HSE Improvement Notice: Control of Wood Dust in Design & Technology

A Norfolk High School has been issued with an improvement notice by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) for failing to protect Design & Technology staff from the risk of exposure to wood dust.

We have worked with the school to bring controls in the workshop up to the required standards and also visited a number of other high school D&T workshops to determine if shortcomings found at the school served with the improvement notice were present elsewhere. Several of the areas of concern were found to be present in other schools.

This MI sheet highlights the main areas of concern and details the steps that heads of Design & Technology must take to ensure that suitable measures are operating to protect staff from the risk of exposure to wood dust. The HSE identifies wood dust as a significant health hazard and has required NCC to take action to introduce formal health surveillance for D&T staff to combat work related asthma.

It also outlines actions that Children's Services is taking to support D&T staff to raise competence and performance levels in this area. These include briefing sessions to support heads of D&T to introduce low level health surveillance of D&T staff.

Health Surveillance

The HSE has required the County Council to introduce a programme of health surveillance for D&T staff. This will be introduced through briefings by the County Council's Occupational Health Adviser to heads of D&T which will cover the following topics:

- Administration of low level initial and annual review health surveillance questionnaires
- Risks to health from wood dust
- Symptoms of sensitization
- Importance of reporting minor symptoms at an early stage
- Proper use of control measures
- Need to report promptly any failures in control measures

Briefing sessions will be held on:

	Monday 18th February at Hewett School Norwich - 9.30 -12.00
	Wednesday 20th February - Wymondham High School 9.30 - 12.00
	Friday 22nd February - Fakenham High School 9.30 - 12.00

Action: Heads of Design & Technology must attend one of these sessions to ensure that this programme is introduced promptly and effectively.

Teaching Unions are taking a close interest in this issue and it is essential that headteachers/heads of Design & Technology take the actions listed here to ensure that suitable controls are in place to protect staff. Children's Services Health and Safety Advisers will monitor to ensure that all schools have complied with these requirements. Any schools not attending one of the dates above will be required to attend a further briefing session.

Specific Areas of Concern:

1. Cleaning staff sweeping wood dust using dry brushes. Vacuum cleaners available but not always used by cleaning staff/D&T staff.

Action: School staff and cleaning staff must stop dry sweeping and use high efficiency (HEPA) filter vacuum cleaners. Vacuum cleaners are in most cases 'Henry' cleaners which should be replaced by HEPA filtered cleaners that will capture fine wood dust particles.

The Authority has written to cleaning contractors reminding them of the NCC standard contract specification for cleaning D&T workshops and the importance of monitoring their staff to ensure that they work to it, i.e. do not dry sweep and use suitable cleaning methods to remove wood dust (e.g. HEPA filtered vacuum cleaners). Heads of D&T/school site managers should work with cleaning contractors to ensure that these standards are met and maintained.

2. Poor monitoring of control measures. Large piles of dust collected at back of circular saw bench.

Action: D&T technicians must ensure that any wood dust not extracted by local exhaust ventilation is removed regularly. Heads of D&T must monitor that this is done.

3. Information, instruction and training appeared to be inadequate. Some D&T staff were not aware of the hazardous properties of wood dust.

Action: Heads of D&T should remind themselves and their staff of the hazardous properties of and control measures for wood dust. These are detailed in COSHH sheet 51 in the D&T Health and Safety Code of Practice.

This process will be supported by the introduction of health surveillance - see dates and details of sessions above.

4. Rosin fluxes being used in soldering. Some schools are using cored solder wire that produces harmful, corrosive and irritant fumes. Rosin fluxes can cause respiratory sensitisation which means that once someone is 'sensitised' to a substance the slightest exposure thereafter to that substance may bring on an asthma attack.

Action: Replace cored solder wire with rosin free solder wire. See also COSHH sheet 17 in the D&T Health and Safety Code of Practice.

Other Work/Training to Support Design and Technology Departments

Noise

The section covering noise in the D&T Code of Practice has been revised to take account of the introduction of The Noise at Work Regulations 2005. A programme of health surveillance, including audiometry, for D&T technicians, backed up by briefing sessions similar to those above, will be introduced shortly through the County Council's Occupational Health Adviser.

Action: Heads of D&T should take the actions listed in the guidance on noise as soon as possible. Further details on setting up the health surveillance programme will be issued shortly through a further MI sheet.

INSET Training for Design & Technology Staff

Training courses on Health and Safety Management for Heads of Design and Technology and Prep Room and Workshop Safety for technicians, provided through CLEAPSS, are currently being arranged - further details will follow. It is anticipated that these courses will begin running in Autumn 2008.

DATA Health and Safety Training

Heads of D&T are reminded of the need to get all D&T staff accredited to DATA's national standards for health and safety.