From the Secretary’s desk
April 22nd 2008 The early Easter has condensed much of the BSIF's annual programme into March and April this year. Coupled with the increased enthusiasm to eliminate counterfeit PPE, the introduction of a new award scheme, the launching of a respiratory protection initiative to compliment the successful "It's in your hands" campaign, and increasing pressures to resolve the creation of a generic standard to assess health and safety competence, both the BSIF and BSIF Enterprises are busier than usual in serving BSIF members and the wider safety industry this Spring.
The joint BSIF - HSE development of an industry self-regulatory scheme to accredit respiratory protection fit-testers is gathering momentum towards an Autumn launch.
This development has again focussed attention onto the need for any competence assessments to be subject to periodic review and for such schemes to avoid the possibility of "partial" assessments such as those frequently used with educational and NVQ qualifications.
The increasing number of reports on counterfeit PPE has placed this subject at the top of the BSIF's "to-do" list and I am sure that the programme will be finalised in the very near future. We are all looking forward to the BSIF Directors Club event at Silverstone when, there is little doubt, this will be the hot topic of the day. This anti-counterfeit campaign will have the effect of accelerating the BSIF's PPE Selection for Use campaign and I feel sure that the combination of these two activities will result in a stronger collective message than either could have produced separately.
New this year is the introduction of the BSIF's Safety Excellence Award scheme. Designed to recognise innovation and initiative in the generation of practices and procedures that have materially improved the health and safety performances of client companies, this new award will now couple with the BSIF's Product Innovation and Safety Service awards.
We look forward to meeting members and friends at the Safety & Health Expo in May when we will be featuring our, now traditional, "Club" Lounge and Business Centre.
Whether you are exhibiting or just visiting, you will find a warm welcome on Stand K100 in Hall 10.
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