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This Tory Government is abandoning the mitigations to protect public health. Workers need employers to robustly control Covid transmission risks even more.

The HSE and Local Authorities should be checking employers have put in place controls including good ventilation & high standard respiratory PPE

Join us, wearing masks, strict 2 metres minimum physical distancing at

HSE,
Redgrave Court,
Merton Road,
Bootle,
Merseyside, L20 7HS
at
6pm Tuesday 27th July
to demand:
Covid is in the air so all workers need PPE

If you can’t be there, post this graphic with message of support on social media

The Control of Substances Hazardous To Health Regulations specify appropriate respiratory PPE for workers when the risk of airborne exposure to harmful; substances such as Covid virus, cannot be eliminated or reduced to safe enough levels by engineering, administrative or other collective controls.

This means PPE of FFP2 or FFP3 standard.

It does not mean face coverings of no specific guaranteed fit or filtration standard or fluid resistant surgical masks, FRSM. These are source control masks intended to catch exhaled droplets and smaller aerosols which may contain virus if the wearer is infected. They are intended to protect others not the wearer. Even though face coverings are not 100% effective, if everyone is wearing them in indoor spaces them then they reduce the viral load in the air, reducing the risk of inhaling virus for everyone of around 50% or more..
But they are not PPE.

Now the Government is removing the collective control of face-covering mandate, when currently 1 in 95 people is infected, Covid is in the millions of small airborne aerosols that infected people exhale into shared air wherever people are mixing for work, so there is even more need for all workers to have PPE to FFP2 and FFP3 standard to protect them from infection at work,

VENTING | Coronavirus risks are mostly up in the air - Hazards magazine

https://www.hazards.org/infections/venting.htm

The HSE knows that fluid resistant surgical masks are not PPE as their 2008 Research Report RR619 Evaluating the protection afforded by surgical masks (hse.gov.uk) https://www.hse.gov.uk/research/rrhtm/rr619.htm showed.

RR619 Evaluating the protection afforded by surgical masks against influenza bioaerosols

Background

The UK is preparing for a potential influenza pandemic. The main route of transmission of influenza is believed to be via direct contact with large droplets. The relative importance of aerosols in transmission is considered to be minor, but it cannot be ruled-out.

The current UK Pandemic Influenza Infection Control Guidance recommends that workers who are in close contact with patients should wear surgical masks to reduce exposure to large droplets. However, surgical masks are not intended to provide protection against infectious aerosols. The guidance recommends that procedures that are likely to generate aerosols should be minimised, or where unavoidable, workers should wear appropriate respiratory protection. There is a common misperception amongst workers and employers that surgical masks will protect against aerosols. This study aims to evaluate the relative levels of protection provided by both surgical masks and respirators against aerosols.

Main Findings

This study focussed on the effectiveness of surgical masks against a range of airborne particles. Using separate tests to measure levels of inert particles and live aerosolised influenza virus, our findings show that surgical masks provide around a 6-fold reduction in exposure. Live viruses could be detected in the air behind all surgical masks tested. By contrast, properly fitted respirators could provide at least a 100-fold reduction.

Source: Hazards

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