BSIF in action: Clean Air? Take Care! Working Group

It was developed to improve and simplify guidance on the types of Respiratory Protective Equipment (RPE) available, and steer those looking for RPE through the initial stages of selection and on to specialist advice.

Five years on and awareness has widened of the levels of ill health and death caused by exposure to breathing hazards at work, with many of the original supporters producing campaigns of their own, such as the IOSH ‘No time to lose’ campaign on occupational cancers focusing on hazards like diesel exhaust fumes, the BOHS ‘Breathe Freely’ campaign targeted at construction workers, and the HSE’s Construction Dust Partnership and Beware Asbestos initiatives.

Clean Air? Take Care! is a reference point for all of these later campaigns as it builds on the awareness they raise by explaining the next steps, and to re-emphasise the importance of fit testing it’s time for it to be updated and relaunched. A new Working Group has been formed and will meet regularly over the next few months to review and revitalise the campaign to utilise new media and the latest advice, targeting a relaunch for the end of 2015. Its aim will remain to provide clear guidance plus signposts in all necessary directions for those who need to learn what actions to take to reduce or eliminate the hazards, and if they need to use RPE how to select the most appropriate type.

The BSIF will continue to work with fellow organisations, providing mutual support for our campaigns and working towards the same objective. The original stakeholders have already signed up again this time round and many participate in the new Working Group. Long latency respiratory disease will not be conquered tomorrow, but the clearer the information on how to combat workplace breathing hazards, the sooner the numbers of workers affected will reduce.