Health and safety laws never used to be in existence. It was the appointment of the first set of factory inspectors, initiated by the Provisions of the Factories Act of 1833, that brought about the foundations of health and safety.
In recent times, a great leap was made when the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 was initiated. This was described as "a bold and far-reaching piece of legislation" by HSE's first Director General, John Locke. This became the primary piece of legislation covering occupational health and safety in Great Britain.
The health and safety Act of 1974 has led to initiation of several other Acts which includes the followings below
1. Health and safety (First Aid) Regulation 1981
2. Food Safety Act 1990 replaced by the food safety act of 1995
3. Management of health and safety regulation 1992
4. Manual handling operation regulation 1992
5. The Notification of Accidents and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 1980 (NADOR), replaced by the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulation 1995 (RIDDOR).
6. The Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations (COSHH) 2002 Act
This is just to mention a few. In 1977/78, the Health and safety annual report stipulated that there are overriding concerns to stimulate awareness of the risks and encourage the joint participation of workers and management in efforts to eliminate them. Hence, making communication of health and safety issues paramount in the work place.
Basically, there are three approved modes of communication of health and safety and these are
1. Verbal
2. Written
3. Graphics
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