Do we mean Health when we say Health & Safety?

We attended a Women in Logistics event last week about driver health which was based around a 6 year research study. The content was very interesting and certainly got us thinking about how the health of commercial drivers could be improved.

The event was held at Loughborough University and it was with Dr Veronica Verela who is one of the many people who are working on the study.

The first question asked was what does ‘health and safety’ mean to us?

Think about this point as it did make us think about the term ‘health and safety’ and what that means to us.  When we think about it, does it actually mean ‘health’ and ‘safety’, or does it really just focus on ‘safety’ and it is referred to as ‘health and safety’?

The health part should actually refer to the health and wellbeing and not the safety aspect.

Unless you are trained in health and safety specifically, would you think in this way?

So what emphasis is there within the workplace about health?

Drivers in particular, sit for many hours and can only park vehicles in designated areas.  The areas where they can park vehicles are mainly service areas where there is minimal amounts of healthy food choices.  Other places to stop do not necessarily have the adequate facilities for drivers to use.

Does this then promote health within the professional drivers community?

FORS have also now introduced section D6 for drivers health and eyesight in the new FORS Standard version 5.

This is a link that gives information about the study which we had presented to us on the evening, as well as taking part in the interactive activities.

https://journals.lww.com/joem/Abstract/2018/04000/The_Impact_of_a_Novel_Structured_Health.11.aspx

If you would like any help implementing policies, procedures and new practices to approach the health topic, please feel free to email us on info@totalcompliance.co.uk