Rory O’Neill, the editor of Hazards, a health and safety journal, spoke out against the increase in green jobs as an ideal option for creating new employment opportunities for scores of people in the UK. O’Neill raised serious doubts about the quality of such jobs and wondered if they might end up doing more harm than good.

O’Neill, who is also a professor of Occupational and Environmental Health at the University of Stirling, Scotland, says green jobs will have to be closely monitored to ensure that the activities of recycling industries deliver the expected results. Else, they could well be the main cause of increased workplace injuries and health problems in the UK. He made an appeal to employee unions to take an active interest in ensuring that this does not happen.

In his article, O’Neill reveals that the data released by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) shows that being employed in the recycling and waste sector can put employees in up to 10 times more risk than working in any other industry. He points out that waste recycling is easily the most hazardous job available today. He writes that while these jobs carry the normal risks present with any traditional employment, there are in addition some unique dangers that only these types of occupations pose. Exposure to lead, asbestos and re-insulation materials are some of the risks employees will have to be wary of, he says.

Apart from this, there may be risks of falling from heights involved in the installation of eco-friendly structures and components, like the installation of heavy energy-efficient windows and solar panels, or in the erection and upkeep of wind turbines.

Employers have a duty towards ensuring health and safety of the workers; a NEBOSH course can be of benefit to organisations in providing the knowledge to manage safely and effectively in compliance with both the organisation’s policy and best practice in health and safety. The NEBOSH Fire Certificate has been designed for managers, supervisors, and employee representatives who are responsible for fire risk management within their organisation. NEBOSH Fire safety will help organisations meet their legal duties under fire safety and general health and safety law, and to protect their people and their business reputation.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 27th, 2009 at 5:28 am and is filed under Commerce, Health Center, Living With The Law, Money Making. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.