Healthy steps at Solaglas

Solaglas Contracting Midlands put the spotlight on health and safety issues recently as part of a worldwide International Health and Safety Day

Solaglas Contracting Midlands put the spotlight on health and safety issues recently as part of a worldwide International Health and Safety Day on Tuesday 13th June 2006.

215 employees at Solaglas Contracting's Midlands site joined 200,000 colleagues from Saint-Gobain companies around the world to take part in the special day, designed to raise awareness of the need for health and safety both at work and at home.

The division held a series of events for staff and sub-contractors during the day including two live presentations.

Safety training experts from SpanSet's Height Safety and Specialist Access Training School performed live demonstrations showing the correct use of harness equipment.

Cheshire based SpanSet are leading providers of height safety training and have been established in the UK for over 30 years.

Mr George Grundy, Technical Sales and Training Adviser for the Training School said, "The primary purpose of our demonstration was to illustrate how to recover from, or assist a casualty who had sustained suspension trauma in a fall whilst wearing a safety harness.

"Under the new terms of height safety regulations, it is crucial from a compliance and an ethical point of view that staff are properly trained in the use of height safety equipment.

We thoroughly endorse Saint-Gobain's commitment to health and safety in the workplace and were pleased to support this event".

A crane operation simulator was supplied by Mentor - the largest UK driver training organisation for the materials handling sector.

The simulator used projected live action footage combined with audio instructions linked to a joystick and a crane pendant.

It is primarily used to help assess and train the driver in basic operation skills such as co-ordination in lifting and manoeuvring within a safe controlled environment.

Mr Richard Shore, Managing Director for Mentor comments, "We were delighted to support Saint-Gobain's International HandS Day.

Employees are a commercial and moral investment for any organisation.

By taking a pro-active approach to HandS issues such as training, organisations benefit from fewer accidents so reducing downtime as well as ensuring increased profitability.

Training has also been shown to both improve morale and assist in staff retention".

Mentor is a privately owned, independent company established since 1988.

As part of Solaglas' commitment to their employee's health, blood pressure and cholesterol tests were offered to everyone attending the event with occupational health advisors on hand to answer questions about diet and lifestyle.

To round off the day, staff had the opportunity to enter a fun and interactive health quiz - with the chance of winning £1,000 of holiday vouchers.

All attendees received a pedometer, to measure how many steps they take in a day.

Managing Director of Solaglas' Contracting Division, Nick Prosser, said, "With research showing that the average Brit takes just 2,000 steps each day - well short of the 10,000 recommended by experts to maintain a healthy heart - this gift is designed to encourage staff in leading fit and active lives".

The event was the second time that Saint-Gobain had organised a Health and Safety Day across all its worldwide operations.

Nick Prosser said: "We believe Saint-Gobain is the first international group to raise the profile of Health and Safety in this way.

Ensuring that we create a safe working environment for all our employees is a fundamental principle within Saint-Gobain.

The International Health and Safety Day was a great way of reinforcing this message and having fun at the same time.".

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