Greater Manchester Hazards Centre (GMHC) is working with trade unions to reduce worker exposure to harmful, toxic chemicals  in a project on ‘Toxics Use Reduction’.

To help safety reps deal with toxic exposures better, we need to know more about the types of chemicals workers are exposed to, the harms caused, their awareness and knowledge of risks and of successful eliminations or substitution of safer chemicals or changes to processes that have been made in your workplace.

Please go to the following link and complete the questions, it should only take about 10 mins.

https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/6C6WWW6

Delegates at a pre-Covid Hazards conference participating in the innovative Body and Risk Mapping workshop.

Please would your organisation consider sponsoring this year’s Hazards Conference

In 2019, 185 trade union national, regional and branch organisations, personal injury solicitors, and groups and individuals supported the Hazards Conference.  Since then we have held two online conferences during the difficult circumstances of the pandemic.  These have been held free of charge, with the kind sponsorship of some organisations, but we cannot sustain this for any longer.

Hazards sponsors in the past have always risen to the challenge and continued their invaluable and essential support.  The last two years have been tremendously difficult for all workers. In the Hazards Campaign we have worked hard to respond to workers’ and trade unions’ needs.

The feedback we have received over the last two years has been encouraging and to this end we are moving the Hazards Conference to a hybrid model, where delegates can attend in person or participate online.

We would like to ensure all participants have an equal opportunity to attend and participate in the conference but we are acutely aware that some of our regular attendees have health conditions which will make them at risk of serious illness if they became infected by Covid and therefore we are providing an opportunity for everyone to attend, either in person or online.

However we will incur additional IT and administrative costs to do this, but hopefully with the support of sponsors we can keep the price as low as possible.

Therefore, please would your organisation consider sponsoring the 34^th National Hazards Conference.  If you would like to speak to someone about the conference then please email Janet  at hazconf@gmhazards.org.uk

To sponsor please complete the Hazards Conference 2022 – sponsorship form and send it to c.bedale@btinternet.com or mail it to Caroline Bedale, 123 Coppice Street, Oldham OL8 4BH.

For further information please email Janet at  hazconf@gmhazards.org.uk or
phone: 07734 317158

The Hazards Campaign is organising a national candlelit vigil to commemorate those who died because of work-related Covid-19.

The event on 11 March marks the second anniversary of when WHO declared Covid a pandemic. People will be encouraged to light candles, hold up pictures of work colleagues and loved ones who have died and invite people to say something about them.

The event is intended to include family members, workers, local trade unionists and politicians to support the event and will serve as a reminder that workers are still facing risks in the workplace every day.

If people don’t want to attend an event they can to put a poster in their window or light a candle safely on their doorstep, and post the picture online using a suggested hashtag:

#Candle4CovidkilledWorkers, #VigilForWorkers, #ShineLightOnWorkers

Please send information about what you are doing in your city, town or workplace to Janet Newsham so that we can share them on social media and through our trade union networks.