Paper for conference on The Future of Tree Risk Management
London, 15 September 2006.
The average annual number of tree-related deaths between 1998 and 2003 (the most recent statistics available) was six, or one in 10 million averaged over the national population. The Health and Safety Executive considers that an individual risk of death of one in a million per annum for both workers and the public corresponds to a very low level of risk and should be used as a guideline for the boundary between the broadly acceptable and tolerable regions. The broadly acceptable region the HSE explains as follows: risks falling into this region are generally regarded as insignificant and adequately controlled.
Judged by this HSE guideline the tree-related risks that are the focus of this conference would appear to fall far below the HSE threshold of concern and require no further management.
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