European Health and Safety at Work Week launched

The second "European Health and Safety at Work Week", held in October 1997, highlighted the achievements as well as the shortcomings of current European legislation and policy in this area.

The second "European Health and Safety at Work Week" took place from 20-25 October 1997. This year the focus of the event was on assessing potential and actual workplace risks, with a particular emphasis on risks within small and medium-sized enterprises.

Speaking at the launch of the European week, the member of the European Commission responsible for social affairs, Padraig Flynn, said that: "There are over 6,000 deaths each year in the European Union from work-related accidents and injuries, this is an unacceptable price to pay in human terms ... This is not the result of bad luck or freak circumstances. It is the result of carelessness, negligence, bad management and incompetence."

Whilst acknowledging that the existing efforts in this field have done much to achieve safer and healthier conditions at work, Mr Flynn stated that the above figures illustrated that a great deal more action was needed in this policy field. The Community has taken an active stance in health and safety and has adopted Directives laying down minimum standards for each activity or area in which risks exist. However, these initiatives are clearly not substantial enough in eradicating risks and accidents at the workplace.

The principal objective of the campaign is to reinforce the efforts to reduce risks and improve the quality of life at work by:

• making employees and employers more aware of hazards at the workplace;

• encouraging effective safety and health management in companies;

• promoting measures designed to solve specific problems and reduce risks; and

• promoting all EU measures in this field;

As part of the campaign, the Commission is co-financing 34 projects selected by Member States. All these projects share a common theme in recognising that risk assessment is a key starting point for developing preventive measures in the area of health and safety.