Civil Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
1.3.2
Financial reasons (economic costs)
There can also be signifi cant emotional and physio-
logical consequences for those who may consider
themselves to some degree directly responsible for
killing or injuring a work colleague, member of the public
or a product/service user by either failing to manage
safety effectively or through simply making a mistake.
Every working day in Great Britain, at least one
person is killed and over 6000 are injured as a result of
work activities and about one million people take time
off because of what they regard as work-related illness.
In total, accidents and work-related ill health result in
about 30 million lost work-days.
It is widely accepted and understood that safety events
(accidents, incidents, fi res, environmental damage, etc.)
cost money. The fi nancial costs to an organisation fol-
lowing a fi re are substantial. There is a perception that
the majority of such costs are insurable; however, as can
be seen from the research undertaken on behalf of the
HSE,
The Cost of Accidents at Work
, there are numer-
ous areas which are not covered by insurance.
Financial surveys undertaken on behalf of the
insurance organisations identify clearly the cost of fi res
to the British economy, details of which are shown in the
graph in Figure 1.3.
As can be seen from the graph the estimated
fi nancial losses attributed to fi re are based upon those
90
Retail
Hospitality
Dwelling
80
Engineering
Entertainment and leisure industry
Transport
Construction industry
70
Library
Metal industry
Local/National Gov.
Food & Drink Industry
60
Unoccupied building
Chemical industry
Warehouse
Sport and recreation
50
Office
Glass industry
Education
Plastics industry
40
Wholesale
Community centre
Timber and furniture industry
Agricultural industry
30
Motor trade
Waste and recycling
20
10
0
Estimated loss £M
Figure 1.2
The human cost of fi re
Figure 1.3
Graph detailing estimated fi re losses
