It has been announced that the European Campaign for Safety and Health at Work for 2008/09 will focus on risk assessment. The two-year campaign is aimed at a wide range of stakeholders, including employers, workers and safety representatives and is intended to promote the benefits of completing and implementing a risk assessment. It seeks to demystify the risk assessment process to show that it need not be complicated, bureaucratic or a task only for experts.
The campaign will also raise awareness on this issue, provide information and practical advice, encourage activities that have a positive impact in the workplace and identify and recognise good practice. Risk assessment is in essence the cornerstone of the European approach to occupational safety and health. If the risk assessment process - the start of the risk management approach - is not done well or not done at all, the appropriate preventive measures are unlikely to be in place.
The campaign will run throughout 2008 and 2009 and features two European Weeks of Safety and Health, in October 2008 and October 2009. It will culminate in a major risk assessment summit in November 2009. For further information visit www.osha.europa.eu/en/campaigns/hw2008.
