58
MAY 2015 PRO INSTALLER
PRO BUSINESS
www.proinstaller.co.uk
New CDM Regs:
Be careful what
you wish for!
New CDM Regulations that came into force last month aim to tackle,
among other matters the unacceptably high number of people suffering
from workplace dust and emission ailments (more than 13,000 says
the HSE) but they also signal an end to CDM co-ordinators.
So, what now for building site safety? asks
Gareth Billinghurst,
director and senior
auditor at online safety legislation experts
Cedrec.
Both current and new
CDM Regulations have a
responsibility to ensure
that there is a supply of
fresh air, where reasonably
practicable. This covers a
construction site and its approach to ensure that both
employees and the general
public are protected from
any dust and emissions.
They also require that work
and industrial plants that
could have an impact on
air quality, carries effective
devices to provide visible
or audible warning.
This places an immediate
duty to act on the visible
impact of dust but not on
the long term and accumulating effects.
However, it is clear that
the current level of dust and
emission related illness is
far too high and therefore
clearly necessitates the need
to update assessments and
management across the
board. Particularly in smaller sites, where constraints
on resources, finances and
time used for training,
assessments, audits and
dealing with causal labour
all have a considerable price
tag.
Looking ahead to the
changes, for some the most
welcome news will be the
replacing of CDM co-ordinators with principal designers. There has been