Practicing industrial safety

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have the same responsibility as other enterprises for health, environment and safety management (HESM). Some of them do not have the full competence or resources needed to implement good practice examples on their own. Support for such enterprises must therefore be made available. SMEs should be encouraged to use the external services available in the community and to incorporate good practice health, environment and safety management (GPHESM) into their overall business management. They need special government policy and support, particularly in the initiation phase, to benefit from GPHESM. Government measures should encourage and not hamper the development of SMEs or decrease their competitiveness.