As the Health & Safety Executive (HSE) launches the ‘Dust Kills’ campaign which will be running throughout June, it is important to highlight that exposure to dust is everyone’s responsibility.
Dust Kills – a month long initiative for June
The month-long initiative launched by Britain’s national regulator for workplace health and safety, warns of the dangers of occupational lung disease which can cause long-term health difficulties such as severe breathing difficulties, lung disease and potential early death.
The campaign is committed to raising awareness and improving the health and safety of construction workers by ensuring that all appropriate measures and the correct PPE equipment are in place to protect workers’ lung health from exposure to dust.
Clients responsibility
Generally clients leave all the management of Health and Safety to the contractor, however under the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015 (CDM 2015) regulations, commercial clients are required to ensure the health and safety of its staff, ensuring that suitable arrangements for managing their project, enabling those carrying it out to manage health and safety risks in a proportionate way. These include:
- Making sure that the principal contractor has the skill, knowledge, experience and organisational capability and resource
- Allowing sufficient time and resources for each stage of the project
- Making sure that any principal contractor carries out their duties in managing the project
- Making sure suitable welfare facilities are provided for the duration of the construction work
- Maintaining and reviewing the management arrangements for the duration of the project
- Providing pre-construction information to every contractor either bidding for the work or already appointed to the project
- Ensuring that the principal contractor prepares a construction phase plan before that phase begins
- Ensuring that the principal contractor prepares a health and safety file for the project and that it is revised as necessary and made available to anyone who needs it for subsequent work at the site
In addition, for notifiable projects (where planned construction work will last longer than 30 working days and involves more than 20 workers at any one time; or where the work exceeds 500 individual worker days), commercial clients must:
- Notify the HSE in writing with details of the project
- Ensure a copy of the notification is displayed in the construction site office
Prosecution
In 2015 a CDM Client based in Cardiff was developing a hotel in Cornwall when an investigation found that the company had failed to put in place appropriate measures to control risks on site including fire, asbestos and falls from height by failing to appoint a principal contractor. The company was fined £50,000 and ordered to pay costs of £5,478
Therefore, If the client fails to carry out their duty in appointing a competent principal contractor that would in turn enforce CDM requirements it could lead to the client being prosecuted and fined.
The Facts
UK construction workers are 100 times more likely to die as a result of occupational lung disease caused by exposure to dust generated in the workplace than are attributed to workplace accidents. There were 40 fatal injuries to construction workers in 2019/20.
During the same period, there were an estimated 8,000 reported incidences of occupational lung disease including severe chronic long-term lung conditions such as lung cancer, occupational asthma and fibrosis. All of these conditions are entirely preventable with a little bit of knowledge and the effective management of working conditions and protective equipment.
Our Standards
The A. S. Ramsay Group has always put the health and safety of its staff at the centre of everything it does. That’s why members of the A. S. Ramsay Group team have recently undergone Face Fit training and are now officially qualified to safely check and test face masks and FFP3 respirators. Additionally, the company has made innovative changes to its procedures to significantly reduce respiratory risks due to exposure to hazardous dust particles.
Jamie Godman, Managing Director of A.S. Ramsay explains: “Our staff are the most important part of our company. It’s our duty to ensure the health, safety and wellbeing of our team and members of the public are protected at all times. We assess, plan, manage and monitor all work carried out, taking into consideration the risks to anyone who might be affected by it and the measures needed to protect them. No job is worth risking your long-term health and wellbeing.”
Claudio Cannas
Technical Sales Manager
