Minister of Labour and Chairman of the Supreme Health and Safety Committee Mr. Jameel Ben Mohammed Ali Hemaidan received at his office Mr. Hasan Al Aradi, the Managing Director of RRC Middle East, who presented him with RRC’s new Arabic textbook for the NEBOSH Award in Health and Safety at Work.

This book is the first of its kind in Arabic, and aims to allow health and safety specialists to obtain this qualification from the British National Examination Board in Occupational Safety and Health.

Mr. Hemaidan appreciated the effort behind this book and its contents, which will have positive results in terms of qualifying a new generation of health and safety specialists in various sectors, where they will carry out their duties in implementing all health and safety foundations and requirements.

He also stated that such publishing will serve the business sector and develop the efforts of the Kingdom of Bahrain in protecting the workforce and ensuring its safety from all kinds of occupational hazards in the workplace.

For his part, Mr. Hasan Al Aradi presented his thanks and appreciation to the Ministry of Labour for their efforts to improve health and safety standards in the Kingdom of Bahrain and their continuous support for the various functions and activities being held in this field.

Mr. Al Aradi also expressed his appreciation for the support of the Minister of Labour and for his distinctive and continuous effort to spread the occupational health and safety culture in the Kingdom of Bahrain.

A new report suggests that levels of obesity among US fire-fighters are extremely high, exceeding those among ordinary members of the public.

The report, which has been released by the National Volunteer Fire Council, states that between 73 and 88 percent of American fire-fighters are overweight or obese, compared to roughly 66 percent in the general population. This puts them at increased risk of a range of health problems, including heart disease and high blood pressure.

The report investigates the possible reasons for these alarming figures and proposes ideas to help reverse the trend. It is available to download here.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) have issued a white paper investigating the topic of injury and illness prevention programs.

These programs are already mandatory in some states and regions, but the report makes the argument that they should be universally required. As well as providing an overview of the practicalities of injury prevention programs, it also sets out the business incentives which they can offer organisations.

The full Injury and Illness Prevention Programs White Paper is available to view or download from the OSHA website.

The report on Britain’s health and safety laws and regulations commissioned by the Department of Work and Pensions continues to stir up debate about the future of HSE legislation.

Dr David Towlson, RRC’s Director of Training and Quality, has updated his blog with the latest in a series of articles about Professor Löfstedt’s suggestions. This chapter deals with the issue of removing unnecessary and outdated regulations – something about which the Löfstedt Report has plenty to say.

Why not join the debate? Use the “Leave Comments” feature to add your thoughts to the discussion.

Exciting news! RRC Training and RRC Middle East are proud to announce that the first Arabic e-Learning NEBOSH Award in Health and Safety at Work course is almost complete!

The official launch for this highly anticipated e-Learning course will be at the Intersec exhibition in Dubai (15-17 Jan 2012). Please come along to meet the team and support us in this important launch.

Check back for more details (coming soon), but for now here’s a leaflet about the NEBOSH Award course in Arabic (note: the leaflet is in Arabic!).

Dr David Towlson, RRC’s Director of Training and Quality, continues to update his blog with a series of reflections on the findings of the recent report on the UK’s health and safety regulations.

His blogs over the past week have covered a range of topics and ideas, including:

• An overview of the Löfstedt Report and its main recommendations.
• Professor Löfstedt’s aims and intentions.
• The importance of evidence in producing a report such as this.
• The costs and benefits of regulations.
• The implications of the report for small and large businesses’ management of health safety.

Keep an eye on the RRC Tutors’ blog for more updates on the Löfstedt Report and many other key health and safety issues. Why not have your say? We love to hear your thoughts, so use the “Leave Comments” feature to get the debate started.

RRC's Hasan Alaradi and Gary Fallaize with representatives of NEBOSH and RRC students; picture courtesy of NEBOSH.

The gardens of the British Ambassador’s residence in Bahrain recently played host to the official launch of the NEBOSH Award in Health and Safety at Work in Arabic.

Attended by RRC’s Managing Director Gary Fallaize, with representatives present from RRC Middle East and the examining body, the event marked the premiere of the first introductory-level NEBOSH exam to be set in the Arabic language.

RRC will be offering the NEBOSH Award in Health and Safety at Work in Arabic by e-Learning and Distance Learning soon. It is currently available as a Face-to-Face course through RRC Middle East.

To see more photographs from the event, courtesy of NEBOSH, click here.

RRC’s Director of Training and Quality, Dr David Towlson, has been updating his blog with his thoughts on the recent report into Britain’s health and safety regulations commissioned by the Department of Work and Pensions.

To read his reaction to the report’s findings and how they might affect the future of health and safety, read his response now and keep checking the blog for further updates.

Hasan Alaradi (RRC Middle East's Managing Director) and students at a recent workshop on Modern Health and Safety Management held in Dubai.

We’re delighted to announce that the winner of our recent Amazon Kindle competition (held at the IEMA Conference) has been selected! Congratulations to Vicki Shaw, we hope you are delighted with your Kindle.

You may not have considered using your Kindle for studying, but all of RRC’s e-Learning course materials can be transferred onto your Kindle for reading on the go! For details see our handy guide.

Coming into force on 24 October 2011, the Carriage of Dangerous Goods and Use of Transportable Pressure Equipment (Amendment) Regulations 2011 amend the previous legislation relating to the transport of dangerous goods by road, rail and inland waterway.

TransposingDirective 2010/35/EUof the European Parliament and of the Council on transportable pressure equipment, the regulations also repeal five earlier Directives:

• Council Directive 76/767/EECon common provisions for pressure vessels and methods for inspecting them.
• Council Directive 84/525/EECon seamless, steel gas cylinders.
• Council Directive 84/526/EECon seamless, unalloyed aluminium and aluminium alloy gas cylinders.
• Council Directive 84/527/EECon welded unalloyed steel gas cylinders.
• Council Directive 1999/36/ECon transportable pressure equipment.

The Department for Transport website has further details of the Regulations and how they might affect you.

The latest energy legislation details new provisions for homeowners, landlords and businesses to receive upfront financial help to make energy improvements, to be repaid in the form of energy bill savings – a ‘Green Deal’.

Having come into force on 18 October 2011, the Act also:

• Makes energy performance certificates more widely available.
• Obliges energy providers to assist some groups of people with energy savings.
• Clarifies information about energy bills.
• Paves the way for the introduction and roll-out of smart meters.
• Allows the Coal Authority to charge for specific services.
• Encourages low carbon generations and improves energy security measures.

For more details of the Act, check the Department of Energy and Climate Change website.

Two new documents from the Health and Safety Executive provide valuable guidance about the law and your responsibilities when buying or supplying machinery for use at work.

INDG271(Buying New Machinery: A short guide to the law and your responsibilities when buying new machinery for use at work)outlines the requirements laid down by health and safety law and the practical applications involved, as well as providing checklists to use when talking to suppliers about new equipment. The second leaflet, INDG270(Supplying New Machinery: A short guide to the law and your responsibilities when supplying machinery for use at work), is aimed mainly at importers, agents and those who provided equipment manufactured by others, providing details of their legal and practical obligations. 

For further details, visit the HSE website to download INDG271 and INDG270.

In a new report commissioned by the government, Professor Ragnar Löfstedt (Director of the King’s Centre for Risk Management at King’s College, London) has made a series of recommendations and proposals about the future of health and safety laws and regulations in the UK.

The report suggests that there is a need to remove certain unnecessary regulations to reduce the burden on businesses, but also to ensure that overall health and safety performance levels remain high. The full report can be found on the Department of Work and Pensions website.

Responses welcoming Professor Löfstedt’s findings have been issued by both the HSE and the government. To read Dr T’s thoughts on the issues raised, visit his blog. (For those who don’t know, Dr T is Dr David Towlson - RRC’s Director of Training and Quality.)

UPDATE: Professor Löfstedt visted Brussels today for the EU launch of his report.

Unintended movement of some mobile crushers can take place when there is an earth/ground fault, according to a recent investigation by the Health and Safety Executive.

The HSE has published a Safety Alert outlining the actions that need to be taken in the event that damage to electrical control cables results in unintended movement. For details of the guidance, and to find out if you need to take action, check the HSE website.

The Health and Safety Executive has released a range of statistics relating to incidents, injuries and issues in the construction industry.

Key points include a fall in the number of fatal injuries to construction workers to 50, down from an annual average of 61 for the past five years. Workplace fatalities in the industry are now around two-thirds less common than they were two decades ago. In recent years, non-fatal injuries have decreased by a third as well.

The figures also show that an estimated 5000 occupational cancer cases annually can be attributed to exposure to hazardous materials in the course of construction sector work.

For more detailed statistics, or for information about other industries, visit the HSE website.

At an oil rig in Saudi Arabia’s Empty Quarter, RRC Middle East tutor Hasan Jaffer delivered a training course to the local management team of oil and gas company SAIPEM.

The course covered the topics of Hazard Identification, Risk Assessment and Management.

The Empty Quarter, also known as the Rub' al Khali, is one of the largest sand deserts in the world and is the site of some of the largest oil reserves.

RRC will deliver an exciting new training course in Istanbul, in partnership with Turkey’s leading experts in HSE training and consultancy.

The NEBOSH International Certificate in Fire Safety and Risk Management is a new course being piloted by RRC in partnership with ARME, and will begin in January 2012.

Designed for anyone with fire safety responsibilities in the workplace, the NEBOSH International Fire Certificate covers topics including fire risk assessments and the range of measures necessary to minimise the risk of fire. For more details of the course, click here.

For this pilot we are delighted to be working with two of ARME’s highly experienced Turkish tutors, who will be delivering the training in English. Click here to find out more about the partnership between RRC and ARME.

RRC Middle East Managing Director Hasan Alaradi recently presented a successful workshop in Modern Occupational Health and Safety to the management team of the Sudanese Electricity Transmission Company.

The workshop, held in Khartoum on 17 November, covered general health and safety management issues, with a particular focus on managing risks associated with the energy sector.

Delegates attend the PetroDar Operating Co. Advanced Accident Investigation Course, which was run in Sudan from 13-16 November 2011.