Campaign pushes safety through design

Safer by Design is a campaign to improve the design of equipment used in quarries to improve health and safety. ABE reports on progress

Safety of new quarry machinery is something that many operators take for granted but few will buy a machine without adding a list of extras to bring it up to quarry specification. According to a campaign launched by the UK's 2897 Mineral Products Association (MPA) last year, this should not be an acceptable way of doing business and safety should be inherent in the design.

The Safer by Design campaign was launched in October 2009 at the MPA's health and safety awards in London, UK but has since evolved to be more of a European-wide initiative.

"The campaign was set up due to the frustration that machines that are CE marked can be offered for sale to the quarrying sector but yet these are not safe for use in the industry unless they are fitted with a long list of extra features," Mineral Products Association director of health and safety and 962 UEPG health and safety chair Martin Isles. "This was particularly evident with respect to the work at height regulations where we felt a number of offerings fell short of what was required." All operators request a different list of extras and the Safer by Design campaign is aiming to draw these lists together and lobby for the common elements to be standard items rather than extras on quarry specification machines. The aim of this list trawl was to structure and communicate what the industry feels is best practice in terms of safety.

"The key people involved in the project are members of the MPA," explained Isles. "Not all of them are large quarry operators - we also have representation from small and medium sized businesses too. The 887 British Aggregates Association, 1921 CoalPro and the 6154 Mineral Products Qualifications Council are also actively involved and the 2938 Health and Safety Executive are observers on the project." While the work started in the UK, it has become more of a pan-European cooperation and the UEPG has now adopted the campaign. 1926 ISSA Mining based in Geneva is also interested in becoming involved with the programme.

"There has been voluntary involvement by manufacturers in the campaign and we are trying to work with them as we recognise that dealers are not at the start of the supply chain," explained Isles. "The HSE is encouraging trade associations, companies and trade unions to involve the supply chain in campaigns for change.

"MPA members have delivered an 83% reduction on accidents in the last 10 years and that is huge progress but we have to keep moving forward if we are to reduce that further and the supply chain has to be the next target for achieving that. Morally it is the right thing to do.

"We want to take the manufacturers with us, rather than be seen to be working against them. It is hard to judge manufacturers' views but we carried out some inspections at 427 Hillhead and we received a good reception from the earthmoving industry. We asked them if we could visit their stands two weeks before so they knew we were coming but did not have time to change the specification of machines on display in the way that six months' notice might have allowed, so what we saw was representative of reality.

"We had an excellent reception and, although some of the larger manufacturers were not present, it allowed us time to look at some of the mobile crushing and screening machines on display. Generally the standards were higher than we have seen at the previous exhibition three years ago but not all the machines had all the features so there is still room for further advances." The next 2966 Atlantic Alliance conference is due to be held in Brussels on 20 and 21 October and the Safer by Design campaign is expected to form a major part of the discussion.

Despite the economic downturn, Isles does not believe that quarry operators are looking to skimp on specifications to save money in the short term. "They prefer to delay investment and have machines that are fit for purpose," he said. "More quarry operators are already using the safe quarry web-based list to ask manufacturers if they can supply machines to this standard. This places an onus on the manufacturers to demonstrate that their machine is safe for the application." Safer by Design is a rolling project with no end date. "One day such an initiative may not be necessary," said Isles.