Skin cancer awareness campaign across all Gilbert-Ash project sites

Friday 9th September 2016

Our Health & Safety team have rolled out a new campaign for site staff and subcontractors over the summer months. We worked in conjunction with Cancer Focus and the Public Health Agency to launch and implement a ‘Cover Up Policy’ to educate site staff and subcontractors on the importance of protecting themselves against skin cancer while working in the sun on site.

The campaign was rolled out across all our project sites, through posters and toolbox talks. We also distributed cards that feature a UV test which when held in sunlight, changes colour according to the intensity of the sun. This provides a handy check to indicate if workers need to cover up by applying sunscreen, wearing long sleeves and sunglasses.

‘3 out of 5 skin cancers occur on the head and neck and given that many site staff are working outside, they run the risk of over-exposure to the sun’ commented John McGerty, Gilbert-Ash Health & Safety Manager. ‘Coming into the summer months we wanted to take a proactive approach to make site workers aware of the risks of sunburn and overexposure to the sun. We will be reinforcing the message during our Health & Wellbeing week which takes place in June, along with a series of other initiatives to keep our workers and subcontractors safe and healthy’.