Supporting safety and wellbeing awareness 09 Apr 2020

Health, safety and the wellbeing of workers in the industry is the responsibility of everyone – from the chief executives of owner organisations to each individual. In recognition of this responsibility, societies and organisations around the world have contributed through the years to the development of guidelines, codes of best practice and government legislation to protect the welfare of tunnel workers.

In the UK, a new group comprising a spectrum of clients, contractors and consultants across the industry has been formed with the goal to improve the health, safety and wellbeing of all people that work in the tunnelling industry. A key aim of the Transforming Tunnel Safety (TTS) group is to share information on all tunnel related health, safety and wellbeing issues, making all available for disseminating to the workforce.

In this effort, the group is collaborating with the British Tunnelling Society which has agreed to host the collected information on its website for free access, sharing and download.

The BTS is working closely with the Group and is represented in its organisation and membership. Through the last 48 years, the BTS, as a learned Society, has been at the forefront of promoting safety and occupational health within the industry and has contributed to the preparation of UK and international health and safety legislation and has prepared and published several best practice guides. Significantly among these is the British Standard BS6164 Safety in Tunnelling regulation, the 2019 revised version of which is available for purchase from the online BSi bookshop. Other BTS publications and guidance documents available for free download from the BTS website cover working under compressed air conditions; Hand Arm Vibration Syndrome (HAVS); Occupational Exposure to Nitrogen Monoxide and many more.

Safety on site, a top priority for all

To ensure that the industry has a comprehensive resource that captures lessons learnt, best practices and well produced videos, TTS and the BTS are calling on the support of all to contribute to the collected library of information. Anyone with information to share please contact TTS.

“It is a terrific opportunity for all of us to support this initiative and to participate,” said Ivor Thomas, BTS Chair. “Health, safety and wellbeing is a top priority for all of us and continual improvement of our performance in these areas is critical.”

“For me the more people who use the resource, and the more content we gather the better,” said Nick Butler, Chair of TTS Communications Working Group. “It is to be a resource for everyone in the industry and as we get more information we will focus on metadata to assist easy search of the content.”