How I Use the Industrial Diseases Template with Customers in Pilla
Industrial diseases are the risks that don't announce themselves. I worked with a manufacturing client a few years back where three warehouse operatives developed the same hand-arm vibration symptoms within eighteen months of each other. The risk assessments existed on paper, but nobody had connected the dots between the tool use, the exposure times, and the early warning signs. By the time the third case came through, the HSE was already asking questions.
That's the pattern I see most often. The policy exists. The hazards are known in theory. But the link between what people are exposed to on a shift and what that exposure does to them over months and years is where it falls apart. This article covers what your industrial diseases arrangements need to include, gives you a template you can edit for your own operation, and walks through the bits that actually matter when an HSE inspector reviews your system.
Key Takeaways
- What are industrial diseases in health and safety? Industrial diseases are health conditions caused by exposure to substances or work practices in the workplace, ranging from musculoskeletal disorders and occupational deafness to dermatitis and occupational asthma. They can develop gradually over years, which makes them harder to spot than acute injuries
- Why do you need an industrial diseases policy? The Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 places a general duty on employers to protect employee health, and RIDDOR 2013 requires you to report certain industrial diseases to the enforcing authorities. Without a policy, you have no structured way to identify risks, monitor exposure, or prove you took reasonable steps
- How do you set it up in Pilla? Use the knowledge hub template below, edit it to match your operation, and share it with your team through the app so everyone has access and you can track who's read it
- How do you automate the follow-up? Set up Poppi to chase staff who haven't acknowledged the policy and flag when it's due for review
Article Content
Understanding What's Required of You
Industrial diseases are health conditions caused by workplace exposure. Unlike a slip or a fall, they develop over time through repeated contact with a substance, a process, or a working condition. That's what makes them dangerous. By the time someone notices symptoms, the damage may have been building for months or years.
The range is wide. Musculoskeletal disorders from poor manual handling. Occupational deafness from unprotected noise exposure. Vibration white finger from prolonged use of handheld power tools. Carpal tunnel syndrome. Allergic rhinitis. Dermatitis. Silicosis. Occupational asthma. Your policy needs to account for whichever of these are relevant to your operation, and the only way to know that is through proper risk assessment.
The legal framework sits across two main pieces of legislation. The Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 places a general duty on employers to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health and safety of their employees. The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 require you to carry out risk assessments, appoint competent persons, and provide appropriate training. On top of that, the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 2013 (RIDDOR) require you to report certain industrial diseases to the enforcing authorities when a doctor confirms the diagnosis and the employee's work involves a relevant activity.
An HSE inspector reviewing your arrangements wants to see that you've identified where your operations could affect workforce health, that you've assessed those risks, that you've put controls in place, and that you're monitoring whether those controls are working. They also want to see that employees know what the risks are and that you have a clear route for reporting and investigating health concerns. A policy that sits in a folder but hasn't shaped how the business actually operates is not going to satisfy that test.
In my experience, the businesses that get caught out are rarely the ones doing obviously dangerous work. They're the ones doing moderately risky work where nobody has joined the dots between daily exposure and long-term health outcomes.
Setting It Up as a Knowledge Hub Entry
I've built an industrial diseases template in Pilla covering risk identification, risk assessment, health surveillance, employee awareness and training, personal hygiene, RIDDOR reporting duties, employee reporting, and investigation procedures. It gives you a structured starting point, but you need to make it specific to your operation.
In the knowledge hub, create a new entry and tag it with "Health and Safety System". Use the same tag across all of your health and safety policies so they are grouped together and Poppi can track them as a set. Assign the entry to all teams so that everyone in the business can access it.
The template is designed to be edited, not just filed. Read through every section. Where it says something generic, replace it with what actually happens in your business. If your operation doesn't involve vibrating tools, remove vibration white finger from the examples and replace it with the hazards that are relevant to your workforce. The HSE inspector wants to see that your policy reflects your actual risks, not that you've copied a generic document.
Industrial Diseases
Industrial diseases result from exposure to substances or work practices in the workplace and go on to cause immediate or delayed health problems for the person exposed to them. The following are examples of industrial diseases in the workplace:
Musculoskeletal (normally through poor manual handling)
Occupational Deafness (Through be exposed high level noise unprotected)
Vibration White Finger (Through prolonged the use of vibrating handheld tools)
Carpal Tunnel Syndrome - Repetitive Strain Injury (RSI)
Allergic Rhinitis (nasal irritation from non-infectious particles)
Dermatitis
Silicosis
Occupational asthma
Company Name have a legal duty to identify instances where our service provision may impact on the health of our workforce, conduct risk assessments, monitor, and conduct surveillance checks for signs and symptoms of industrial diseases that may be as a result of our undertakings.
By conducting risk assessments, we can identify control measures to reduce risk to our workforce. If identified as required, health surveillance checks will enable us to monitor exposure where possible and implement measures to reduce the effect of any exposure as much as is reasonably practicable.
All employees are to be made aware of these types of hazards and the precautions to be adopted. Company Name as part of our protocols provide training to reduce the risk of industrial injuries and diseases and encourage staff to have a high level of personal hygiene which is one of the best measures to avoid many industrial diseases, particularly when it comes to skin conditions such as Dermatitis.
All employees are to be made aware of the types of hazards and the precautions to be adopted. The company also has a legal duty under the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrence Regulations to report any incidences of industrial diseases amongst its employees to the enforcing authorities.
It is the duty of all company employees to report incidences of industrial diseases to senior management. This is something that is encouraged, and all reported issues will be investigated thoroughly to identify a means to reduce employees exposure to further risk.
To facilitate our duty of care, if unsure how to proceed we will take advice from Foursquare Group who are our competent advisors.
This is a preview of the template. In Pilla, you can edit this to match your business.
What I'd want to see when reviewing this:
The risk assessment section is the backbone of the whole policy. I'd want to see that you've gone through each work area and process and identified the specific exposures that could lead to industrial disease. Not just "chemicals" but which chemicals, in which tasks, for how long, and how often. The control measures that come out of those assessments should follow the hierarchy: eliminate, substitute, engineer, administrate, then PPE as a last resort. If your controls jump straight to PPE without considering whether the hazard can be removed or reduced first, that's a red flag.
The health surveillance section matters more than most businesses realise. Where your risk assessments identify that surveillance is needed, you need to show that it's actually happening on schedule, that results are recorded, and that you act on anything flagged. I've reviewed systems where the surveillance programme was set up in year one and quietly dropped by year two. That's worse than not having one at all, because it shows you knew it was needed and stopped doing it.
The RIDDOR reporting section should be clear on which diseases are reportable, what triggers a report, and who is responsible for submitting it. In practice, the gap I see most often is between a GP confirming a diagnosis and the business realising it's a reportable condition. That delay can cause problems.
Common mistakes I see:
The list of industrial disease examples is left generic. The template includes musculoskeletal disorders, occupational deafness, vibration white finger, and several others, but I regularly see businesses that haven't edited the list to reflect their actual risks. If you run an office, carpal tunnel and display screen equipment issues are your concern, not silicosis. Tailor the list.
The risk assessment section says "conduct risk assessments" but doesn't describe how often or when they're reviewed. I'd want to see a review schedule and a trigger for reassessment when processes, substances, or equipment change. A risk assessment from three years ago for a process that's changed twice since then is not a current risk assessment.
Employee reporting is mentioned but there's no clear procedure for what happens after someone reports a health concern. The template covers the duty to investigate, but I see businesses where employees don't know who to report to, how to raise it, or what will happen next. Spell that out. If staff don't trust the process, they won't use it, and you'll only find out about problems when they've become serious.
Automate the Follow-Up with Poppi
Writing the policy is one thing. Making sure your team has actually read it is another. Poppi can handle the chasing so you don't have to.
If you mark the knowledge hub entry as mandatory, Poppi will track who's read it and who hasn't. You can set up automations to chase staff who are behind, notify managers when someone completes the policy, and get a regular report showing where the gaps are.
Here are three automations I'd set up for any knowledge hub policy:
Tom, you have 2 overdue policies to read and acknowledge
Overdue training reminders
Automatically chase team members who have mandatory policies they haven't read yet. Poppi sends the reminder so you don't have to.
Tom, you have 2 overdue policies to read and acknowledge
Emma has completed a mandatory policy
Video completion alerts
Get notified when a team member finishes reading or watching a policy, so you can track progress without chasing.
Emma has completed a mandatory policy
Training Report: 87% team completion. Tom and Sarah behind on 2 mandatory policies, due 3 days ago.
Training gap analysis
Get a regular AI report showing which team members are behind on mandatory policies and where the gaps are across your team.
Training Report: 87% team completion. Tom and Sarah behind on 2 mandatory policies, due 3 days ago.