Health and Safety Executive

Health and Safety Executive

Presentation to Schools

Farm Conference July 2011

David Coackley

Health, Education and Employment Team

Agriculture and Food Sector

Operational Strategy Division

What it will cover

• Risk assessment

• Human health - zoonoses

What does health and safety mean to you?

Myth: Health and safety rules stop classroom experiments

What does health and safety mean to you?

Myth: If a pupil is hurt, the teacher is likely to be sued

What does health and safety mean to you?

Myth: Egg boxes are banned in craft lessons as they might cause salmonella

Sensible risk management

• We believe that risk management should be about practical steps to protect people from real harm and suffering - not bureaucratic back covering.

• We want to save lives, not stop them.

Sensible risk management is about

• Ensuring that teachers, employees, students and the public are properly protected

• Providing overall benefit to society by balancing benefits and risks, with a focus on reducing real risks – both those which arise more often and those with serious consequences

• Enabling innovation and learning not stifling them

• Ensuring that those who create risks manage them responsibly and understand that failure to manage real risks responsibly is likely to lead to robust action

• Enabling individuals to understand that as well as the right to protection, they also have to exercise responsibility

Sensible risk management is NOT about

• Creating a totally risk free society

• Generating useless paperwork mountains

• Scaring people by exaggerating or publicising trivial risks

• Stopping important recreational and learning activities for individuals where the risks are managed

• Reducing protection of people

What is a risk assessment?

• A risk assessment is simply a careful examination of what, in your work, could cause harm to people, so that you can weigh up whether you have taken sufficient precautions or should do more to prevent harm.

• Focus on significant risk not trivial

Terminology

• Hazard– is anything that may cause harm, such as

chemicals, electricity, working from ladders, animals, animal faeces, vehicles, machinery etc;

• Risk– is the chance, high or low, that somebody

could be harmed by these and other hazards, together with an indication of how serious the harm could be.

Five steps to risk assessment

1. Identify the hazards

2. Decide who might be harmed and how

3. Evaluate the risks and decide on precautions

4. Record your findings and implement them

5. Review your assessment and update if necessary

Step 1 Identify the hazards

• How could people/pupils be harmed

• Walk round

• Ask staff

• Check other sources– HSE website– LA – DfE

• Remember foreseeable health hazards as well foreseeable safety hazards

Hazards

Step 2 Decide who might be harmed and how

• In each case:– identify how people might be harmed– what type of injury or illness could they

suffer

Step 3 evaluate the risks and decide on precautions

• Do all that is ‘reasonably practicable’ to protect people from harm

• Compare what you are doing with good practice

• Look at what you are already doing– What controls are in place?– Is more required?

Step 3 evaluate the risks and decide on precautions

• Ask– Can I get rid of the hazard altogether– If not, how can I control the risks so

that harm is unlikely

Principles of risk control

• try a less risky option (e.g. switch to using a less hazardous chemical);

• prevent access to the hazard (e.g. by guarding);

• organise work to reduce exposure to the hazard (e.g. put barriers between pedestrians and traffic);

• issue personal protective equipment (e.g. clothing, footwear, goggles etc); and

• provide welfare facilities (e.g. washing facilities for removal of contamination).

Step 4 Record your findings and implement them

• Write down your results– keep it simple

• Risk assessment should be suitable and sufficient not perfect

• Need to show– a proper check was made; – you asked who might be affected; – you dealt with all the significant hazards, taking into

account the number of people who could be involved; – the precautions are reasonable, and the remaining risk

is low; and – you involved your staff or their representatives in the

process.

Step 4 Record your findings and implement them

A good plan of action often includes a mixture of different things such as:

• a few cheap or easy improvements that can be done quickly, perhaps as a temporary solution until more reliable controls are in place;

• long-term solutions to those risks most likely to cause accidents or ill health;

• long-term solutions to those risks with the worst potential consequences;

• arrangements for training employees on the main risks that remain and how they are to be controlled;

• regular checks to make sure that the control measures stay in place; and

• clear responsibilities – who will lead on what action, and by when.

Step 5 Review your risk assessment and update if necessary

• Review on a regular basis

• Set a review date

• Review if there are changes e.g. a new activity

Example of a risk assessment

Putting it into practice

• Now we will have a look at a range of activities and attempt to undertake a risk assessment

• Complete the template provided for the activities seen

Animal handling

Vehicles on the farm

Feeding

Moving manure

Touching animals

Tractor

Use of tools

Human health - zoonoses

Zoonoses are diseases that pass from animals to humans caused by exposure to micro-organisms such as:

• E.coli

• Cryptosporidium

• Campylobacter

• Salmonella

• Chlamydia

Animals act as reservoir for bacteria etc

Direct or indirect transfer to humans

E. Coli O157

• E. coli a very common species of bacteria

• Many different types of E. coli

• O157 is just one type of E. coli

• VTEC

• Verocytotoxin (producing) Echerichia coli

• Verocytotoxin destroys cells

VTEC

• Verotoxin is produced by E. coli O157 in the bowel– Damages the gut lining (bloody

diarrhoea)– Absorbed across the gut into the blood

stream– Damages red blood cells (Haemolytic)– Damages the kidney (Uraemic)

• Hence HUS– Haemolytic Uraemic Syndrome

Cryptosporidium

• Protozoan parasite

• Life cycle occurs in the gut

• Main symptoms– Watery diarrhoea of acute onset– Abdominal pain– Nausea and/or vomiting– Low grade fever and loss of appetite– Symptoms often relapse

Alcohol hand gel

• Hand gel used contained 65% ethanol.

• In C.parvum studies with 70% ethanol, contact times of 20 mins found no marked reduction in infectivity. (Barbee et al., 1999; Weir et al., 2002)

• Inadequate for Cryptosporidium and E.coli infection control purposes.

• Hand gels and wipes are not an effective substitute for proper hand washing.

Modes of transfer

A. Direct contact

Touching, stroking or petting animals

Feeding animals

B. Indirect contact

Climbing or leaning on enclosure fences or gates

Sitting on contaminated grass or furniture

Removing dirty shoes or boots

Followed by ‘hand to mouth’ transfer

Control measures are predicated on the assumption that ALL animals (including birds) carry a range of micro-organisms

Actions required to prevent or reduce exposure

Control measures

Control measures controlling the disease in the animal

• Control the disease in the animal– vaccinating cattle against Leptospira hardjo – using salmonella-free feed for pigs and

poultry. Consult your vet

• Good husbandry– ensure good standards of hygiene in young-

stock housing; – avoid contaminating animal drinking water

with dung; – keep animals, especially young, as stress-free

as possible -particularly important on farms that open to the public;

– have regular stock health checks by a vet.

Control measures - Safe working practices

• avoid or minimise the use of equipment or tools likely to cause cuts, abrasions or puncture wounds, and use safe working practices and PPE where appropriate;

Control measures – Personal hygiene

• Any work with animals inevitably involves contact with dung and urine, which contain disease-causing organisms. Personal hygiene is therefore vitally important.

Control measures - Personal hygiene

Make sure that people:

• wash cuts and grazes immediately with soap and running water;

• cover new and existing wounds with a waterproof dressing before beginning work -some organisms enter the body through open wounds. Consider whether you or your staff need first-aid training;

• wash hands and arms before eating, drinking or smoking after contacting animals, or working in areas with animal dung.

Hand washing facilities should:

• be accessible by all, i.e. at the right heights for both children and adults or with raised standing areas provided for children. Check these do not create tripping or falling hazards;

• have running hot and cold or warm water (e.g. mixer taps). Warm water supplies should be fitted with a means of restricting the temperature to no more than 43 °C to avoid scalding;

Hand washing facilities should:

• have liquid soap. Bactericidal soaps are not necessary;

• have paper towels. Hot-air hand-dryers are suitable but may lead to queues, which discourage people from washing their hands. Reusable hand towels are not suitable;

• be properly maintained and cleaned regularly as required;

• be replenished with paper towels and soap as necessary;

• include open or pedal-operated waste bins which are emptied as necessary.

Taking children on farm visits

• AIS 23 ‘Preventing or controlling ill health from animal contact at visitor attractions’

• Supplement for teachers and organisers

Agriculture Information Sheet AIS 23

• Provides advice to those responsible for premises where members of the public, including children, are encouraged to view, touch or pet animals

• Recognises the importance of such visits

• Can never be considered free from all risk

• Help ensure risk remains low

• Guidance for those organising visits

Premises covered

• Farm attractions

• Animal petting/handling enclaves

• City farms

• Working farms that open to public

• Rare breed and rescue centres

• Agricultural/County shows

• Travelling menageries

• Other attractions

Control Measures

Concentrate on:

• Premises layout & routes

• Animal contact

• Eating areas & play areas

• Washing facilities

• Information & signs for visitors

• Livestock management

• Manure & compost heaps