The declining rate of workplace injuries can be driven lower by continued attention to details like edge protection and demarcation systems, helping employees to step with a greater degree of surefootedness in potentially hazardous environments.
October 21st-25th was the European Week for Safety and Health at Work, organised by the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work and supported in the UK by the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents.
RoSPA took the opportunity to remind those with responsibility over Britain’s workplaces of some long-term trends in terms of on-the-job injuries – and the figures make for promising reading.
Between April 2012 and March 2013, 148 employees and 90 members of the public were killed at workplaces; but this is a decline from 172 workers in the previous year.
The overall rate of 0.5 fatalities per 100,000 workers is now below the five-year average, which stands slightly higher at 0.6.
But it is important not to become complacent, and to focus on safety preparations that will protect everybody on a given site for the long term.
For these reasons, fixed edge protection and demarcation systems can help to protect all those with access indefinitely – and keep the injury and fatality figures low for the years to come.