"There are still too few industry and trade bodies that proactively address health and safety," writes Mr Frank Cunneen, chairman of the Health and Safety Authority, in the HSA's annual report for 1999, published last Tuesday.
Moreover, health and safety does not form "a significant part of the education of our future business leaders or employees", he writes.
Striking facts to emerge from the report include the following:
The dangers of asbestos are still not appreciated by many; there were five asbestos-related prosecutions in 1999 and 14 further asbestos cases sent to the Chief State Solicitors Office to initiate proceedings.
High Court Orders were used to close only four dangerous construction projects, despite the high number of accidents and fatalities in the booming construction sector. Sites were closed where the HSA "felt the risk to the safety of persons was serious enough to prohibit their use as a place of work. These sites, together with a greater number that closed voluntarily, remained shut until safety management systems were implemented".
Less than half of organisations inspected in 1999 had a Safety Statement, a document required by law detailing hazards in the workplace and the management's action plan to eliminate or reduce all hazards.
"Only 38 per cent of workplaces with fewer than 12 employees, representing 73 per cent of all workplaces inspected, had a Safety Statement."
There were 23 agricultural fatalities in 1999, a slight improvement on the 26 who died on farms in 1998.
Three people died in the quarrying sector, which now has the "highest fatality rate of any sector". However, the HSA acknowledges the "benefits of emergency planning" when "a major mine fire resulted in no fatalities or injuries".
Eight people died in the manufacturing sector compared to four in 1998.
A total of 8,729 inspections was done in 1999 which was "well down on the 1998 inspection figure of 10,747. Inspection numbers in 1999 were 85 per cent of those achieved in 1998".
The authority estimates that the reduced number of inspections was due to: the loss of nine staff due to retirement and promotions; changes in methodology of counting inspections; training of 21 new inspectors; unanticipated legislative load and an increase in prosecutions initiated.
The number of people killed in the construction sector fell from 22 in 1998 to 18 in 1999. While one fatality is one too many, the decline in deaths within the industry is in the context of an increase in construction sector employment from 126,100 in the second quarter of 1998 to 142,100 in the second quarter of 1999. While acknowledging the improvement in the construction-sector fatalities, the authority notes that at 18, fatal accidents remain unacceptably high. The largest proportion of fatalities was due to falls from heights.
In the construction sector, the rate of non-fatal accidents per 100,000 fell from 1,965 to 1,620 "but the injury rate is still higher in construction than in any other sector". The number of construction accidents reported to the authority increased "mainly because the Department of Social, Community and Family Affairs now informs the authority of all occupational injury-benefit claims", which are treated as reported accidents, says the report. The authority notes that Isocyanate, used typically in the manufacture of household furniture and as the main constituent in spray painting of cars, is the greatest cause of occupational asthma in Ireland.
Work-related skin problems continue to be "a significant occupational health problem", with the HSA investigating the outbreak of dermatitis in a factory last year. Areas of concern within the health sector included: patient and manual handling; violence to staff; stress; hepatitis infection; and clinical waste disposal procedures. There were also concerns about asbestos stripping in hospitals; gas and vapour extraction; noise control; biological agents control and vaccination policy; and disease control in post mortem rooms. As ever, it is the litany of the dead and injured which provides the most chilling and focusing aspect of the report, reminding all concerned of what health and safety is all about: preventing tragedies than need never have occurred.
jmarms@irish-times.ie
