80 people die each day from pneumonia

Pneumonia is an infection of the air sacks (alveoli) in the lungs that are responsible for providing the body with oxygen. When the infection takes hold, puss and fluid fill the alveoli and cause oxygen starvation leaving the victim with shortness of breath. The white blood cells then target the infection to try and destroy it causing a painful inflammation of the chest cavity.

Other symptoms include physical and mental effects such as: high fever, chills, high heart rate, joint pain, muscular fatigue, aches, nausea, and vomiting. Unfortunately, 14% of people who contract this infection do not survive, even with medical help. The infection can be contracted a few different ways, but can also be prevented by using the proper breathing equipment.

Wearing a mask saves lives. If you need training in face fitting of masks, or your operatives need face fitting, please contact stuart@demolishdismantle.co.uk now. Prices start from £30.00 per person plus VAT.

At What Price For The Beautiful Game?

New C&D Consultant Brent Gill gives his thoughts on the work being carried out to bring the World Cup to Brazil and beyond.

At What Price For The Beautiful Game?

Brazil 2014, Qatar 2022, ? 2026.

Being a Sheffield lad the home of the world’s oldest football club (Hallam FC). I was alarmed to read about the appalling Accident figures while building the infrastructure and stadiums for the next two World Cups. I’m not going to throw figures and statistics about willy nilly, but there is cause for concern from any decent specimen of mankind.

These people are having to work long hours under enormous pressure even though official sources deny there is any pressure applied. While the reality is quite the reverse. Even more so at the moment in Brazil many deadlines have been missed and the chances of keeping the tournament are getting slimmer. My point is Great Britain is one of the safest countries to work in. I’m not saying by any means we are perfect, but we have a safety culture in the main.

We have all played our parts, from our fore fathers to you. The mistakes that have happened in the past have helped to mould our future and will continue to do so. Transparency and accountability form a good one-two when combined “take control and show the reasoning behind taking control” simple in it?

Back to the unfortunate souls currently engaged on various projects in Brazil, the accidents, the injuries, and the non payment of wages no doubt all helped along with the national protest against the World Cup. These are lessons learnt long ago in Great Britain (sadly it still happens here). What legacy are FIFA and the rest of the World leaving to the home of the” beautifully played game”? Death, widows, maiming and disability.

Now for a couple of shocking facts for the Qatar 2022 World Cup. Up to date 28/01/14, there have been 188 deaths of immigrant Nepalese contractors due to cardiac arrest or cardiac related disease! Why has got to be the question along with how can so many within a wide age group succumb to a related disease. Could it be working long hours in 40 degree heat? Is it their diet? Or lifestyle? The simple answer is NO to all the above. After some surfing of many web sites the answer is! Cardiac arrest or cardiac diseases are not notifiable to the authorities’ simple in it. The current estimate for accidents/injuries for the duration of the construction phase is 4,000! What a legacy to leave behind. While we enjoy our World Cup will they?

We are all in it together to try and make it a safer world.

Thank the lord I work in Great Britain.

Remember there is no such thing as a stupid question, only stupid people who don’t ask questions.

If you’re not sure ASK! Don’t be Stupid.

Asbestos deaths continue to increase.

It was commonly thought that when asbestos was banned in the UK in 1999 the deaths from asbestos related diseases would fall, but the latest figures show that they continue to rise and are currently running at an all time high of in excess of 4,500 people per year losing their lives to asbestos related diseases.

What is significant is that deaths are higher where there has been shipbuilding in the area as the majority of ships contain asbestos in fire breaks and the shipbuilders were exposed to the fibres during the ship construction and maintenance.

The article linked to below from the Western Morning News highlights this fact:

http://www.westernmorningnews.co.uk/Asbestos-related-lung-disease-claimed-396-victims/story-20379561-detail/story.html

If your job MAY expose you to the harmful effects of asbestos fibres then it is a legal requirement that you have undergone asbestos awareness training. If you need such training please contact margaret@demolishdismantle.co.uk for details of course venues and dates.

Courses start from as little as £60.00 per person which is small change when you consider that the training may save your life.

Rise in deaths of absestos-related cancer in West Midlands

Regular readers of this page will know that C&D have, over the last 5 years, carried out UKATA approved Asbestos Awareness training somewhere in the UK several times every week and when we started that training in 2007 we fully expected that asbestos related deaths would bottom out.

The HSE Campaign "The Hidden Killer" was launched as evidence showed that asbestos related deaths were in fact continuing to rise because general maintenace workers, carpenters, electricians, plasterers and roofers were not aware of the dangers from the lethal fibres.

As we continue to deliver asbestos awareness training, the next open course is in Solihull on 15 December, we now hear from the Birmingham Post that asbestos related deaths in our own backyard have risen again this year. The article below states that asbestos related deaths in males has increased once again but the really frightening numbers are the female deaths as working with asbestos is seen as a male dominated profession.

My thoughts on this are that those female deaths will come from one of the following areas:-

- School teachers or caretakers who have, unwittingly, been exposed to asbestos by pinning drawings to classroom notice boards that were made of asbestos or entering a boiler house where lagging has been disturbed.

- Cleaning staff who may have been exposed during their normal work of cleaning offices and work areas.

- Housewives who did nothing more than wash the overalls of their husbands each week not realising that the deadly dust was on the overalls and now in the washing machine and transferred to other clothing. "Take Home" asbestos such as this is a major problem in the USA and we cannot allow it to become a major problem in the UK.

The key to prevention is education of the workforce and the public that "Asbestos Kills" and the only way to protect yourself is to prevent inhalation of the fibres so "WEAR A MASK".

Batman wore a mask to hide his identity, I wear mine to save my life.

Source: Birmingham Post