Introduction
Epilepsy is a neurological condition that affects the brain and causes recurrent seizures. A seizure happens when there is a sudden burst of electrical activity in the brain, temporarily disrupting normal function. Seizures can look quite different from person to person. Some people experience brief “absence” episodes (staring or loss of awareness), while others may have convulsive seizures with collapse, muscle jerking, and loss of consciousness. Many people recover quickly, but others need time to rest and fully regain awareness. In workplace health and safety terms, epilepsy matters because the hazard is rarely the diagnosis itself. The risk comes from what could happen during a seizure: a fall, impact injury, contact with moving machinery, driving incidents, drowning risk, burns, or delayed emergency response during lone working.
Why we celebrate International Epilepsy Day on 9th February
International Epilepsy Day is marked each year on the second Monday of February, led by the International Bureau for Epilepsy (IBE) and the International League Against Epilepsy (ILAE).
In some years, that second Monday falls on 9th February. The purpose is not symbolic. It is practical: raising awareness, challenging stigma, improving knowledge, and pushing organisations to treat epilepsy as a normal part of workforce diversity managed through risk assessment, reasonable adjustments, and competent emergency response.
Case study:
A major workplace learning example came from a UK prosecution involving supermarket chain, which was chained £3.5 million after the death of employee, who had severe epilepsy. He suffered a seizure while using a staircase at work, fell, and sustained fatal head injuries.
The case highlighted multiple failures, including inadequate risk assessment and a failure to review and control specific risks for a vulnerable employee particularly the foreseeable fall risk linked to stairs.
This is the core Health & Safety message: Epilepsy must be assessed like any other risk factor through task and environmental controls not handled informally, ignored, or left to chance.
Hazards linked to Epilepsy:
· Falls and impact injuries: Seizures can cause sudden collapse or loss of awareness. High-risk areas include stairs, ladders, mezzanines, raised platforms, loading bays, and slippery floors.
· Work at height: Any seizure risk at height can become fatal. Even low-level work (step stools, short ladders, dock edges) can create catastrophic outcomes.
· Machinery and moving parts: Entanglement, crushing, cutting, or amputation risk increases if a seizure occurs near conveyors, rollers, rotating equipment, guillotines, or unguarded machinery.
· Vehicles and driving related tasks: Driving, forklift use, or operating mobile plant increases risk to the person and others if seizure control is uncertain or triggers are not managed.
· Hot surfaces, flames, and cooking equipment Burns, and fire escalation can occur in kitchens, laboratories, workshops, and maintenance areas.
· Water and drowning risk Relevant in labs, water treatment sites, pools, riverside work, and any task near open water.
· Lone working and delayed response A seizure without supervision can become life-threatening due to injury, airway compromise, or prolonged seizure without timely support.
· Triggers made worse by poor job design Fatigue, stress, disrupted sleep patterns, flashing r flickering lights, and missed medication windows can increase seizure likelihood for some people.
Legal Duties
Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 (HSWA) Employers must protect employees and others affected by work activities “so far as reasonably practicable”. That includes foreseeable seizure related risks created by tasks, environments, and work systems.
Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 A “suitable and sufficient” risk assessment must be completed, with effective preventive and protective controls implemented and reviewed especially after changes, incidents, or health updates.
Equality Act 2010 (Disability and reasonable adjustments)
Epilepsy can meet the Equality Act definition of disability, triggering a duty to make reasonable adjustments so the person is not placed at a substantial disadvantage’s also reinforces the expectation to make reasonable adjustments and manage risks properly for disabled workers.
Control Measures:
· Assess tasks, locations, and foreseeable outcomes if a seizure occurred.
· Focus on falls, machinery exposure, driving tasks.
· lone working, and emergency response time.
· Review after any incident, medications change, role change, or no environmental change.
· Remove work at height tasks or redesign the task (ground-level work platforms, tools with extended reach, pre-fabrication).
· Guard machinery properly prevent exposure to dangerous moving parts.
· Use occupational health guidance to match work demands to risk controls.
Summary
International Epilepsy Day exists to force practical change: safe work design, better understanding, and fewer preventable Injuries. Epilepsy becomes a workplace hazard when controls are missing particularly around stairs, lone working, machinery, and fatigue. The case study shows what failure looks like: a predictable fall risk not controlled, resulting in a fatality and a multi-million pound fine.
A competent approach is straightforward: individual risk assessment, reasonable adjustment, safer task design, trained response, and consistent review.
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