This isn’t a terribly cheery topic, but it’s an important one. Last month, the UK’s printing and paper industries suffered two fatalities. The first involved a contractor falling from the roof at Tullis Russell’s Glenrothes warehouse. Although the papermaking industry has been highlighted by the Health & Safety Executive (HSE) as traditionally suffering from high accident rates, the Tullis Russell incident was not paper-specific and involved what is actually the most common fatal workplace accident in the UK regardless of industry – falling from a height. The number of such incidents has been going down for a decade, but the HSE reports that in UK workplaces overall, there were still 45 deaths in 2006/07 caused by falls. Separately, a special programme targeted at improving health and safety in the paper and board industries is already underway, with a partnership involving the HSE, employers, and unions detailing specific improvements for the 2008-2011 timeframe.

The second fatality involved the death of a maintenance engineer at St Ives’ Peterborough plant after he became trapped in part of a web press. While the loss to the victim’s family is, of course, paramount in any fatal accident, the enormity of something like this is hard to imagine.

Both incidents are, of course, subject to police and HSE investigations and thankfully, fatalities remain rare. Compared with construction (72 fatal injuries in 2007/08, according to the HSE) and agriculture (39 fatalities) the modern printing industry is a far safer occupa-tion and fatalities are few and far between. However, this business still involves working with machinery that can kill, as evidenced by the recent alert issued by the HSE about platen die-cutting machines following fatal incidents at Terry Smith Group and Bezier involving this type of equipment. All employers and employees working with these platens should be aware of the new guidance.

I know that health and safety is already a top priority for many printing industry employers, and long may it remain that way. The provisions of the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act, which came into force earlier this year, should certainly have focused the attention of any business owners with a more laissez-faire attitude. After all, good health and safety is an intrinsic part of good business.

In a business environment where the requirements for production flexibility mean the use of agency workers is increasingly commonplace – some of whom may not have English as their first language – communicating
a company’s health and safety policy and ensuring everyone on site is adhering to it is increasingly challenging.

But it’s a challenge that must be met.

Two-minute takeaway on safety at work:

• Fatalities are rare, but each year, printing companies report approximately 1,200 work-related accidents to the Health & Safety Executive (HSE). More than 200 of these accidents will be classified as major injuries such as fractures and amputations. The three most common types of accidents reported are: manual handling; slips and trips; contact with machinery
• It’s vital that all companies are up to date with the laws enshrined in the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act. This new law makes it easier to convict organisations whose senior management have breached their duty of care
• Key health and safety steps include: identifying potential areas for risk and addressing them immediately; checking health and safety policies are up to date; ensuring all senior management have received health and safety training and are aware of the implications of the new legislation
• A wealth of information is available on the HSE website www.hse.gov.uk, including specific guidance for small businesses