E-Books: Safety at Work HSSE WORLD

Safety at Work, Seventh Edition 7th Edition by John Ridley. A major objective of this book has been to provide an authoritative, up-to-date guide in all areas of health and safety. The contributing authors are recognized specialists in their fields and each has drawn on his or her personal knowledge and experience in compiling the text, emphasizing those facets most relevant to the safety advisers’ needs. In this, they have drawn material from many sources and the views they have expressed are their own and must not be construed as representing the opinions or policies of their employers nor of any of the organizations which have so willingly provided material. The Book is widely accepted as the most authoritative guide to safety and health in the workplace. Its comprehensive coverage and academically rigorous approach make it essential reading for students on occupational safety and health courses at diploma, bachelor, and master level, including the NEBOSH National Diploma.

Health and safety do not stand still but are developing all the time. This is true of the period since the publication of the previous edition although the level of legislative activity has not been as frenzied as in the past.
However, there have been a number of significant developments mainly occurring as rationalizations of a number of related but separately legislated requirements. This is the case with fire safety through the coming into effect of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 whose structure and content seem to owe much to the Health and Safety at Work etc., Act 1974.
Construction is another area with new regulations concerning safe working
at heights and a revision of the Construction (Design and Management)
Regulations. This latter Regulation has subsumed the remaining parts of the

Construction (Health, Safety, and Welfare) Regulations 1996 and consolidated into one set of regulations much of the earlier piecemeal legislation relating to construction. The effects that the discharge of chemicals and other materials have on the environment have also attracted regulatory attention in the form of Hazardous Waste (England and Wales) Regulations 2006. A feature of all these new laws is that they emphasize the importance of the role of the employer in the workplace and environmental health and safety.

While risk assessments continue to be a major component of workplace safety, in some areas they seem to have engendered an attitude of aversion to risk and proliferation of the ‘safety myth’. In this, they have been denying individuals and groups the pleasure of enjoying activities that contain a measure of risk – risks that add a measure of excitement to the activity. A reaction to this has been the recognition in the Compensation Act 2006 and in the HSC’s Principles of Sensible Risk Management that some activities necessarily carry a degree of risk.

The Contents of Safety at Work