News Bulletins
NEWS BULLETIN : APRIL 2012
In the UK the HSE and the Scottish Centre for Healthy Working Live have developed a new Respiratory Protective Equipment (RPE) selector tool to assist organisations select the appropriate RPE. You can use the RPE selector tool to determine what kind of equipment your workers will need for a hazardous substance, task and work area involved.
Norwegian Staff allowed 8 minutes for toilet break – Norway’s privacy watchdog has reprimanded financial services giant DNB for keeping strict tabs on the time taken by its employees for toilet breaks. The Data Inspectorate described DNG’s monitoring as a “major violation of privacy”. DNS’s administrative director countered by saying that the aim of the checks was not to measure the breaks taken by individual workers, but rather to assess staffing needs by monitoring a team over a longer period. The company also claimed that the trade unions’ figure of 8 minutes was incorrect, but did concede however that some team leaders had used the results to measure the performance of individual employees.
A new online tool aimed at dispelling myths about food allergy and intolerance has been launched on the NHS Choices website, with the help of the FSA.
It tackles topics including:-
· the differences between allergies and intolerances;
· whether you can ‘outgrow’ allergies and intolerances;
· the use of home – test kits;
· whether allergies and intolerances can be cured.
www.nhs.uk/Tools/Pages/Food-allergy-myth-buster.aspx.
An ASTM International Special Technical Publication on surface and dermal sampling is available at www.astm.org/DIGITAL_LIBRARY/STP/SOURCE_PAGES/STP1533.htm
This monograph contains 20 peer-reviewed papers discussing sampling techniques, analytical measurement technologies, reference material, standardization, occupational hygiene, decontaminations methods and quality assurance.
