To read a brief summary of the Council meeting held on 29 September 2025, click here.

The annual NHS Health at Work Network Conference will take place on 10-11 September 2025 at Chesford Grange, Warwickshire.

For further details see the NHS Health at Work Network website.

This free event promises to illuminate the transformative role of AI in OH both in the UK and globally.

For further details, and to book your place, go to website.

The SOM 90th Anniversary Gala Dinner is taking place on

Friday 26th September 2025, 6.30pm Apothecaries’ Hall, London

Scan the QR code in the attached link for further details and to register.

SOM 90th Anniversary Gala Dinner 

A report will be published following the AGM.

Book your place and find out more information here

Shifting the dial on work as a health outcome for the benefit of Work, Health, and Skills (webinar – 19 November 2024)

We held a webinar on 19 November 2024 to consider the above topic.

Chaired by Dr. Steve Boorman, the chair of the Council for Work and Health, the panel included Julie Denning PhD, Chartered Health Psychologist (VRA), Nicola Neath (BACP), and Janet O’Neill (NSOH) (NSOH).

It was a fascinating conversation and included the following subjects:

• Rehabilitation and the work agenda
• Improving Workplace Culture and Health
• Improving Workplace Management and support
• Addressing Mental Health and return to work practices
• Breaking silos in healthcare support
• Balancing work and health for successful return to work programmes
• Benefits system and mental health.

The key question we all addressed here is “what’s needs to be different this time round, when work as a health outcome is back on the national agenda?”

I am pleased to provide you with a link to the recording and Comments and Links from Zoom Chat added to the chat box during our webinar. There are many links shared today which may also be of interest.

Recording is here.

As you can imagine, there will be a lot more conversation to be had in this space, particularly as the Joint Health and Work Unit launch their ‘Round Table’ event in early 2025, which we will be chairing and we look forward to continuing the conversation further, in this platform and on others. We will keep our council members informed of all events and dates as they are confirmed.

Please do share our webinar from today within your networks where you feel the conversation is relevant.

WHEC will be presenting their findings on the strength of the evidence on the carcinogenicity of welding fume.

Seminar:

13:00-14:00  7th December: Assessment of the strength of evidence underpinning the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) reclassification of welding fume as carcinogenic to humans.

Join us via Teams at 13:00 Thursday 7th December.

Register here: https://forms.office.com/e/5HrDx9L40C

Please note: this seminar will be recorded and made available with captions after the event.

There will be a short question and answer session with the WHEC speakers at the end of the seminar.

About this event

The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) reviewed the data on the carcinogenicity of welding fume. HSE requested the opinion of the Workplace Health Expert Committee (WHEC) who will be presenting their latest findings on the strength of the evidence, particularly on whether a distinction should be made between fumes from different types of metal or different processes. WHEC concluded that all welding fumes cause lung cancer and possibly kidney cancer, and that it is not possible to identify specific welding processes or base metals that give rise to this risk. UV exposure from arc welding processes causes melanoma in the eye and may also increase the risk of skin cancer.

“The increased risk of lung cancer in welders is well recognised, but until recently it was considered a risk primarily of stainless steel welding, as well as bystander exposures, particularly to asbestos. This WHEC review of recent published scientific evidence has confirmed the conclusions of a recent IARC report that the increased risk of lung cancer is unlikely to be limited to these exposures and that no distinction can be made between different types of welding or the different metals welded in increasing the risk of lung cancer. The important implication is that in implementing measures to control levels of exposure to welding fume no distinction can be made between different welding processes or the metals welded.”

Professor Sir Anthony Newman-Taylor, Chair WHEC.

Download the report here: Assessment of the strength of evidence underpinning the IARC reclassification of welding fume as carcinogenic to humans

Speakers: Workplace Health Expert Committee (WHEC)

The development of policy in HSE needs to be informed by the best available contemporary scientific evidence.

HSE formed WHEC to provide independent expert advice on:

• new and emerging workplace health issues
• new and emerging evidence relating to existing workplace health issues
• the quality and relevance of the evidence base on workplace health issues

Find out more about Workplace Health Expert Committee (WHEC) here: WHEC

Speakers:

John Cherrie is Emeritus Professor of Human Health at Heriot Watt University and former Research Director at the Institute of Occupational Medicine in Edinburgh. He has been an exposure scientist since 1979, in a wide range of research and teaching. John is a member of the WHEC and the Industrial Injuries Advisory Council. He has carried out several research projects on welding fume exposure.

Len Levy OBE is Emeritus Professor of Environmental Health at the University of Cranfield. Prior to this he was Head of Toxicology and Risk Assessment at the UK Medical Research Council’s Institute for Environment and Health at the University of Leicester.

He is an occupational and environmental toxicologist and risk assessor, and holds a PhD in experimental pathology from the Institute of Cancer Research in London. He has held academic positions at the University of Aston and the University of Birmingham’s Institute of Occupational Health, where he was Reader in Occupational Health, continuing his research into the causes and mechanisms of occupational cancer.

Other communications activity (articles etc):

1. Cherrie JW, Levy L: Managing Occupational Exposure to Welding Fume: New Evidence Suggests a More Precautionary Approach is Needed. Ann Work Expo Health 2020, 64(1):1-4.