Workers’ health as important as safety – message from the CIS

Construction Industry Summit organisers have announced Health as a Solution is the latest addition to the programme for this major two day event in the 2015 construction industry calendar, taking place in London on 8-9 September.

Organised by the industry, for the industry, this flagship conference and network event is led by the Construction Industry Council (CIC), the Strategic Forum for Construction (SfC) and the Construction Industry Training Board (CITB).

Speaking about the announcement, Peter Caplehorn, Chair of the CIC Health & Safety Panel, said: “With one hundred times more people dying from work-related ill health each year than die from accidents at work, we need to improve performance on eliminating and managing occupational disease and ill health in the construction industry. As an industry we have always shouted safety and whispered health, but we are beginning to see a step change in the industry’s attitude towards the health of its workforce, which is a positive move forward.”

Speakers for the Health as a Solution session will be Colette O’Shea (Managing Director, London Portfolio – Land Securities) and Peter Baker (Chief Inspector of Construction – Health & Safety Executive), who will highlight the problems inherited and faced by the industry, and the ways to move the sector forward.

Caplehorn added: “We need to treat health as we treat safety. There is too much to lose and everything to gain by doing so.”

Health as a Solution will take place on Wednesday 9 September at 3.40pm. Further information about the programme of events is available here.

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