Health And Safety In Brief

Health and Safety e . in brief John Ridley P=-= E I N E M A N N Butterworth-Heinemann 225 Wildwood Avenue, Woburn, MA 01801-2041 Linacre House, Jordan Hill, Oxford OX2 8DP A division of Reed Educational and Professional Publishing Ltd [email protected] member of the Reed Elsevier plc group OXFORD AUCIUAND BOSTON JOHANNESBURG MELBOURNE NEW DELHI First published 1998 Revised reprint 1998 Reprinted 1999 0 Reed Educational and Professional Publishing Ltd 1998 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any material form (including photocopying or storing in any medium by electronic means and whether or not transiently or incidentally to some other use of this publication) without the written permission of the copyright holder except in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Design and Patents Act 1988 or under the terms of a licence issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency Ltd, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London, England WlP 9HE. Applications for the copyright holder’s written permission to reproduce any part of this publication should be addressed to the publishers British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the Library of Congress ISBN 0 7506 3765 X Composition by Genesis Typesetting, Rochester, Kent Printed and bound in Great Britain PLANTA TREE POR EVERY TmLE THAT WE PUBLISH. BUITERWORTH+IEINBM” W I U PAY POR BTCV TO P W AND CARE FOR A TREE. Preface The text of this book started life as a set of notes I used for lectures on health and safety which became popular with the students as aides-mimoire for their revision prior to examinations. The students came from various positions in commerce and industry, ranging from union appointed safety representatives through middle managers to directors. Feedback from them indicated that they found the notes useful in their day-to-day duties. If they could, why couldn't others - and so the book was born. In preparing this book I have endeavoured to take some of the mystique out of health and safety in the workplace and in simple plain English and in practical terms, explain the hows, whys and wherefores of keeping on the right side of health and safety laws. It is not intended to be a substitute for the law. Readers must understand that when the crunch comes it is the responsibility of the employer/manager to ensure compliance with legislative requirements and,