Personal and home safety
Guidance and advice on personal and home safety.
Personal safety
The area of violence at work and personal safety is one which has only recently been perceived and acknowledged as being within the remit of the occupational safety and health practitioner.
A number of areas whose staff or students carry out research in the wider community, and/or whose clinical staff carries out home visits, have raised pertinent queries.
An excellent source of advice and guidance is The Suzy Lamplugh Trust. The Trust offers a range of free and priced publications providing guidance on various aspects of personal safety in the workplace including lone working.
In addition, the Community Liaison Section at South Side Police Station, St. Leonard's, can provide seminars on personal safety held within the University, upon receipt of a telephone enquiry.
Home safety
You are more likely to have an accident at home than anywhere else. Every year there are approximately 4000 deaths as the result of a home accident. During 2002 there were 2.7 million home accidents requiring hospital treatment, of which 477,500 involved children under five.
Falls, which can cause serious injury at any time of life, are the most common accidents. 55% of accidental injuries in the home involve falls. Around 25,000 under 5s attend Accident and Emergency Departments each year after being accidentally poisoned and 26,000 under 5s are burnt or scalded in the home every year. A hot drink can still scald a small child up to 15 minutes after it is made.
The cost to society of UK home accident injuries has been estimated at £25,000 million annually.
Even if you buy a lottery ticket every week you are still twenty times more likely to suffer a fatal home accident than you are to win the National Lottery!!