A healthy interest

摘要

IT'S ONE of the fundamentals of health and safety that the way an organisation manages its working environment can have a powerful effect on health. But individual workers' health may also affect how safely they do their jobs. Recognising this, many employers put workers through health assessments to ensure they are fit for the demands of their work. Health assessment, sometimes known as health screening, shouldn't be confused with employers' health surveillance duties. Surveillance, which is mandatory for some activities or where a risk assessment shows it is needed, is designed to detect any adverse effects from exposure to residual health risks in the workplace. Health assessments are much more about how an individual's health might impact on work. It's common for employers to offer some workers job-specific face-to-face health assessments on recruitment, before redeployment or at regular intervals, to re-affirm their fitness to work. The kinds of roles covered include: drivers (especially those in charge of large goods vehicles, forkfifts or cranes) jobs where driving forms a significant part of the work (postal workers, mobile sales people) food handlers other safety-critical workers (pilots, train drivers, offshore workers).