Covering Birmingham and the West Midlands, Staffordshire, Shropshire, Warwickshire and Hereford & Worcestershire, the West Midlands region has a strong base of active members.
The organising team is headed up by Leila Kirk as Regional Organiser, who is ably assisted by Adrian Hirst.
The newly invigorated WM group gathered for its first meeting on 9 October at Jaguar Cars, Castle Bromwich. This was an interesting and enjoyable visit which we hope will be the start of a series of informative, interesting and challenging meetings to come. It was attended by individuals from several areas, the HSE, risk engineers, occupational hygiene consultants and a student.
We commenced with a tour of several areas of the factory. Looking at the new XF line and viewing the highly automated body shell production with the separate aluminium bonnet area, the assembly of engines and gear boxes and finally the application of trim and finishes.
There followed an enjoyable buffet lunch after which Andrew Singleton gave a talk on Electromagnetic Fields encountered during spot welding. Explaining that distance and work procedures have been used to reduce exposure to fields which vary considerably in intensity and which are not always predictable, being influenced by so many other structures and factors within an area. Increased EMF awareness was quoted by the majority of attendees as being the area where most was learnt. Epoxy resins, robotics and good practice were also quoted.
Our thanks go to Andrew Singleton for arranging the tour as well as for his very informative talk, which was so well received.
Looking ahead to 2009, and following the members questionnaire, we have meetings planned on aspects of control and skin exposure, an update on the effects of the new LEV guidance and a workshop session on HAV. In the autumn we are looking forward to, what we hope will become a regular feature, another factory visit, in this instance to a mortar company to see good practice in the control of RCS.
All other forthcoming events in this region will be included in the Event Calendar as and when the details are finalised.
Leila welcomes non-members as well as members to meetings, and any suggestions for venues, topics and events within the region are always enthusiastically received
Contact her by e-mail on: midlands@bohs.org