09/02/04 - What Katie Did Next - Scoop a Top Health and Safety Award

A toxic terror cartoon character has helped Cumbria County Council scoop a prestigious health and safety award – and to uncover a stash of chemicals left over from the Foot and Mouth crisis.

The Authority is to receive the regional honour in recognition of its efforts during last year’s European Week for Safety and Health.  Health and Safety Units from a number of Council Directorates collaborated to achieve the success.

Katie Chemical was at the heart of the Council’s campaign to urge its residents and staff to handle dangerous substances with care. The campaign mascot spearheaded the Unit’s work with children through schools and family centres.

Cumbria County Council regularly mounts awareness campaigns for its workforce as part of European Week for Safety and Health, but in 2003 decided to take the dangerous substances theme into the community as well.

Stephanie Williams, the Council’s Corporate Health & Safety Adviser, said:

“We targeted our workforce with information and awareness packs, and organised competitions and workshops which were well attended.  We implemented a chemical amnesty in all Council premises and issued a questionnaire asking for details of substances they felt were out of date, improperly stored, surplus to requirements or in need of specialist disposal.

“The amnesty highlighted a large surplus of unused citric acid disinfectants, a legacy of the foot and mouth crisis. Farmers around the County need citric acid for the cleansing of dairy units and to break down slurry stores, so we were able to redirect the stocks where they could be useful. Other substances, mainly old cleaning products, were collected and disposed of safely.”

Meanwhile, Katie Chemical was spreading the health and safety message to the County’s children. Packs were issued to all Cumbria schools, family centres and foster carers – a deliberate move by the Council in response to national child poisoning statistics. The Unit prepared a series of competitions, and Katie was a major key to grabbing the children’s attention.

Stephanie added:

“We were overwhelmed by the entries. Many schools had embraced the theme and used the information within their own curriculum across all the age ranges. The quality of these entries proved that the information we supplied had been used to provoke thought and input from the children to produce their own ideas on how hazardous substances pose threats to people, animals and the environment.”

A ‘real-life’ Katie toured Cumbria’s towns to spread the awareness message and even called in at a meeting of the County Council in Kendal. She also made presentations at primary schools where children instantly recognised her from the promotional literature they had worked with.

Extensive local media coverage throughout the campaign meant the important awareness message was delivered right to where it mattered.

Today (9 February) the Council received its HSE regional award at a special ceremony held at the historic Quarry Bank Mill in Cheshire. The award was received by Stephanie Williams on behalf of the County Council.

County Councillor Jack Richardson, Cabinet spokesman for Community Safety, said:

“This was a very important campaign to raise awareness of the dangers involved the handling and storing of hazardous substances in our County. One of Cumbria County Council’s key themes within the Corporate Strategy is to improve the safety and quality of people’s lives. We are proud to win this award and are pleased that our campaign has been so successful.”

The Council is now in the running for an HSE national award which will be presented later in the year.