And the latest figures (2006/7) from the offshore division of the UK’s Health and Safety Executive (HSE) give an interesting insight into offshore safety-related issues in that part of the world. The figures show an overall decrease in fatal and minor injuries from 75 in 1998/99 to 42 in 2006/7. The latest figures include two fatalitieswhile there were two in the previous yearnone in the year before that and three in 2003/4. There are an estimated 28 176 workers in UK installations in the latest figuresa 22percent increase on the previous year. The combined fatal and major injury rate decreased to 145.51 per 100000 in 2006/7 compared with 225.4 in 2005/6. This is the fourth consecutive fall in this rate. The the main causes of major and fatal injuries were related to slips/trips/fall (19)being trappedstruck by or striking against equipment (8)or injuries associated with lifts/pulls/pushes/swinging of loads (7) – accounting for 83percent of the total. 15 major injuries were to the upper limbwhile The number of reported over-three-day injuries has increased by 39 to 164or 31.2percent. Based on the increased workforce figure of 28176 workersthe over-three-day injury rate shows a 7.4percent increase on that recorded for 2005/06: 584.1 per 100000 workers compared to 541.8 per 100000. The over three-day injury rate has shown a fairly level trend since 2002/03but rising slightly in 2006/07. In terms of accident typeslipstripsfallsand other body related movements accounted for approximately 36percent of over three-day injuries while injuries related to lifting operationshandling of plantpush/pull activities accounted for approximately 20percent. Eighty-four over three-day injuries (51.2percent) resulted in injury to the upper limbwhile over 7percent of injuries were related to operation of doors – including trapped fingers and impact from rapid opening of pressurised doors. The other category monitored by the HSE is the incidence of ill health on offshore workers. The latest figures reveal 20 cases reportedan increase of two on the previous year. Howeverone of these cases included a food poisoning outbreak affecting 21 persons on one installation. The most common diseases reported were chickenpox with nine incidents (up three on the previous year) and decompression related effects also with eight incidents (none the previous year). There were no cases of mumpscompared to six the previous year and five the year before that. While offshore oil and gas duty holders have recognised that a lack of skilled workforcethe HSE says that a change to shorter working hours and increase in activity can lead to an erosion of health and safety unless balanced by significant increase in level of training and supervision. This is the theme of a new report just published by the organisation. The way forward suggested in this report is based on improving comprehension of major hazards by the workforce and optimising the management processes such as balancing workforce competence and level of supervision. By improving comprehension of major hazards the workforce itself can play a central role in safety case preparation by being involved in identifying real improvements in safety that are reasonable and based on the day-to-day grass-roots operational experience of various disciplines. Workforce involvement in optimising safety management processes not only increases the experience of the group of workers who can contribute to the process (contributory expertise)but also of other groups of workers who acquire interactional expertise. Safety optimisation can be applied to any process by challenging the existing situation along the lines of ‘what more can we do’or ‘how can we do it better’. Evaluating complexity of protection systems is based on understanding the work that has to be done to maintaincontrol and operate protective systemsand the available competence. he report is broken down into several sectionswhich tackle issues such as bow tie methodologya socio-technical approach to failuresthe barrier rule setbarrier parametersand actual workforce involvement. It then goes on to consider the control of risk management processesincluding the approach to tolerability of risk management processes and optimising balance between competence and supervision. A final section focuses on workforce involvement and considers: improved comprehension of major hazards; improvement of safety by involvement in safety cases; improvement of risk management processesand involvement in safety management systems.
25 of them were due to fractures.
‘Optimising hazard management by workforce engagement and supervision’ is 92 pages long and can be found at http://www.hse.gov.uk/research/rrpdf/rr637.pdf
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