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. 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.

For the first time, EU-OSHA called for European partners to join the campaign and help spread the message. 43 companies and organisations successfully responded to this call and have been working hard to give risk assessment a prominent role. During the European Week they will be particularly active in organising activities all over Europe. At the same time, the national focal points of EU-OSHA (occupational safety and health institutions in each country) are key players in making the campaign a reality at national level.

As part of the campaign, EU-OSHA has published a major report entitled Assessment, elimination and substantial reduction of occupational risks, with practical information on successful interventions in workplaces throughout the EU aimed at eliminating or controlling risks. Targeted at those responsible for doing risk assessments and deciding on preventive measures, the report includes 18 detailed case studies and 7 shorter studies covering a wide range of economic sectors and types of risks. They range from preventing needlestick injuries in hospitals to reducing risks of manual handling in a shipyard. It concludes that many risks can be completely avoided or eliminated, and for those that cannot, targeting the risk at source is most effective.

This European Week for Safety is part ot the Agency's Healthy Workplaces campaign. This is the world’s biggest information campaign on OSH, involving thousands of organisations and workers across Europe.