Transcript Document

Health
Healthand
andSafety
Safety
Executive
Executive
Presentation to Schools
Farm Conference July 2011
David Coackley
Health, Education and Employment Team
Agriculture and Food Sector
Operational Strategy Division
What it will cover
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Risk assessment
Human health - zoonoses
What does health and safety mean to
you?
Myth: Health and safety rules stop
classroom experiments
What does health and safety mean to
you?
Myth: If a pupil is hurt, the teacher is likely
to be sued
What does health and safety mean to
you?
Myth: Egg boxes are banned in craft
lessons as they might cause salmonella
Sensible risk management
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We believe that risk management should
be about practical steps to protect people
from real harm and suffering - not
bureaucratic back covering.
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We want to save lives, not stop them.
Sensible risk management is about
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Ensuring that teachers, employees, students and the
public are properly protected
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Providing overall benefit to society by balancing benefits
and risks, with a focus on reducing real risks – both those
which arise more often and those with serious
consequences
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Enabling innovation and learning not stifling them
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Enabling individuals to understand that as well as the right
to protection, they also have to exercise responsibility
Ensuring that those who create risks manage them
responsibly and understand that failure to manage real
risks responsibly is likely to lead to robust action
Sensible risk management is NOT
about
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Creating a totally risk free society
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Stopping important recreational and
learning activities for individuals where
the risks are managed
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Reducing protection of people
Generating useless paperwork mountains
Scaring people by exaggerating or
publicising trivial risks
What is a risk assessment?
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A risk assessment is simply a careful
examination of what, in your work, could
cause harm to people, so that you can
weigh up whether you have taken
sufficient precautions or should do more
to prevent harm.
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Focus on significant risk not trivial
Terminology
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Hazard
– is anything that may cause harm, such as
chemicals, electricity, working from ladders,
animals, animal faeces, vehicles, machinery
etc;
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Risk
– is the chance, high or low, that somebody
could be harmed by these and other hazards,
together with an indication of how serious the
harm could be.
Five steps to risk assessment
1.
2.
Identify the hazards
3.
Evaluate the risks and
decide on precautions
4.
Record your findings
and implement them
5.
Review your
assessment and update
if necessary
Decide who might be
harmed and how
Step 1 Identify the hazards
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How could people/pupils be harmed
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Remember foreseeable health hazards
as well foreseeable safety hazards
Walk round
Ask staff
Check other sources
– HSE website
– LA
– DfE
Hazards
Step 2 Decide who might be harmed
and how
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In each case:
– identify how people might be harmed
– what type of injury or illness could they
suffer
Step 3 evaluate the risks and decide on
precautions
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Do all that is ‘reasonably practicable’ to
protect people from harm
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Compare what you are doing with good
practice
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Look at what you are already doing
– What controls are in place?
– Is more required?
Step 3 evaluate the risks and decide on
precautions
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Ask
– Can I get rid of the hazard altogether
– If not, how can I control the risks so
that harm is unlikely
Principles of risk control
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try a less risky option (e.g. switch to using a less
hazardous chemical);
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prevent access to the hazard (e.g. by guarding);
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issue personal protective equipment (e.g.
clothing, footwear, goggles etc); and
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provide welfare facilities (e.g. washing facilities
for removal of contamination).
organise work to reduce exposure to the hazard
(e.g. put barriers between pedestrians and
traffic);
Step 4 Record your findings and
implement them
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Write down your results
– keep it simple
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Risk assessment should be suitable and sufficient not
perfect
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Need to show
– a proper check was made;
– you asked who might be affected;
– you dealt with all the significant hazards, taking into
account the number of people who could be involved;
– the precautions are reasonable, and the remaining risk
is low; and
– you involved your staff or their representatives in the
process.
Step 4 Record your findings and
implement them
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A good plan of action often includes a mixture of different
things such as:
a few cheap or easy improvements that can be done
quickly, perhaps as a temporary solution until more reliable
controls are in place;
long-term solutions to those risks most likely to cause
accidents or ill health;
long-term solutions to those risks with the worst potential
consequences;
arrangements for training employees on the main risks that
remain and how they are to be controlled;
regular checks to make sure that the control measures
stay in place; and
clear responsibilities – who will lead on what action, and by
when.
Step 5 Review your risk assessment
and update if necessary
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Review on a regular basis
Set a review date
Review if there are changes e.g. a new
activity
Example of a risk assessment
Putting it into practice
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Now we will have a look at a range of
activities and attempt to undertake a risk
assessment
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Complete the template provided for the
activities seen
Animal handling
Vehicles on the farm
Feeding
Moving manure
Touching animals
Tractor
Use of tools
Human health - zoonoses
Zoonoses are diseases that pass from animals to humans
caused by exposure to micro-organisms such as:
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E.coli
Cryptosporidium
Campylobacter
Salmonella
Chlamydia
Animals act as reservoir for bacteria etc
Direct or indirect transfer to humans
E. Coli O157
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E. coli a very common species of bacteria
Many different types of E. coli
O157 is just one type of E. coli
VTEC
Verocytotoxin (producing) Echerichia coli
Verocytotoxin destroys cells
VTEC
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Verotoxin is produced by E. coli O157 in
the bowel
– Damages the gut lining (bloody
diarrhoea)
– Absorbed across the gut into the blood
stream
– Damages red blood cells (Haemolytic)
– Damages the kidney (Uraemic)
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Hence HUS
– Haemolytic Uraemic Syndrome
Cryptosporidium
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Protozoan parasite
Life cycle occurs in the gut
Main symptoms
– Watery diarrhoea of acute onset
– Abdominal pain
– Nausea and/or vomiting
– Low grade fever and loss of appetite
– Symptoms often relapse
Alcohol hand gel
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Hand gel used contained 65% ethanol.
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Inadequate for Cryptosporidium and E.coli infection
control purposes.
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Hand gels and wipes are not an effective substitute for
proper hand washing.
In C.parvum studies with 70% ethanol, contact times of
20 mins found no marked reduction in infectivity.
(Barbee et al., 1999; Weir et al., 2002)
Modes of transfer
A. Direct contact
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Touching, stroking or petting animals
Feeding animals
B. Indirect contact
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Climbing or leaning on enclosure fences or gates
Sitting on contaminated grass or furniture
Removing dirty shoes or boots
Followed by ‘hand to mouth’ transfer
Control measures
Control measures are predicated on the
assumption that ALL animals
(including birds) carry a range of
micro-organisms
Actions required to prevent or reduce
exposure
Control measures controlling the
disease in the animal
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Control the disease in the animal
– vaccinating cattle against Leptospira hardjo
– using salmonella-free feed for pigs and
poultry. Consult your vet
Good husbandry
– ensure good standards of hygiene in youngstock housing;
– avoid contaminating animal drinking water
with dung;
– keep animals, especially young, as stressfree as possible -particularly important on
farms that open to the public;
– have regular stock health checks by a vet.
Control measures - Safe working
practices
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avoid or minimise the use of equipment or
tools likely to cause cuts, abrasions or
puncture wounds, and use safe working
practices and PPE where appropriate;
Control measures – Personal hygiene
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Any work with animals inevitably involves
contact with dung and urine, which
contain disease-causing organisms.
Personal hygiene is therefore vitally
important.
Control measures - Personal hygiene
Make sure that people:
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wash cuts and grazes immediately with soap and
running water;
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cover new and existing wounds with a
waterproof dressing before beginning work some organisms enter the body through open
wounds. Consider whether you or your staff
need first-aid training;
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wash hands and arms before eating, drinking or
smoking after contacting animals, or working in
areas with animal dung.
Hand washing facilities should:
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be accessible by all, i.e. at the right
heights for both children and adults or
with raised standing areas provided for
children. Check these do not create
tripping or falling hazards;
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have running hot and cold or warm water
(e.g. mixer taps). Warm water supplies
should be fitted with a means of
restricting the temperature to no more
than 43 °C to avoid scalding;
Hand washing facilities should:
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have liquid soap. Bactericidal soaps are not
necessary;
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have paper towels. Hot-air hand-dryers are
suitable but may lead to queues, which
discourage people from washing their hands.
Reusable hand towels are not suitable;
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be properly maintained and cleaned regularly as
required;
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be replenished with paper towels and soap as
necessary;
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include open or pedal-operated waste bins which
are emptied as necessary.
Taking children on farm visits
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AIS 23 ‘Preventing or controlling ill health
from animal contact at visitor attractions’
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Supplement for teachers and organisers
Agriculture Information Sheet AIS
23
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Provides advice to those responsible for
premises where members of the public,
including children, are encouraged to
view, touch or pet animals
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Recognises the importance of such visits
Can never be considered free from all risk
Help ensure risk remains low
Guidance for those organising visits
Premises covered
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Farm attractions
Animal petting/handling enclaves
City farms
Working farms that open to public
Rare breed and rescue centres
Agricultural/County shows
Travelling menageries
Other attractions
Control Measures
Concentrate on:
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Premises layout & routes
Animal contact
Eating areas & play areas
Washing facilities
Information & signs for visitors
Livestock management
Manure & compost heaps