With thousands of students getting ready to embark on temporary jobs during their summer holidays, Phil Grace reminds businesses of the importance of identifying and managing the additional risks associated with employing young seasonal workers.

Exploring the hazards nurses face and the challenges on the horizon, Kim Sunley concludes that a focus on the health and well-being of health-care staff will reap benefits for patients.

In January this year, the HSE published new guidance on asbestos surveying,1 which explicitly advocates the need to be able to demonstrate and ensure competency. Martin Gibson, Martin Stear and Jon Murthy explain how both surveyors and duty-holders can do so.

Cautioning against an over-reliance on dynamic risk assessment to protect lone workers, Edmund Jacobs considers how organisations can effectively integrate dynamic risk assessment methodology into their risk-management processes.

The regulatory system can seem like a jungle to businesses that covet a clear understanding of how they can work effectively with different inspectorates. Alison Gray and Anna Hart set out what organisations should bear in mind if they want to get the best out of their relationships with regulators.

Stuart Bower describes the process his organisation undertakes to ensure that it is confident in its performance on health and safety.

Recent high-profile cases in Scotland in which landlords in the social and private rental sectors were sued for personal-injury damages demonstrate the need to keep up to date with best practice in the area, says James Barrowman.

Electromagnetic fields are present everywhere in our environment and the proliferation of man-made sources, such as radio waves, has become a serious concern. Imminent legislation will require employers to ensure their workforce is not exposed to potentially dangerous levels, as Howard Venning explains.

Alan McArthur provides an overview of the main hazards faced by welders in their work and suggests the best measures to deal with them.

Safety Data Sheets (SDS) are a key resource for employers carrying out risk assessment on hazardous substances or mixtures handled and stored in the workplace. The current SDS requirements in REACH are being amended to take into account the implementation of the Globally Harmonised System of Classification and Labelling (GHS), so Mark Blainey provides an overview of the changes.