The global voice for occupational safety and health professionals has condemned the former UK government’s failed £1.4bn pandemic deal on personal protective equipment (PPE) as “shameful”.
Criticism from the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH) follows a BBC investigation which uncovered the staggering amounts of aprons, masks, and goggles set to be disposed of despite being fully compliant. The largest supplier of the PPE claimed the items may have been spoiled because they were left in shipping containers after delivery.
Fresh from attending the International Labour Organization’s (ILO) International Labour Conference, where a new global standard for biological hazards at work was discussed, UK-based IOSH criticised the fact that 1.57 billion items of PPE provided by NHS supplier Full Support Healthcare will never be used, despite being manufactured to the proper standard.
This also follows delegations from 194 Member States of the World Health Organization (WHO) attending the 77th World Health Assembly to discuss current and future public health priorities. As part of these discussions, the international negotiation body continues to draft and negotiate a global pandemic agreement aimed at strengthening pandemic prevention, preparedness, and response (with these negotiations continuing until 2025 or sooner).
In light of this, aside from the UK’s large-scale waste of public funds on PPE that has been burned, destroyed, thrown away, or recycled, including the cost of disposal, IOSH is concerned by the preparedness and response approach adopted. It is also troubled by the procurement strategy, which seemed to prevent PPE from being stored appropriately and ultimately not used.
Threat Continues
“Biological hazards of all kinds, not just Covid-19, pose significant risks for many people working in different environments,” said IOSH Head of Policy and Public Affairs Ruth Wilkinson.
“Exposure to contagious and non-contagious biological risks in 2021 is estimated to have accounted for at least 550,000 fatalities – that’s nearly 10 per cent of all estimated work-related fatalities,” she added.
“The Covid-19 pandemic highlighted the global impact that biological hazards can have on the workforce, and the wider impacts this brings to delivering key frontline services, supply chain resilience, and so on. It also evidenced the need for a more proactive approach to the prevention, preparedness, and response to existing, as well as new and emerging, biological hazards.”
