As part of the bi-annual Healthy Workplaces Campaign on risk assessment, the
European Week for Safety and Health at Work runs from 19 to 23 October and is
organised by the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (EU-OSHA) and
its partners. Hundreds of events and activities relating to safety and health
will take place throughout Europe - ranging from conferences to training
sessions and inter-company events. A new case study report gives practical
advice on risk prevention.

It has been known for a long time that risk assessment is key to sound safety
and health management, and it seems that people are taking this message on
board. Jukka Takala, director of EU-OSHA, says "there are many good examples of
companies, even small ones, carrying out efficient risk assessment on a regular
basis, but there is still a gap that our campaign has tried to fill in. I hope
the huge volume of information, materials, web links, and activities we have
put in place have contributed to better understand that risk assessment is the
first step to safe and healthy workplaces".

The European Week aims to increase levels of awareness and drive home the
importance of risk assessment for every workplace. EU-OSHA and its partners are
doing this by:

• Encouraging employers, workers and other key parties to take an active part
  in the pan-European Campaign
• Raising awareness of both legal responsibilities and the practical need to
  assess risks in the workplace
• Promoting a simple stepwise approach to risk assessment, which can be done
  using free literature available from the EU-OSHA website
• Encouraging enterprises (particularly micro-firms and SMEs) to carry out
  their own risk assessment in-house.

More information

AplusA-online.de - Source: European Agency for Safety and Health at Work