Small businesses called to support asthma campaign

Over 5 million people in the UK suffer from asthma and 12 million working days a year are lost as a direct result of the condition. Both the health and business consequences are therefore very serious, prompting Asthma UK to launch a campaign targeted at SMEs.

The Business Against Asthma scheme hopes to attract the support of small businesses who in return will receive practical advice, support and a visit from Asthma UK to highlight risks and educate staff.

Asthma is very often triggered in work environments by substances like flour, hairspray, dust and cleaning products.  The consequences can be fatal.  Tragically one person dies of an asthma attack every seven hours.

Asthma UK’s chief executive, Neil Churchill, said:

Between 1,500 and 3,000 people in the UK develop occupational asthma each year. We hope this scheme will go some way towards helping businesses put vital measures in place to reduce triggers in the workplace, support staff and customers with asthma and to ultimately get these numbers down.

Obviously risks in some workplaces, like bakeries, are inherent, but a scheme that helps educate and save lives is well worth supporting. More details can be found here.

[Picture credit: billaday licenced from Flickr]