Dear Dennis,
Some of our academics are at it, 12 hours a day, for most of their working
lives. As long as they can persuade the funders, they beaver away.
There are differences between industry & academia, which may make an
informed choice approach difficult, but not necessarily impossible.
Not sure the machine guard analogy is exact. I insist on full compliance
with procedural controls & use of personal protective equipment as part of
the deal to support the person to continue in their work. I'm not giving
them the chance to make decisions on this, but on whether or not to work
with the residual risk once controls are in place.
A closer analogy may be the machinist with early NIHL detected on screening,
despite conscientious attention to engineering controls for noise reduction
by the employer and conscientious wearing of RPE by the machinist. Do we
sack him (assuming we can't re-deploy to other work) against his will, or
allow him to take an informed decision over the risk of disabling hearing
loss in later life?
(Apologies to women machinists)
Anyone else want to join in this one?
Regards
Dr. Alan Swann, BM, AFOM
Director of Occupational Health
Occupational Health Service
Imperial College Health Centre
Watts Way
London
SW7 1 LU
Tel: +44 (20) 7594 9385
Fax: +44 (20) 7594 9407
http://www.ad.ic.ac.uk/occ_health/
-----Original Message-----
From: Dennis Macwilliam [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 16 January 2003 17:14
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Recent Court of Appeal Judgement
I can accept the logic of Dr Swann with regards to those working in an
academic setting [short-term research contracts and similar academic
activities].
However, I think the approach advocated for academic activities may not be
wholly appropriate in an industrial setting, where the exposed workforce
may be at the workbench [or standing in a spray booth] for up to 8 hours a
day for most of their working lives. In such situations, making
an "informed choice" may not be acceptable.
By analogy, if, after explaining to a worker the need to use a guard at a
drilling machine, would it be acceptable if the worker, having had the
risks explained to him, made an informed choice to work without the guard?
Dennis M
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