Campaign launched to improve respiratory protection

Aiming to increase awareness of occupational respiratory diseases and how to prevent
them, the BSIF/HSE “Clean Air? – Take Care!” campaign is now officially underway with
lots of free guidance and resources on offer to help HSM readers play their part

It is estimated that up to 12,000 deaths each year currently
could be due to past exposures to hazardous substances.

Geoff Hooke, British Safety Industry Federation (BSIF)
Secretary General explains: “The fact that many respiratory
diseases are insidious by nature means that they are usually
contracted without the sufferer being aware and by the time
they are diagnosed, it is often too late to adequately treat them
and could therefore lead to a possibly life-threatening
situation. The dangers associated with the inhalation of
asbestos fibres are well known, but there is a significant array
of carcinogens and toxins contained within dusts, fumes and
solvent vapours that can be inhaled at work and have similar
effects.”
Research has established that as many as 5.5 million workers are
exposed to respiratory hazards in the workplace and of these,
approximately half wear respiratory protective equipment (RPE).

Often, those using RPE are still not adequately protected due to
poor selection, use and maintenance of the equipment. A survey
by HSE indicated that 29 per cent of workers regarded
themselves as regularly having to breathe in dust or fumes that
could cause respiratory conditions and nearly half thought that
the risks could be realistically reduced.

Geoff continues: “We estimate that only a quarter of those at
risk are adequately protected. Therefore in excess of four million
workers are exposed to respiratory hazards and could experience
some form of respiratory disease during their lifetime. The
simple conclusion is that more needs to be done to ensure those
at risk are adequately protected.”
Both the BSIF and the HSE had been concerned about
respiratory protection, or the lack of it, for some time. Therefore,
it seemed only natural for both organisations to combine and
develop a new initiative to stimulate a wider public
understanding of the depth of the problem in the hope that
employers and their staff would start to take this matter
seriously.

Fully aware that a wider engagement would be necessary for
success, IOSH, BOHS, RoSPA, IIRSM and SGUK were
approached and willingly agreed to contribute to the
development of the campaign and its delivery. Early research
clearly demonstrated that over a half of enquiries on respiratory
protection are made initially to supplying manufacturers and
distributors and only a minority of questions aimed at safety
consultants. From this, it was obvious that the best chance of
passing information to smaller companies, which usually fall
below the enforcement radar, would be through a combination
of BSIF members and these consultancy and training
institutions, supported by targeted enforcement by the HSE, all
focused on a single persuasive message.

The campaign team has developed a simple workplace poster
to alert employees to the ways in which they should check that
their respiratory protection is adequately fit-tested, worn and
maintained and a selection guidance leaflet to help their
employers assess the most appropriate type of protection. This
guidance is designed
in such a way that the
completed enquiry
form, using a simple
risk assessment, can
be used to discuss
protection options
with suppliers. This
capitalises on the
expertise of specialist
manufacturers and
safety distributors
recognising that most
will seek assistance
from this source. It
also provides
suppliers with concise
information so that
they can help
employers select suitable equipment.

A useful DVD has also been developed containing thought
provoking films from a doctor and a sufferer together with a
“good practice” presentation explaining how to evaluate the risks
and deploy suitable protection. These will be useful for tool-box
presentations and help to illustrate shop-floor and safety
management training sessions. In addition the DVD contains
PDFs of the poster and the guidance leaflet for printing in-house.

The informative tools are available from www.cleanairtakecare.org
as well as through RPE distributors
and manufacturers.