03/11/2010
TITAN S.A. CONFERENCE ON HEALTH AND SAFETY IN THE WORKPLACE
Concerns and experiences in the field of health and safety in the workplace were exchanged by delegates at the special conference organized, with great success, at the TITAN Cement S.A. plant in Drepano.
Staged as part of the company’s corporate social responsibility programme, the conference was designed for an audience of contractors from the surrounding region.
TITAN Greece Director of Health and Safety, Mihalis Barboutis, explained that the main objective of the conference was to launch a sustained process of improvement in levels of health and safety, using both statutory rules and recommended practices.
The conference was formally opened with a welcoming address from the Drepano plant manager, Mr. Thomas Glavas.
Mr. I. Kokkinopoulos, Technical Safety Officer at the company’s Elefsina plant, then spoke on the subject Investigation of accidents and near-accidents. What we achieve and what we gain, emphasizing that the focus of accident investigation should not be on finding individuals to blame, but instead on finding shortcomings in systems and procedures, drawing useful conclusions and learning valuable lessons.
The head of the Risk Prevention Centre for Western Greece, Epirus and the Ionian Islands, Mr. Nikolaos Sarafopoulos, spoke on the subject Health and Safety at Work – A holistic approach, analyzing the various factors in the field and explaining that ensuring safety in the workplace is a complex activity, with many different dimensions and many conditions that must be met if effective progress is to be made.
Mr. L. Alefrangis, Health and Safety Coordinator for Quarries, addressed the issue of Machine Safety, offering a set of safety rules, based on both legislation and practical experience, to be followed in particular by users of loading and lifting equipment, before, during and after each task.
In his presentation The Cost of Accidents, Mr. T. Baltas, Technical Safety Officer at the Drepano plant, pointed out how poor safety can entail costs of all kinds to a company, and particularly to one of its major assets – its reputation and relations with others.
Mr. M. Avyerinos, Technical Safety Officer at Vinci, spoke on the Role of the Technical Safety Officer in technical projects, and the importance of the Safety Officer as an intermediary between employer and employee, describing the duties of the Safety Officer and the resources available to him in legislation and in good practice.
Mr. T. Baltas also spoke on the subject of Personal Protective Equipment, explaining the importance of this equipment to the worker, but also reminding the audience that it was in the nature of a final level of protection, supplementing all the other safety procedures. He then addressed the issues of road safety, and of high-risk work, such as tasks performed at a great height or in the vicinity of fuels and hazardous gases, in enclosed spaces.
Many of those present were surprised to hear the statistics provided by Mr. Baltas on the risks of using a mobile phone while driving. Apparently, inappropriate use of a mobile is becoming one of the main causes of fatal road accidents.
The final presentation was made by Mr. Barboutis, who described conditions at the installation of the second production line at the TITAN plant in Beni Suef, in Egypt.
The conference ended with a discussion session and with answers to questions put by the audience.