Health and safety in the textiles industries

The textile and clothing manufacturing industries employ around 116,000 people in 8,600 businesses, with a turnover of more than £9bn. (Source: National Statistics Annual Business Inquiry 2006).

In the textiles industries, the main causes of injury are:

• slips and trips (nearly a quarter of all injuries)
• manual handling/musculoskeletal injuries
• struck by moving or falling objects
• contact with moving machinery

These four causes alone account for nearly 80% of all reported injuries.

The main causes of ill health are:

• Musculoskeletal injuries
• Exposure to noise at work
• Occupational asthma, and respiratory irritation from exposure to textile process dust

These web pages contain information about health and safety for the textiles industries. They also provide details on how to obtain further health and safety information via HSE's free and priced publications.