Over the past 25 years I have been involved in occupational health and safety, initially from my studies in occupational hygiene and then through my risk management work at an international level.
During my presidential term, I was keen to promote the importance of employee health and wellbeing and not just safety.
When I presented to health and safety professionals at network meetings, at conferences or during training sessions, one of the questions I often asked was, how many colleagues honestly spend more than 20 per cent of their working time on health/wellbeing-related issues? Typically, less than 20 per cent of the audience said they did.
I asked this very same question to over 1,500 health and safety professionals both in the UK and overseas and received a similar answer.
This is a real concern to me and should be a wake-up call within our profession for the following reasons:
HSE statistics state that over 12,000 workers die annually as a result of work-related ill health in the UK. Thankfully, HSE is now promoting a greater focus on workplace health-related issues.
At a global level, the International Labour Organization estimates that over two million workers die annually as a result of work-related ill health.
Is it right for individuals to call themselves health and safety professionals if they are spending less than 20 per cent of their time on health-related issues?
Are they not potentially fooling themselves, their employers and the workers they are trying to protect? More importantly, what can we do to change this?
Subash Ludhra is a former IOSH president
