Berkeley Homes makes pledge to IOSH occupational cancer campaign

House-building company Berkeley Homes Ltd has pledged support for an international campaign to raise awareness of work-related cancer.

The company have made a pledge to the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health’s (IOSH) No Time to Lose Campaign, to work with its supply chain to reduce the risk of workers being exposed to carcinogens.

The campaign aims to get the causes of occupational cancer  better understood, helping businesses minimise the risks. They offer free, practical materials to help businesses deliver effective prevention programmes. The campaign educated businesses and employees about five of the most common causes of work related cancer, and how to best prevent them.

Over 60 companies across the world have pledged to take direct action to prevent occupational diseases through No Time to Lose, whilst many others have expressed support for the initiative.

Richard Travers, Regional Safety Manager at Berkeley Homes (South East London) Ltd, said: “We will work with our supply chain to come up with practical solutions to reduce exposure to carcinogenic substances, to promote health awareness, and to enhance arrangements to improve the health of direct and indirect employees. This will involve the implementation of a health and wellbeing programme branded ‘Good Health’.”

Berkeley Homes  started a dust awareness campaign to educate contractors and make them aware of health risks associated with exposure to construction dusts at work.

As part of the procurement process, contractors are now being asked to provide their workers with ways of extracting and capturing dust at the work place, which minimises the amount of dust in the air, and eradicates the need to sweeping which causes dust to become airborne.

Richard continued: “We’re also wet plastering walls instead of dry lining as the latter generates masses of dust through the rubbing down process. That is a simple switch that anyone in the trade can make to protect workers, while we also think that wet plastering gives a higher quality finish”.

 

 

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