HSE: Fatalities in the workplace on the rise

[Trevanion]

SkillBuilder released an interesting video yesterday about a topic I was unaware of. HSE figures show that fatalities in the workplace are on the rise, granted the rise is 6 fatalities over the previous year but for the last few decades there has been a massive reduction in fatalities and the number has plateaued in the last 5 or so years. An interesting note is that over a quarter of the fatalities have been in the 60+ bracket whilst being a far smaller number of the British workforce than the 16-59 bracket. Even if you read the in-year names and details of the fatalities in 18/19 and 19/20 it seems a large portion of the fatalities are actually from around the 45-90 age bracket even excluding members of the public. With rising the retirement age on the cards, I just found it interesting that whilst we may be able to live far longer than we did before perhaps we shouldn't work longer to match it, at least, not in a physical environment.

[youtube]gwitPf3Jrn0[/youtube]

What do you boys think?

 

[Rorschach]

Very interesting.

It's going to be a big problem in the next couple of decades I think. For "brain" based jobs it isn't really a problem to work until you are a bit older, if you are fairly sedentary in the workplace then physical deterioration doesn't really come into it. For any "body" based jobs though it's going to be increasingly difficult as pension and retirement ages rise, you simple cannot be as productive or as strong as a younger person and it seems the job gets more dangerous as well.
For many there simply won't be the option to re-train into a more suitable role, especially as you are going to be getting more and more "bed blocking" as people are working longer anyway.

Be an interesting few years to come I think.

 

[treeturner123]

Hi

Not to belittle the fatalities, or other injuries, but the first thing to d when comparing is look as the %age NOT the raw numbers. If there are 6 more fatalities this year, is that in part because the overall number of workers has increased? Certainly, the implication is that the number f over 60s in construction industry has increased so even if the %age remains the same, the actual number will increase.

Next, it is well know that the majority of accidents in construction result from fall. I have managers contractors where the use of ladders was banned except under exceptional circumstances, platforms WITH safety barriers were used. Result on a nationwide refit of over 700 sites, no fatalities and very few accidents.

The problem is that many of these accidents occur because someone has tried to cut corners or thinks they know it all!

Phil

 

[lurker]

Not surprising seeing how the HSE drastically reduced the number of experienced inspectors.
And then started charging industry for advice, much of it given by staff who had little or no specific subject knowledge.

 

[lurker]

Whilst we are on the subject:

If HSE had enforced the Construction design and management Regs as is their duty, then Grenfell could not have happened.

 

[Droogs]

The in-work fatalities in the future will become a very rare thing as the majority of jobs that are around now are being forecast to be gone within the next 2 decades, replaced by economical robot/AI systems. That includes the vast majority of office jobs as the AI is already at the point when used in some application that people don't even realise they've been arranging an appointment with something rather than someone.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5VN56jQMWM


I do believe the number of people killed by being stupid or inattentive whilst using tools will definitely go up as they try new things and hobbies to supplement their universal basic income.

 

[lurker]

If my final 5 years at work is anything to go by, AI will be a definite improvement to the morons that were taking over management jobs.

 

[sammy.se]

If my final 5 years at work is anything to go by, AI will be a definite improvement to the morons that were taking over management jobs.

Haha

Sent from my SM-G973F using Tapatalk

 

[Trainee neophyte]

It is down to terminology: are these "accidents"? Or are they Darwin Award nominations? If you are on some scaffolding and the plank breaks, you could class that as an "accident", although in theory someone should have tested it. On the other hand, if you are standing on a branch and sawing the bit closest to the trunk, then it is not an accident; it is useful cleansing of the gene pool.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=UeB7l_O8T6o
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_WgKhG8DQsQ
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=bcuxWxzsFhY

The list goes on, and on, and on, and on...

 

[craigs]

Im not sure if anyone has seen the movie "idiocracy" but it's definitely where we are heading.

 

[skelph]

craigsalisbury - Im not sure if anyone has seen the movie "idiocracy" but it's definitely where we are heading.

The older I get the more I think that is exactly where we are heading. Instead of raising everyone UP to the same level of using common sense it seems to be the case that the masses are being brainwashed into not using common sense at all.

 

[stuartpaul]

Whilst we are on the subject:

If HSE had enforced the Construction design and management Regs as is their duty, then Grenfell could not have happened.

So you’re absolving absolutely everyone else in the design and construction process to lay the blame at the HSE’s door?

You know better than that Jim.

 

[Trevanion]

Not surprising seeing how the HSE drastically reduced the number of experienced inspectors.
And then started charging industry for advice, much of it given by staff who had little or no specific subject knowledge.

It was very clear with the last inspection I was present for that the guy had absolutely no clue at all about what he was looking at and wasn't able to judge whether something was actually safe or not, His knowledge seemed to be "It's painted yellow therefore it must be a guard of some kind" and that was it...

I was talking with another joiner the other day who had his 50HP cyclone tower condemned because it leaked a minute amount of dust out of the top into the outdoor air, fair enough he said because it was ancient and went and replaced the cyclone with a bunch of bagged units and the HSE inspector wasn't happy about that either and after a few back and forths he asked the inspector "Well, what do you want me to do?" and his response was pretty much "I dunno" and he couldn't offer any actual advice on the subject he was trying to enforce.

On the one hand, you don't want someone being a right uptight safety nazi and condemning every machine that has a spec of dust on it, but on the other hand you also want some kind of faith in these inspectors to stop the really dodgy practices and advise on proper safety properly without charging £100+ per hour.

 

[lurker]

Whilst we are on the subject:

If HSE had enforced the Construction design and management Regs as is their duty, then Grenfell could not have happened.

So you’re absolving absolutely everyone else in the design and construction process to lay the blame at the HSE’s door?

You know better than that Jim.

The others knew they could do what they liked as proper and competent checks would be highly unlikely.