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Vol.
28 No. 3
May-June 2006
Where 2B &Y |
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Announcements of conferences, symposia, workshops, meetings, and other upcoming activities. |
Occupational Health and Safety Management
27–29 September 2006, Nairobi, Kenya
In recent years, public awareness of work-related accidents has driven industries to focus on improving the occupational health and safety status of work environments. Local and national governments are taking a hard look at safety in industry as a whole and the chemical industry in particular, resulting in more government regulation.
A conference on Occupational
Health and Safety Management for East Africa
will be held 27-29 September 2006 in Nairobi, Kenya. This
conference for the East African region aims to enable industrialists
and other stakeholders to appreciate the purpose of an occupational
health and safety (OH&S) management system; explain the
legislative framework relevant to such an OH&S management
system; and explore the purpose and intent of Occupational
Health and Safety Assessment Series (OHSAS) 18001 and 18002.
The conference is intended to empower all key health and safety
stakeholders to adopt a systematic and comprehensive approach
to the management of health and safety issues at the plant
level.
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Industrialists in developed countries take OH&S issues seriously, but their counterparts in the developing world often do not, largely due to lack of awareness, lack of enforcement of relevant safety laws and regulations, and lack of a systematic structure to guide the establishment of sound OH&S management systems. The result has been an uncoordinated approach to safety issues, exposing workers to high levels of risks and hazards. Chemists and other professionals do the safety work in industry with limited skills and knowledge. Accidents and incidents are not fully investigated, especially where directorates of occupational health and safety are not empowered with adequate tools and safety standards to conduct their duties effectively.
Although hazard elimination is the goal, experience has taught us that guaranteed, failure-free designs and devices have so far eluded mankind, despite astonishing advances in technology. By the end of the conference, participants will be able to:
- Describe the purpose of an OH&S management system in managing health and safety risks resulting from their business operations
- Outline the concept and approaches to OH&S risk management
- Summarize relevant national and local OH&S legislation in the context of the development of modern OH&S legislation, based on the principles of risk assessment and self-regulation
- Understand and appreciate the purpose of OHSAS 18001 Specification and OHSAS 18002 Guidelines, how they interrelate, and the benefits to organizations that use an OH&S management system specification
- Outline the content of OHSAS 18001 and OHSAS 18002
- Describe with reference to the Plan, Do, Check, Act cycle (the OHSAS 18001 elements of successful OH&S management), the structure and scope of OHSAS 18001
- Explain key OHSAS definitions and terminology
- Determine conformance of a management system to OHSAS 18001
This conference is also sponsored by COCI, the IUPAC Committee on Chemistry and Industry. www.iupac.org/projects/2005/2005-046-1-022.html
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