Commitment
“Shell chemicals companies are committed to pursuing the goal of no harm to people, including ensuring that potential risks to the health of the people who work in Shell chemicals companies are effectively managed.”
Occupational illness* performance update
The Chemicals Class of Business (CoB)** reported six occupational illness cases in 2006, involving mainly office based staff. This had reduced from 11 in 2005. Chemicals Manufacturing reported 12 occupational illness cases compared to 13 in 2005.
In 2006 work continued on embedding the Shell Group Health Management Standards into site HSSE Management Systems with their implementation monitored via local reviews with health specialists, consolidated for global reporting, and checked as part of Shell's programme of independent audit. The core of these Standards is the evaluation of health risks to assess the adequacy of health risk controls and improve as necessary, together with the identification and investigation of occupational illness cases to support learning from incidents.
An example of a specific initiative launched by the Chemicals CoB in 2006 is a global programme focusing on office ergonomics and business travel, sharing best practices, establishing minimum performance requirements and making materials available for staff engagement on key topics related to employee health.
*Occupational Illness is defined as any work-related disorder, other than one resulting from an injury, caused by or mainly caused by exposures at work. It is recognised that there are some inherent difficulties in identifying cases and determining if an identified case is as a result of exposures at work and we are working to improve the consistency of reporting.
** Chemicals activities are in two business areas: the Chemicals Class of Business is responsible for Chemicals customer support and marketing, while Chemicals Manufacturing is the responsibility of the Manufacturing organisation. Each organisation manages and reports its illness performance separately.
