Livewire - the Health & Safety newsletter for the wire industry
Feb 2010 Livewire - Health & Safety news for the Wire Industry (PDF)
Note from the Chairman
Whilst 2009 was difficult for us all it appears that the New Year heralds the first signs of recovery. Hopefully we will soon see a reversal in the recent decline in the numbers employed in the industry, but we know employment is still a daily concern for many people. In difficult times people often look for strong leadership; they often need more guidance and time spent with them than during ‘good times’. People tend to need more encouragement to do the right things, minds can wander. This presents even more of a challenge to the health and safety professionals. We must not allow current difficulties to deter us from improving even further on the excellent platform that has been laid down these last few years.
We have another great day in store on the 24 March at our awards ceremony at which we will celebrate all that was achieved in 2009. As Chair of the Live Wire I ask that we continue our endeavours throughout 2010 and that we ensure that the economic difficulties we face don’t get in the way of the drive to make our industry an ‘accident free zone’.
A big thanks to all for the efforts of 2009 - lets make 2010 even better!
Steve Booth
News from Live Wire companies
Here at GJP we have just had a near miss where a catch collapsed on a lifting spider which was carrying a 500kg coil, luckily the coil did not hit an employee although it was only inches away from the operator when it fell!
The outcome was a Maintenance Request was issued as there was a faulty catch, I spoke to the operator and he told me that the catch had been faulty for weeks and that also several other operators had worked this spider with the faulty catch and no-body could be bothered to report it so he joined that mindset!
The operator who had the coil fall told me that he seems to be the one reporting most things and he does not want to look like he is causing problems within the company but now he regrets not reporting it as it could have hurt someone.
I said this to him and I say it to everyone if someone had got hurt and he hadn't reported it how bad would he have felt with himself or if it had been him who was hurt is that what his wife and child would want to see him lying in hospital? It's a hard slog this Health and Safety business but if we work together what we report and change today could save somebody's life tomorrow?
Dean Horton
Operations Manager - G JOHN POWER
Dean is moving on to another wire company. Live Wire would like to thank him for all his enthusiasm and commitment and wish him all the best for the future
Live Wire Awards event – 24th March, Scunthorpe
We hope to get a good turn out at our Live Wire awards event on 24th March, again at the Corus Scunthorpe conference centre.
We have even more prizes to give away this year! Not only will there be a prize for the company which has reduced its accidents by the biggest percentage, and £1,000 for the team with the best idea to improve health and safety, but there are prizes for the Health and Safety Quiz and for the winner of the Poster Competition (see below). Our popular Live Wire trainer, Colin Greenwood is setting the quiz questions, so now would be a good moment for a spot of revision!
Competition
Thank you to everyone who put together a competition entry – a few last minute panics got the numbers up to 9 entries in the end.
BUT, it’s no good waiting until next January before you think about the competition – if a good idea comes up during the year, take a couple of ‘before and after’ photos and jot down some notes so you can write it up well before the closing date!
These could be your own invention, or a picture of something which happened in your works which would serve as a lesson to others!
Near miss reporting is a key way of enabling us to be pro-active on improving health and safety – look at Dean’s report above! Could this happen in your workplace?