The Gazette 1993

OCTOBER 1993

was established under this Act as a direct consequence of one of the recommendations of the Barrington Commission has now come into existence and in addition to providing an advisory service to employers and employees also has the function of policing the duties of employers as laid down by the Act. It is particularly gratifying for this reviewer as a member of the Barrington Commission to have an opportunity of congratulating a member of his own profession for having the foresight, commitment and industry to write this book which is at once informative, interesting and highly readable. The book is also extremely well laid out which has the additional benefit of making it a most useful reference book. The book brings together in one publication a great deal of information on the statutory legal safeguards provided against the hazards of the workplace and highlights the increasing and very serious hazards now posed by potentially harmful chemical compounds and toxic materials which are in every day industrial use and which can be swallowed or inhaled or absorbed through the skin. The book further indicates the precautions that should be taken against such dangers at work and the legal obligations of employers to safeguard their employees against them and the consequence of exposure to them. Some of these environmental type hazards which this book identifies have been there for a very long time as for example lung diseases in the form of asthma, pneumoconiosis, skin diseases such as dermatitis produced by such agents as cement, rubber, paint, tars, dies, detergents, oil, etc., and cancer produced by the handling of some relatively common substances which are carcinogenic, such as benzene, benzidine, zinc chromates, vinyl chloride, and in particular,

asbestos. They are now almost all subject to statutory regulations.

Irish Work

Deadly Wages Hazards

This publication deals comprehens- ively but in a very useful manner with the full spectrum of hazards in the workplace in Irish industry and includes helpful references to such problems as the lifting of loads, repetitive strain injury, injuries resulting from the use of machinery, which must always be regarded as being potentially dangerous in the work place, falls, falling objects and the increasing importance of stress in the workplace. Highlighted in this book also is some very useful and revealing statistical information such as the fact that Irish workers work the second longest number of hours per week of OECD member countries and are outdone only by the Japanese. Each chapter is preceded immediately underneath its title heading with a number of succinct, statistical and factual pieces of information relevant to the subject matter of the chapter, for example: • A new potentially harmful chemical compound enters industrial use every 20 minutes. • Hepatitis "B" is a more serious threat than AIDS. • More than 50% of accidents at work involve handling objects. • There is no safe limit for exposure to asbestos fibres. • Many ear protectors are not fit for their purpose and unprotected exposure to noise at legal limits may cause deafness. • Skin disease is the commonest occupational disease. • Employers are directly responsible for most building site accidents. • 35% of hospitalisations from farm accidents involve children. • 3,500 Irish hospital employees are injured at work annually.

By Edward McGarr BCL, Solicitor, Paradox Press, 1992, 285pp, £14.99, softback. As is stated in the introduction there are few statements of fact in this book which are not already in the public demesne but they are not to be found in one place and in many cases are in obscure publications as far as the general public is concerned. As is also stated in the introduction, a general, affordable, book on occupational safety and health is now an essential purchase by every employer. This book is intended to fill that need which has arisen in the aftermath of the passing of the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act, 1989. This book certainly fills an unmet need in the area of the law of employers' liability and safety, health and welfare at work which were the subjects addressed by the Barrington Commission established by the then Government in 1980. Entitled The Commission of Inquiry on Safety and Health and

Welfare at Work, its terms of reference included inter alia -

"Whether changes were needed in laws, or in voluntary activities, relating to safety, health and welfare at work and the transport of dangerous substances".

The principal and fundamental legislative consequence of the

Barrington Commission has been the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act, 1989. Mr McGarr describes the Act as the basis of an attempt to introduce a positive or active system of health and safety at work in every workplace which is intended to be achieved by the setting of standards, both generally and in individual places by the Health and Safety Authority and its inspectors. The Health and Safety Authority which

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