Stepping forward for challenges in Health, Safety and Environment in GIS perspective 2. Latest Market Trends There is no single source of information available in the UK on the nature and full extent of occupational and work-related ill health. Indeed, as the coverage of occupational healthcare providers increasingly offers greater preventive care, encouraged by the greater provision of contracted out care, reliable data on extent and efficiency becomes even harder to obtain. 
In an industry with a varied level of fragmentation, it is not possible to review all the companies in the industry. BMI Health Services delivers occupational health and safety services to more than 800 organizations throughout the UK. Current services offered by the company include health and safety audits, advice & consultancy, pre-employment screening, stress management and safety & hygiene assessments. The company increased turnover year-on-year throughout the review period of 1998- 2002. Sales of more than £17.1 million in 2002 represented a 69% increase in comparison with the beginning of the review period which was £10.1 million in 1998. BUPA remains by far the largest operator in the market, with an estimated market share in 2003 of 38%, compared with a stronger 41% in 2000 (MINTEL 2003). The estimated value shares of the market in 2003 are shown in table 1. There are a number of private consultancy companies that are working for improvement in Health & Safety Market for Private and Public Sector. The major companies are M R Associates (Environmental Health Services) which is based in Leeds, Osborne Richardson (Environmental Health Resourcing) based in London, Michael Howard Associates Ltd based in Lancashire, I.E.H.C (Independent Environmental Health Cooperatives) based in Bedfordshire and ABC Food Safety based in Essex, Comcare Environmental Services based in Northhants and RSA Environmental Health Limited is also one of the major competitors for flexible Resourcing in the Health & safety market and has recently become a part of Personal Health & Safety Consultants (PHSC) Plc.(EHN 2004). All these companies provide their services to various clients as employees are biggest asset for a company, and it is to everyone's benefit that their good health is maintained. The extent of outsourcing is shown in Table 2. An HSE report suggested that work-related injuries and illness costs the British economy between £14-18 billion per year, equating the cost to the economy as a whole of as much as 2.6% of GDP (www.hse.gov.uk). 
3. Materials & Methodology A literature review from available books on Health & Safety and information from web augmented by GIS involvement in Health & Safety sector is kept in mind for analyzing the problem in hand. Keeping in view the aspects of Health & safety a different approach is adopted by adding spatial component and breaking down of activities for formulating a schema that can form part of GIS model. Two separate approaches have been used firstly market analysis of health & safety sector in UK is carried out to visualize the potential and secondly a frame work of health and safety Inspection is proposed which is a basic unit of Health & Safety at work to be used at micro level. All the information that is analyzed is focused towards breaking down of Health & Safety inspection in a GIS frame work for better governance of available resources and data. An inspection is the lowest level of checking and maintaining health & safety at work by a Local Authority in public sector and in private sector it is carried out by the Environmental Health Practitioners (EHPs) from flexible resourcing companies and other means. A new wave of technological advancement is taking this field towards a geographical based information system that stores attributes keeping known geographical references at backdrop. This helps the EHPs at all levels, starting from planning of an individual inspection to a strategic decision at the highest level of hierarchy. 4. Environmental Protection Local public health and safety agencies across the country are placing greater emphasis on disease surveillance, preparedness and response coordination to combat health threats such as West Nile virus, anthrax, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), bio-terrorism and health & safety at work (HSE 2003). They are finding that GIS is an effective technology for aggregating, integrating and displaying data from various sources to create complete pictures of health conditions in their jurisdictions. GIS allows public and environmental health practitioners to put their data on a map, where they can easily assess patterns, trends and relationships between health events and environmental, socioeconomic and geographic factors. GIS mapping and analysis capabilities can assist virtually all public health functions by combining data sets such as disease reports, demographics, health care facility usage and vital records with geographic data layers (i.e., census tracts, towns, counties, land use, facility locations). As a result, public health agencies can better monitor environmental health, track community health and plan programs targeted to specific areas of the community. By connecting health records to specific addresses, census tracts, zip codes or counties, GIS can be used to pinpoint concentrations of disease, track the spread of disease and contribute to risk assessment and public notification. The ability of GIS to combine health provider data with regional demographic data allows users to calculate service areas or markets, helps to identify underserved populations, and can help public health agencies efficiently allocate scarce program resources to appropriate locations. The barriers to GIS application in public health are falling. Health departments can take advantage of investments made by states, cities and counties throughout the nation in GIS data development. Health, Safety and Environmental Protection is a critical issue in most countries, requiring an integrated system approach to be faced in an effective manner (Occupational Health (Industrial Report) - UK - May 2004). In fact, the considerable increase in degradation of environment due to waste production suggests the necessity of a correct balance among the various available technological options for waste collection and treatment, respecting also economic constraints, existing local and state regulations, environmental issues, and taking into account public acceptance (Massey and Dodd, 1996; Lin and Kao, 1997; Valeo et aL, 1998; Senes and Toccolini, 1998; Marino et al., 1999; McDonald, 1996). Environmental protection is an action or activity (which involves the use of equipment, labor, manufacturing techniques and practices, information networks and products) where the main purpose is to collect, treat, reduce, prevent or eliminate pollutants and pollution or any other degradation of the environment resulting from the operating activity of the company (http://www.defra.gov.uk/environment/statistics/envsurvey/ index.htm). 5. GIS Perspective The out sourcing to flexible resource companies is reaching 46% and must have a technological component. Important factor is the visualization of GIS involvement in Health & Safety Sector. These issues include spatial clustering of health events, environmental hazards, the spread of infectious disease, vector-borne disease, access to health services, and locating health services. Keeping track of commercial premises, availability, inspection dates and risk assessment is a key responsibility of Environmental Health Officers. Health & Safety mapping is undergoing a renaissance. The relative ease of use of contemporary Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and the availability of national and international, health-related data through the Internet have combined to create a new and unusually ecumenical generation of persons using maps to understand medical issues. The relative ease with which maps can be generated using GIS, masks the real difficulties of the graphic exposition of environment related phenomenon. 6. Health & Safety Inspection Framework A Health & Safety perspective for which mapping is a potentially potent tool can have various GIS components: Spatial-------- Spatial functionality means a provision of a simple means of identifying commercial premises, viewing proximity of premises with similar use type and analyzing information geographically. To help identify under performing registered premises on a map illustrating clusters and trends. It basically enables an EHO to plot the locations of the outbreak of disease etc. Health & Safety Details--------A simple means of recording report details and registration information for all premises involving the health & Safety risks. It means a provision of a standard form (geo-database) that help maintains a comprehensive record of traders, risk summaries, use types and addresses. Risk factor analysis--------An analysis of risk factor as a requirement from various international and national agencies. Health & Safety data--------Data record of all Health & Safety practices, ensuring that only the most up-to-date information is associated with the properties are stored in a geo-database. Inspections, Visit and Actions-------- Schedule and coordinate follow up events, such as site inspections and risk assessment, recording all information in the database. Record sample data and issue reminders when the next sample is due to be taken. Sample details-------- Where standard criteria are in operation, to ensure the right data is collected. An EHO can record the precise location to ensure future samples offer a true comparison by using the same location again. Performance Monitoring-------- Comprehensive tracking of response times enabling the management of targets. Technical Issues--------Identification of areas by means of polygons and individual spots by point details and more importantly use of buffers for various analysis. It also includes the type of equipment and materials that are being used. This will help in a better planning and understanding of the nature of problem. |