As usual, you can find our website at www.qesconnect.co.uk. As well as details of what we can offer your business, you can find back numbers of our newsletter, and biographies of our staff. Why not take a look?

Contents:

• Audits
• Certification

• Regulations

• Regulations
• Reports

One final thought

An integral part of a quality management system is internal quality audits. If your management system is registered with an external certification body, you will also be audited by them. Do these audits help your business?

The certification auditor has limited time and knowledge of your business. He is there to ensure that you can still validly claim that your quality management system meets ISO9001. If you are lucky, he will find a few things that can be improved, but he will be intent on ensuring that his own audit meets the requirements of his company and UKAS who oversee the ISO9001 accreditation system in the UK.

Your internal auditors can spend more time looking for opportunities for improvement. If they are well trained and knowledgeable about your business, they can certainly add value by finding out where the management system is not aligned with best practice. However, they may also have limited time, particularly if auditing is not their main role. If they are part time auditors, and they have been assigned an audit to do, they may just want to get it over as quickly as possible, raising as few non-conformances as possible to avoid "rocking the boat".

As an alternative, why not consider an independent third-party audit? QES Connect Ltd will carry out an audit of all or part of your business, and give you an independent assessment of whether your business is operating in the most effective way to meet the ISO9001 requirements. We believe that the money will be well spent. Andy Saunders has been auditing quality management systems since 1987, and has a reputation for carrying out audits that cut through to what really matters to a business. His recommendations have been welcomed by many of his clients as being realistic to the needs of their business. Contact us to discuss your needs.

There are a number of bodies that will issue certificates for ISO9001. Most of these are accredited by the United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS). The full list of UK accredited certification organisations is available on www.ukas.com under 'Accredited bodies'. These organisations are subject to surveillance by UKAS to ensure that standards are maintained. You should pick one of these organisations to certify your quality management system. Talk to several of them that operate in your industry sector, understand how they work, get quotes and then make a choice.

Do not be tempted by low-cost organisations that are not UKAS accredited. Some of these offer consultancy and certification, and some offer a ready- made quality manual and ISO9001 certificate on payment of a fee. The "off the shelf" quality manual cannot fit your business, and the certifier cannot guarantee that your management system is effective without carrying out an independent assessment.

We believe that these schemes are a waste of money. If you want an effective quality management system, that is independently checked, you need to use a UKAS-accredited certifier, and your ISO9001 logo will have the "tick and crown" logo beside it. Remember also that when looking at other companies' claims of ISO9001 certification, it is important to look for this symbol, and also to check the scope of the quality management system registration - does it cover the areas of the suppliers' business that are important to you?

If you are considering a new quality management system, contact QES Connect for advice.

REGULATIONS FOR CHEMICAL SAFETY REDRAFTED

Several important regulations relating to chemical use have received a facelift this winter, emphasising the importance of protecting the workforce from exposure to hazardous substances. Chief among them is the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health (COSHH ) Regulations 2002, redrafted to clarify the employer's obligations as well as including carcinogens and biological agents, previously the subject of separate regulations. The relevant Approved Code of Practice has also been revised and leaves no room for doubt as to the requirements.

The Control of Lead at Work (CLAW) Regulations 2002 provide a recognisably similar framework as do the new Dangerous Substances and Explosive Atmospheres (DSEAR) Regulations 2002. The same principles of risk assessment apply throughout, namely identifying the hazard, determining how it may happen and who might be affected. Then, if the hazard is significant, be it a chemical hazard, fire or explosion, identifying control measures based on the severity of the outcome and the likelihood of occurrence. Needless to say, each set of regulations includes greater complexity to ensure its applicability in all circumstances. This is one reason why employers may need help to focus application of the law on their particular processes.

DSEAR may affect many manufacturing processes where the hazards associated with the use of flammable liquids and gases have not previously been considered. For companies with 5 or more employees, a written record of the outcome of the DSEAR assessment for existing processes must be made by 30th June 2003.

QES Connect can help you to review your COSHH assessments and incorporate the new requirements of DSEAR. Call us for a free quote.

While carrying out a COSHH assessment for a client recently, we discovered a change to the requirements for one of the constituent substances that had not been tracked by the supplier's MSDS. It was spotted by using the latest copy of EH40 to check MSDS data. Since the change was from an OES to an MEL for the substance, significant changes to the control regime were required,

a) to reduce so far as is reasonably practical the exposure for employees and

b) to avoid the risk of prosecution.

Two points arise from this cautionary tale.

The first is that you cannot rely on the supplier's MSDS alone to give sufficient information about a substance and its requirements. Apart from the sort of change mentioned here, MSDSs are becoming increasingly less specific about subjects like effective PPE, and further research is quite often necessary, to identify the right material for gloves, for example.

The second is that it is the employer's responsibility to ensure that information about substances in use is up to date. This is most conveniently done as part of the review process, the requirement for which is indicated in Regulation 6 of COSHH 2002 and clearly described in the new ACOP.

As you might expect, QES Connect can help you to review COSHH assessments for your company. Let us give you a quotation. It may not be as expensive as you think.

Users of mobile work equipment such as forklift trucks, dumpers, and tractors are now required to comply with the revised requirements of PUWER 1988. Measures may include the fitting of roll-over protective structures (ROPS), falling object protective structures (FOPS), operator restraints (seat belts, lap belts, etc), and driver visibility aids such as mirrors. Employers will need to ensure that drivers are wearing seat belts, etc., correctly when necessary. Add this item to the inspection check list along with PPE.

If you want help to generate a check list from your risk assessments, we can help.

PAYING THE PRICE

HSE's "Offences and Penalties" report published last November identifies nearly 1,500 H&S offences attracting an average of £12,000 each in fines. This is the tip of an iceberg containing more than 11,000 enforcement notices obliging companies to carry out urgent improvement work.

We would argue that it makes more sense to plan the improvement work before you get "caught", and save both the fine money and the inconvenience of having your planning done for you, not to mention the pain and suffering if injury were to be involved.

Before you accuse us of preaching to the converted, we should remember that the systematic approach to Health and Safety advocated by HSE includes the periodic review of risks and control measures. Many things can change in a busy company. Not just the law but people, processes and methods; sometimes essential control measures can get overlooked; guards go missing; new substances don't get assessed; The list is endless.

Systematic safety inspections backed up by occasional safety audits combine to provide a powerful tool to help managers keep abreast of changes, and a fresh pair of eyes will often spot things that have been missed through familiarity.

QES Connect can provide a safety inspection system designed for your company, backed up by an auditing service that gives you the information you need to help you review your company's health and safety management performance. Why not give us a call and avoid being an HSE statistic?

Workers in the Construction Industry are still up to 5 times more likely to be killed at work than the average worker in the UK. This was one conclusion drawn in the second report by Kevin Myers, Chief Inspector of Construction, HSE on Health and Safety Performance in the Construction Industry. Despite this horrifying statistic, the toll was lower than in previous years, although not enough to count as a trend. The report focuses on the progress of the Revitalising Health and Safety programme in the Construction Industry. Among its other conclusions, there is an apparent reduction of 12% in the figures for fatalities and major injuries when compared with the previous year, but the estimated levels of reporting (~50%) may have changed too, and this reduces the significance of the result.

It is clear that the programme will be struggling to achieve the 40% reduction targeted for 2006. However, on the plus side, the Industry's attempts to ensure competence among members of its workforce appears to be bearing fruit, with the Construction Industry Training Board (CITB) reporting a phenomenal increase in the volume of applications for their courses, and other professional bodies adopting serious positions in favour of the strong Health and Safety culture (training, discipline, control, etc.).

As managers in the industry, you can help protect your workforce by insisting that they follow HSE and Industry guidelines and best practice, (as well as the basic rules of common sense).

At QES Connect, we believe we can help by providing a systematic method for assessing and measuring performance on a regular basis, as well as putting in place the risk assessments that determine what needs to be done. If you are finding the H & S task daunting, give us a call and let us take some of the load.

Nearly half the fatal workplace accidents most years involve vehicles, and many more numbers of people are seriously injured. The most common accidents involve being struck or run over by a moving vehicle or its trailer, falling from vehicles, and being struck or suffocated by a load falling from a vehicle. Most businesses have vehicle delivering or collecting at their premises, as well as the vehicles of the staff. Have you considered how people could be injured in your workplace by vehicles? Have you considered the hazards of fork trucks, lorries backing up, and even emergency vehicles coming to the site when everyone is standing outside because of a fire?

Does your risk assessment cover these hazards? Have you really done all that is reasonably practicable to segregate vehicles from pedestrians, minimise the hazards from reversing manoeuvres, and train drivers?

NEW RULES FOR SOLVENT (AB)USERS

The EU has issued the Solvents Emissions Directive (SED), which is being implemented in England and Wales under the Pollution Prevention and Control Regulations (England And Wales) 2000. The aim of the SED is to prevent or reduce the direct and indirect effects of emissions of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) into the environment, mainly into air, and the potential risks to human health. Organic solvents are chemicals commonly used in paints, inks and adhesives. Solvents are also used to clean surfaces prior to coating and to remove greases and soils, for instance during manufacturing. Because of their wide ranging uses, the Solvent Emissions Directive applies to a cross-section of industry sectors from printing to dry cleaners.

The emissions of solvents need to be controlled because many solvents undergo chemical reactions in the atmosphere, which cause a number of indirect effects, in particular the formation of ozone. Elevated concentrations of ozone in air can impair human health and can damage some building materials, forests, vegetation and crops.

The Directive applies thresholds that are different for different industries. In general, activities operated above the solvent consumption threshold will need to either:

• meet an emission limit value in waste gases and a fugitive emission limit value; or
• meet the total emission limit value; or
• implement a solvent reduction scheme to reduce emissions from the installation equal to those that would be achieved by meeting the total emission limit value.

There are stricter requirements for those activities using potentially more harmful substances such as halogenated solvents which are assigned the risk phrase R40 or solvents that are classified as carcinogenic, mutagenic or toxic to reproduction and which carry the risk phrase R45, R46, R49, R60 or R61.

For advice on meeting the solvent emissions requirements, contact QES Connect Ltd.

Dakota tribal wisdom says that when you are riding a dead horse, the best strategy is to dismount. However, in business, we often try other strategies including:

• Buying a stronger whip
• Changing riders
• Saying "This is the way we have always ridden this horse"
• Appointing a committee to study the horse
• Arranging to visit other organisations to see how they ride dead horses
• Declaring that the horse is not dead, just resting
• Harnessing several dead horses together for increased speed
• Declaring that "No horse is too dead to beat"
• Outsourcing the riding to a contractor
• Purchasing a product to make dead horses run faster
• Forming a quality circle to find uses for dead horses
• Promoting the dead horse to management

Is this how your business operates?

Write, call or e-mail us about this or any other topic in this issue.(addresses in contact page).

Produced by QES Connect Ltd. Except where stated, the material included in the newsletter is taken from freely available public sources. It may be reproduced without permission for non-commercial purposes.