Workplace safety: Let’s ask the right questions
Since 2003, the International Labour Organization and the World Health Organization have been organising an annual event on 28 April called “World Day for Safety and Health at Work.” This year, CERN is taking part for the first time with campaigns organised by the Safety Unit of the BE Department and by the HSE Unit.
The HSE Unit and the Safety Unit of the BE Department invite you to find out about everyday health and safety questions by visiting the stands they will be setting up at the entrances to the different restaurants at lunchtime on Thursday, 28 April. "This will be a chance to think about safety not just in the workplace but also at home and in the context of leisure activities,” explains Charles-Edouard Sala, who came up with the idea for CERN's participation in the event. “Safety is, first and foremost, a matter of personal awareness of and sensitivity to risks. That is why we in the Safety Unit had the idea for a campaign with the motto, 'Let’s ask the right questions.’” A simple questionnaire on safety will be distributed at the stands, and the best responses will be awardedprizes.
The HSE Unit is also fully involved in organising the day’s activities, producing posters and other information material about safety at CERN. Visits to the laboratory of HSE’s environmental service will be organised on the day, and a radioprotection monitoring system will be on display. “Our goal is to explain how safety is organised at CERN, both within the departments and at the level of the HSE Unit, and to describe what services HSE provides," explains the Unit’s Isabel Bejar Alonso.
Next Thursday, take a minute to stop and chat with the people at the HSE and BE stands. They will provide you with some good advice for improving your everyday safety. The names of the people submitting the fifteen best responses to the "Let’s ask the right questions" contest will be published in the Bulletin on 6 May.
