-1-16">Driver by Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>One of the things that I say when I’m teaching ergonomics, which aims to understand the interactions of humans and systems, is that “humans are fallible, but humans are also brilliant”. Humans do get tired and distracted, or make mistakes when they are trying to solve complex problems, and engineers and scientists have made great advances in developing and deploying technologies that do many tasks to a much greater level of performance than humans could ever achieve. But humans are also able to come up with new, innovative solutions to problems quickly and effectively, and a well-designed complex system will take advantage of this knowledge-based behaviour – supporting basic, repetitive tasks with technology, but allowing humans to problem solve.</p>
<p>Sadly, the two drivers of the trains in the Bavaria incident were among those killed. It is likely that the investigations into the crash will be lengthy and detailed. Whatever the cause of this particular incident, it is important to remember that all rail systems are complex, and involve collaboration between humans and technology, whether those humans are active operators, monitors, maintainers or even designers of the system elements. Very rarely are accidents solely caused by a single instance of “human error” but instead are a complex combination of multiple factors and influences. </p>
<p>And for each accident, there are likely to be many occasions when effective human intervention has prevented an incident occurring or lessened its impact – our jobs as engineers and human factors professionals is to ensure that we take advantage of the brilliance of humans and technologies working together.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/54492/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sarah Sharples is affiliated with the Chartered Institute of Ergonomics and Human Factors, and is a Non-Executive Director of the Transport Systems Catapult. She receives funding from EPSRC, EU, Network Rail and Innovate UK. </span></em></p>Investigators will be probing what caused a train collision in Germany and while ‘human error’ will be a key line of enquiry, having humans in the system is a good thing.Sarah Sharples, Professor of Human Factors and Associate Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research and Knowledge Exchange, President of Chartered Institute of Ergonomics and Human Factors, University of NottinghamLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/420922015-05-22T05:25:19Z2015-05-22T05:25:19ZThe seashell-inspired material inspiring a new wave of safety gear in sport<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/82414/original/image-20150520-11435-p4rbv9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">One shell of an idea. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/dweickhoff/6477933695/in/photolist-aSr5Gn-aSr6ZZ-dEmMdS">David Eickhoff</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The <a href="https://theconversation.com/brain-injury-in-sport-is-an-unfolding-tragedy-were-only-now-starting-to-count-the-cost-32317">risk of injury</a> in professional sport has been a central feature in recent debates about how well protected our stars are. Only recently, Argentine football player Emanuel Ortega <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/news-and-comment/emanuel-ortega-dies-21yearold-player-in-argentinas-fifth-tier-dead-after-suffering-horrific-head-injury-after-collision-with-concrete-wall-10249706.html">died of a fatal head injury</a> after hitting a concrete wall during a game. </p>
<p>One solution is to increase the use of protective wear and to improve existing designs. The Australian Cricket Board inquiry into the death of cricketer Phillip Hughes, two days after he was struck on the neck where his helmet offered no protection, <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/cricket/32732666">could result</a> in newly-designed safety helmets being made mandatory. </p>
<p>At Sheffield Hallam University we’ve been developing improved materials for impact protection in sports. The materials have the fascinating and unusual “auxetic” property that can be used in helmets, pads, guards, gloves, mats and barriers.</p>
<h2>What are auxetic materials?</h2>
<p>Put simply, instead of becoming thinner when stretched (how we usually expect materials to behave), an auxetic material actually gets fatter. When compressed, the material becomes thinner. </p>
<p>At first glance this fascinating property to auxetic materials may appear highly unusual, but is actually being discovered to be a key feature of a growing number of natural materials. Examples include <a href="http://bit.ly/1Kooc7V">certain forms of skin</a> and other soft biomaterials, and <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/pssb.201451732/abstract">inorganic silicates</a> such as quartz and cristobalite. Man-made auxetics now include honeycombs and foams, fibres and fabrics, carbon fibre-reinforced composites, microporous polymers, metals and ceramics.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/82411/original/image-20150520-11443-1dkg6kc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/82411/original/image-20150520-11443-1dkg6kc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=484&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/82411/original/image-20150520-11443-1dkg6kc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=484&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/82411/original/image-20150520-11443-1dkg6kc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=484&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/82411/original/image-20150520-11443-1dkg6kc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=609&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/82411/original/image-20150520-11443-1dkg6kc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=609&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/82411/original/image-20150520-11443-1dkg6kc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=609&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Auxetic foams.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Andy Alderson</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The inspiration for the current work on auxetic materials for improved impact protection equipment in sports comes from the ultimate natural armour protection system: the humble seashell. </p>
<p>The inner layer of the two-tier armour protection system found in seashells – nacre, also known as mother of pearl – provides high stiffness, strength and toughness, properties to withstand a predator bite or rock impact on the shell surface. This exceptional combination of properties enables the seashell to avoid catastrophic failure and maintains the integrity of the shell in the event that the hard and brittle outer layer becomes cracked. Nacre is also known to be auxetic.</p>
<h2>Reducing peak acceleration</h2>
<p>So why has nature evolved armour protection systems that operate this way? We think a number of factors may be at play, all linked to the basic premise that the auxetic property is a route to achieving extreme or optimal values of other useful properties that are not easily achieved by “conventional” materials.</p>
<p>Unlike conventional materials which adopt a “saddle” shape when bent out of plane, an auxetic material naturally adopts a convex “dome” type curvature similar to the overall shape of the seashell. This characteristic dome-like double curvature for auxetic materials is ideal for sports protective equipment such as helmets, and shoulder or elbow pads, in ensuring close fit of the equipment to the body for maximum comfort and performance.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/82412/original/image-20150520-11428-1e8n2nf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/82412/original/image-20150520-11428-1e8n2nf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=261&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/82412/original/image-20150520-11428-1e8n2nf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=261&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/82412/original/image-20150520-11428-1e8n2nf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=261&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/82412/original/image-20150520-11428-1e8n2nf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=328&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/82412/original/image-20150520-11428-1e8n2nf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=328&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/82412/original/image-20150520-11428-1e8n2nf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=328&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">‘Dome’ curvature.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Andy Alderson</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In terms of response to impact, the tendency of an auxetic material to contract width-wise under compression leads to a dense localised area that provides increased resistance to impact where and when it is required (below). </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/82413/original/image-20150520-11431-1bmcdcm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/82413/original/image-20150520-11431-1bmcdcm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/82413/original/image-20150520-11431-1bmcdcm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/82413/original/image-20150520-11431-1bmcdcm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/82413/original/image-20150520-11431-1bmcdcm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=534&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/82413/original/image-20150520-11431-1bmcdcm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=534&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/82413/original/image-20150520-11431-1bmcdcm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=534&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Creating resistance.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Andy Alderson</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Auxetics have also been found to provide increased fracture toughness and energy absorption. In the case of nacre, these properties increase the energy that is dissipated by a change in the volume of the material by an astonishing 1100%. </p>
<p>Another key function of sports protective equipment is to reduce peak acceleration under impact. In work <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/pssb.201451715/abstract">just published</a> , we reported auxetic foams covered by a rigid outer shell (mimicking the two-layer seashell structure) display an average of six times the reduction in peak acceleration under impact typical of many sporting applications. We expect that further peak acceleration reduction is possible through further optimisation of the foam production process.</p>
<p>So auxetics have excellent acceleration management properties and have significant potential to act as the energy absorbing material in crash barriers and mats. In rigid dome-shaped helmets and protective pads, auxetics offer lightweight, stiff and strong materials solutions. In flexible protectors, the ability to conform to convex surfaces, such as are found in many places on the human body, means that auxetics should provide and maintain better fit, and be less restrictive to player movement, throughout dynamic sporting activity.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/42092/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andy Alderson works for Sheffield Hallam University. His research into auxetic materials over the last twenty five years has received funding from relevant UK and overseas government funding agencies (e.g. EPSRC, Innovate UK, EU Framework Programme), a range of industrial sponsors and charities.</span></em></p>Making a material impact – how auxetic materials could make sports stars safer.Andy Alderson, Principal Research Fellow, Sheffield Hallam UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/150832013-06-13T04:47:27Z2013-06-13T04:47:27ZMind the gap: company disclosure discrepancies not sustainable<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/25393/original/bj73f8n9-1371016239.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=19%2C11%2C967%2C619&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Civilians rescue an injured worker after the eight-storey Rana Plaza garment factory collapsed in Dhaka, Bangladesh, on April 24.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The recent decision by two Australian retailers to sign an accord protecting suppliers in Bangladesh has highlighted discrepancies in company disclosure of sustainability issues and the need for clearer reporting guidance. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-06-07/kmart-target-sign-up-to-safety-accord-for-bangaldeshi-workers/4739436">Kmart and Target</a> became the first Australian companies to sign the Global Union Federations’ building and safety <a href="http://www.uniglobalunion.org/Apps/UNINews.nsf/vwLkpById/EC90FA91A0DB11C0C1257B6B0028A4DE/$FILE/2013-05-13%20-%20Accord%20on%20Fire%20and%20Building%20Safety%20in%20Bangladesh.pdf">accord</a>, following the collapse of the Rana Plaza garment factory in Bangladesh. According to Oxfam Australia, Big W and Cotton On are also making moves to sign the accord; however, a lack of information on which companies have suppliers in Bangladesh means a potential lack of other Australian signatories. </p>
<p>Recent research by <a href="http://www.catalyst.org.au/">Catalyst Australia</a>, a collaborative policy network, shows that this lack of supply-chain information is not an isolated incident and that significant gaps exist in sustainability reporting by Australian companies.</p>
<h2>Sustainability reporting</h2>
<p>Many ASX-listed companies are increasingly reporting on sustainability alongside financial matters. In a 2012 report, the Australian Council for Superannuation Investors (ACSI) found that 83% of companies listed on the ASX 200 to some extent <a href="http://www.acsi.org.au/images/stories/ACSIDocuments/generalresearchpublic/Sustainability%20Reporting%20Journey%202012.pdf">reported on sustainability matters</a>.</p>
<p>Sustainability, a term often interchangeably used with corporate social responsibility, represents a commitment to operate in an economically, socially and environmentally sustainable manner. The <a href="https://www.globalreporting.org/">Global Reporting Initiative</a> (GRI) provides the most well-known reporting frameworks. However, previous research has shown that <a href="http://cfmeu.com.au/sites/default/files/downloads/%5Bfield_download_state-raw%5D/%5Bfield_download_type-raw%5D/banarracfmeu2010labourpracticesreviewreport29mar2011.pdf">significant gaps</a> exist between claimed levels of GRI reporting and the information found in company reports. </p>
<p>Catalyst Australia developed a <a href="http://csr.catalyst.org.au">CSR dashboard</a> to gauge the quality of sustainability reporting by Australian companies. It analysed 32 companies across six topics - gender equality, environmental impact, labour standards, supply chains, community engagement and community investment - and found great variation in how they reported on their social and environmental activities. </p>
<p>Some of these differences can be attributed to the tendency of companies to concentrate on those areas that affect their performance, while meeting stakeholder demands for transparency and disclosure. At the same time, discretionary reporting can lead to highlighting achievements that reflect well on companies while overlooking other important areas.</p>
<h2>Clear expectations</h2>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/25447/original/99ky4yxr-1371081046.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=7%2C8%2C992%2C1462&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/25447/original/99ky4yxr-1371081046.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=901&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/25447/original/99ky4yxr-1371081046.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=901&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/25447/original/99ky4yxr-1371081046.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=901&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/25447/original/99ky4yxr-1371081046.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1133&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/25447/original/99ky4yxr-1371081046.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1133&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/25447/original/99ky4yxr-1371081046.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1133&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Workers layout cable as part of the NBN roll-out, which has caused controversy with recent revelations of asbestos mismanagement.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP</span></span>
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<p>However, Catalyst also found that clearly defined reporting expectations lifted reporting and performance. Gender equality, carbon emissions, energy efficiency, and worker health and safety were well-covered topics, compared to other areas. The majority of companies addressed these topics in their public reports, even when disclosures revealed negative performance outcomes. </p>
<p>It is significant that these areas have strong external reporting guidance. For example, disclosures around gender diversity have recently benefited from the increased guidance of a <a href="http://www.asxgroup.com.au/media/asx_diversity_report.pdf">new reporting regime</a>, established through Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) Corporate Governance Principles. Doubtless, the CSR diversity reporting results reflect the clear guidance provided by the ASX Principles, along with a more activist approach by the federal government in spearheading the new <a href="http://www.wgea.gov.au/">Workplace Gender Equality Agency</a>.</p>
<p>External policy underpinning environment topics also helps steer public disclosures. In addition to a growing number of companies voluntarily reporting to the <a href="https://www.cdproject.net/">Carbon Disclosure Project</a>, corporations registered under the commonwealth government’s <a href="http://www.cleanenergyregulator.gov.au/National-Greenhouse-and-Energy-Reporting/Pages/default.aspx">National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting Act 2007</a> are required to report carbon emissions and energy consumption. This has focused attention on reporting in these areas, particularly when compared with other environmental indicators such as waste production and water consumption.</p>
<p>Worker health and safety disclosures are stimulated by the impact of legislation and by bodies such as <a href="http://www.safeworkaustralia.gov.au/">Safe Work Australia</a>, which encourages companies to collect and analyse detailed data, report targets and compare performance against industry peers and benchmarks. Union focus on workplace safety is also critical, as seen in the recent crisis surrounding asbestos in the <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2013/s3775579.htm">National Broadband Network roll-out</a>.</p>
<h2>Overlooked areas</h2>
<p>But Catalyst found that supply chains and labour standards were the most under-reported topics, with the majority of companies providing no or very limited information about their policy, management and approach. This lack of focus confirms other <a href="http://www.acsi.org.au/board-composition-and-non-executive-director-pay-in-the-top-100-companies72/700-supply-chain-labour-and-human-rights.html">research</a> findings about Australian firms’ comparatively poor standard of reporting about human rights issues. </p>
<p>The absence of clear reporting guidance in these areas is notable. Unlike their global peers, few Australian companies reference the <a href="http://www.ilo.org/global/standards/introduction-to-international-labour-standards/conventions-and-recommendations/lang--en/index.htm">International Labour Organisation (ILO) Core Conventions</a>. This suggests a need to better contextualise the intent and purpose of the ILO Conventions by developing proxies that can be applied in the Australian context.</p>
<h2>Improving standards</h2>
<p>Disclosure inconsistencies can be avoided by introducing clear, persuasive minimum reporting standards, which should be mandated in areas where there are significant gaps in social and environmental reporting.</p>
<p>There is evidence that companies will embrace common standards for sustainability reporting when mandatory guidelines exist, or when expectations concerning disclosure are well defined and understood. In short: clear guidance contributes to greater transparency around social and environmental matters, and it encourages improved monitoring and performance.</p>
<p>Regulatory agencies, investors and industry bodies should consider minimum content guidelines for sustainability reporting. The ASX can play a pivotal role by spearheading improvements in disclosures that are particularly weak, through select amendments to the ASX Corporate Governance Principles.</p>
<p>Trade unions, civil society organisations and others with an interest in the human rights performance of companies have a vital role to play in creating decent and secure work standards by developing Australian proxies that reflect global sustainability principles. </p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/15083/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Martijn Boersma works for Catalyst Australia.</span></em></p>The recent decision by two Australian retailers to sign an accord protecting suppliers in Bangladesh has highlighted discrepancies in company disclosure of sustainability issues and the need for clearer…Martijn Boersma, Researcher in Corporate Governance, University of Technology SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/66532012-05-04T04:47:10Z2012-05-04T04:47:10ZShining a new light on bullying risk<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/10322/original/hjmc2zgw-1336023870.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=2%2C32%2C485%2C352&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Focussing on health and safety responsibilities is a key development in addressing workplace bullying.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Workplace bullying is one of the most contentious workplace issues. Against the backdrop of a forthcoming National Code of Practice on preventing workplace bullying, <a href="http://cdn.justice.act.gov.au/resources/uploads/Worksafe/Publications/Investigation_Reports/CIT_Report_Final_-_11_April_2012.pdf">a recent investigation</a> by Worksafe ACT represents a watershed moment in the treatment of this problem.</p>
<p>Worksafe ACT investigated actions of the Canberra Institute of Technology (CIT) regarding claims of workplace bullying by several staff. These claims were in the form of internal incident reports, compensation claims with supporting medical evidence, and complaints to the regulator. The claims were of a serious nature, and involved senior staff.</p>
<p>What was special about this investigation, apart from being publicly available, was that it was not at all concerned with the veracity of the bullying claims, nor what particular behaviours were alleged. By contrast, the regulator was focused on the processes that the employer had undertaken, or not undertaken, in executing its health and safety responsibilities. These responsibilities include providing a safe workplace and system of work, monitoring safety, and providing relevant information, training and supervision. </p>
<p>This is a key development. Despite their best efforts, safety regulators and inspectors can sometimes get weighed down by the complexity, and unpleasantness, of feeling that they have to mediate between interpersonal workplace issues. </p>
<p>The ACT report shines a light for regulators and employers: focus on whether the health and safety risks were controlled. It also shines a light for employees, because it shows what a proactive, forward thinking, and responsible organisation would be doing about psychological hazards.</p>
<p>The theme that unites the investigation report is that all actions taken in regard to bullying and other psychological hazards must be consistent with preventing the risks that they represent, as far as reasonably practicable. </p>
<p>There is sometimes reluctance in organisations to think about psychological hazards from within the risk management framework that they employ for all other hazards. Sometimes it is just a lack of awareness. </p>
<p>One example of how bullying was not considered as a risk issue in the CIT case involved how an employee appeared to be “paid to withdraw a complaint”. An employee who had complained about bullying was given a termination package, which was conditional the complaint being dropped. </p>
<p>After termination, the employer took no further action regarding the reported incident(s). The employer was then “puzzled as to why Worksafe ACT has continued to investigate…”. Even though the complaint had been “paid away”, and had physically left someone’s in-tray, the risk that was identified by that complaint was still present. Others in that workplace should have been protected from the identified and therefore foreseeable risk.</p>
<p>With other claims, CIT went through a process which concluded that the allegations were unsubstantiated. Accordingly, they took no action. However, the process in which they engaged was found by Worksafe ACT to be severely flawed on several bases. These flaws included that the internal “information gathering” exercises that were used to dismiss the substance of the complaints were likely to have been biased, given that senior staff were involved in the allegations. </p>
<p>It seems obviously inappropriate, but conflicts of interest in reporting lines and organisational “investigations” are regularly treated as though merely declaring the interest will make it go away. The Worksafe ACT report makes it clear that such biases mean that organisations have not done all that was reasonably practical to identify and address the problems.</p>
<p>However, external investigation of workplace issues, while always preferable, does not necessarily solve everything. According to the report, when some claims were sent for external review, the process was so constrained in scope by CIT that the review was essentially useless, and did not adhere to the principles of natural justice. </p>
<p>There are many examples where terms of reference constrain an investigator’s ability to draw valid conclusions about the events, and about what should be done by the organisation regarding its risk management duties. </p>
<p>The content of the complaints policy was also highlighted by the Worksafe report as limiting the extent to which risks were properly managed. The policy emphasised the responsibilities of the complainant, without similar focus on the respondent. </p>
<p>Thus it appeared biased in favour of respondents, and potentially discouraged complaints. Complaints actually constitute the identification of risk. Therefore, complaints procedures have to be robust in order for risk identification (which is part of an employers’ duty, under health and safety requirements) to be achieved.</p>
<p>Far from trite advice or simplistic checklists, the Worksafe ACT report discusses how the poor quality of policy, procedures and investigations undermines an organisation’s ability to demonstrate due diligence. This report has implications for all industries, across all Australian jurisdictions, with respect to what they should be doing to proactively manage psychological hazards.</p>
<p>The litany of problems in the CIT’s acts and omissions, as described in the investigation report, reflects how the real issues fell into the gulf between viewing bullying as a risk issue, and treating bullying as a traditional conduct or human resources issue. It’s a big gulf, and it’s pervasive in practice. </p>
<p>The Worksafe ACT report demonstrates how we need to move to a risk paradigm in managing this hazard, in order to minimise the costs to workers and businesses that it creates.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/6653/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Carlo Caponecchia does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Workplace bullying is one of the most contentious workplace issues. Against the backdrop of a forthcoming National Code of Practice on preventing workplace bullying, a recent investigation by Worksafe…Carlo Caponecchia, Senior Lecturer, School of Aviation, UNSW SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.