HEALTH, HAZARDS AND AGE

Not dead yet We all have different strengths and weaknesses, young and old. And properly designed work should be safe and healthy whoever is doing it. So why are older workers told they are no longer up to the job? Hazards magazine, number 96, October/December 2006

Too young to die A young worker is seriously injured every 40 minutes and killed every four weeks. These workers aren’t “accident prone” or careless, they are inexperienced. When they are hurt, it means not enough was done to protect them. Hazards magazine, number 95, July/September 2006

Young workers
Hazards' young workers' health safety webpage

Older workers
Hazards' older workers health and safety webpage

Work and health Tens of thousands of people die each year of work-related ill-health. Millions suffer as a result of their jobs. Hazards work and health pages

Britain: Injury destroys young worker’s dream
A construction site injury has crushed the dreams of a Barnsley man who has lost the opportunity to play semi-professional football. James Smith was 20 and working as a steel fixer for Century Reinforcement Services when he was injured in 2004.
Irwin Mitchell news release • Risks 347
Hazards news, 15 March 2008

France: Gruelling work linked to early retirement
Older manual workers in France are more likely to retire early or be registered economically inactive than the workforce as a whole, with their tough jobs and poor health identified as a key reason why. French employment ministry researchers explored the link between the hardships of work and early departure from the workforce using the findings of a 2003 national health survey.
ETUI-REHS report summary • Risks 342
Hazards news, 9 February 2008

Britain: Age effects need more attention
The relationship between work and the health of older male workers is receiving too little attention, a new report has concluded. ‘Older men, work and health’, a report published by TAEN - The Age and Employment Network - and Help the Aged examines the role work plays in the lives and identity of men and the impact this has on their health, both in and out of work.
Older men, work and health: Reviewing the evidence, Gillian Granville and Maria Evandrou, Centre for Research on Ageing, University of Southampton, January 2008 [pdf] • Hazards older workers webpages • Risks 340
Hazards news, 26 January 2008

Britain: Young workers told to ‘speak out’
Students taking on seasonal jobs over the Christmas break have been warned to speak out against safety shy bosses, following a 50 per cent increase in young worker deaths over the past year. Denise Kitchener, chief executive of the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers (APIL) said students should “speak up and stay safe,” so that deaths and injuries can be avoided.
APIL news release [pdf]
Hazards news, 22 December 2007

Britain: Guilty verdict on teen scaffolder death
Site supervisor David Swindells Jr has been found guilty of safety offences that contributed to the death of a teenage scaffolder. Steven Burke died aged 17 in January 2003 when a sub-standard scaffold collapsed - his employer 3D Scaffolding Ltd, main contractor Mowlem plc and RAM Services Ltd had earlier pleaded guilty to related safety offences.
FACK news release • Hazards young workers’ webpages
Hazards news, 1 December 2007

Britain: Schools safety probe after lathe injury
A safety review has started at all secondary schools in the in Scotland’s Borders area after a teenage girl became entangled in a lathe. Nadine Craig, a 14-year-old pupil at Galashiels Academy, required hospital treatment for the neck injuries she received when her scarf was caught in the machine and will be scarred for life as a result.
Daily Record • BBC News Online
Hazards news, 1 December 2007

Britain: Butcher fined again for teen mincer horror
A butcher's shop and its manager have been fined for an accident in which 15-year-old Sam Ashworth lost part of his arm in a mincing machine. The prosecution followed earlier fines for child labour offences.
BBC News Online • Hazards young workers webpages
Hazards news, 3 November 2007

Britain: Job dream fades as teen loses fingers
Car-mad Sheffield teen Wade Savage may have to abandon his hopes of becoming a mechanic after losing three fingers whilst working at a holiday job. The 16-year-old was injured at Holdsworth Packaging Ltd, where his work involved running general errands and assembling cardboard boxes and where his hand was dragged into a machine.
Sheffield Star • Hazards young workers webpages
Hazards news, 6 October 2007

Britain: Young farmworker killed by power lines
Young workers are continuing to face deadly risks while working. Farmworker Edward Andrew Pybus, 21, died after being electrocuted when the combine harvester he was driving clipped power lines.
Northern Echo • Hazards young workers’ webpages
Hazards news, 18 August 2007

Britain: Firm fined £2,600 after teen injures spine
A joinery firm has been convicted of safety offences after apprentice Brett Lawden, 19, fell through an unprotected stairwell on a building site. Cumbrian firm K and M Joinery Ltd was fined £2,600 and ordered to pay £1,395 costs by magistrates at Penrith after pleading guilty to a breach of the work at height regulations
HSE news release • Hazards young workers news and resources
Hazards news, 30 June 2007

Britain: Safety rules change urged after teen death
An MP wants changes in health and safety rules on building sites after two companies were fined following the electrocution death of a 19-year-old. Plaid Cymru MP Elfyn Llwyd said lessons should be learned from the death of Miall Roberts three years ago; the teenager was killed in 2004 by 11,000 volts of electricity while laying concrete foundations, when a boom hit an overhead cable.
HSE news release • BBC News Online
Hazards news, 23 June 2007

Britain: Butcher fined after schoolboy loses arm
The owners and manager of a butcher’s shop where a 15-year-old boy lost his arm have been fined for illegally employing a child. Sam Ashworth’s arm became trapped in a mincer at Fitton’s butchers where he was employed as a Saturday worker.
Oldham Chronicle • Hazards young workers news and resources
Hazards news , 16 June 2007

Britain: Young worker in ladder fall horror
A teenage worker fell 20 feet to his death from a ladder which a health and safety inspector described as the worst he had ever seen. Peter Evans, aged 18, fell head first onto a concrete patio and died the next day from extensive head injuries.
The Bolton News • Hazards young workers news and resources
Hazards news, 26 May 2007

Britain: Butcher fined after teen is burned
A family butcher has been fined £2,000 for health and safety breaches after a teenage employee suffered severe burns to his feet. Philip Woolgar, who was 17 at the time, received second degree burns when meat cooking equipment inside Piggotts Family Butchers in Biggleswade was knocked over spilling boiling hot water on to his feet.
Risks 297, 10 March 2007

Global: Dangerous and fast work puts youths at risk
Exposure to work hazards and a frenetic job pace increases the likelihood of injury among adolescent and young adult workers, a new scientific review suggests. Canadian researchers found the work setting also appears to play a role in predicting the risk of injury, with food service and construction industry jobs topping the list of hazardous employment in this group.
Risks 292, 3 February 2007 • Hazards young workers webpages

France: Union calls day of action on demanding work
The long-term wear and tear caused by work must be addressed by employers, the French trade union body CFDT has said. Over three years ago, a new pensions law in France gave employers just three years to reach agreement with unions on measures to deal with the health impact of the cumulative hazardous job exposures that wear out workers - however, the talks have stalled, leading CFDT general secretary François Chérèque to call for physically wearing work to be made a “national cause”.
Risks 291, 27 January 2007

Britain: Teenage apprentice crushed to death
A teenager has been crushed to death at work. Apprentice plumber Michael Scott, 18, died after the accident at Anderson Plumbing and Heating Services in Aberdeen.
Risks 288, 23 December 2006

Australia: Call to tailor safety laws for young workers
A children's watchdog in Australia has called for a change in workplace health and safety laws after a study found four in every 10 employees aged 16 or under had been injured at work. “Specific consideration” should be given in law to the health and safety of workers under 18, the New South Wales (NSW) Commissioner for Children and Young People, Gillian Calvert, reported in recommendations on children at work tabled in the state parliament on 13 December.
Risks 287, 16 December 2006

Britain: Firm fined £100,000 after worker, 21, is killed
A Chorley company has been fined £100,000 after pleading guilty to three criminal charges brought by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) after the “entirely preventable” death of an employee. Pin Croft Dyeing and Printing Co Limited was also ordered to pay the £18,895 costs of the case which followed the death of 21-year-old Daryl Wayne Lloyd in a tow tractor incident.
Risks 285, 2 December 2006

Britain: Uninsured boss fined £11,500 after teen injury
A company owner who did not have the legally required injury insurance has been told to pay up £11,500 in fines, costs and compensation after a teenage mechanic was injured. Andrew Richardson was found guilty of not having Employers Liability Compulsory Insurance after 17-year-old mechanic Yana Jones, who he paid £3 an hour, suffered injuries to her left leg resulting in a hospital stay and permanent scarring.
Risks 284, 25 November 2006

Britain: One in three workers fear being unfit for work by 60
Over one third of UK workers believe they could be unable to do their job at 60, according to new statistics. A report in Hazards magazine shows that in just six years the UK has slipped from being number one in the European league table for the proportion of workers who are confident they will be up to their current job when aged 60, to sixth.
Risks 284, 25 November 2006

Britain: Government not doing enough for older workers
The government should set itself more challenging employment targets if it is to successfully cope with demographic trends and an ageing workforce, older workers’ campaign TAEN has said. TAEN says the government’s ‘Health, Work and Wellbeing’ agenda must be seen to address the 50+ workforce “because the extension of working life requires action on well adapted workplaces, occupational health and the reduction of ill-health as a reason for early retirement.”
Risks 283, 18 November 2006

Britain: Work injury forces octagenarian’s retirement
A Sheffield octogenarian has had to give up work after sustaining a serious workplace injury. John Moffatt, 80, received a £5,000 out-of-court settlement from his former employer after suffering the shoulder injury at work in January 2005.
Risks 283, 18 November 2006

Britain: HSE and young people at work
The Health and Safety Executive has produced new “young people at work” webpages. HSE says that inexperience and others factors mean workplace novices – and that frequently means young workers - are at a far higher risk of workplace injury.
Risks 282, 11 November 2006

Britain: New safety qualification for young people
A new qualification has been designed to improve young people’s understanding of safe working when taking part in work experience. Last week the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), in partnership with the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH), British Safety Council Awards (BSC Awards) and ENTO, unveiled the new workplace hazard awareness course and qualification.
Risks 282, 11 November 2006

Britain: Site firm fined after teen injured in fall
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has warned construction firms of the dangers of working even at relatively low heights after a teenage worker suffered multiple fractures when he fell from the open edge of a first floor working platform. Lotus Construction Limited of Otley, West Yorkshire, was fined £5,000 and ordered to pay full costs of £1,143 and compensation totalling £500, for failing to provide an edge protection barrier would could have prevented 17-year-old sub-contractor Richard Green from falling.
Risks 282, 11 November 2006

Britain: Older women’s workplace health “neglected”
Too little is known about the work and health of older women, according to a new report. ‘Older women, work and health’, a research paper jointly commissioned by Help the Aged and TAEN – The Age and Employment Network - shows that few studies have explored the links between the work and health of older women despite their increased participation in the labour market.
Risks 282, 11 November 2006

Britain: Boss fined for teen injuries
The boss of a young worker who suffered horrific injuries when he fell through a roof on a building site has been hit with a £10,000 fine. Stephen Edkins, 19, shattered his wrist and needed plates inserted into his jaw and cheek after the warehouse roof collapsed in September.
Risks 280, 28 October 2006

Britain: Campaigns aim to protect young workers
Young workers should be protected in the workplace was the message of events nationwide this week.
Risks 280, 28 October 2006

Global: UN zero violence call for working children
A new report by the United Nations says there must be zero tolerance of violence against working children. ILO’s Frans Roselaers, a member of the team that produced the report, said violence has not been given much attention by programmes against child labour.
Risks 279, 21 October 2006

Britain: Death firm evades defective product rap
A firm that supplied defective equipment which failed causing a workplace death has escaped prosecution because it is no longer trading. HSE enquiries to Interpol established the firm, Johannesburg-based McKinnon Chain, was no longer in business.
Risks 278, 14 October 2006

Britain: Hunt says age discrimination is a work health issue
Safety minister Lord Hunt has called for support for a new law barring age discrimination in the workplace. He said there were proven health benefits of being in work and stressed the legislation will ensure that older workers are not denied the opportunity to increase their life expectancy while minimising the risks of depression, obesity and poverty.
Risks 277, 7 October 2006

Britain: Young worker was unlawfully killed
A young factory worker was crushed to death after vital safety equipment was switched off on a stone cutting machine, a Hampshire inquest has heard. The Southampton Coroners Court inquest followed a court case in August, when company boss Michael Shaw was found guilty of the manslaughter of David Bail, 22, but escaped with a two-year suspended sentence.
Risks 276, 30 September 2006

Britain: Teenage squaddie crushed to death
A 19-year-old soldier has been crushed to death at a base in Wiltshire as he took part in a military exercise. Private Michael Minns was performing a check on an eight-wheeled military vehicle with another soldier at the base in Ludgershall. Wiltshire Police say the tragedy is being treated as an “industrial accident”.
Risks 276, 30 September 2006

Britain: Police probe into young worker electrocution
Police and safety experts are investigating how a scaffolder was electrocuted while working on a London council estate. Father-of-two Ralph Kennedy, 24, died on 15 September after touching a live light fitting. Mr Kennedy’s relatives said they had not been allowed to see the site’s accident log.
Risks 276, 30 September 2006

Britain: Boy, seven, dies in farm tragedy
A seven-year-old Devon boy has been crushed to death under machinery on his family’s farm. Lewis Brook died under a roller attached to a tractor believed to have been operated by a family member at Mount Pleasant Farm near Winkleigh.
Risks 276, 30 September 2006

Britain: Action plans to keep young workers safe
The TUC is stepping up its campaign to protect young people in the workplace. A new TUC guide, published ahead of the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work’s ‘Safe Start’ themed Euro safety week in October, says: “As a safety representative, you can help protect any young workers in your workplace.”
Risks 276, 30 September 2006 • Young workers – a guide for safety representatives [pdf] • Hazards young workers news and resources

Britain: Firm fined £20,000 after young worker fatality
A firm in has been fined £20,000 after a young employee was crushed to death. Barkston Plastics Forming, of Westhoughton, near Bolton, appeared last week before magistrates in Trafford following the death of 22-year-old Philip Ashcroft.
Risks 275, 23 September 2006

Britain: Teenage victims of forklift peril
Evidence that dangerous machines and teenage workers do not mix have been demonstrated in three separate safety prosecutions this month. Poorly trained and supervised teenagers have been injured or prosecuted.
Risks 275, 23 September 2006

Britain: Saturday job boy loses arm in mincer
Surgeons had to amputate a teenager's arm in a butcher's shop after it became trapped in a mincer. Sam Ashworth, 15, was stuck in the machine for two hours at the business where he had a Saturday job.
Risks 275, 23 September 2006 • TUC and European Agency 23-28 October European Week 2006 webpages

Britain: Teen gets payout for work finger injury
A Sheffield teenager has received an out-of-court settlement of over £2,000 after sustaining a crush injury to his right middle finger leaving him with permanent injuries. Luke Peace, 19, suffered his injuries in April 2005 whilst employed as a junior clerk by Transtar International Freight Forwarders.
Risks 274, 16 September 2006

Britain: New call for young worker protection
The Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH) has warned that 1,500 workers under the age of 19 are badly injured and five killed every year through poor training and induction when starting work. Launching its ‘Wiseup2work’ campaign last week, safety professionals’ organisation IOSH said the initiative was necessary because “far more needs to be done to protect our young people when they are starting work, apprenticeships or work experience.”
Risks 273, 9 September 2006

USA: One in six working teens injured
One in six working teenagers has been injured at work, a US study suggests. “The findings clearly indicate that work-related injuries among youth are a significant health problem,” said Kristina Zierold, an assistant professor of family medicine at Wake Forest University School of Medicine and lead author of the study.
Kristina M Zierold, Henry A Anderson. Severe injury and the need for improved safety training among working teens, American Journal of Health Behavior, volume 30, number 5, pages 525-532, September/October 2006 [abstract – pdf].
Risks 272, 2 September 2006

Britain: Young worker dies in fairground accident
A teenager has been killed while working at a fairground in Eyemouth, Scotland. James Laidler, 17, from near Morpeth, was crushed under a carriage while working at the fair.
Risks 272, 2 September 2006

Britain: Student job leads to flattened thumbs
A Sheffield student has had both his thumbs crushed during a part-time construction job. Neil Goodchild, 22, received an out-of-court settlement of £6,250 after sustaining severe crushing injuries to both his thumbs leaving him with residual numbness.
Risks, 271, 26 August 2006

Britain: Scottish and Welsh youngsters need protection
Union organisations in Scotland and Wales have backed the TUC campaign for action on young worker safety. Ian Tasker, safety officer with the Scottish Trades Union Congress (STUC), said: “There is a mistaken perception that injuries suffered by younger workers are as a result of clowning around but this is purely a smokescreen to cover the inadequate training being given to young people embarking on their careers.”
Risks 269, 12 August 2006

Britain: Don't let your first job be your last
Nearly 4,500 young people were seriously injured or killed at work last year, over 20 per cent more than five years ago, according to a new report from the TUC-backed Hazards magazine. The report marked the launch of a TUC campaign to protect young people at work.
Risks 269, 12 August 2006

Britain: Firm fined after teen loses three fingers
A teenage construction worker laying concrete on the new Wembley Stadium site lost three fingers after his employer removed safety guards from a machine. Ian Goom, trading as Aztec Screeding, of Chalfont St Peter, Buckinghamshire was fined £3,000 and ordered to pay £3,028 costs at the City of London Magistrates Court.
Risks 267, 29 July 2006

Global: ILO launches child labour web movie
The International Labour Office (ILO) has launched a new online movie on the plight of more than 200 million child labourers worldwide. ILO says improvements are achievable, with a recent ILO report saying the number of child labourers worldwide fell by 11 per cent between 2000 and 2004, from 246 million to 218 million.
Risks 267, 29 July 2006