Lawford Kidd's Blog

The UK Government is not giving people enough time to comment on plans to cut health and safety regulations, a professional body has said.

The Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH) is concerned that new government guidance for its departments and other public bodies recommends as little as two weeks consultation on changes to policy or legislation, or sometimes no final consultation at all.

Currently, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) gives people at least three months to have their say – a policy IOSH supports. Severely cutting back that timescale would be foolhardy when lives are at stake, said the Institution.

The Department of Health has launched a major review into cosmetic surgery and procedures in response to concerns raised about the industry following problems with PiP breast implants.

The review will look at many issues including whether the right amount of regulation is in place, if people have the right amount of information before going through with surgery and how to make sure patients get the right aftercare.

People are being asked to give their views on, and share their experiences of, the cosmetic surgery industry and cosmetic procedures. The call for evidence is asking for people’s views on:

New European rules are now in force that will ensure EU citizens are better informed about major threats posed by industrial plants in their immediate vicinity.

The rules are part of an otherwise technical update of the Seveso Directive, a key instrument in industrial risk management, which is being adapted to reflect recent changes in the international and European classification of chemicals. The Directive obliges Member States to draw up emergency plans for areas surrounding industrial installations where very large quantities of dangerous substances are to be found.

From now on, public information about risks must be made available electronically. All establishments covered by the legislation will need to provide information about how alerts will be sounded, and about how citizens should act in the event of a major accident. When an accident happens, the relevant authorities will need to inform anyone likely to be affected by it and the main measures taken to address it.

The NHS Medical Director’s expert group, which has been looking at PiP breast implants, has published its final report.

The findings of the group include:

• Exhaustive world-wide testing of the PiP gel material has not revealed anything which could cause a long-term threat to human health – they are not toxic nor carcinogenic.
• They do, however, have a higher rupture rate – around two times higher. The rate of rupture appears to be around six to 12% after five years, rising to 15 to 30% after 10 years (this compares to 10-14% after 10 years for other brands of implants).
• PiP implants have a higher concentration of certain compounds called siloxanes – chemically similar to silicone but of a lower molecular weight and found in many consumer products, including hair and skin care products, antiperspirants and deodorants – but this does not present a health risk.
• Although the contents are not harmful and the gel has not been shown to contain any toxic substances, the inferior mechanical strength of the implants led the group to consider this a substandard product.

The expert group has said that the advice to women who have PiP implants remains unchanged. It is expected that all providers of PIP implants will contact their patients. If women are unsure of the make of their implant they should contact their surgeon or provider.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has served an Improvement Notice on an Edinburgh company for alleged failures to adequately control the risk of legionella in a cooling tower.

The Notice was served for a failure to devise and implement a sustained and effective biocide control programme in one cooling tower.

HSE visited the company as part of an ongoing investigation into a Legionnaires disease outbreak in South West Edinburgh. Visits to other companies are ongoing.