Convergence 5/5/17 Convergence 5/5/17

Leatherhead Food Research: EU Food Safety Law to Provide Framework for UK Regulations

Leatherhead Food Research managing director Chris Wells has said that post-Brexit UK food safety law will likely import much of its framework from existing EU regulations. He also stated that increased border security could lead to shorter shelf-lives of UK food and beverage exports, making those industries less competitive in the European marketplace; Europe is the UK’s biggest export market for food and beverage products

Convergence 5/4/17 Convergence 5/4/17

World Day for Safety and Health at Work Encourages Reporting of Workplace Casualty Data

April 28 was the annual World Day for Safety and Health at Work, an awareness-raising campaign started by the International Labour Organization in 2003 to focus attention on occupational safety & health issues around the world. The theme of this year’s event was the need for countries to collect and report reliable OSH data, in response to Target 8.8 of the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development which calls for countries to report “frequency rates of fatal and non-fatal occupational injuries, by sex and migrant status.”

Convergence 4/29/17 Convergence 4/29/17

After Numerous Deaths in Israel, Construction Safety Inspection Force to Grow from 18 to Over 2,500

With dozens of construction workers dying on the job in Israel every year, the Social Affairs Ministry wants local governments to start taking responsibility for their safety. On March 28, the Occupational Safety Administration sent letters to municipalities across Israel detailing three new orders to be followed immediately, one of which would make municipal building inspectors check for safety regulations, effectively increasing the number of construction safety inspectors from 18 to over 2500 - more than enough for the estimated 13,000 active worksites in the country.

Convergence 4/28/17 Convergence 4/28/17

Hong Kong Self-Storage Facilities Comply with Less than 5% of Fire Safety Citations

In the wake of two fatal self-storage facility fires last summer, Hong Kong’s Fire Services Department (FSD) inspected 885 self-storage facilities, issuing 2,548 fire hazard notices to 453 operators. According to Permanent Secretary for Security Joshua Law Chi-Kong, as of late February operators had only complied with 117 (4.6%) of these notices. Law also revealed that the HK Buildings Department had issued 976 separate orders around the same time, of which only 11 (1.1%) were complied with.

Convergence 4/24/17 Convergence 4/24/17

60,000 UK Construction Workers Lay Down Tools to Promote Health, Safety, and Wellbeing

Around 60,000 UK construction industry professionals laid down their tools on April 18th for Stop. Make a Change, a one-day event aiming to highlight the health, safety, and wellbeing challenges faced by the industry. Over 50 organisations, including big names such as HSE and Skanska, signed in support of the event which will took place in over 1,000 sites, offices, and production facilities across the country. Over 30 of these organisations made commitments to improve mental health, fatigue, plant safety, and respiratory health among their workers.

About convergence

convergence is an environmental, health, safety and social management consultancy that specializes in multi-country (international) projects and programs. We are able to meet our clients’ needs on a global scale while recognizing the important regional differences that our clients face in conducting business. We are one of the leading international EHS audit consultancies; and our country health and safety legal compliance tools for offices, retail and service sectors, known as CORE, are the foremost resource of its kind.