Hazards
magazine has championed the use of worker -friendly health and safety
research in the workplace. This do-it-yourself resource section contains
information on participatory research techniques and on trade union
safety training, education and action.
Mapping
Hazards
detective- interactive tool
Listen to your body talk - many workplace diseases and symptoms
can be caused you work, from bright green urine to curling fingers
and floppy ankles. The Hazards detective online guide helps
you make the links the doctors and the safety officers miss.
Worked over - interactive tool Problems
outside of work can arise from the problems inside work. From fatigue
to depression, drug use to violence, the Hazards worked over
online guide helps you examine the 24/7/365 hazards that can come
with the job.
Surveying the
damage The Hazards
guide to do-it-yourself workplace health and safety research - because
unions offer the best chance of uncovering workplace ill-health
and finding working solutions. Hazards 71,
July-September 2000, centrepages
Mapping
out work hazards Risk maps let workers look at what
they work with and any physical. chemical, biological or pyschosocial
problems that might arise when doing the job. Hazards
60, October-Dec 1997, centrepages
(pdf)
Britain: Firefighters put out new safety strategy
Firefighters’ union FBU is using its nationwide network of safety reps to investigate work-related health problems across the service. A new strategy, spelled out in a video clip on ‘fbutube’, is looking to use bodymapping establish the extent and causes of harm caused by work and to use this information to identify measures to improve work practices.
USA UCLA-LOSH
• Bodymapping factsheets English
and Spanish versions • Spanish language bodymapping factsheet, Haciendo un Mapa
del Cuerpo. [pdf]
• Worksite Mapping, Mapeo del Lugar de Traba. [pdf] • Risk mapping, Factores de Riesgos en Su Trabajo. [pdf]
Britain Radiographers map out work problems
Radiographers’ union SoR is urging its members to start mapping
their work-related aches and pains. A new guidance document from the
healthcare union is encouraging its safety representatives to take up
body mapping. Body mapping: A resource for SoR health and safety representatives[pdf]
Using
maps to identify health and safety problems, Dorothy Wigmore,
Labor Notes, Number 332, November 2006.
Britain Telling where it hurts
Body mapping guide from UK shopworkers' union USDAW. Telling
where it hurts
Britain Mapping out solutions to workplace slips
and trips
Retail union Usdaw is urging its safety reps to use risk maps to tackle
the problem of workplace slips and trips, which account for a third
of all reported major injuries.
Risk mapping for slips and trips guide [pdf].
[November 2004]
OHS Rep Guide to workplace mapping from Victorian
Trades Hall Council, Australia
Australia
Australia Asia Worker Links (AAWL) bodymapping guide. Includes a photogallery.
Epi info and Epi map software can be
downloaded free from the US Centers for Disease Control
Geographical
Information Systems University of Edinburgh web guide to
GIS.
Mapping
training
EPMU, New Zealand's largest trade union, used Hazards resources
to train union reps in DIY research techniques. body mapping•risk mapping • more
about EPMU
Barefoot
researching The manual Barefoot Research: A Worker's
Manual for Organising On Work Security has been developed to
help empower workers to increase their level of control over their
own work situations, to protect their health and well being, and
to improve their level of basic security. click here for [quite large] pdf files
Now
available free on CD
Risks 73, 28 September 2002
Body mapping for workplace health By drawing simple maps of their body or their
workplace, workers can record, in a visual form, their health problems,
work hazards and overall work environment. This helps them to share
their knowledge of problems and solutions - and it gives unions some
very useful information. Peter
Kirby, Labour Education, vol.126, April 2002(pdf)
Participatory
research Workers' Health International
Newsletter (WHIN) feature and reports
on body mapping, from USA, Canada and Brazil WHIN 53, January-June 1998, pages 16-18(pdf)
United
Steelworkers of America (USWA) Canada "Women of steel" workplace mapping
guide
Training
for safety reps in the use of body mapping
TUC Training Initiative Project. Version
2 updated October 2001. Peter Kirby. TUC, Congress House, Great Russell
St., London WC1B 3LS or
Map
out a safer job The Observer
report on the initiative introduced to the UK by Hazards magazine. Observer,
July 29, 2001
Membership surveys UK union UNISON's guide
to membership surveys.
Inspection guide This UNISON guide for health
and safety reps includes information, a checklist and draft questionnaire
on how to conduct a health and safety inspection. UNISON
health and safety inspections at work (pdf)
Australia: Union
launches asbestos probe
An Australian union has organised the largest asbestos survey and research
programme to ever be undertaken at a single work site in the country.
The Australian Workers’ Union (AWU) says the Cement Australia
site at Railton, Tasmania, contains asbestos building products and the
company’s predecessor on the site, Goliath Cement, manufactured
and distributed asbestos-containing materials between 1947 and 1986.
AWU
news release • Risks
357 Hazards news, 24 May 2008
Britain:
Union rep designs drivers’ body map
Novel techniques to identify work-related health problems are putting
union safety reps in the driving seat, says George Partridge, chair
of the Northern TUC Health and Safety Forum. He is highlighting the
case of a member of the forum has designed his own drivers’ body
map. Risks 220, 20 August 2005 Northern TUC body map [pdf]
Usdaw charts back pain at work
Shopwork union Usdaw has made its 'Charting back pain' guide available
online. The guide highlights 'the use of a powerful tool called 'body
mapping' which can be used to develop members' awareness of the health
and safety concerns in their work situation and to identify practical
solutions to any problems they face.' As well as details of back pain
problems in shopworkers, the report includes a 'how-to' guide to body
mapping at work.
Research
for truth? How
traditional methods of research may be bad for your health. Hazards
65, Jan-March 1999
Lay,
worker and community epidemiology - A new approach to documenting community
health Public perception of hazards from pesticides
is frequently not matched by professional studies which fail to link
health to specific chemicals used near communities. In this article,
Dr. Andrew Watterson explains a new approach to the science of epidemiology
and shows methods being developed to help communities and professionals
work together for more accurate assessments of cause and effect. Pesticides
News, No.30, December 1995
Unions produce better health studies Occupational health researchers say
active union participation was key to the success of a study of skin
problems in print workers. Risks
66, 10 August 2002 • The
prevalence of occupational dermatitis in the UK printing industry,
Occupational and Environmental Medicine, 59, pages 487-492, 2002 [abstract]
Participation means unions Hazards
article issue 66
Union training
Online
safety training manual The Asian Workers for Occupational
Health, Safety and Environment Institute has produced a training programme
including: The OHSE approach; trainers' manual; timetable; handouts;
overhead transparencies; and role plays. Trainer
training in occupational health, safety and environment program webpage
Courses, courses Trade union safety rep training
is going from strength to strength in the UK. Hazards
75, July-Sept 2001(pdf)
What makes a rep work? Government backed
research finds trade union safety rep training is so good it saves lives Hazards
75, July-Sept 2001(pdf)
Case histories
The impact of a worker health study on working
conditions
US Workers' health study results in new limits on houseworkers' workload
CANADA Millions in foundry asbestos disease payouts
Successful claims for former Holmes workers reached Canadian $11 million
(£4.5 million). CAW worked with ex-workers, their families and top Canadian
union health and safety campaigners Margie Keith and Jim Brophy to use
body and risk mapping and old photos to reconstruct conditions at the
long-closed foundry. Background Document (word)
Casino workers health warning Long hours and poor working conditions are
threatening the health of casino workers, a GMB report says. BBC
News, 24 December, 2001
Casino worker driven research
A 2001 report in the American Journal of Industrial Medicine
concluded that casino workers are the best people to spot work-related
health problems and their solutions, adding that the study “demonstrates
the effectiveness of a worker-driven, participatory consultation." American
Journal of Industrial Medicine, Volume 39, Issue 1, 2001. Pages: 42-51
Toxic hotspots US-based Silicon Valley Toxics
Coalition map environmental air and water pollution caused by the microelectronics
industry./ SVTC
Toxic hotspots
pages
Thanks
to Diane Factor, Margaret Keith, Jim Brophy, Dorothy Wigmore, Susan
Moir, Linda Delp, Pete Kirby, Mike Merritt, Anthony Pizzino, Mick Holder,
Owen Tudor, Eve Barker and The Russell Press for their assistance in
the preparation of these resources.
HAZARDS
MAGAZINE • WORKERS' HEALTH INTERNATIONAL NEWS
Using
maps to identify health and safety problems
