Dunedata Consultancy 'ONSITE SAFE' & O.H.S.E.

Social Media and Young Adults | Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project

2010-02-08T12:13:00.000+08:00

Social Media and Young Adults | Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project

Some interesting research on internet and social media usage by those between 12-17 in the USA.

ACME Products| ACME New Releases May 2009 : Eco Pen - Bio degradable pen made of corn starch plastics and new designer eye glass cases

2010-01-21T14:31:00.000+08:00

ACME Products| ACME New Releases May 2009 : Eco Pen - Bio degradable pen made of corn starch plastics and new designer eye glass cases

COOL ! but where does all that plastic go ?especially important when are choking up to our eyeballs in the stuff?Needs a further think...what does it break down into?.

Web 2.0 Suicide Machine - Meet your Real Neighbours again! - Sign out forever!

2010-01-12T10:11:00.000+08:00

Web 2.0 Suicide Machine - Meet your Real Neighbours again! - Sign out forever!

Great sentiments and warning

Web 2.0 Suicide Machine - Meet your Real Neighbours again! - Sign out forever!

2010-01-12T10:08:00.001+08:00

Web 2.0 Suicide Machine - Meet your Real Neighbours again! - Sign out forever!

Posted using ShareThis

Environmental Leader

2009-12-11T01:13:00.000+08:00

Environmental Leader

A call for action on safety records

2009-12-05T11:38:00.000+08:00

Safety awareness ≠ safety (always) « SafetyAtWorkBlog
Unacceptable injury and deaths record in Victoia and Australia.There is more research required.A call for action.

Barrow Island and the environment

2009-11-30T21:47:00.001+08:00

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Wageru death Sparks safety case response by W.Aust.Government

2009-09-04T10:52:00.000+08:00

New mining safety regulation as death toll rises

Will this safety case response be the solution to deaths on minesites or be just a blame and money shifting exercise?What are the real causes of the latest spike of deaths in the mining industry in the current year?

"
New mining safety regulation as death toll rises
AJA STYLES
September 2, 2009

The Minister for Mines and Petroleum Norman Moore has announced new safety regulations for the mining industry after the death toll on mines rose to six this year.

An Alcoa contractor died early yesterday after falling down a shaft at the company's Wagerup alumina refinery, 110km south-east of Perth.

The contractor 50-year-old Paul Herbert Fry, a contract foreman for Trans Pacific Industrial Solutions who lived in the Mandurah suburb of Erskine.

Safety investigators from the Department of Mines and Petroleum are still preparing a report into the circumstances leading up to the death for the State Coroner.

Mr Moore said the number of mine-related deaths had spiked significantly this year, up from two the previous years and he feared the sector had become "complacent".

"Even one death, is one too many," he said.

The government now intends to make mining companies follow a safety model used by petroleum sector, where companies are more self-regulated at a fracture of the cost to tax-payers.

Mr Moore said the Petroleum Safety Case Regime has been successful since it was introduced after the 1970s Alpha North Seas explosion, which killed 167 men.

He said in WA, no deaths had occurred on oil rigs in the past couple of years.

The scheme requires companies to assess out their own safety risks and put in pace their own management schemes to reduce the risks, which can then be fully audited by the government.

Currently the government conducts all the risk assessment and checks at mine sites at a cost of $18 million a year.

Implementing a Safety Case Regime for mining companies is estimated to cost the companies $35 million, with the government still spending $5m.

Mr Moore said it will mean safety inspector numbers will be boosted from 80 to 115, of which 60 inspectors will work in the mining sector.

He said he hopes it will allow WA to become more competitive with the federal regulatory bodies in employing highly-qualified inspectors.

The regime will be introduced over three years to allow smaller mining companies to prepare for it.
New mining safety regulation as death toll rises (4 September 2009)"
http://www.watoday.com.au/wa-news/new-mining-safety-regulation-as-death-toll-rises-20090902-f8ag.html
http://snipurl.com/rl6l3

Approval of Controversial Gorgon project in western australia Takes place

2009-08-31T15:11:00.000+08:00

Gorgon expansion proposal approved - EPBC 2008/4178

The Gorgon expansion has been approved by the Federal australian Government at a time when opinions are mixed in regards to the long term impacts of such approvals on climate change issues,sustainability in its broadest senses of work,unemployment and industrial development,development over public opinion,value of environment and environmental impacts over short term industrial development and dollar earning and it brings in to sharper focus the fact that we are definitely controlled/influenced and impacted by global views,perceptions both economically and politically and that we cant easily assert political autonomy ...These and many other issues whilst the current oil spill off the Western Australian coast 700kms into the Timor sea, highlights some of the dangers and issues of oils exploration and environmental impacts...coincidentally at this time.(see; http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/08/31/2671525.htm )

FACEBOOK ON THE WAY OUT?

2009-08-31T09:42:00.000+08:00

The Medium - Facebook Exodus - NYTimes.com
Is it possible that Facebook is losing its attraction power?What is the future direction going to be in this arena of 'social' networking?

Plug in Cars in australia...Mitsubishi first off the rank?

2009-05-29T21:44:00.000+08:00

Mitsubishi electric car charged for 2010 - www.drive.com.au
the new plug in Mitsubishi model car due in 2010 in Australia.Is it a sign of things to come?Is it a solution or could they expose our current lack of reliable renewable power generation capacity?

Mitsubishi MIEV

Plug in Cars in australia...Mitsubishi first off the rank?

2009-05-29T21:41:00.000+08:00

Albanese takes on Car Manufacturers in Green push

2009-05-29T21:37:00.000+08:00

Green motoring guide - Drive.com.au

The New Green car Drive...Minis Research project

Go out to the real world says Google Boss

2009-05-21T12:23:00.000+08:00

The Associated Press: Google CEO urges grads: 'Turn off your computer'

Google CEO urges grads: 'Turn off your computer'

By KATHY MATHESON – 2 days ago

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — The head of the world's most popular search engine urged college graduates on Monday to step away from the virtual world and make human connections.

Speaking at the University of Pennsylvania's commencement, Google chairman and CEO Eric Schmidt told about 6,000 graduates that they need to find out what is most important to them — by living analog for a while.

"Turn off your computer. You're actually going to have to turn off your phone and discover all that is human around us," Schmidt said. "Nothing beats holding the hand of your grandchild as he walks his first steps."

Schmidt, who holds a doctorate from the University of California at Berkeley, also received an honorary doctor of science degree at the ceremony. Penn President Amy Gutmann cited Schmidt's "manifold contributions to putting the world at humanity's fingertips."

"You have devoted your career to heralding a new age of learning empowered by technology," Gutmann said.

It was Schmidt's second honorary degree in as many days. On Sunday, he received one at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, where he delivered a similar speech.

At Penn, Schmidt noted the Ivy League school played a key role in the technological industry by creating ENIAC, one of the world's first electronic computers, in 1946.

"Literally everything that you see — every computer, every mobile phone, every device — descends from the principles that were invented right here," Schmidt said.

In the next 10 years, he predicted, technology will advance to the point where it will be possible to have 85 years worth of video on the equivalent of iPod.

He also urged graduates not to lay out a rigid path for themselves. Rewards will gravitate to those who make mistakes and learn from them, Schmidt said.

"You can't plan innovation or inspiration, but you can be ready for it, and when you see it you can jump on it and you can make a difference," he said.

The Class of 2009 is graduating in a tough economic climate, but such downturns can be a time for innovation, Schmidt said. He noted that Rice Krispies, Twinkies and beer cans were all products of the Great Depression — not to mention staples of college life.

He playfully compared today's "Google and Facebook generation" to his own: cell phones vs. phone booths, Wii vs. Pong, blogs vs. newspapers, Red Bull vs. Tang.

Perhaps most notably, Schmidt said, members of his generation spent all their time trying to hide their most embarrassing moments. Today's generation records and posts all those moments on YouTube, he said, drawing laughter from the crowd.

"And I am looking forward to watching these for the next 30 or 40 years," Schmidt said.

Copyright © 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
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4 Work related fatalities as reported by Worksafe in last few weeks in Western Australia

2009-05-15T11:48:00.000+08:00

It is always frustrating and saddening to hear, let alone be involved in work related injuries at all...but to have so many so frequently of recent weeks begs the question...how well are we taking care of ourselves during the pressured time of the recent announced recession.Are pressures to make up for loss of profits,worry about losing our jobs or other factors contributing to the background of these scenarios.How can we assess such impacts.?

"Work related fatalities

Over recent weeks there has been four work related deaths in Western Australia. WorkSafe WA Commissioner Nina Lyhne said that she is always greatly saddened on hearing news of work-related deaths and she would like to relay her sincere condolences to the victims' families, friends and work colleagues.

On Tuesday, 12 May 2009 a 56-year-old worker, working alone on a farm at Ferguson Valley near Dardanup, was fatally injured when riding an all-terrain vehicle (ATV) that rolled on a slope.

WorkSafe is also investigating an incident which occurred on Monday, 11 May 2009 when a 41-year-old Water Corporation worker fell more than six metres at a water treatment plant at Australind. He was airlifted to Perth, but died in Royal Perth Hospital the following morning.

A 37 year old pilot and a 39 year old pilot were killed on Tuesday 5 May 2009 when two helicopters collided while mustering on a cattle station near Halls Creek."

OSH Updates a WorkSafe WA newsletter - 14th May 2009

Construction and the Budget-some opinions

2009-05-15T11:10:00.000+08:00

Budget breakdown
Looks like Oakerjee is eventually off the ground in some form instead of the incessant promises of things to come for Geraldton and some good news for the construction, road and rail making industries infrastructure in general(Hospitals and health related construction as well as the broadband infrastructure are some additionals)Is this sufficient to reduce higher levels of unemployment and how many jobs will it produce in general locally is the question?

Construction and the Budget-some opinions

2009-05-15T11:05:00.000+08:00

Budget breakdown
Looks like Oakerjee is eventually off the ground in some form instead of the incessant promises of things to come for Geraldton and some good news for the construction and road and rail making industries infrastructure in general(Hospitals and health related construction is and additional as well as the broadband infrastructure)Is this sufficnto reduce higher levels of unemployment and how many jobs will it produce in general and locally is the question?

Green Jobs and CPRS

2009-04-08T12:59:00.000+08:00

Carbon trading will create 'new fields of employment' - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Green Jobs and CPRS

2009-04-08T12:58:00.000+08:00

Carbon trading will create 'new fields of employment' - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Information on the new National Licensing requirements for High Risk Work

2009-04-08T10:51:00.000+08:00

Licensing Line News - supporting the integration of occupational licensing into VET

Information that sites new national codes and requirements in regards to high risk work licensing and the training compliances required for RTOs to deliver such training

Are we getting the benefits of the alternative technologies being devloped to adapt ourselves and innovate as a result of Climate Change-I have my doubts!?

2009-03-27T12:29:00.000+08:00

Aussie innovators urged to jump on the USA 'green revolution' bandwagon - 25/03/2009

Mapping our soil and understanding soil sealing

2009-03-24T12:32:00.000+08:00

Getting the global dirt on soil - 24/03/2009

Understanding the nature of soils globally and soil sealing and its impacts globally.An attempt to identify our soils assets and urban planning around such .Too many times we are not looking after and supporting the development of our soils.We also tend not to appreciate the quality and qualities of our soils it its essential value.This is a global project...supported by foundations such as CSIRO and the Gates Foundation.

John Hollands Out on safety record

2009-03-24T08:59:00.000+08:00

John Holland Rail disqualified
John Holland have been disqualified from A major Australian safety award as a result of their appalling safety records of recent times .

Interesting tools for Environmental and sustainability awareness of waste.

2009-03-22T20:56:00.000+08:00

Office Fly Through

Useful link and contacts in environmental Training in Australia

2009-03-22T20:52:00.000+08:00

Welcome to EnvironmentPartners
I haven't used this group at all but they seem to have some interesting resources and ideas in the sustainability and workplace environmental training arena.

John Holland Death sparks Worker and union responses

2009-03-20T09:08:00.000+08:00

Search. ABC News Online

Fatal WA accident: Workers walk off job

Western Australia's construction union says hundreds of workers on John Holland sites around the state have walked off the job after the death of an employee in the Pilbara. .

Tags: business-economics-and-finance industry mining community-and-society death disasters-and-accidents accidents workplace australia wa australia wa karratha-6714 australia wa newman-6753 australia wa port-hedland-6721

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/03/19/2521106.htm - 22k - [ html ] - 19 Mar 2009 - 16 hours ago -
map iconShow in Map
Another fatal accident at BHP mine site

There has been another death at a BHP Billiton mine site in Western Australia's Pilbara region. .

Tags: business-economics-and-finance industry mining community-and-society death disasters-and-accidents accidents workplace australia wa australia wa broome-6725 australia wa karratha-6714 australia wa newman-6753 australia wa port-hedland-6721

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/03/19/2520449.htm - 23k - [ html ] - 19 Mar 2009 - 1 day ago -
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John Holland Group to face court over work death

Construction company John Holland Group has been ordered to face a directions hearing in the Federal Court, after a fatal workplace accident south of Mackay last year. .

Tags: disasters-and-accidents accidents workplace health occupational-health-and-safety australia qld mackay-4740

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/02/04/2482289.htm - 21k - [ html ] - 4 Feb 2009 - 6 weeks ago -
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Safety Ideas for Mining and safe culture mapping/monitoring

2009-03-20T09:02:00.000+08:00

International Longwall News + SAFEmap tackles workplace behaviour

SAFEmap tackles workplace behaviour
Blair Price
Thursday, 19 March 2009

NEGATIVE workplace culture and worker behaviour has the potential to undermine even the best safety equipment and systems in a longwall operation. With that in mind, SAFEmap Australasia managing director Dave Olive discusses the launch of the DELTA values program in Australia with ILN.

Part of the research for the program stemmed from a report investigating risky positioning behaviour by operators using remote-control mining equipment, which was conducted by SAFEmap chief executive officer Corrie Pitzer for the New South Wales Minerals Council eight years ago.

From the study Olive recalled every underground mine, ranging from larger operations to the smaller players, had different systems and processes in place but some workers were still putting themselves in what would be considered very risky positioning by even their own colleagues.

“Some places that had great systems had very risky behaviours,” Olive said.

He said some people believed that the so-called safe standing zones were, in their minds, the most dangerous places to be positioned.

“Now for those people they are real beliefs and will drive their behaviour.”

Olive said, without interventions, workers with risky behaviours were likely to continue practising them, especially when under the pump at 3am, until the belief underpinning the behaviour was changed.

In a safety value-based, one-day program, DELTA participants are guided through a DVD recording and are involved in team activities and focus group discussions.

Olive said the program had been run by various multinational companies.

He said the program was delivered in-house by managers and team leaders, not an outside consultant, and reinforced the great underground culture of workers looking after each other.

On the program’s results, he said those involved simply walked out as different people with pride in their behaviour.

DELTA was not specifically a training course but was a tool to help maintain competency awareness, Olive said, and it involved people sitting down and being honest with each other.

The program incorporates a profile system that allows management to measure changes in the safety climate.

Olive added the program was cost-effective, between $40 and $50 a person paid as a one-off site licence fee, and could be reused as many times as needed.

Robot fashion Models

2009-03-17T14:56:00.000+08:00

Walking, talking female robot to hit Japan catwalk - USATODAY.com

Too late a response to oil spill on Queensland coast?

2009-03-13T10:45:00.000+08:00

Oil spill: Qld beaches declared disaster zones - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
Oil not only in the economy making things difficult but as an underestimated and under responded to disaster damaging large tracts of Queensland coastline and ecosystem with over 100 000 litres of oil being dumped from the Pacific Adventurer oil tanker.Costs are estimated to clean up of over $100 000 a day.To assess damage done to the whole area/community/ecology would be an immense task...but it will obviously be extremely costly.Blame is being shifted backwards and forwards from who should have acted and innaccurate shipping reportage of the incident.Anna Bligh is obviously in for a bashing.More importantly again it highlights the unassumed risks of transporting hydro carbons via tankers through many aspects of sensitive environments and communities that can be damaged irreparably by incidents...that can be foreseen.

Too late a response to oil spill on Queensland coast?

2009-03-13T10:19:00.000+08:00

Learning resources for sustainability

2009-03-09T16:55:00.000+08:00

Learning for Sustainability
Great site for tools and research materials for 'Sustainability' practitioners in all their guises.Check it out.

Weight Loss for Health - Some Guidelines from ACSM-USA

2009-02-21T09:27:00.000+08:00

New Weight Loss and Exercise Guidelines from ACSM

May be helpful in broadly calculating your required activity rates for weight loss and maintenance.

Ecological urbanism and sustainability in the Future-Conference Discussions planned in USA.

2009-02-17T07:58:00.000+08:00

"ECOLOGICAL URBANISM: Alternative and Sustainable Cities of the Future" conference at Harvard University Graduate School of Design, April 3 - 5, 2009- 2/16/2009 2:56:00 PM - Building Design & Construction

An interesting sounding conference on the place that design will play in sustainability of cities of the future.

John Cantwell and Health and safety during bushfire clean ups....Hazards?

2009-02-16T14:04:00.000+08:00

Insiders - 15/02/2009: John Cantwell joins Insiders - Insiders - ABC

Some good insight into hazards and concerns during the bushfire recovery process in Victoria.

Sustainable Living festival in Melbourne soon!

2009-02-16T12:49:00.001+08:00

Sustainable Living Festival | Federation Square Melbourne 20-22 Feb 2009

If you are looking for inspiration and or something to do it seems that this sutainable festival is the place to go in Australia at the moment for things sustainable.It offers volunteer opportunities along with the chance to listen to msuic re educate ourselves on what it means to eat local,cultural mapping,finaces tips,understanding economics,debates cooking with fresh ingredients and many others including art exhibitions.Sounds great to me.I wonder if I can get there as sustainably as possible...?!

Sustainable Living festival in Melbourne soon!

2009-02-16T12:49:00.000+08:00

Green technology investment...is this the time?

2009-02-15T20:51:00.000+08:00

Environment Business Australia

I suppose I agree in that at a time of traditional downturn and causes fuelled by over eager...shall we say excess in some way...(greed outright at times)the natural frugal factor could link its concept to the sustainable gren economy and do much to create an in built check and balance for our economic ecology and create a new sustainable...more green economy/culture and lifestyle tsunami...lets hope so.

VOCs and our health compromised indoors?Safety and Health Concerns from furnishings to paints

2009-02-13T23:00:00.000+08:00

VOCs: Volatile Organic Compounds, Indoor Air Quality and Respiratory Health : TreeHugger

A reminder of the volatility of some ofthe vapours and gases emitted by some of the contemporary and past indoor paints,furnishings and cleaning agents.Interesting and important reminder as to how surreptitious and innocuously we perceive such everyday products...when in fact they maybe causing great harm to our and our childrens health short and long term.

Bushfire appeal-Victorian Red Cross

2009-02-13T21:06:00.000+08:00

Australian Red Cross

Much has been in the media and said in regard to the Victorian Bushfires (refer http://www.abc.net.au/?abcnow_mac_20 ) and http://www.abc.net.au/emergency/bushfire/ (this link is a story sharing facility on the ABC website in regard to the Victorian Bushfire...for victims and others-it contains charitable links for assisstance as well.)

Victorian Bushfires - Lucky Escape

I have included a link to some of the reputable organisations above trying to raise money for victims and rehabilitation .The one included here is the Red Cross but there are many others including the CFMEU in W.A.(Unions WA) that are collecting as well.The most important thing is to donate within your means and cash is the preferred medium.

Green building link

2009-02-10T11:08:00.000+08:00

Focus - Renovate - realestate.com.au
Though a touch commercial of course (attached to a real estate buying site)it still has a few thought inspiring images and tips which can be researched and developed further.It does help to point out australian building green standards .

Some interesting comments on experiencing the recession in West.Australia-Blog comments from local paper

2009-02-10T10:58:00.000+08:00

blogs.thewest.com.au » Blog Archive » NEWS BLOG - Are you struggling to make ends meet?

Can make for some uplifting and at points some educational reading about how some people are coping ,feeling and expressing their situation at being on reduced incomes,welfare system tied and or retired trying to exist on some sort of budget.See what you think.

Corrosion Expert 'Gubner'starts at Curtin University with aid of Woodside funding

2009-02-04T12:09:00.000+08:00

Curtin news

Negative versus Positive views of the downturns in Australia

2009-02-03T10:08:00.000+08:00

Economists: the psychology of the current crisis - Life Matters - 2 February 2009

Can a positive view of the economic 'crisis' influence and change our directions,perceptions and ability to cope and achieve in the current economic situation for Governments and individuals.?What are the implications?

Cyberbullying-Psychosocial hazards at work

2009-01-22T23:59:00.000+08:00

OSH Answers: Internet Harassment or Cyberbullying
Canadian site but applicable guidance for Australian workplaces and in general.Seek further advice for young people at http://www.bullyingnoway.com.au/talkout/spotlight/cyberBullyingPrevention.shtml
Adults; http://www.wiredsafety.org/cyberstalking_harassment/index.html
Academic resources;
http://www.caslon.com.au/cyberbullyingnote1.htm

"Making it Public"-OHSE management for the public sector

2009-01-22T23:03:00.000+08:00

Untitled Document
This link has pages and content covering broad areas of OHSE management.Sponsored I believe by the Victorian Worksafe.This particular issue focuses on young workers issues between the ages of 15-24 yrs
Victorian Worksafe has prepared a youth focussed website called the Pain Factory at http://www.minisites.ninemsn.com.au/thepainfactory .Interesting concept.

Robot support -Cybernetic integration goes further into supporting the structure of workers ageing bodies

2009-01-12T08:28:00.000+08:00

Japan researchers unveil robot suit for farmers - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Interesting implications for labour and manual work as workers become older and more prone to injuries.This seems to be an interesting solution and further down the cyborg track physically.There are some interesting implications though.These are in the areas of longetivity of working life,descrimination based on age and retirement because of bad physical incapacity.This disrupts and ends to some degree some of these issues whilst creating new social ones eg extending working life in the physical spheres,the impacts of ill health and lack of fitness....will ther need to be such a focus of a robot exoskeleton of some sort supports or takes care of the strength needs?workers comp?What would be your liabilities if the 'robot' did it and you sustained an injury as a result of malfunction...Interesting anyway.

BP Cut greenhouse in 2008 but cancel industrial projects in Kwinana

2009-01-12T00:24:00.000+08:00

Bloomberg.com: Australia & New Zealand
The conundrum of cutting greenhouse but not producing jobs can be seen clearly here in BP s approach.Environmentally sustainable but not necessarily able to meet the commercial or social sustainability challenges perhaps overall in these tough economic times.Interesting also is the failure of the proposed storage of coal pollutants for locking away in rock storage was not possible or viable.This especially highlighted when one looks at the closing of BP solar in Australia for more offshore production.

blasting contractor Cleaned up in Karratha

2008-12-03T13:08:00.000+08:00

Blasting company told to clean up Karratha waste - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Tell your workmates!

2008-11-26T00:09:00.000+08:00

Rights On Site

Work choices Swept away...but will it be start of fairer dealings for workers overall?

2008-11-24T07:57:00.001+08:00

There is a review of some aspects of the new industrial relations system"Fair Work Australia"but what is pointed out is that there still will be inequities in the system especially when it comes to dealing with construction workers and their unions.The ABCC(the Australian Building and Construction Commission)which has the power to fine workers $22000 for stopping work and jail for 6 months for refusing to answer questions about a workplace meeting.The Government has stated that the Commission will be defunct by 2010.

Just two days left until the end of WorkChoices, says Julia Gillard | The Daily Telegraph

Building workers should have the same rights (Australia)

CFMEU election articles

2008-11-17T08:05:00.000+08:00

Election may end 34-year reign of CFMEU boss Kevin Reynolds | The Australian

pping on job on night shifts good for health?

2008-10-02T08:11:00.001+08:00

Shift workers urged to nap - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

2008-10-02T00:55:00.000+08:00

YouTube - Health, Safety and Environment Officer

Green cars and Taxis...some on offer in Australia

2008-10-01T23:42:00.000+08:00

greentomatocars.com – London 020 8568 0022 – Sydney 1300 72 9998

[Caption]

[Caption]

Green cars and Taxis...some on offer in Australia

2008-10-01T23:35:00.000+08:00

greentomatocars.com – London 020 8568 0022 – Sydney 1300 72 9998

Specialist safety advisors Role

2008-10-01T23:06:00.000+08:00

Specialist Safety Advisor

Some Key safety News from Safework

2008-10-01T22:53:00.001+08:00

Home

Crop dusting crash rate no higher: CASA - Tuesday, September 30, 2008
THe Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) says crop dusters do not have a higher crash rate than the general aviation industry in Australia. read more...
Police examine crop duster crash wreckage - Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Investigators are trying to work out why a crop duster crashed in south-east Queensland this afternoon, killing the male pilot. read more...
Police pay tribute to fallen colleagues - Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Queensland police officers have today paid tribute to their colleagues who have been killed in the line of duty. Over the past 147 years, 137 members of the Queensland Police Service have died while on duty. read more...
Mine study finds work fatigue, drinking similarities - Tuesday, September 30, 2008
A new study into miner fatigue has revealed working while tired results in similar effects to being drunk. The research examined 55 workers at a north Queensland mine and showed after eight consecutive 12-hour day shifts, workers behaved like they had a blood alcohol level of 0.05. read more...
Qantas to review screening after latest security breach - Monday, September 29, 2008
Qantas is reviewing its security screening procedures today after the second security breach at the Brisbane domestic terminal within a week. read more...
Cancer cluster fire station to be demolished - Friday, September 26, 2008
A house on the Atherton fire station site, in far north Queensland, will be demolished today as a symbolic gesture to cancer sufferers. read more...
Qld Health staff report almost 47,000 'near misses' - Friday, September 26, 2008
A new report shows Queensland Health staff reported almost 47,000 cases of patient harm and 'near misses' in the 2006-2007 financial year. read more...
Man hurt when boat hit cable - Friday, September 26, 2008
A man was injured when he was thrown into the Brisbane River after his boat hit a cable that guides a ferry across the waterway. Police said the man's vessel hit the Moggill ferry's cable about 5.20pm. The impact hurled him into the river in Brisbane's west. read more...
1800 workers return after gas scare - Friday, September 26, 2008
About 1800 Brisbane CBD office workers have been allowed to return to their building after they were evacuated in a gas scare today. The 24-storey Colonial Mutual building in Queen Street was evacuated at about 3pm (AEST) today when staff reported a strong smell of gas on the 10th floor. read more...
Upside-down Billboard drives distraction: RACQ - Friday, September 26, 2008
The RACQ says a new upside-down billboard on the Ipswich Motorway, west of Brisbane, poses a safety hazard because it may distract drivers. read more...
Qld Government agress to scaffold safety rule changes - Friday, September 26, 2008
A reference group including the Office of Workplace Health and Safety, building unions and the Master Builders Association has recommended that load testing should be carried out on suspended scaffolds and the equipment should be designed by qualified engineers. read more...
CASA considering legal action against Hempels Aviation - Friday, September 26, 2008
The Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) says it will consider legal action if Brisbane-based company Hempels Aviation, which is under investigation for alleged safety breaches, closes indefinitely. read more...
Powder scare sparks post office evacuation - Wednesday, September 24, 2008
A building was evacuated in Mackay on Monday night and eight people were treated for skin irritation after a powder was found in a mail package. read more...
Brisbane airport evacuated after security breach - Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Thousands of people were evacuated from the Qantas terminal at Brisbane's domestic airport on Monday after a security breach. The alarm was raised just after 2.00pm AEST. read more...
Cancer cluster fears at second Qld school - Friday, September 19, 2008
Concerns over cancer rates have been raised at a second school, just north of Brisbane. Authorities last week confirmed that an investigation had been ordered into fears of a cancer cluster at the Deception Bay High School, where 11 cases had reportedly been detected. read more...
Queensland to remember mine victims - Friday, September 19, 2008
Ceremonies will be held across Queensland today to remember those who have died in mining accidents. read more...
Men rescued from smell bore - Friday, September 19, 2008
Firefighters have retrieved two men from a 10 metre bore hole in southwest Queensland. An emergency services spokeswoman said the men were cleaning the bore, which is 5m wide, when fumes from the cleaning products overwhelmed them. read more...
Common plastic linked to heart disease - Thursday, September 18, 2008
Bisphenol A (BPA), a chemical commonly used in plastic food and beverage containers and in the coating of food cans. has been linked to heart disease. At this stage experts do not know how the chemical could cause the disease. read more...
Bin fire causes school evacuation - Thursday, September 18, 2008
Four people were taken to hospital and more than 600 students were evacuated after a bin fire released toxic fumes at a Queensland school. SParks from welding equipment used by construction workers at Emmaus College at Jimboomba, south of Brisbane, cause the fire around 11.15 am (AEST) yesterday read more...
Teacher threatened with knife during school invasion - Wednesday, September 17, 2008
A second Gold Coast high school has been placed in lock-down in as many days, after a teacher and a student were assaulted by a gang of youths. Police say five young men entered Marymount College at Burleigh Heads just before 1pm AEST. read more...
Qantas flight aborted over strange adour - Wednesday, September 17, 2008
A mid-air care has forced a Qantas jet carrying 133 passengers bound for Brisbane to turn back to Perth. The Boeing 767 was 30 minutes into its flight from Perth to Brisbane tonight when a strange odour was detected, forcing it to turn around. read more...
Tests to begin at high school over cancer cluster fears - Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Tests will begin during next week's school holidays at a south-east Queensland high school to see if there is a cancer cluster. Eleven staff at teh Deception Bay High School have cancer, with three teachers being diagnosed since Novemeber last year. read more...
Road workers seriously hurt in Brisbane explosion - Monday, September 15, 2008
Two road workers have been seriuosly injured in an explosion at an industrial site in Brisbane's inner south overnight. Queensland Fire and Rescue Inspector Paul Simmons says the men were smoking inside a shipping container at Park Road Woolloongabba. read more...
Nanna naps on the job for train drivers - Monday, September 15, 2008
Queensland Rail has developed an innivative way of tackling widespread safety issues and staff fatigue - sanctioning nanna naps for its drivers. read more...
Education Qld to survey sex-related incidents - Monday, September 15, 2008
Education Queensland will head a state-wide survey into sex-related incidents at schools. The State Government has revealed it investigated the alleged sexual assault of a seven-year-old girl by another student at a country primary school. read more...
Government to evacuate high school if cancer cluster confirmed - Friday, September 12, 2008
THe Queensland Government says it will evacuate a high school north of Brisbane if investigations confirm there is a cancer cluster on the site. read more...
$800,000 to update emergency services dispatch system - Thursday, September 11, 2008
The Queensland Government will spend more than $800,000 updating part of the Queensland Fire and Rescue Services' dispatch system. read more...
Tweed Hospital 'overcrowded and understaffed' - Thursday, September 11, 2008
Staff at Tweed Hospital on the New South Wales far-north coast say overcrowding and a lack of resources are risking the lives of patients. read more...
Inquiry recommends QR complaints be heard in court - Thursday, September 11, 2008
An inquiry into a workplace double fatlaity in Central Queensland last year has recommended four complaints against Queensland Rail (QR) be heard in court. read more...
Rail Union says QR has 'top-down' attitude to safety - Thursday, September 11, 2008
The Rail, Tram and Bus Union representing the state's rail workers says it is concerned about Queensland Rail's attitude to workplace health and safety read more...
Company chiefs speak at mine death inquest - Thursday, September 11, 2008
A coronial inquest into the death of a mine worker in Queensland's central highlands last year will today hear evidence from senior mine officers. read more...
CMC to investigate SE QLD water grid contractor - Thursday, September 11, 2008
The Crime and Misconduct Commission (CMC) has been asked to investigate a company contracted to build parts of the south-east Queensland water grid. It is alleged the company allowed heavy machinery training to be falsified. read more...
Port Douglas water now safe to drink - Wednesday, September 10, 2008
The Cairns Regional Council says residents in POrt Douglas and Mowbray, in far north Queensland, can now safely drink tap water after tests showed a drop in bacterial contamination. read more...
Fire empties Hilton Hotel - Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Brisbane's Hilton Hotel was evacuated yesterday morning after a fire which broke out on the ninth floor sent smoke through the building. Guests were evacuated just after 10am with Queensland Ambulance Services on standby. read more...
Mine death inquest hears safety review worries - Tuesday, September 09, 2008
An inquest has heard more could have been done to prevent the death of a central Queensland coal miner. Jason Blee, 33, was killed at the Moranbah North mine in April last year after he was crushed between a coal shuttle car and the side of the mine wall. read more...
Qld Govt medically negligent over patient's death: AMAQ - Tuesday, September 09, 2008
The australian Medical Association of Queensland (AMAQ) has accused the State Government of medical negligence after a patient died on a trolley in the Townsville Hospital's emergency department last week. read more...
Qld Health to review handling of Hendra virus outbreak - Tuesday, September 09, 2008
Queensland Health will review its handling of the most recent outbreak of Hendra virus and hand a report to the State Government before the end of the year. read more...
Chlorine fails to kill far north E. coli - Tuesday, September 09, 2008
Council water authorities say chlorine treatment on a contaimnated reservoir in the Port Douglas and Mossman region of far north Queensland has failed to kill the bacteria E. coli. read more...
Mine death inquest to hear more evidence - Tuesday, September 09, 2008
A senior miner will continue giving evidence today into last year's fatal mine accident in Queenland's central highlands. read more...
Chinese made uniforms recalled - Tuesday, September 09, 2008
An Australian power company has withdrawn more than 3000 Chinese-made protective uniforms after staff complained of skin irritations read more...
Railway safety record defended - Tuesday, September 09, 2008
Queensland rail authority and teh train drivers' union have defended the railway safety record following media reports of unsafe practices. read more...
Charges possible over whale watch accident - Tuesday, September 09, 2008
Maritime Safety Queensland says charges could be laid over yesterday's whale watching incident in which 10 people were injured read more...
Ergon Energy uniforms making workers sick - Monday, September 08, 2008
Energy workers are breaking out in blisters and vomiting after wearing potentially toxic uniforms. At least 143 Ergon Energy workers in Queensland have suffered sever allergic reactions to the flame-retardent uniforms recently rolled out to the state's 3400-strong workforce at a cost of about $3.5 million. read more...
Big waves leave whale watchers in hospital - Monday, September 08, 2008
Ten people were taken to hospital after a whale watching boat was hit by several large waves on the Gold Coast yesterday morning. read more...
More funding needed to combat golden staph: health experts - Monday, September 08, 2008
Health experts are calling on the Federal Government to provide more funding to combat "golden staph" in hospitals, amid fears of a possible epidemic. read more...
Reservoirs treated for E. coli contamination - Monday, September 08, 2008
Council water authorities have treated three reservoirs in Port Douglas, north of Cairns in far north Queensland, where low contamination levels have been found. read more...
Queensland Rail drivers putting commuters at risk - Monday, September 08, 2008
Commuters are being put at risk by train drivers who run red lights while chatting with colleagues, making coffe and even falling alseep at the controls. read more...
Call for ATSB to investigate fatal glider - Wednesday, September 03, 2008
The Australian Gliding Federation says the AUstralian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) should investigate Monday's fatal air crash at Toolgoolawah in the Brisbane Valley in south-east Queensland. read more...
Brisbane Coles evacuated over odour - Monday, September 01, 2008
About 60 people had to be evacuated at a Coles store at Indooroopilly in Brisbane's west on Friday morning due to a strong chemical smell. read more...
Collapse fears close Brisbane's Riverwalk for Riverfire - Thursday, August 28, 2008
Users of one of Brisbane's busiest walkways face long disruption after a section of the riverside boardwalk was closed over fears it would collapse. read more...
Brisbane Scrap Metal Fire Still Burning - Thursday, August 28, 2008
Emergency Services say a large fire that erupted in a car scrap metal yard in Rocklea on Brisbane's southside is likely to burn until it runs out of fuel. read more...
QLD Vets fearful after Hendra Vet dies - Monday, August 25, 2008
Dr Peter Reid who worked on the original outbreak of the Hendra virus in 1994 has said "people are understandably very fearful in the veterinary profession and every vet in Australia I'd say would be acutely aware of what's happened".The Queensland Government says it is hoping to appoint a person next week to review the handling of the latest Hendra virus outbreak. read more...
Vet dies from Hendra virus - Thursday, August 21, 2008
Ben Cunneen the treating vetenarian at the Redlands Veterniary Clinic in Brisbane's East has died from the Hendra virus which he contracted along with a nurse. Mr Cunneen died in the Princess Alexandra hospital this morning. read more...
Mining may not be able to improve safety - Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Queensland Resources Council chief executive, Michael Roche says "we have to face the fact this is an industry that's going to grow another 50 per cent between now and 2020, so the challenge is to improve safety while bringing on all those new people". read more...
Bomb scare at Eagle Farm - Wednesday, August 20, 2008
A yellow 4kg LPG cyclinder wrapped in blue electrical tape with a tin box on the top and wires running from the box to cylinder was found outside the Alsco laundry service in Violet Street in Eagle Farm this morning. A cleaner identified the mysterious object and alerted the police at 4.30am this morning. read more...
Toowoomba fire kills two - Tuesday, August 19, 2008
A trailer manufacturing business in Toowoomba that caught fire early this morning has killed people. The fire is presumed to have started in a residence attached to the business, police have not yet identified the two people found dead. read more...
Man dies in quarry accident - Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Police say the incident happened yesterday at the Castle Creek Quarry, near Theodore, south-west of Gladstone. Mine safety officers are investigating the incident.
Gold Coast man dies in forklift accident - Tuesday, August 19, 2008
A 68-year-old man has died after suffering sever head injuries from a forklift accident at a truck parking yard at Carrara yesterday. Workplace health and safety are investigating the incident. read more...
Ombudsman investigating Bundaberg Horticulture Industry - Tuesday, August 19, 2008
THe Federal Workplace Ombudsman is looking into a number of issues in the south-east region in Bundaberg that came from checks into the fruit and vegetable industry. read more...
Queensland Centre for Mental Health Research found work force mental health impact - Monday, August 18, 2008
Queensland Centre for Mental Health Research (QCMHR) found in their research of more than 1,000 employees that 15 per cent needed further assessment or treatment for depression or anxiety. read more...
Mt Isa to be named "safe community" by WHO - Monday, August 18, 2008
According to Dr Carolyn Coggan from the New Zealand's Safe Community Accreditation Centre Mt Isa is eligible to be recognised by the WHO. Coggan explains "this award does not mean the community is perfectly safe. What it does mean is that the community has systems and processes in place to address safety, so its taking a coordinated approach". read more...
Woman tangled at St John's Cathedral - Monday, August 18, 2008
A 50-year-old woman became entangled in the ropes for the bell of famous St John's Cathedral while attempting to ring it. The accident resulted in her breaking her leg. The ordeal lasted approximately and hour and a device similar to a cherry picker was required to rescue the woman. read more...
Cloncurry chemical spill - Monday, August 18, 2008
Approximately 100 litres of flammable liquid has leaked from a 26,000 litre tank at a freight depot in Cloncurry in north-west Queensland. The liquid used in the mining industry did not injure anyone nor was the site evacuated. read more...
Truck driver trapped for 2 hours - Monday, August 18, 2008
A 60-year-old truck driver spent 2 hours trapped in his truck after it rolled on a remote road in rural Queensland. The accident happened on Cullendore Road near Killarney at about midday. The man was pinned upside in his truck for an hour before anyone stopped to help. It was another hour until the Queensland Fire and Rescue Unit from Toowoomba freed the man. read more...
Man killed at Donnybrook - Monday, August 18, 2008
A 27-year-old man working at a sand quarry near Bribie Island near Brisbane was killed when the crane he was operating on a pontoon broke its mooring and flipped over last Wednesday afternoon. Four workers witness the pontoon flip. read more...
Man trapped by 400kg of steel at Carole Park - Friday, August 15, 2008
A 28-year-old man spent 50 minutes with his legs trapped underneath 400kg of steel at Transblast Coating Services at 9pm last night. Ambulance officers provided the man with pain relief while efforts were made to remove the steel. Both of his legs were crushed in the incident and the man was taken to Princess Alexandra hospital at 10.30pm last night. read more...
Meatworks Evacuated after acid spill - Thursday, August 14, 2008
An abattoir in Oakey in Southern Queensland was evacuated at 10.00am on Tuesday after a tank began leaking acid. 2, 000 litres of acid were spilt but no injuies have surfaced. read more...
Evacuation of high-rise due to chemical scare - Monday, August 11, 2008
At 11.30 am today 000 received several calls about a possible chemical leak on the seventh floor of a Charlotte Street police building in Brisbane's city. Sixty people were evacuated and one person taken to St Andrews' Hospital after being exposed to a suspicious substance on a envelope. read more...
Aircon Coolant blamed for Shopping Centre evacuation - Friday, August 08, 2008
Helensvale's Westfield Shopping Centre on the Gold Coast was evacuated yesterday after the customers and workers alike complained of difficulty breathing and discomfort. Commonwealth Bank in the centre was evacuated by 11.30 am and 14 employees were treated at the seen after symptoms of shortness of breath and dryness in the airways were reported. Two of the staff members were later transported to hospital for further respiratory problems. Further into the day the northern half of the centre was shut down after customers were treated for similar symptoms. By 3 pm the entire centre was shut down. Firefighters and the QFRS conducted testing to conclude what was happening read more...
Passengers on Brisbane bus flee fire - Thursday, August 07, 2008
Passengers on a Brisbane Translink bus located at Brighton that caught fire at about 8 am this morning had to flee the inferno. 27 passengers were evacuated and no one was injured read more...
Gold Coast Airport claims no risk of asbestos - Thursday, August 07, 2008
The Gold Coast Airport has started its renovations over the weekend to redevelop the terminals as fears have been raised of the work disturbing asbestos in the ceiling of the complex. Paul Donovan the airports chief operating officer has claimed that visitors will not be at risk of exposure during the major terminal revelopment project. read more...
Worker killed in Gold Coast high-rise fall - Thursday, August 07, 2008
A 47-year-old man was killed yesterday when he fell from the 16th floor of the Edgewater Gardens Aprtments in Surfers Paradisde on the Gold Coast while completing work. Police and Workplace Health and Safety inspectors were investigating though the death was not being treated as suspicious. read more...
Parents expect report of "near death' of their son from Navy - Wednesday, August 06, 2008
Parents of a 22-yeal-old Navy sailor who was badly injured when working in Thursday Island will receive a report from the Navy detailing why their son almost died. The sailor was left on Thursday Island for 72 hours without follow-up medical attention. The sailor was said to be "near death' when he finally received medical treatment and surgery at darwin Hospital. An inquiry has been held by the Navy to identify what went wrong. read more...
Gold Coast man sues Qld Rail over bashing - Wednesday, August 06, 2008
Scott Lillicrap, 35 was robbed, beaten and stomped on at Sunnbank Railway station in Brisbane just over 2 years ago. The attack left Mr Lillicrap in a coma and 3 men were jailed over the incident. Witnesses apparenetly pushed the emergency button at the station at least 3 times but to avail as rail officers thought it was a prank and ignored it. read more...
Independent Review found Brisbane Bridge Safe - Wednesday, August 06, 2008
A Review of the Caption Cook Bridge has found the bridge to be safe. It was found last year that steel reinforcement bars on the bridge were damaged during work putting the bridges structure and stability at risk. The claims forced the temporary closure of the bridge, while initial checks were made. But Main Roads Minister Warren Pitt said a more thorough check of the bridge's structural integrity showed it was safe and the claims could not be substantiated read more...
AMAQ - mandatory reporting won't fix it - Wednesday, August 06, 2008
Australian Medical Association of Queensland (AMAQ) is speaking out about the mandatory reporting of misconduct by medical professionals. Concerns were raised about the work and Egytian-trained surgeon before he joined the Mackay-based hospital a report issued by the Health Quality and Complaints Commission (HQCC) revealed. read more...
Watpac drop legal action over Newstead site - Tuesday, August 05, 2008
Watpac has dropped legal action against the ABC for the proposed $15 million site at Newstead. The ABC have been working to regain their $1.5 million deposit following evidence that it may have high levels of radiation. ABC staff previously walked off the job at the last site due to a breast cancer cluster. read more...
Sympathetic to compensation claims amid dangerous doctor fears - Tuesday, August 05, 2008
A report into Health Services at Mackay Base Hospital recommeneded an audit of about 1,000 surgical procedures conducted by Dr Abdalla Khalifalla in Mackay, Townsville, Proserpine and Mt Isa from 2001. Stephen Robertson the state health minister has stated that legal action may be taken against Queensland Health as the employing authority. read more...
Fear of a Cancer Cluster at Gold Coast Hospital - Monday, August 04, 2008
Staff at Pindara Private Hospital on the Gold Coast have raised concern over the amount of employees at the hospital diagnosed with cancer in a 10 year period. An investigation is underway following the concerns of employees. Richard Lizzio, chief executive of the hospital stated that "We have identified around 25 people and they are a myriad of different cancer types". He explained that most of the staff were aged over 40 and that there were 2,000 people who would have been employed there in a 10 year period. Mr Lizzio stated "I don't believe there really is a cluster here at all but we need to take it seriously". read more...
RSPCA workers choke on toxic air from caged rats - Monday, August 04, 2008
RSPCA officers in Townsville have been treated at hospital after inhaling toxic levels of ammonia from the urine of more than 500 caged rats after seizing the animals from a property west of Townsville. The premises believed to be part of a home-based breeding business had 116 dogs and more than 500 rats seized by police and RSPCA officers. After inhaling the high concentrations of ammonia a couple of officers were sent to the emergency department after experiencing vomiting, burning in the eyes and were unable to breath properly. Gail Lane, the RSPCA Townsville Shelter manager stated that "this has had an effect health-wise on the staff, even though we are taking all necessary precautions with workplace health and safety". read more...
Man dies after his tractor rolls on him - Monday, August 04, 2008
A 36 year old man was fatally injured yesterday when his tractor rolled on top of him. The incident occured on the family property at Pine Mountain in Ipswich (west of Brisbane). Police and Workplace Health and Safety Officers are investigating. read more...
Coal train collides with ute - Monday, August 04, 2008
A coal train has collided with an abandoned ute on a railway crossing at approximately 1.00am this morning in Midgee, near Rockhampton. Luckily the train was empty and no one was injured. Police are currently searching for the owner of the ute. read more...
Assistance discussed with Hendra Virus Vet Clinic - Monday, August 04, 2008
Two infected workers are seriously ill in hospital, while more staff are undergoing blood tests at a Hendra Vet Clinic after the deadly Hendra Virus was contracted from horses at the premises. The Vet Clinic may be forced to shut its doors because of the virus outbreak. Primary Industries Minister Tim Mulherirn will meet with the owners to look at options to stop the closure and loss if jobs for the Hendra practice. read more...
Gas Leak results in GoMA & Library evacuation - Monday, August 04, 2008
Following an ammonia leak at the nearby Parmalat factory yesterday the Gallery of Modern Art which was exhibiting the Picasso Exhibition evacuated 550 people from its premises. Several factories that were located near the Parmalat factory were also evacuated. Emergency Services Queensland spokeswoman said the leak was controlled at about 10 am. read more...
The most important reason for making the workplace safe ...
... its not work at all. Its coming home each day to live your life! read more...
Don't forget Bernie - Tuesday, November 27, 2007
Long time fighter for Asbestos victims Bernie Banton died today. His efforts have been profound in raising awareness of Asbestos disease and seeking just compensation. We should not forget his legacy. read more...
New Small Business Course (free)
Safe Work has developed a new OHS course for small business. It is available by clicking the following link and is free. However, we would appreciate your feedback on the course content and any suggestions on how we can provide additional free services to small business. read more...
WHS Reps course approved
A new WHS Representatives training course has now been accredited by the Department of Education and Training. The 3 day course is based on the existing Safe Work course. All workplace Reps requesting training will be required to do this course.
New evidence on Cancer
New research by A/Prof. Lin Fritschi and Dr Tim Driscoll published in June 2006 has estimated that 5,000 invasive cancers per year are caused by occupational exposures and that 1.5 million workers are exposed to known carcinogens. This research supports the Access Economics study released in 2005 which identified that between 5000 and 7000 workers die from occupational disease each year in Australia. [Fritschi & Driscoll (2006) Cancer Due to Occupation in Australia. Aus .& NZ J. of Pub. Health 30:213-219]
Major changes to WHS Act
A major updating of the Workplace Health and Safety Act is in force from 2 November 2005. Section 22 previously described risk management as a basic concept and is now a detailed obligation in s27A. Employers will now also be obliged to ensure all aspects of the common law duties in s29 are implemented. The consolidated version has been published on the parliamentary counsel website. read more...
Safe Work encourages review of emergency systems
Safe Work is advising course participants that more attention needs to be given to identifying credible emergency events due to increased security risks. The process of risk management required by section 22 WHS Act specifies the need to identify workplace hazards. Emergency events need to be assessed in a equally systematic manner giving consideration to the source of the risk its likelihood and control measures. The Safe Work OHS manual describes a comprehensive process for emergency management. We are available to assist businesses to review their EMS from a safety, environmental or security perspective. read more...
Construction Induction (Blue Card) – every 2 weeks
With the construction industry doing so well at the moment, Safe Work has been requested to increase it’s frequency of conducting the 4 hour Construction Induction course. This course is required for all construction workers prior to commencement on site. read more...
New safety management manual - free
To promote the systematic implementation of safety programs, Safe Work has developed an integrated safety, environment and quality system, including generic guidance and procedures. The full version of the Safe Work Safety Sustainability Manual is available at read more...

Events
Publications
Legislation Update 2/06

Stand Up for safety in the Workplace

Inductions are a process and are important

2008-09-30T10:25:00.000+08:00

Microsoft Outlook Web Access

The Story Behind the real 'waste' in uranium mining?

2008-08-07T16:34:00.001+08:00

This is one articulated opinion made during the current N.T. election in Australia taking place.It cites the nuclear industry and its safeguards as they stand.Questions arise of course in regard to what should happen to such existing investments in such mining and the reliant worker and services/industries entangled and dependent upon such existing and future development contracts.What are our alternatives to such energy and markets and how can such an industry be transformed into a more positive and sustainable ,safe industry for communities and workers,...workers as stakeholders and industries reliant on such proceeds and projects .Such development goes on in the face of a lack of alternative types of projects that are"healthier"What are some of the alternative restructurings that are required to build a more ethically,sustainable,safer industry marketwise, etc.?

Making Links Conference FYI

2008-08-07T13:32:00.001+08:00

Making Links

This conference claims to link social justice/action with technology coverage which aims to be more inclusive of disadvantaged communities.It will focus on more socially equitable uses of mobile and internet technologies.At this stage they are looking for speaker proposals.There are a broad range of organiser groups from across Australia literally.See this link http://www.makinglinks.org.au/about.shtml

Interesting cultural exchange site FYI

2008-08-07T13:09:00.001+08:00

Information and Cultural Exchange

Black Hawk crash report released - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

2008-07-15T07:46:00.000+08:00

<cite>Black Hawk crash report released - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)</cite>: "

Code of practice for scaffolders/WORKSAFE

2008-07-11T12:29:00.000+08:00

WorkSafe - DOCEP

Flight Centre's Climate Policy for Eco Friendly, Sustainable & Responsible Travel & Tourism

2008-07-05T12:34:00.001+08:00

Flight Centre's Climate Policy for Eco Friendly, Sustainable & Responsible Travel & Tourism

Police warned Varanus needed contingency plan: report | watoday.com.au

2008-06-28T15:11:00.001+08:00

Police warned Varanus needed contingency plan: report | watoday.com.au

Are cellphones still that benign and safe?

2008-06-16T18:54:00.001+08:00

A brief article pointing to the still unresolved issue of cell phone radiation and its safety.

Listening to Cellphone Warnings : TreeHugger

Outback driving Safety in Western Australia

2008-06-15T16:38:00.001+08:00

Outback road safety

B Society not class B

2008-06-09T23:54:00.001+08:00

B-Society | An Alternative to the nine-to-five society
Very good site illustrating the philosophy of the B society and its vision to change the world from a mechanical,inflexible world view and lifestyle in workplace and in general expectancy of work /life balance regimes.Live on the late risers.Also refer to ABC Australia interview 2007 with Camilla Kring
Founder and chairperson B-Society.

1. Life Matters 6 September 2007 - B-Society

Summary: Do you hate your alarm clock, struggle to get up in the morning and be at the office by 9? Are you much happier if you can take it easy in the morning and roll into work at, say, 10 or 11? If so, chances are you're a
www.abc.net.au > rn > lifematters > stories > 2007 > 2024123.htm
6k - [ html ] - Highlighted - 6 Sep 2007 - Similar pages

http://search.abc.net.au/search/search.cgi?query=b+society&sort=&collection=abcall&form=simple

http://snipurl.com/2epf4 with

Death resulting from high pressure water equipment accident.(AUST)

2008-05-26T11:04:00.001+08:00

Father of three killed in steelworks accident - Local News - News - General - Illawarra Mercury

Have we overlooked that like art climate change could evolve in a non linear way?!

2008-05-15T21:04:00.001+08:00

Are We Moving into Another Era of 'Abrupt' Climate Change? : TreeHugger

Its a scary, but nonetheless none too surprising expression of opinion that we could be experiencing global warming and climate change right now with impacts that are uneven and evolve both subtle ,dynamic...but also quite dramatically.Modelling apparently shows us that it could not be random non humanly affected events...or so is said ...regardless any scare that motivates and informs us further is good in my opinion in moving us in positive directions and along a more sustainable, though scarier and less certain path.

A warning for all-FYI

2008-05-15T18:13:00.001+08:00

Construction company fined over lack of fall protection - DOCEP

Safety management and fatigue plans /Ideas

2008-05-15T00:31:00.001+08:00

Safety management system for managing fatigue
Tuesday, 16 May, 2006
By Maria Karlsson, OHS editor for CCH

At the Human Factors conference, Dr Drew Dawson, Executive Director of the Centre for Sleep
Research at the University of South Australia, reported that he has taken the approach used to
develop safety management systems and applied it to fatigue management.
Fatigue is now getting more attention as a workplace hazard than it used to. Courts are also taking
fatigue seriously, as indicated by a recent fine of $130,000 imposed on a company over a safety
breach involving a fatigued truck driver. The principles of the regulations on fatigue management
incorporated into the Occupational Health and Safety Regulation 2001 (NSW) from 1 March 2006 will
flow on to the other jurisdictions (except Western Australia, where fatigue management for
commercial vehicle drivers has already been covered by a code of practice since 2004).
The recent key shift in relation to fatigue is that it is now managed as an occupational health and
safety problem rather than an industrial relations problem. In the past, danger money was paid in
many jobs that involved working while fatigued. Trying to manage fatigue within the industrial
relations sphere was a spectacular failure, Dr Dawson said, and a parliamentary inquiry into the
problem in 1999–2000 made three recommendations:
(1) There needs to be a shared responsibility for fatigue between employers and employees.
(2) Fatigue management in high-risk industries (e.g. mining and transport) should be
developed according to a risk-based framework, such as that presented in Australian standard AS
4360.
(3) Fatigue should be dealt with as just another part of the safety management system.
Management plan
There are four key steps to take in the risk management of fatigue:
(1) Develop a fatigue management plan.
(2) Work out how to communicate the plan and educate people about it.
(3) Develop an auditable method to ensure safe levels of alertness can be maintained.
(4) Carry out audits to ensure compliance with the plan.
Fundamental elements of the fatigue management plan are that it must prevent excessive
wakefulness and provide adequate sleep opportunity. It is the employees’ responsibility to make use
of the provided sleep opportunities to actually sleep and, if an employee in a high-risk job has not
had enough sleep, the person may need to inform the employer. Management needs to provide
guidelines on how to manage insufficient sleep because of the hazards that arise from that. Dr
Dawson made the point that if employees fail to notify the employer of their lack of sleep and an
incident occurs, interesting legal ramifications may arise.
Educating employees about fatigue management should be in the form of competency-based
training. There are auditable methods of training people to make sure they know about fitness for
work.
A multi-layered control system
Dr Dawson also emphasised that a multi-layered defence system is needed for fatigue management.
People tend to go overboard trying to find an effective control method, but a single control cannot
be expected to be adequate — there is no single foolproof way of ensuring workers are not too
fatigued to perform their work safely. Multi-layered systems (use of training as well as equipment,
PPE, etc as applicable) on the other hand can tolerate mistakes or omissions in one or a few of the
defence levels while remaining effective overall.
Four potentially causally-based events may precede a fatigue-related incident. Each needs to be
addressed and controlled. To investigate them, ask the following questions:
(1) Had the person been given an adequate sleep opportunity?
(2) Had the person taken the opportunity and had adequate sleep?
(3) Had the person displayed some recognisable fatigue behaviour before the incident?
(4) Had the person made some fatigue-related error?
In a model that Dr Dawson published last year (Sleep Medicine Reviews 9, 365–380, 2005), he
presented five levels of control for a sleep management system. Errors that occur in the top three
levels are latent, whereas errors in the last two levels are active errors.
Level 1 controls involve determining the average sleep history of a work group (not an individual).
Assess their sleep opportunities according to hours worked per seven days, shift duration (longer
shifts, less opportunity for sleep), duration of short breaks, the number of hours of night work per
seven days, and the duration of long breaks per seven days. As all of these factors increase, the
likelihood of sleep is reduced (e.g. a person who works 55 hours a week is likely to get less sleep
than a person who works 38 hours a week). According to this assessment, the 38-hour pattern of
working Monday to Friday is the norm. Other shifts tend to increase workers’ likelihood of getting
less sleep.
Level 2 controls involve calculating individual fatigue likelihood scores. First estimate the person’s
hours of sleep in the past 24 hours, and then in the previous 48 hours. Then ask how long the person
has been awake. The reliability of the personal fatigue score has been confirmed scientifically.
However, Dr Dawson pointed out that it remains a statistical assessment and of course does not
guarantee that a person with a certain score will have an accident.
Calculating the personal fatigue score can be done, for example, at toolbox meetings. If risk-based
categories of work have been established at the workplace (low-risk jobs and high-risk jobs), the
score can be used to determine what tasks are given to individual people to do.
Level 3 controls involve identifying behavioural indicators for specific tasks, such as operating
particular equipment. The behaviour indicators include physical, mental and emotional symptoms
and the physical ones include task-specific behaviours. Procedures for managing impaired people
need to be developed.
Level 4 and 5 controls involve identifying errors and incidents. You need proof of level 1–3 indicators
of fatigue. The nature of the error must be consistent with fatigue-related errors (rather than other
errors). Confusing incidents with causation is a common mistake.
Each level of control works as an integrated whole. If you can reduce fatigue by levels 1 or 2, you
will fairly effectively have reduced the likelihood of an incident occurring. Dr Dawson recommends
managing the first two levels rather levels 4 or 5.

The Fatigue issue and management guidelines from Western Australia/WORKSAFE

2008-05-15T00:20:00.001+08:00

Fatigue - WorkSafe - DOCEP

Frontline Fatigue - Response Time! video

Soapbox/OHSE Australia wide updates

2008-04-20T00:26:00.001+08:00

Soapbox

OFSC Subby Pack

The Office of the Federal Safety Commissioner (OFSC) has announced the release of its OHSE Subby Pack.

More details in the National news

BODGEY SCAFFOLD
Weekly example of bodgey scaffolding from around the world

View Here >>>
ABSOLUTE SHOCKER
Weekly example of shocking work practices from around the world

View Here >>>

News: NationalVictoriaNSWQLDWASATASACTNTNZInternational

Prosecutions around the world Incidents around the world

OFSC Subby Pack

The Office of the Federal Safety Commissioner (OFSC) has released its OHSE Subby Pack. Many of you would be familiar with the earlier version of the Subby Pack published by WorkCover NSW and the NSW Construction Safety Alliance. The OFSC is an updated version of the orgial Subby Pack

The OFSC Subby Pack aims to provide a practical example of a safety management system for employers in the construction industry and is consistent with the National Standard for Construction.

The development of the pack was facilitated by the OFSC and involved representatives of the NSW and Victorian Construction Safety Alliances, the Australian Constructors Association, OHS professionals and WorkCover NSW.

View the media release

Download the Subby Pack

Product Recalls

PDL branded 691RCD and 955RW residual current devices

The RCD sensor coils were contaminated with an incorrect solder flux. This risks corrosion of the sensor coil after the manufacture of the supplier coils. The product will fail to trip if the sensor coil is not soldered into the circuit and/or the contaminated solder flux prevents continuity of the circuit.

View the recall

Clipsal WHB 355 Weathershield - IP66, Switch 440V 55A triple pole units

The base pockets are not to specification due to a change to a new moulding tool. This allows for excessive movement of the terminal in the pocket and for the potential for the circuit to close when the switch is in the 'OFF' position.

View the recall

Iveco Trucks - ITEC 7600 range - Spring Brake Modulating Valve

The Bendix SR-7 Spring Brake Modulating Valve has an internal check valve that may not properly seat, causing internal air leakage. This internal leakage can cause a delay in the application of the spring brakes to park the vehicle after the operator pulls the dash valve button.

View the recall

View Safety Soapbox online

Safety Soapbox is now available to be viewed online.

If you know someone who is having trouble receiving the newsletter, let them know that they can now view Safety Soapbox online.

To view the newsletter online CLICK HERE

Miner injured in shaft incident at Stawell gold mine

A seriously injured miner has been brought to the surface after he was temporarily trapped 1285m underground at a gold mine in Stawell.

The 32-year-old is believed to have been standing on an elevating work platform when he was hit by falling machinery.

Read the article

Want to work for WorkSafe?

WorkSafe Investigators

Investigating serious workplace incidents and prosecuting alleged breaches of OHS law plays a vital part in maintaining safety in Victorian workplaces.

That’s the challenging job of WorkSafe’s Health and Safety Investigators, and we are now accepting applications for a number of new Investigator positions.

View job ad

WorkSafe Health & Safety Inspectors

As a WorkSafe Health and Safety Inspector you’ll have the vital job of helping make Victorian workplaces safer by gauging compliance with OHS law, giving constructive advice about managing workplace risks and, if required, taking enforcement action.

View job ad

WorkSafe Return to Work Inspectors

The Return to Work (RTW) Inspectorate forms an integral part of WorkSafe’s new RTW Division. Over the next 4 years the RTW Division will become a recognised centre of excellence in RTW management across Australia and has responsibility for oversight and management of all weekly benefits liabilities as well as driving improvement in RTW outcomes for injured workers.

View job ad

WorkSafe’s looking for Boronia to become a safer suburb

WorkSafe inspectors will be visiting small and medium-sized businesses in Boronia as part of a major safety improvement campaign - Safer Suburbs.

Up to 10 WorkSafe inspectors will take part in the visits between 28 April and 2 May.

View the media release

Alliance to minimise damage to Victoria's underground assets

The free referral service, Dial Before You Dig, and electrical and gas safety regulator, Energy Safe Victoria have formed an alliance to reduce the damage caused to Victoria's networks of underground assets.

Dial Before You Dig is a service used by professional contractors, underground asset owners and individuals undertaking excavation, who within two working days of lodging an enquiry receive location and other relevant information assisting them to excavate securely and safely.

View media release

VicRoads - Safety Update Volume 71

The latest VicRoads Safety Update is now available

Read the update

ETU OHS Reps newsletter - April edition

The April edition of the ETU OHS Reps newsletter is now available.

View the newsletter

Safety Alert - Worker falls through guardrail

NSW Department of Primary Industries has issues a safety alert after a mechanical tradesperson working alone in an underground mine fell through the guardrail of an elevated platform. The tradesperson fell about 2.5 metres to the concrete floor below, sustaining serious injuries and was not discovered by his workmates for approximately three hours after the fall.

Read the alert

More free construction safety workshops

WorkCover NSW invites small business operators in the construction industry to an interactive workshop aimed to help them to develop and/or improve systems that manage workplace safety, workers compensation and injury management.

View the invitation

Safety Alert - Vehicle/Mobile plant support stands

The Queensland Department of Mines and Energy has published a safety alert following a coal mine purchase of vehicle/mobile plant support stands.

The maximum operating height was not indicated on the stand and there was no indication of compliance with Australian or any other standard on the equipment.

View the safety alert

Safety Bulletin - Switchboard incoming supply hazards

The Queensland Department of Mines and Energy has issued a safety alert following an incident where an electrical tradesperson came into contact with an exposed 240 volt to earth cable termination on the back of a voltmeter. The area of a motor control centre in the vicinity of the incoming cables and circuit breaker presents an area of high risk to electrical persons working in the enclosure.

View the safety alert

Safety Bulletin - Shock from an electrostatic discharge

The Queensland Department of Mines and Energy has issued a safety alert following an incident where a drill rig operator received a severe electrostatic shock when he stepped on or touched a PVC pipe.

View the safety alert

Safetyline - April edition

The April edition of the WorkSafe WA Safetyline newsletter is now available.

View the newsletter

No update this week

No update this week

No update this week

No update this week

No update this week

US: The safety push at Fontainebleau

The 70-odd ironworkers working at the Fontainebleau construction site were fed up with dangerous conditions.

In July, they stopped working in the unsafe areas and persuaded their union, Irownworkers Local 433, to negotiate with the contractor to correct several specific safety problems. Among the changes they wanted was a caged elevator, not an open lift, to ride to higher floors.

Read their story

US: Nail gun safety under fire as injuries soar

Yet another horror story about nail guns....

With a 2 1/2-inch nail deep in his chest, construction worker Manuel Murillo slid into a pickup truck, bracing himself for a desperate seven-mile drive down a snowy Sierra road. He had shot himself with a nail gun while working on a mountain cabin. And he was going to die.

View the article

US: NYC construction worker killed; official cites safety violations

A window installer died in a nine-story fall at a building that had a history of safety violations.

Buildings Commissioner Patricia Lancaster said it appeared a nylon safety strap at the Upper East Side site failed.

Read the article

US: Teen workers: Construction website

OSHA's Youth 2 Work program is focusing on teen workers in construction. Its website is a 'one-stop-shop' for teens to find information about working in the construction industry.

View the site

UK: Roofing firm chief's manslaughter charge

The owner of a roofing company has admitted manslaughter following the death of a 17-year-old employee who fell through a store skylight.

Read the media report

UK: HSE crane safety warning after death of welder

The Health and Safety Executive has warned of the dangers of allowing cranes to operate over the heads of employees. This follows the prosecution of a Liverpool-based company after a man was killed and another seriously injured after they were struck by a load that fell from a crane.

Read the news release

UK: HSE urges construction industry to do more to prevent deaths

Early figures from the Health and Safety Executive suggest that around 69 construction workers were killed in 2007/08. This points to a 10% improvement on the previous year’s figures but HSE warned the construction industry not to be complacent.

Read the media release

UK: UK falls statistics 2006/07

45 people died from a fall from height at work in 2006/07. This is again a record low. However falls from height remain the most common kind of accident causing fatal injuries.

Falls from ladders resulted in 12 deaths and 1050 major injuries, over a quarter of all injuries.

View the statistics

Prosecutions from around the world

US: OSHA fines Valero Energy Corp. more than $100,000 for alleged safety violations

UK: HSE issues cable warning after expolsion prosecution

Incidents around the world

Construction crane strikes power line
URS employee injured at Eramet
Worker dies in fall at Solid Waste Authority work site
Truck driver dies after trailer fall
Worker falls from farm roof
A worker was injured at a construction site in East Charlotte
Near-miss as crane topples
Mangrove worker falls 35 feet after bucket truck tips
Road worker struck, killed on I-95 in Md.
Construction worker killed in accident
Construction worker injured in fall from roof; OSHA investigates
Crane crashes under heavy load at downtown Fort Lauderdale site
Worker dies in Key West airport construction accident
Drunk driver injuries two workers on Sunshine Skyway Bridge
DOT worker injured in Syracuse
Woman awarded $14.6 million in amputation case
Worker's legs crushed on I-580 flyover
Torch sparks small fire at Aurora construction site
Man in hospital after scaffolding breaks

Subscribe to Safteng.net incident alerts/weekly safety newsletter
http://www.safteng.net/subscribe_to_the_newsletter_alerts.htm

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Safety Soapbox was prepared by WorkSafe Victoria,
222 Exhibition Street, Melbourne 3000, Australia

1. IMPORTANT INFORMATION Please consider the environment before printing.
2. We collect personal information to enable us to perform our functions. For more information about the use, access and disclosure of this information, refer to our privacy policy at our website.
3. Safety Soapbox includes material from Australian and New Zealand workplace safety authorities, from subscribers and from a variety of other sources.
4. Material from other organisations is provided in good faith as representing the views and policies of those organisations. It does not necessarily reflect the policy of WorkSafe Victoria.
5. THANK YOU TO CONTRIBUTORS: The Safety Soapbox uses material supplied by many contributors, in particular photographs used in Absolute Shocker of the Week and Bodgey Scaffold of the Week. The editorial team acknowledges their support and thanks them for their contributions.

Safety and Level crossing driving...Watch out!

2008-04-17T18:31:00.002+08:00

Not quite a completely serious look at the repercussions of ignoring level crossings and signage.This shows what happens when cars and train engines collide.

YouTube - Top Gear: Jeremy's Level Crossing Safety Message

ABC health reports-Cough and colds medication ...Useless?

2008-04-17T18:07:00.002+08:00

Thumbs down for cough mixture - Health & Wellbeing

SOAPBOX updates

2008-04-13T23:53:00.002+08:00

NSW safety

NSW signals cuts to red tape

The NSW government is to release new business regulation guidelines today as it seeks to ease the burden of red tape.

Under the guidelines, government departments will have to present ‘better regulation statements’ detailing why new regulations are necessary and responsive. All existing regulation will also come under focus as the State government seeks to simplify a host of laws.

View the article

Ergon worker severely burnt in power pole accident

An Ergon Energy worker was airlifted to a Brisbane hospital on 27 March after suffering an electric shock. The worker was replacing power poles on the property near Bollon.

Read the media release

Better work-life balance survey

The Better Work-Life Balance Survey designed by the University of Queensland in conjunction with Queensland's Department of Employment and Industrial Relations, is a free questionnaire to help employers in evaluating and improving their work-life balance policies.

The survey aims to measure how effectively organisations accommodate work-life balance, by assessing employee’s awareness of work-life balance policies and their comfort levels in using these policies.

Read the survey

Reminder on licences for high risk work

WorkSafe WA has issued a reminder to workers engaged in high risk work that they need to obtain a licence to perform that work.

The National Standard for Licensing Persons Performing High Risk Work replaced National Certificates of Competency last year, and some workers will need to have the new licence by September 30 this year.

Read the media release

Drug use among construction workers rising: union

Long hours and big pay packets have been blamed for an increase in methamphetamine use amongst construction workers in Western Australia.

The Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) estimates the number of union representatives called out to work sites to deal with young drug-affected workers has doubled in the last year.

Read the media report

$18,000 safety lesson for new business owner

Anyone buying a new business is being urged to familiarise themselves with the safety measures of their acquisition and their full responsibilities under workplace safety laws. SafeWork SA’s warning comes after a Salisbury Plain company was convicted and fined $18,000 plus costs, over an incident in 2005 where a crane toppled during an unloading operation.

Read the media release

Important notice to all accredited building practitioners

A number of accredited building practitioners have drawn Worplace Standards' attention to the fact that certain material has been received from a body known as the Tasmanian Builder Service, regarding the Building Act 2000. Workplace Standards has examined the material and found that it contains numerous errors and incorrect information.

View the notice

Workplace Issues March Edition

The latest edition of Workplace Standards' magazine, Workplace Issues is now available

Read the publicatiuon

Electricity Industry Bulletin No: 68

The latest edition of Electricity Standards and Safety, Electricty Industry Bulletin is now available

Read the bulletin

protectyourprofits.mpg (video/mpeg Object)

2008-01-31T21:48:00.000+08:00

<cite>protectyourprofits.mpg (video/mpeg Object)</cite>: "

"

I like the above videos focus of this description of sustainability...limited as it may seem ,referring to to purely commercial and innovation needs for profit...,but it is good also because it makes links.It makes the link between housekeeping,waste and safety.It shows that by considering these basic aspects innovation ,cost savings and a cleaner,safer and more healthy environment can be produced.

some interesting references;

Australia to dump e-waste on developing nations?: News - Hardware - ZDNet Australia

2008-01-19T11:34:00.000+08:00

<cite>Australia to dump e-waste on developing nations?: News - Hardware - ZDNet Australia</cite>: "

"

A timely and scary reminder in regrd to us being pc polluters and hoarders of rare resources that should be shared and recycled appropriately and safely.I am of course a minor offender myself.here are some helpful links;

TCC GROUP /Dunedata Consultancy 'ONSITE SAFE': Nation of hoarders: 30 million PCs rot in Australia - PCs

2008-01-19T11:27:00.000+08:00

TCC GROUP /Dunedata Consultancy 'ONSITE SAFE': <cite>Nation of hoarders: 30 million PCs rot in Australia - PCs</cite>

Nation of hoarders: 30 million PCs rot in Australia - PCs

2008-01-19T11:11:00.000+08:00

<cite>Nation of hoarders: 30 million PCs rot in Australia - PCs</cite>: "

A very relevant and scary article about the extreme behaviour we have in Australia of hoarding pcs and computer products which are no longer wanted by ourselves.Resources and materials that may be useful to others and or could be recycled in a safe and sustainable manner by councils,other recyclers and in some cases the pc manufacturers themselves.I am of course one of these offenders...modest as it might seem.I will have to act to change this situation.
PS. here are a few relevant links as well. Read on.

Green drinks

2007-12-05T22:46:00.000+08:00

http://www.greendrinks.org/

This is a very intriguing site and has a green and community minded self organising philosophy.Interesting way of organising the masses.

"Green Drinks International

Every month people who work in the environmental field meet up for a beer at informal sessions known as Green Drinks.

We have a lively mixture of people from NGOs, academia, government and business. Come along and you'll be made welcome. Just say, "are you green?" and we will look after you and introduce you to whoever is there.It's a great way of catching up with people you know and also for making new contacts. Everyone invites someone else along, so there's always a different crowd, making Green Drinks an organic, self-organising network.

These events are very simple and unstructured, but many people have found employment, made friends, developed new ideas, done deals and had moments of serendipity. It's a force for the good and we'd like to help it spread to other cities. Contact your local node to get the latest info about coming along.

You can also email edwin [at] greendrinks [dot] org if you want some tips on how to set up Green Drinks in your City."

Keeping the Faith

2007-11-05T22:32:00.001+08:00

One of the big problems I believe many safety and OHSE professionals face is the everpresent risk of compassion and professional burn out.To me this means starting to believe that no matter how hard we try companies and organisations always find a way to distort perfectly humane and commonsens e approaches to OHSE policy and implementation.

Not surprisingly many professionals in particular in Western Australia leave the profession or turn to alleviating this problem of listening and conscientious action by moving away from face to face work and moving into the more administrative areas of workers ccompensation or rehabilitation work.

Some of this of course is required with implementation and guarding compliance to both legislation and company safety management plans .what is sacrificed though is the progressive changemanagement aspects and continuuing worker and staff understanding ,discussion,coaching and training that is required to form and perpetuate leadership and understanding and furher action in this fraught area.This requires energy,vision goals and company leadership support as well as workforce participation.

Its about change stupid I hear you say...but of course..but also it is about committment,ethics,energy and life/health/wellness balance..which we tend not to have ourselves but promote vigourously to others who are suffering the consequences of such chronic imbalance.

What strategy/strategies could be used to alleviate such a scandal?

Understandable safety management systems

2007-10-31T21:28:00.000+08:00

Its important to remember that in any management strategy there needs to be an internal logic and way of understanding what safety means to a company or organisation.This is easier said than done.Having a clear ,simple and comprehensible safety management system that can be maintained in all circumstances and gives clear vision and feedback messages about what and where an organisation can improve with its workers & its obligations of duty of care is important.It is an ongoing conundrum as to why businesses seem to not like integrating and coming to grips with this very basic and yet powerful understanding.Making a simple yet sustainable safety management system that generates innovation and safe circumstances is as beneficial to a business as any insurance policy.In some ways the safety management system says a lot about the way we envision the process of making money and doing business overall.Hence the question of sustainability.

Why is it important to have a clear and understandable system ?Its sounds obvious.And yet how many safety management systems lack proper,feedback ,improvement,innovation and consistent policy to many community,environment and worker health issues.

Some additional Safety Resource Links

2007-09-28T17:54:00.000+08:00

OHSE on the World Wide Web

Angelica M. Vecchio-Sadus

CSIRO Minerals, Box 312, Clayton South, 3169

angelica@minerals.csiro.au

The right to know

Everyone has the right to information on matters which may affect their health and safety. This is an underlying principle of all occupational health and safety legislation. Employees must be provided with information, instruction, training and supervision to enable them to perform their work in a manner which does not cause harm to themselves, others, and/or property. However, despite improvements in the management of health and safety, accidents still occur. A key issue in achieving reductions in occupational injuries and diseases is delivering information on prevention solutions to workplaces. The challenge is to find new and novel ways to impart this information as quickly as possible, and to keep abreast of it. This is where the Internet is transforming all aspects of human endeavour and business enterprise. In particular, the World Wide Web provides virtually limitless opportunity for delivery of information literally at our finger-tips.

Traditionally, information on health and safety was provided through brochures, books and posters. It has been said [1] that it would be impractical to provide 8,000 pages of occupational safety and health information (weighing 40 kg) to 20,000 workplaces in Western Australia free of charge. But do we need all this information, and how do we find what we need? The frustration of people at workplaces wanting an answer on which laws apply to them is now unwarranted. Amendments to Acts and Regulations, and new Codes of Practice, are published electronically. People are now able to print these publications at their workplace. Employers and other users are able to link to information services around the world. A website can aid greatly in the access and utilization of the latest information on health and safety legislation, hazard alerts, engineering controls, and safety clothing and equipment.

Those with most to gain from this information on the Web are employers and employees in workplaces, health and safety committees and personnel, students, trainers/educators, and commercial safety and health service providers. In the past, many small businesses could not afford the 'luxury' of detailed OHS information but today, most of them can connect to the Internet relatively simply and inexpensively. This is particularly important for small businesses and self-employed persons without any specialized occupational safety and health resources. The result of the readily and easily accessible information is the empowerment of employers and individuals to take a constructive and consultative approach to improving OHSE in their workplace. The information can be downloaded and made available on the business's Intranet for employees to access more easily.

A wealth of resources

It is estimated that the World Wide Web currently contains over one billion documents [2]. There is a wealth of information available in many fields of occupational health, safety and the environment but finding the information you're after may be likened to walking into a darkened library with a flashlight. You have a sense that there is a lot of information around you, but you can only see a little at a time. It is difficult to tell that you have found what you're seeking until you get right up to it. Fortunately, there are people and tools to help guide you, and new tools are developing continuously to help 'cut through the darkness'. Some good tips on searching can be found elsewhere [2, 3], and there are also guides [4] on health and safety on the Internet.

Data validation

Any number of individuals and organizations can place unvalidated information on the Web. It is important when using the Web for research on OHSE topics that you verify the source of the information. Investigate who is making the claim and whether the material is substantiated. There is no substitute for peer-reviewed journals. The websites listed under the following headings provide reliable information.

Agencies on the Web

The core function of Government OHS agencies is to administer and enforce occupational safety and health laws, but virtually all agencies also provide industry and community awareness programs. Their websites tend to contain a substantial amount of fulltext information including legislation, regulatory and compliance information, Standards, Codes of Practice, guidance material, OHS solutions and answers, and information on hazards (especially chemical hazards). The National Occupational Health and Safety Commission (NOHSC) is the Australian Government OHS organization. It maintains several databases available for searching on its site (http://www.nohsc.gov.au/) including a database of solutions to specific OHS problems in the workplace, a database of Australian OHS research, databases on hazardous substances and exposure standards, on line documentation on Codes of Practice and guidance notes, as well as other useful information. It has a link to the National Industrial Chemicals Notification and Assessment Scheme (NICNAS) which provides information on many industrial chemicals.

Comcare's website (http://www.comcare.gov.au) has information on rehabilitation, legislation, prevention and OHS. The publications section provides the fulltext of a number of booklets on a range of topics including managing occupational stress. The WorkCover Authorities in NSW (http://www.workcover.nsw.gov.au) and Victoria (http://www.workcover.vic.gov.au) include a history of the authority, a directory of services and publications, full contact information, media releases, and links to relevant government departments. In addition, the Victorian WorkCover Authority's site includes online access to statistical data from their annual report. The Safety and Health Solutions page on the WorkSafe WA website (http://www1.safetyline.wa.gov.au/) contains hundreds of useful tips and hazards information on a wide range of health and safety problems, and an excellent education supplement for young people.

A comprehensive listing of State and Federal legislation and regulations can be found on the Australasian Legal Information Institute website (http://www.austlii.edu.au/). The Standards Australia Online site (http://www.standards.org.au) provides regularly updated listings and summaries of the many Australian Standards and draft standards issued by this organisation and others such as ISO and Standards New Zealand.

Professional and commercial organizations on the web

Professional organizations provide information about their charter, membership, conferences, continuing education, lists or catalogues of publications, and sometimes fulltext versions of their journal or newsletter. These include the Ergonomics Society (http://www.ergonomics.org.au/ ), the Safety Institute of Australia (http://www.sia.org.au/), the National Safety Council of Australia http://www.safetynews.com/nsca/nsca.html, and the Australian Institute of Occupational Hygiene (http://www.aioh.org.au).

Commercial organizations and occupational safety and health service providers use the Internet to promote their business to the global marketspace, to provide information services to registered and paying subscribers/customers, to provide consultancy advice and information to specific paying customers, and to keep abreast of occupational safety and health information and their commercial competitors' developments [1]. Printed catalogues of personal protective equipment, signs and other hardware are being replaced by electronic catalogues and direct purchase arrangements. Some examples include MSA Safety Products (http://www.msa-aust.com.au), and Drager Safety Division (http://www.drager.co.nz). Proprietary CD-ROM based occupational safety and health material is being replaced by subscriber access services delivered through the Internet, including audio and video presentation. You can even preview safety videos online (e.g., Channel 1 Videos, http://www.channel1.com.au). The Safety Bulletin (http://www.safetynews.com/) contains an electronic version of Australian Safety News, and an extensive list of links to other OHSE sites.

University websites provide a lot of fulltext information including OHS policies, procedures and manuals, safety checklists, and hazard alerts. There is also faculty information on health and safety courses like those at VIOSH (http://www.ballarat.edu.au/engineer/viosh/index.htm) and the UNSW Department of Safety Science (http://argus.appsci.unsw.edu.au/).

Hazard information

The identification of hazards, and the management of risks associated with those hazards, is the cornerstone of accident and injury prevention. There are a number of useful websites under the major hazard categories of physical, chemical, biological, radiation, and environment.

Physical hazards have a direct physical effect on the body. They include hot or cold substances, noise and vibration, pressure, electricity, fire, and manual handling. The University of South Australia has set up a site for net surfers with an interest in ergonomics which includes a detailed list of links and discussion lists, plus information about the latest-release books and academic facilities (http://www.library.unisa.edu.au/internet/pathfind/ergo.htm). The University of Newcastle has provided detailed practical information on how to avoid injuries such as occupational overuse and eye fatigue while using computers (http://www.newcastle.edu.au/department/ar/architecture/study-areas/PS-Computing/LUP204/LUP204P0.html). You can access the online journal of the Ergonomics Society at (http://www.uq.edu.au/eaol/index2.html).

The effects of chemicals can result in damage to the major organs of the body (including the skin), the central nervous system or the reproductive system through poisoning, burns, allergies or mutations of cells (causing cancer). The fastest way to find out about the health effects of chemicals is look up the MSDS. A good place to begin is at (http://www.ilpi.com/msds/index.html). A word of caution about MSDSs. Ensure it is less than five years old as information on health effects and other matters may have been updated since, and that it contains Australian data on exposure standards for materials. The latter is a major drawback of foreign MSDSs.

The US National Library of Medicine maintains Medline (index to the world medical literature, http://igm.nlm.nih.gov/), Toxline (index to toxicological literature, http://sis.nlm.nih.gov/sis1/), and other databases. They also maintain or make available a number of fulltext hazardous chemicals databases including Hazardous Substances Data Bank, the National Cancer Institute's Chemical Carcinogenesis Research Information System (CCRIS) and the US EPAs Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS). The International Agency for Research on Cancer (http://www.iarc.fr/) has databases on human carcinogens, and a directory of ongoing research in cancer prevention. The ATSDR Division of Toxicology maintains a list of the Top 20 hazardous substances (http://atsdr1.atsdr.cdc.gov:8080/cxcx3.html).

Sources of biological hazards include bacteria, viruses, insects, plants, birds, animals, and humans. These sources can cause a variety of health effects ranging from skin irritation and allergies to infections (e.g., tuberculosis, AIDS), cancer and so on. CCOHS has an extensive set of topics in this area at (http://www.msds.org/oshanswers/biol_hazards/biol_haz.htm). The Australian Genetic Manipulation Advisory Committee (GMAC) regulates genetic manipulation work in Australia (http://www.health.gov.au/tga/genetech.htm).

The Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency (ARPANSA) is the authoritative resource in the area of radiation (http://www.health.gov.au/arpansa/). Their site includes information on skin cancer, microwaves, and mobile phone radiation.

Environmental hazards include spills entering the water system, noisy machines, off-gases into the atmosphere, and waste to landfill. The Department of the Environment and Heritage (http://www.erin.gov.au/) allows you to search on a number of subject headings. The EPA (http://www.epa.vic.gov.au/) provides information on air and water quality, and factsheets on a number of topics. The Royal Society of Chemistry provides online access to Green Chemistry and the Journal of Environmental Monitoring (http://www.rsc.org/siteguide/environment.htm).

Other general sites

There a number of general OHSE sites worth a look. OSHWEB (http://oshweb.me.tut.fi/cgi-bin/oshweb.pl) was developed by the Institute of Occupational Safety Engineering at Tampere University of Technology, Finland. You can locate the appropriate OHS government agencies for countries and international organizations. The "Other resources lists" category links to more than 60 other lists, directories and guides in health, safety and environment areas. OSHWEB is not a searchable site but its orderly classification and brief annotations make it is easy to navigate.

The Internet Safety Resource site (http://www.christie.ab.ca/safelist/) is a convenient place to start surfing as it has dedicated safety links to some 2,760 websites. The site also lists email addresses, chat sites, telnet addresses, newsgroups, mailing lists, and gopher sites. The Vermont SIRI site (http://hazard.com/) has safety discussions, a reference section with US EPA fact sheets, US OSHA regulations, and other formal documents, graphics files, and links to safety-related resources. The Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety (CCOHS, http://www.ccohs.ca/) has an extensive listing of web safety resources with information on practically every safety topic. Some other useful OHSE web links include:

Community and Public Sector Union - OHS	http://www.cpsu.org/ohs/index.html
National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health - US	http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/homepage.html
The World Health Organisation	http://www.who.ch/
The International Labour Organization	http://www.ilo.org/
DuPont Safety	http://www.dupont.com/corp/environment/
Department of Energy - US	http://nattie.eh.doe.gov/
Health and Safety Executive - UK	http://www.open.gov.uk/hse/hsehome.htm
Occupational Safety and Health Administration - US	http://www.osha.gov/

Consumer information

Information on hazards at home and lifestyle issues such as cholesterol and fat, nutrition and diet, lead (in paint) can be searched on the Choice website http://www.choice.com.au/). Road safety information such as defensive driving, drugs and alcohol, speed and fatigue, and injury prevention can be found at the websites of the Accident Research Centre (http://www.general.monash.edu.au/muarc/), the NSW Roads and Traffic Authority (http://www.rta.nsw.gov.au) and the Motor Accidents Authority (http://www.maa.nsw.gov.au).

Emergency response

When prevention fails, emergency may follow, and it's always good to be prepared. The latest news and emergency documents together with a discussion room and a training room to test your knowledge can be found at Rescue (http://www.techrescue.org/). Have a look at 'virtual emergency' which allows you to see inside a fire truck, ambulance or rescue vehicle.

References

Bartholomaeus, N. "The Internet and occupational safety and health", FutureSafe96, Melbourne, Australia, May 1996. Available:

http://www.safetyline.wa.gov.au/PageBin\wswaslmg0072.htm

Barker, J. Teaching Library Internet Workshops, University of California Berkeley. Finding Information on the Internet: A Tutorial. Available:

http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Internet/ThingsToKnow.html

Hill, J. "Internet Resources for HSE Professionals or How to Drink from a Fire Hydrant", Safety in Action, Melbourne, Australia, April 2000.

Stuart, R.B. & Moore, C. Safety & Health on the Internet, 1999, 3rd ed., Government Institutes, Rockville US.

Published in Chemistry in Australia, June 2000, 14-17.

Criticism of Behavioural Safety programs...the case against

2007-09-23T14:40:00.000+08:00

FIXING THE WORKPLACE, NOT THE WORKER A WORKERS' GUIDE TO ACCIDENT PREVENTION
by Bill Hoyle Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers International
PO Box 281200
Lakewood, CO 80228
phone 303-987-2229

Introduction

"Safety First", "Think safety", "Take Two", "Wear Your Safety Glasses" and "Safety is Everyone's Responsibility". These are a few of the many safety slogans found on banners and posters in most industrial facilities. What all these slogans have in common is that they send the message that accident prevention is primarily the responsibility of individual workers. When is the last time that you saw a safety banner directed at management such as "Preventative Maintenance First", "Engineer It Safe" or "Safety Before Profits"?

Health and safety are definitely important concerns for workers today. They have seen far too many injuries, fires and explosions taking place. Since accident prevention has been defined by management as an individual worker responsibility, it is often a subject of employee involvement programs. The most wide-spread employee involvement safety programs are based on behavior modification. These programs use workers and supervisors to watch and document the behaviors of workers on safety observation forms. The goal is to reduce the OSHA recordable injury rate by changing the behaviors of workers. Companies selling these programs include Du Pont, Behavioral Science Technology, BST, and others. These programs sometimes include the popular buzz-words: quality, cultural change, team work, jointness and empowerment. They promote union participation and sometimes include new full-time jobs for union representatives who help administer the program. The union often creates a name for their local program. Management may even agree to not use discipline when unsafe behavior is observed.

Programs such as BST can be popular with local union committees in plants where they have been implemented. One reason for this advocacy is that people believe that worker errors such as not wearing protective equipment are a central safety problem. many unionists are convinced that behavior modification programs really work. The OSHA recordable rate often does go down. Union members believe that a safer workplace has been created.

It can be argued that the primary thing that has usually changed is that the reporting of injuries has been reduced.However, even if the injury rate is actually lowered, this is a very inaccurate indicator of overall workplace safety, especially in the oil and chemical industries. These plants have a very low OSHA injury rate yet the number of disasters has sky-rocketed.

The basic premise of behavior modification programs is that the primary cause of accidents is worker error. This blame-the-victim concept provides little opportunity for effective accident prevention. Behavior modification does not focus on the fundamental safety problems that we face in the continuous process industry. For example, it does not address the need to change the dangerous contractor system or the unsafe practice of running plants far beyond their safe design limits.

OCAW has developed a powerful new program for making fundamental improvements in health and safety. It is called the Triangle of Prevention Program, TOP. Our safety program centers on fixing the workplace, not the worker. This is done through creating effective safety systems. A strong process safety management program is one part of a systems approach to health and safety. Examples of safety systems include the safe design of processes and equipment, proper maintenance and inspection, and having effective procedures and training programs.

Accidents and Worker Error

In the early hours of April 26, 1986, operators at a nuclear power plant were conducting a test of their emergency systems. Power was reduced to below 25%. This unexpectedly caused an explosion and the meltdown of the reactor core. Two of the operators involved were killed along with 30 of their co-workers. Thousands of people were exposed to harmful levels of radiation. The operators and supervisors who survived were blamed for the accident and five of them were sent to jail. Another example of operator error was documented in government reports and the case was closed. The name of the accident site is now synonymous with disaster, Chernobyl.

Years later with the fall of the Soviet Union a different version of the accident emerged. The reactor had inherently dangerous flaws in its design. Operating manuals did not warn of an instability safety problem associated with running the reactor at low power. Today, newly issued operating procedures prohibit operating the reactor below 25% power.

When you read a newspaper account of an industrial accident it will almost always conclude that the cause of the accident was worker error. In a society largely based on individualism the idea that worker mistakes are the primary cause of accidents rings true with most people. There is no denying that workers make mistakes. However, in every industrial accident there are almost always several management safety systems involved which may not be readily apparent.

At an OCAW represented plant in Salt Lake City, a process operator was burned when sulfuric acid splashed on him while drawing a routine sample. Management blamed the worker for causing the accident by failing to wear a face-shield, acid suit and other personal protective equipment (PPE). Management issued a bulletin threatening discipline against anyone not wearing all their PPE. Co-workers of the injury victim did not like seeing their friend blamed and knew that it was common practice to not wear all of the hot and awkward acid gear when taking samples. However, they conceded that he should have been wearing more PPE in order to avoid the accident.

Further investigation by the Joint Health and Safety Committee found that there was more going on in this accident than a mistake by a worker. The procedure for collecting sulfuric acid samples was to hold an open cup under a bleed valve on a pressured line on the acid pumps. The acid sometimes splashed out of the cup which made wearing PPE necessary. The committee recommended that acid sampling points should be redesigned to eliminate the potential for splashing altogether. One simple way to do this was to sit the sample container in an enclosed sample box with a glass door where the valves could be operated outside the box. This would eliminate the exposure and the need to wear most of the cumbersome PPE.

The Committee then broadened the investigation to look at all of the sample points in the plant. It was discovered that sampling points for dozens of different hazardous materials were unsafely designed and were unnecessarily exposing workers. The Committee initiated a new program to have sample points throughout the plant redesigned to eliminate or minimize exposures.

Behavior modification programs are the least effective way to prevent accidents because they focus on the narrow issue of correcting worker mistakes. In the acid burn accident, behavior modification programs would only seek to reinforce the need for workers to wear PPE. The Health and Safety Committee investigated the injury using a fix the workplace, safety system approach. The Committee saw that the worker's injury was a symptom of a problem with the facility's chemical sampling system. By focusing on fixing the workplace, the Committee was able to take accident prevention to a much higher level than is possible by using behavior modification.

The Center for Chemical Process Safety, CCPS, of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers is an industry sponsored publisher of widely used safety guidelines. They state that:
"An Axiom of incident investigation is that process safety incidents are the result of management system failure... Of course, many causes of incidents can be attributed ... to equipment breakdown or operator error. However, experienced incident investigators know that such specific failures are but the immediate causes of an incident and that underlying each such immediate cause is a management system failure, such as faulty design or inadequate training. It is from identifying the underlying causes that the most benefit is gained." (Technical Management of Chemical Process Safety, CCPS, pages 113-114)

James Reston of the University of Manchester adds that:
"Rather than being the main instigators of an accident, operators tend to be the inheritors of system defects created by poor design, incorrect installation, faulty maintenance and bad management decisions. Their part is usually that of adding the final garnish to a lethal brew whose ingredients have already been long in the cooking." ("Preventing Accidents at Oil and Chemical Plants" by Najedin Meshkati, Chemical Safety; November, 1990)

Yale University Professor Charles Perrow explains:

"Finding that faulty designs were responsible would entail enormous shutdown and retrofitting costs; finding that management was responsible would threaten those in charge; but finding that operators were responsible preserves the system..." ("Preventing Accidents at Oil and Chemical Plants" by Najedin Meshkati, Chemical Safety; November, 1990)

What the Insurance Companies Know About Oil and Chemical Plants

Insurance companies that cover oil and chemical facilities keep extensive records about the safety of these plants. These insurance companies have millions of dollars in policies at risk. Their records show that during the last 15 years safety in the oil and chemical industries has gone out of control. The number and the scope of disasters has greatly increased. The most notorious of these disasters took place at Phillips Chemical Company in Pasadena, Texas in 1989 when an explosion killed 23 people, injured 232 and did nearly $1 billion in damage.

Industrial Risk Insurers has explained that there has been substantial growth in the inherent hazards of oil and chemical plants due to profit driven decisions being made by management. This includes use of higher pressures and temperatures, more toxic and unstable chemicals, increased congestion of plants and equipment to save on piping, energy and instrumentation costs. Studies published by Marsh and McLennan show that the majority of property losses in oil and chemical plant accidents are due to mechanical and design failures, not operator error.

A leading European based insurance company, Swiss Re, explains that petrochemical plants "have reached a level of complexity beyond the ability of current techniques and organizational structures to control them safely." (Chemical Week, August 5, 1992, page 33) OSHA's John Gray Report determined that increased use of less trained and experienced contract labor has seriously compromised safety in the petrochemical industry. Also, there are far fewer shutdowns scheduled to perform essential safety repairs and inspections. Many plants are running at rates of production beyond the safe design limits of the equipment. Corporate reengingeering and other downsizing programs have eliminated thousands of jobs and increased overtime while targeting record production goals.

Amoco Oil Company boasted in 1994 that they have been running their refineries at 104 percent of capacity. (Amoco Torch, November 14, 1994) This is like riding in an over-loaded elevator or flying in a corded airplane that exceeds safe weight limits. When a pilot allows this situation, they are fired. When a corporate CEO does the same thing on world scale they get a bigger bonus.

In the name of competitiveness, oil and chemical plants are increasingly managed and engineered in a high risk and unsafe manner.

Is Your Safety Being Downsized?

Cost-cutting mania is sweeping through corporate America. No one's job is safe from consultant's latest snake-oil proposals for reengineering and increasing profits. Spending on health and safety is not immune from the budget slashing ax. In the plants, corporate managers often tell workers that no expense will be spared in maintaining a safe workplace. Workers are told that safety is a win-win, non-adversarial issue which is in the mutual interests of both management and labor. meanwhile, these same corporations are using their vast wealth to lobby the Congress to eliminate health and safety regulations and enforcement in the name of world competition and cost-cutting.

Corporate reengineering also has deadly consequences beyond the plant gate. It has even hit the medical care system. At the University Community Hospital in Tampa, Florida, one patient had the wrong leg amputated and another died when their respirator machine was turned off by mistake. Clearly, doctors and nurses made serious errors, but these errors were set-up by a medical care system that is being downsized. An investigation report by federal and state government agencies found that these incidents were caused by "assembly-line surgical care, the hospital's dramatic under-staffing and the use of poorly trained, poorly supervised nurse replacements." (Unhealthy Care, The Nation, May 8, 1995, page 620)

What is a Safe Workplace?

The dominant model of safety in the country says that an injury free workplace is a safe workplace. Therefore, a low OSHA injury recordable rate demonstrates that a workplace is safe. Having zero worker injuries is a worthy goal, but creating a safe workplace requires much more. IN 1994, an OCAW represented facility in Ohio celebrated the fact that they had gone two million work hours without a lost work day injury. A major fire on the crude unit which had occurred during the award-winning period did not detract from the safety record. No one was seriously hurt in the fire.

At a huge Texas plant, a release and fire caused hundreds of citizens living near the facility to seek medical treatment for possible exposure to hazardous materials. But since no workers were injured, the plant's safety record remained unblemished.

In the majority of potentially catastrophic chemical releases and fires there are no OSHA recordable injuries. Often the only thing that prevents fatalities and injuries is luck. The wind direction was favorable or workers had just left the area before an explosion. When we measure safety by using the injury rate we get a very distorted view of actual safety conditions in our plants.

The primary theory used to explain the causes of industrial accidents is that mistakes by workers are responsible for virtually all accidents. This is the foundation on which health and safety programs have been based for decades. Therefore, the ultimate goal of corporate safety programs and local union safety committees is generally, the same, to have zero worker injuries. safety attention focuses on finding ways to get unsafe workers to change their ways. Companies like DuPont and Behavioral Science Technologies are hired to help fix the problem of worker behavior.

Workplace safety is measured by only one statistic, the OSHA recordable rate. Based on this statistical yardstick, continuous process industries continue to be among the safest industries in the country and are getting safer. Many plants have celebrated working millions of hours without a lost work day accident. While all eyes are on the OSHA recordable rate, releases of hazardous materials, fires, mechanical breakdowns and near misses are not included in the safety statistics.

OSHA's John Gray Report found that use of injury rates to determine workplace safety is "wholly inadequate" and inaccurate. An article published by the National Safety Council explained that injury incident rates "aren't always a reliable indicator of safety performance." (Safety and Health, January 1994, page 72)

While having a low injury rate, the oil and chemical industries are actually among the most dangerous industries in the country and they are getting more dangerous every year.

Safety Systems: The Key to Fixing the Workplace

A safety system can be defined as the use of management programs which proactively identify and eliminate or control hazards. This beings in the conceptual phase e of process units and equipment and continues throughout the life of the process. Major safety systems include the following:

Process and equipment design

Mitigation devices (relief valves, etc.)

Warning devices (alarms)

Mechanical Integrity

Procedures and training

Human factors

All these systems are important in order to have a safer workplace. However, some systems are far more effective than others in their ability to maximize opportunities for prevention of disasters and injuries. The most important safety system is the design system. This is the only system in which primary protection takes place. For example, by designing a process to use lower pressures, temperatures and less toxic and reactive chemicals, the potential for disaster and injury has been effectively reduced by the use of inherently safer equipment and materials. Another example is the design and use of unique couplings for the connection of nitrogen, air, steam and other hoses. Good design techniques like the use of unique couplings are the most effective way to eliminate the potential for accidents.

All of the other safety systems provide secondary prevention by reducing the probability or severity of an accident. Good maintenance, inspection and training programs are important, but they will not make unsafely designed equipment safe. Take for example a series of three heat exchangers which have been installed on top of each other without a safe way to access the valves on the top exchanger. Operators assigned to take the top exchanger out of service are instructed to wear fall protection harnesses while they climb up on the slippery lines and valves. The harnesses will not prevent a dangerous fall. At best the harnesses will reduce the severity of injuries suffered from a fall. In congested process units which often do not have safe anchor points for fall protection, a harness may be of little real help. Effective prevention of injuries in this example requires that exchangers are not stacked on top of each other or that permanently elevated work platforms are installed so that the equipment can be safety accessed.

Behavior modification programs assume that the workplace and its safety systems are designed and maintained safely. Insurance industry research shows that this is not the case. Behavior observation programs actually function as a means of convincing workers to adapt their behaviors in order to keep unsafely designed equipment running. Rather than focus energy on changing unsafely designed equipment such as on the stacked heat exchangers, behavior modification programs concentrate on getting workers to adapt themselves to the unsafe equipment by wearing fall protection harnesses or other personal protective equipment.

Treating Workers As Good as The Pipe: Understanding Human Factors

Human factors involves considering the worker element in the design of equipment and technical systems so that they will be safe for workers. For example, a process hazard analysis will insure that valves are installed so that a compressor can be isolated. However, these valves will be of little use in an emergency if they are placed in hard-to-reach locations or if an operator's job tasks in an emergency do not allow time to close the valves. This is one reason why OSHA requires that each process hazard analysis examines human factors.

In the United States, the term "ergonomics", is typically used to refer to the physical aspects of work while "human factors" is used to encompass both the physical and mental issues. Like every other major safety system, the human factors system has several sub-systems. These include equipment lay-out, workload and staffing levels, shift schedule, overtime and behavior. In order to effectively address these important safety issues, each plant needs a written human factors program. Many plants have large staffs of engineers who perform extensive calculations on piping and other hardware so that the process will run safely. While the hardware receives lots of attention, little thought is given to human factors. During oil or chemical plant shutdowns for repairs called turnarounds, workers may be assigned to work 12 or more hours a day for a month or longer without a single day off. Companies apply tight restrictions on the maximum safe process limits for the protection of piping and other hardware. But when it comes to scheduling unlimited and unsafe amounts of overtime, workers are treated far worse than the pipe.

The Center for Commercial Process Safety, CCPS, has created a list of questions for auditing human factors programs. Sample questions include: (Guidelines for Auditing Process Safety Management Systems, CCPS, page 104)

Do control and display layouts minimize the chance for operator error...?
Are there design standards that specify proper layout?
Is there adequate space to access system elements for normal operations and maintenance?
Have the psychological and physical demands of the job been considered for both routine and emergency operations?
Have shift work and overtime schedules been designed to minimize operator fatigue and stress?
Have environmental conditions such as noise, temperature and illumination been considered?
Have employees made modifications to existing systems that would indicate failure to apply human factors principles in the original design?
Have employees received training in human factors?

The CCPS explains that a human factors program is an essential component of every process safety system. However, a CCPS survey of selected large company's process safety activity revealed that five out of seven companies did not have a human factors program.

While many companies do not address human factors safety, they give a great deal of attention to one of its sub-systems. That is worker behavior. Most industrial safety departments concentrate their efforts on behavior modification. Their focus is on worker observation, Job Safety Analysis, slogans, posters, prizes, accident score boards, and bonus pay programs.

Changing worker behavior is one of the least effective methods for accident prevention. Workers make occasional errors because they are human. There is a natural error rate for even the most highly trained and drilled work force. This is recognized whenever a process hazard analysis such as a HAZOP is performed. It is always assumed that if valves can be operated in the wrong order or at the wrong time that this will happen sometime. Therefore, the hazard analysis concerns itself with the design of a process where it will remain safe even when a worker makes a mistake. Examples of this concept include the use of relief valves, check valves, redundant controls and automatic shutdown systems.

No amount of behavior observation will create an error-free, injury-free workplace. The Chemical Manufacturers Association explains in a CMA publication that "enlightened managers realize that... most mistakes are committed by skilled, careful, productive, well-meaning employees...Human error is a natural and inevitable result of human variability in our interactions with a system." (A Manager's Guide to Reducing Human Errors, CMA, pages 4 and 5)

Entering the Era of Process Safety Management

In 1984, thousands of people were killed when a toxic chemical was released from a Union Carbide plant in Bhopal, India. Afterwards, a safety movement in this country forced Congress to pass the Emergency Planning and Right to Know Act in 1986. The 1989 catastrophic explosion at Phillips Chemical plant in Pasadena, Texas along with other disasters, further pressured Congress to include in the 1990 amendments to the Clean Air Act a requirement that OSHA and the EPA establish disaster prevention regulations.

OSHA issued the Process Safety Management Standard in 1992. This law recognizes that the key to safety in the oil and chemical industries is to require a fix the workplace, safety systems approach. Elements of the Standard include process hazard analysis, mechanical integrity, management of change and incident investigation. OSHA mandates that employees and their unions are consulted by the employer on each of the 14 required elements of the Standard. How is focusing on fixing the workplace and safety systems different from the way that continuous process industries has been functioning for decades? Let's take the example of a pump failure which caused a fire. Traditionally, the failure mode would be identified. For instance, it would be determined that a bearing failed. A new bearing is installed and the pump is put back into service. The incident would be treated as an isolated case and would not trigger a broader review of facility safety programs.

In a fix the workplace framework, when a pump fails it is recognized that the thing that actually broke down was the plant's mechanical integrity program. The most important thing to examine is not the pump bearing. The key for prevention of future similar incidents requires examining and changing the mechanical integrity system. Therefore, attention focuses on issues such as why the pump vibration monitoring program did not detect a problem with the bearing. If vibration monitoring had detected a problem, why had the pump been kept in service and run until it finally failed. The repair history of the pump would be examined to see if it has had similar failures before. If so, there may be a design problem with the pump and similar pumps in other areas of the plant.

Examining Du Pont

Basketball players want to "be like Mike", Michael Jordan. Many corporate safety programs have as their goal to be like Du Pont. While many companies try to get down to a good OSHA recordable injury rate of 3.0 per 200,000 work hours, Du Pont advertises that their rate is only 0.033. Du Pont's programs include "Take Two" and "STOP". Their premise is that worker behavior is the safety problem in industry. Du Pont sells the following formula for safety:

All injuries and occupational injuries can be prevented

Working safely is a condition of employment

96% of injuries are caused by unsafe acts

The Du Pont Safety Training Observation Program, STOP, uses an observation data sheet to monitor and change unsafe worker behaviors. The five areas that are observed include personal protective equipment, proper use of tools, body position, following procedures and reactions of people. Observers are warned in the STOP guide for supervisors that "an unsafe act is always committed by a person, not a machine. A skilled observer looks at everything in the workplace, but concentrates on people and their actions."

Examining Behavioral Science Technology, BST

The co-founders of BST explain their program in a book entitled "The Behavior-Based Safety Process, Managing Involvement for an Injury-Free Culture". The book says that behavior modification has proven itself in the treatment of alcoholism, drug addiction, neurotic, psychotic and other mental disorders. However, in industry "it has never really gained popularity and in some cases behavior modification has a poor reputation". The authors explain that "when behavior modification is presented incorrectly, it can be perceived as manipulative."

BST echoes the Du Pont premise that virtually all accidents have as their root cause the behaviors of workers. BST requires employees and union participation because it uses peer pressure as the vehicle for changing behavior. BST and corporations realize that the people who are the most effective in carrying-out the blame the worker program are the workers themselves and the union.

BST recognizes that selling behaviorism to workers has some problems. BST's co-founders complain that workers mistakenly "judge management commitment to safety by how quickly equipment and facilities are repaired and serviced...what they see are leaks and machinery without guards." The authors go on to say that:

"Workers are regularly around equipment that might seem unsafe to them. For this reason, maintenance has symbolic importance to workers. If the maintenance function is perceived as being unresponsive, workers are likely to think that they work in a place where management does not really care about safety."

The "problem" that concerns BST's founders is that workers understand that lack of repairs causes accidents rather than buying into the notion that only worker behavior causes accidents. Like the Du Pont STOP program, BST relies on the use of workers and supervisors to watch worker behaviors and to record what they see on observation data sheets. According to BST, the primary categories targeted for observation are protective equipment, tools, body use and following procedures.

Fixing the Workplace v. Fixing Behavior

How would a fix the workplace approach to safety differ form behavior modification in a typical job task in the oil or chemical industries? Let's take the example of a process chemical pipe which has developed a hole. A patch is being welded on the pipe while the surrounding process unit continues running. In the behavior modification model, the only thing of importance is the observation of how the welder performs their task. Is the proper welding hood, respirator, clothing and gloves worn? Does the welder stand in a safe and comfortable position? Does the welder stand in a safe and comfortable position? Does the welder have a hot work permit and fire watch? Is the welding equipment in good condition?

In a fix the workplace approach to the repair the starting point is that hot work on a running process unit in an oil or chemical plant is inherently very dangerous. It is recognized that issuing a permit or a good procedure does not make an inherently unsafe job safe. The permit and procedure only lessens the danger of the high-risk job. The most important safety question in any hot work job is how can the job be done without use of hazardous hot work? It is also recognized that PPE is the least effective method for controlling exposure to hazards.

In a fix the workplace framework, the most important questions to ask are very different than the questions asked by behavior modification programs. Fix the workplace questions would include: Why did the line fail? What is the historical record of failures on this piping system? Was the pipe engineered and installed properly? f not, what failed in the engineering and design system? Why didn't the inspection system detract the thin pipe prior to it failing? What needs to be changed in the engineering and inspection systems to prevent further similar failures? Can the line be repaired without use of hazardous hot work? Can the section of line be removed from the unit and repaired in the shop? Can the unit be shut down so that the repair can be done more safely.

Analyzing Job Safety Analysis

Another popular safety program is Job Safety Analysis, JBA. This program also relies on supervisor and workers observing job tasks and documenting what they see on the JSA form. JSA is often used to verify or create job procedures. Before beginning the JSA, the required personal protective equipment, PPE is listed on the top of the form. According to the National Safety Council, a JSA is divided into three steps. First, the sequence of basic job steps is listed. Next, the potential hazard of each step is recorded. Finally, a recommended procedure is listed.

How would a JSA work in the welding job example previously discussed? The required PPE would be listed first. Next, the steps needed to perform the repair task would be recorded and the hazards identified. Then recommendations are made. These might include more PPE, a different body position, or moving the fire watch to a better location. As you can see, there is little difference in what a JSA, Du Pont STOP or BST would look at in the welding job. All these safety programs are primarily focused on what the worker does or does not do. The much more important questions about fixing the workplace are not addressed.

The PPE Police

In all behavior modification programs the central thing that this looked for is the use of personal protective equipment, PPE. A favorite theme of management is to constantly tell workers to wear ever increasing layers of PPE. Workers are told that if they would wear all this PPE they would eliminate most injuries.

There are times when use of PPE is appropriate. These include emergency responses to releases of hazardous materials, during line breaking or while engineering controls are being installed. However, most use of PPE is due to exposures caused by poorly designed and maintained equipment or poor work procedures.

Worker observation programs are the best method for management's policing of PPE use. Local union representatives who are urged to become safety observers are usually promised that discipline will not be used when PPE violations are observed. Union locals often consider this promise to be a progressive step. But while discipline may be kept out of the observation process, the blame the worker for accidents system which includes discipline remains firmly intact.

For union members, behavior observation programs inhibit solidarity among the workforce. Workers are assigned to watch, analyze and document what your fellow workers do right and wrong. In behavior observation programs, the primary safety problem that needs fixing is the conduct of your union brothers and sisters. Workers do not like having the boss or anyone else looking over their shoulder. Rather than focusing worker attention on organizing collectively to fix the workplace, behavior based programs have workers target each other for individual change.

Another problem for management is that workers hate PPE. Workers do not hate PPE because they are lazy or forgetful. They hate it because they are smart. PPE is often hot, very uncomfortable and awkward to use. It often creates additional hazards. Vision and communication may be impaired. Increased stress may be put on the heart and lungs. It is the least effective way of protecting against hazards. Reliance on PPE to protect you from toxic materials is like relying on a bullet proof vest to protect you from a firing machine gun. Real protection requires stopping the machine gun fire. This is why OSHA requires that exposures should be eliminated by use of engineering controls whenever feasible and that PPE should only be used as a temporary measure or as a last resort.

During a shutdown of a catalytic cracking unit at an oil refinery in Utah, dozens of workers suffered eye injuries due to the sand-like catalyst blowing around the unit. The design of vessel clean-out activities did not include the adequate control of catalyst dust clouds. Rather than redesigning clean-out operations to better contain the catalyst, management issued a new rule that everyone must keep goggles on their heard-hats ready for use.

Management has two reasons for handling safety problems by requiring more PPE. First, it is the cheapest way to deal with the problem. Redesigning equipment or work procedures usually cost more money than PPE. Secondly, reliance on PPE transfers responsibility for safety from management onto workers.

Safety Observation and Management by Stress

Watching and recording in detail how workers do their jobs is nothing new. Since early in the century, followers of Taylorism's scientific management ideas have been doing time-and-motion studies of workers using a stopwatch. This piece of the management by stress programs has been especially despised by workers. Modern management by stress programs have replaced the hated stopwatch with incentive bonus awards for workers who speed-up production. Since one of the ways to improve safety is to slow down the pace of work, incentives for speeding-up work conflict with the incentives for improving safety.

Another tool in the management by stress arsenal is using team concepts and peer pressure to blame and shame workers in order to modify their safety and other behaviors. The federal government convened the Dunlop Commission to study improving teamwork and cooperation between management and labor. One of the studies used by the Commission argues that corporations should:

"develop an environment of positive peer pressure by instilling a sense of guilt and shame in workers...Workers who do not respond to shame n\must be weeded out or converted...Practices like quality circles and work teams may be just as important for their cultural effects on team spirit and for the opportunities they create for workers to monitor each other as they are for the specific work task that take place in teams." (Working Smart, A Labor Notes Book, page 151)

The Case of Accident Prone Andy

In every plant there is always at least one worker who has the reputation of being a hazard to themselves and others. Let's call this person Accident Prone Andy. Some corporate safety consultants subscribe to the theory that a handful of unsafe workers are responsible for a significant percentage of all accidents. Behavior modification programs will give lots of attention to Andy. He will be encouraged to change his ways. Maybe he will work safer. If he continues to have accidents, the discipline program will be used. If that still doesn't work, Andy might be fired.

Anther way that corporations deal with the notion of accident prone workers is to attempt to not hire them by using screening programs. One such program is BST's Job Candidate Profile. BST promises employers that by purchasing this personality profile test, accident prone workers and other problem employees can be weeded-out. BST curiously warns that their "good" employee screening test is only appropriate for hourly workers, not for management staff.

So what kinds of "safety" questions does the BST test ask? Here are a few examples which the prospective worker is asked to agree or disagree with:

The police should be given more power.

This country needs higher moral standards.

There is too much crime today.

The old-fashioned values are best.

It is hard to tell from questions like these whether management and BST are looking for safe workers or if they are recruiting for a conservative political organization.

If the theory of the accident prone worker is true, then by modifying or firing and by not hiring all the Andy's we will have finally created a safe workplace. But is this true?Will there be fewer fires and explosion caused by thin piping systems and by poorly maintained pumps and compressors? Will there be less welding done on running process units? Will contractor companies start giving equal training to their workers to that received by employees of the host company? Modifying or firing all the Andy's leaves intact the unsafe safety systems which need to be changed in order to create a truly safer workplace.

Belief in the idea that a few unsafe Andy's cause most accidents is widespread. But in reality, every on of us is an Accident Prone Andy at various times in our lives. We are distracted by marital or family problems. We may be unable to get a decent nights sleep. We are having medical problems. Or sometimes we just have a bad day or week for any number of other reasons. All these conditions are absolutely normal human behavior. We do not need to be modified. The safe design of equipment and process units assumes that workers will have occasional bad days and will make mistakes. When the workplace is designed and maintained safely, we don't need to fix or fire the workers.

McSafety Scoreboards

McDonalds restaurants have boasted on their signs that they have sold so many billions of hamburgers. Likewise, most large industrial plants display a prominently located McSafety scoreboard. The scoreboard tracks how many days have passed since a lost work day injury. Safety success is measured by how many million hours have been worked without an injury. Fires, explosions and toxic releases are not included on the McSafety scoreboard. If you get to a safety target, for example two million hours, everyone gets prizes such as a sharp safety award jacket. Gain-sharing and variable pay awards are also based on having low injury statistics.

Prizes and awards are behavior modification techniques called positive reinforcement. Safety consultant Thomas Smith explains that "the research shows that positive reinforcement is as bad as negative reinforcement. It's just a different side of the same coin. The ultimate goal is to control people."

May workers know that the scoreboard injury numbers are often the result of creative book-keeping and of assigning injured workers special light duty work while they heal. The numbers may be a fantasy, but the jackets are real, so complaints are kept to a minimum. Workers are also keenly aware of the powerful peer pressure to not report injuries. Reporting an injury means you will be blamed by your peers for taking money and prizes out of the pockets of your co-workers. Million-hour jackets, gain-sharing awards and safety scoreboards are a favorite part of management's behavior modification tool box. management recognizes that the problem behavior that they are most concerned with is to entice workers to think twice before reporting injuries.

Plant management has developed one scoreboard trick that the baseball team owners could learn from. McSafety scoreboards only list the score for the home team. Management just includes their own workers in the safety statistics. The visiting team, the contractor workers, do not get to have their performance listed on the safety scoreboard. According to a report issued by the EPA, over 30% of the hours worked in the petrochemical industry are logged by contract workers. (Rachel's Environment and Health Weekly, September 22, 1994) If management is truly concerned about safety and not just the numbers game, contractor injuries must be included in plant safety statistics.

Owning Up To Ownership

Corporations have a very clear idea of who owns and controls their businesses. management determines what is produced, what types of equipment and chemicals are used, how maintenance is performed and every other aspect of production. These are management's "rights" based on their representing the owners of the company. In exchange for shouldering the responsibility for the company's success or failure, top management may get bonuses worth millions of dollars. However, there is an important exception to management's monopoly on responsibility. In a word, it is accidents. When it comes to accidents, ownership and responsibility is swiftly passed down to the workers. This is one of management's favorite employee involvement programs.

Another area where corporations shirk their responsibilities is through the use of contractors. OSHA's John Gray Report is the most extensive study ever conducted on health and safety in the oil and chemical industries. The report found that in addition to cutting costs, a primary reason that corporations use contractors is to avoid the legal liability for these workers. The OSHA report recommended that legal responsibility for the health and safety of everyone working at a facility, including contractors, should be shouldered by the plant manager.

Behavior modification safety programs are a perfect fit for management's avoidance of responsibility for health, safety and accidents. When these programs refer to unsafe behaviors, they are referring to worker behavior only. In reality, the decisions of corporate CEOs, presidents, managers, engineers and supervisors are the primary factors in preventing accidents. When management runs process units beyond factory design limits, reduces preventative maintenance staff, crowds equipment together, hires poorly trained contractors and downsizes safety budgets, these unsafe management behaviors are ignored by behaviorist safety programs.

Workers do have important responsibilities regarding health and safety. These include the responsibility to report all injuries and near misses no matter how many prizes and bonuses are offered for non-reporting. Workers have an obligation to question inadequate work permits, procedures and training and to demand that these are done properly. Workers have a responsibility to not be pressured to cut corners when management is in a hurry to get a job completed. They are responsible to demand that engineering controls are used whenever possible rather than PPE.

Preventing Catastrophes

In the corporate model of safety, a low injury rate equals a safe workplace. Therefore, it is believed that preventing injuries prevents bigger incidents and disasters. This long held perception is not supported by the facts. The oil and chemical industries have very low OSHA recordable injury rates and their rates are getting even lower. At the same time, the number and seriousness of catastrophes in the industry has sky-rocketed. Union locals that focus their activity on Du Pont, BST, JSA and other worker behavior programs are missing important opportunities to protect workers, the public and the environment. These programs are ineffective in preventing disasters.

Take the example of the disaster that took place at Phillips Chemical Company in Pasadena, Texas. Behavior based programs would observe that the individual behavior of a contractor worker caused the disaster. In reality, it is widely recognized that the system of contractor maintenance was a primary cause of the catastrophe.

An important safety concept used in writing workplace emergency response plans is that you always prepare for the most serious types of accidents. By doing this you are able to most effectively handle safely the entire range of incidents from minor to catastrophic.

By focusing on disaster prevention and creating strong safety systems, union members can most effectively prevent injuries and create a safer workplace.

Reinventing the Yardstick: A Better Way to Measure Safety

Some union safety activists have long been troubled with blame the worker safety programs and giving out prizes for low OSHA injury rate statistics. A fundamental problem has been that there has never been another method for measuring safety success. The OSHA injury rate yardstick has been the only game in town. OSHA and the Congress have been guilty of dragging their feet on implementing a new safety measurement system. Recognizing that effective safety systems are the key to protecting health and safety, it naturally follows that what we should be measuring is safety system performance. OSHA's John Gray report recommended the following for a new safety tracking system:

Data collection on actual injuries and illnesses and the accidents, near-miss events, chemical leaks and releases, equipment failures, design flaws, operator errors, fires, explosions, and other workplace incidents that have the potential to cause serious injury to workers and communities.

With these ideas in mind. the OCAW has designed a new measurement system for tracking plant safety. It is called the TOP Rate. It consists of tracking the following incidents:

1. Hazardous material release reportable on the EPA's SARA 304 list or releases of more than 5,000 pounds of flammable material.

2. Fires, explosions or chemical spills that required an emergency team response.

3. Injuries or illnesses suffered by employees or contractors which are OSHA recordable or incidents which caused one or more members of the public to seek medical treatment.

The top Rate is calculated in a similar manner to the OSHA recordable injury rate. The annual number of reportable incidents is divided by the total hours worked in the facility and then is multiplied by 200,000. Take for example a plant with 200 employees who each worked 2,000 hours in a calendar year and which experienced 6 reportable incidents. Dividing the incidents, 6, by the 400,000 total hours worked, and then multiplying by 200,000 would result in a TOP Rate of 3.0.

What About Near Misses?

Many serious incidents do not result in fires or injuries, but easily could have been disasters. It is important that these near miss events are also tracked. The OCAW TOP initiative includes the new tracking program, use of a full-time union safety representative and training for all employees on process safety, safety systems and incident investigation. Too often, near misses go unreported because of fear of discipline or other negative consequences. In order to help encourage greater reporting of near misses, the TOP Rate statistics will not include near misses unless these incidents fall into one of the three categories described.

Determining the Root Causes of Incidents Using OCAW's Logic Tree Diagraming

The root causes of accidents and incidents almost involve problems in management safety systems. Typically, there are multiple system-based root causes in an accident. Another leg of the TOP program is the easy to use OCAW Logic Tree Diagraming method for identifying root causes. In the OCAW method, each fact that is found in an accident or near miss investigation is recorded on a 5 by 7 inch self-adhesive paper and placed on a wall. Use of the self-adhesive paper allows each fact to be easily moved around as the logic tree diagram is constructed. This type tree construction process is similar to that used by the National Transportation Safety Board.

Direct causal relationships are determined for each fact through the use of several questions found on the OCAW Logic Tree Diagraming Wallet Card. The card guides investigation teams through a two-step process. In the first step, all the facts that are necessary to have caused or allowed an event or condition to take place. The logic tree is continued downward until all of the safety system failures are identified. For more information on the TOP program contact the OCAW Health and Safety Department.

Conclusion

Creating a truly safer workplace requires looking at industrial health and safety in a fundamentally new way. After all, our entire society is based on blaming the victim. When millions of people are thrown out of work by an inherently cyclical economic system, the individual worker is told to get out there and solve your problem by finding a new job. If you don't find a new good job it is your fault.

We are told that the epidemic rise in the rate of cancer in our society is caused by our individual actions. That is, that we smoke and drink too much while not exercising and eating right. In contrast, it has been shown by scientists Barry Commoner, Dr. Samuel Epstein and others that the primary cause of the cancer epidemic is increased exposures to toxic industrial chemicals in our workplace and in our food and environment.

The solution to pollution is increasingly framed in terms of telling individuals to drive their cars less and to recycle more. The national focus on individual recycling concentrates our attention on the least effective area for actually reducing pollution. However, it is very effective in transferring blame and responsibility for pollution onto working people and away from corporations who create, control and profit from the system of pollution.

An article in OCAW's publication New Solutions reports that corporate downsizing and the management by stress system are contributing to increased smoking, drinking, drug use and violence. "If employers respond at all to this, they tend to respond in terms of increased surveillance, more drug testing, more ways of getting rid of you; or (they use)... the yoga and yogurt approach: quit smoking, eat bran and wear a condom. It's your fault and we can solve it by changing the individual rather than changing the workplace." (Work and Health in the Global Economy, New Solutions, Summer 1995, page 6, quote by Pat Armstrong)

The corporations and their consultants such as BST and DuPont say that workers are the problem that needs fixing in order to have a safe workplace. They claim that the behavior modification of individual workers is the solution. In reality, unsafely designed, maintained and managed workplaces are the primary problem.

The best way to prevent injuries, fires, explosions and hazardous material releases is by fixing the workplace, not the workers.

Climate Change and the CFMEU

2007-09-21T21:33:00.000+08:00

Climate Change

CFMEU and ACF unite for action on climate change

Date: 11-Sep-2007

In a rare convergence of interests, the mining union and environmentalists have collaborated to call for urgent Government action on climate change.

With climate change set to be a critical federal election campaign issue, the CFMEU Mining and Energy division and the Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF) said strong, urgent action on climate change would be good for jobs, the economy and the environment.

ACF Executive Director Don Henry and General President of the CFMEU mining and energy division, Tony Maher, today called for Government and Opposition to commit to:

1 Set science-based, legislated targets to cut greenhouse emissions
2 Substantially increase the existing mandatory renewable energy target
3 Join the international effort by ratifying the Kyoto Protocol before the end of 2007

“It’s taken an issue as pressing and potentially devastating as climate change to get ACF and the CFMEU to stand together on the same platform,” said ACF’s Don Henry.

“Strong binding targets, guided by the best available science, are vital if we are going to protect future generations from dangerous climate change. Australia can show leadership by ratifying the Kyoto Protocol before the end of this year – and encouraging the USA to do the same. Australia is missing out on billions of dollars because it hasn’t ratified.”

“Emissions trading will not be enough on its own to drive the scale of investment that is necessary to clean up our energy economy and address the threat of dangerous climate change,” said the CFMEU’s Tony Maher.

“A regulatory mechanism is essential to secure sufficient investment. Substantially increasing the mandatory renewable energy target will lower average emissions – it’s critical and it’s supported by mineworkers.

“The Government’s decade of denial and inaction is the real threat to coal miners job security. The coal industry is going to have to clean up its act if it is going to have a future in a low carbon economy. That means billions of dollars of investment by mining companies in new technologies. We’re ten years behind where we should be.”

Worksafe news and Safety Alerts

2007-09-13T17:40:00.000+08:00

WorkSafe News

Activities – WorkSafe

Alert – Wind warning to builders

Three men were hurt in two separate structural collapses, thought to have been caused by strong winds, at Geelong two weeks ago. In one incident two plumbers were taken to hospital after a three-metre high concrete-block wall collapsed on them. One had a fractured leg. In the other incident a man was struck on the head by bricks when a parapet fell from a building which had recently undergone roof work.

A WorkSafe alert Masonry structures - Instability leads to collapse issued in 2005 points out that anyone working near masonry walls and other structures must ensure they have adequate strength and stability and be able to resist the effects of extreme weather conditions.

Freight Week 2007

WorkSafe’s Manufacturing, Logistics, Agriculture and Retail Industries industry program is once again participating in Freight Week – September 15 – 21. Events include ten separate conferences, four major launches, five dinners and functions and a free 3 day trade exhibition with daily workshops on technical issues. According to organisers, Freight Week addresses ownership changes, legislative changes, technology development and best practice behaviour in a rapidly changing freight marketplace.
Read more: Freight Week website

Farm death puts hazards of ‘quad bikes’ in spotlight

The death of an elderly farmer after his all-terrain vehicle (ATV) rolled down a hill in north-east Victoria has prompted a renewed call for helmets to be worn by all ATV users. The man, 76, was found on Saturday September 1 during a search by SES volunteers on a property on the Beechworth-Wangaratta Road near Everton. Although the joint Victoria Police–WorkSafe investigation is at an early stage, it appears the man lost control of the bike while travelling along a narrow farm track near the edge of an embankment.

WorkSafe’s Executive Director, John Merritt, said wearing a helmet could greatly reduce, injuries caused by impact with the ground or other objects, or crushing.
Source: WorkSafe Media Release

DEWR completes analysis of global chemical system

The Department of Employment and Workplace Relations (DEWR) has analysed Europe's proposal to adopt a globally harmonised system of classification and labelling of chemicals (GHS). The DEWR has concentrated on classification criteria and scope of coverage of the proposed Australian workplace chemicals framework compared to the GHS and European proposals. The GHS is a single internationally agreed system of classification and labelling of chemicals which was developed under the auspices of the United Nations. The report can be downloaded from this page of the Australian Safety and Compensation Council website.

Useful New Resources

From VWA:

Dangerous goods ready reckoner - a tool to help businesses correctly label their dangerous goods. The tool allows the user to enter the quantities, type and location of all dangerous goods on their premises. It results in an easy-to-read report outlining labelling requirements.
a series of frequently asked questions (FAQ pdf) for holders of existing certificate of competency holders. This follows the introduction of the OHS regulations in July 2007. In Victoria, all certificates will progressively expire over a five-year transition period starting 31 January 2008. By 30 June 2012, all certificates of competency will have expired.

From the ACT: Office of Regulatory Services September Newsletter [pdf], has interesting articles on a number of items on OHS issues including ‘Altering Electrical Appliance Plugs’

Hot Work Permits Alert from the Center for Chemical Process Safety (CCPS) a Safety Alert regarding Hot Work Permits [pdf] after one person was killed and one injured when welding near a gasoline truck. Flammable vapours ignited and case a fire and explosion.

Worksafe Prosecutions

Company fined $300,000 for fatality
Camden Neon Pty Ltd, a company that manufactures and carries out maintenance on display signage, last week pleaded guilty to breaching the 2004 OHS Act, and was convicted and fined $300,000. One of its workers was killed after changing a light bulb. The 26 year old died in hospital four days after receiving an electric shock as he removed broken glass from a ‘live’ light fitting at a Coburg North car yard in April last year.

He had not been provided with protective gloves and was using an uninsulated screwdriver. Judge Sue Pullen said the company’s working practices were grossly inadequate or non-existent.

Camden Neon employees routinely left the power on when they carried out sign maintenance. The firm did not have a tag and lock out procedure for use when working with electricity. There was no written job safety analysis or work permit system before electrical work was done and employees had inadequate information, instruction and training in relation to the safe operation of the elevating work platform (EWP).
WorkSafe Media Release

Employer fined $50,000 after worker killed: VWA issues maintenance warning

The County Court has fined a Kerang business owner $50,000, without conviction (!), after an employee was crushed and later died when an excavator bucket suddenly closed on him in June last year. The maximum fine for an individual under the OHS Act 2004 is $189,000.

Keith William Chirnside, who operates Kerfab Industries Pty Ltd, pleaded guilty to failing to provide and maintain a safe workplace. The company makes and repairs agricultural and earth moving machinery. The injured worker was replacing the steel lining of the front-end loader bucket which closed on him. Another man’s hand was hurt as he tried to free him.

The Director of WorkSafe’s Manufacturing Logistics and Agriculture program, Trevor Martin, said maintenance and repair work was among the most dangerous. ‘Repair and maintenance work invariably means something is not as it should be, and consequently the risks need to be tightly controlled.’
WorkSafe Media Release

GrainCorp prosecuted for a second time in 2007

GrainCorp Operations Limited was recently convicted and fined $100,000 after a casual employee fell four metres into an unguarded ground-level grain hopper at Ouyen in January 2006. The worker sustained serious injuries to head, knee, shoulder, and kidneys and was off work for four weeks. It was the company’s second prosecution in Victoria this year.

The Mildura Magistrates court heard that GrainCorp failed to provide adequate fall protection to employees who were required to work from heights on grain hoppers: there was no perimeter fall protection around the pit and there were no standard safety instructions or training for cleaning the hopper. On 30 March this year, GrainCorp Operations was convicted and fined $85,000 by the Horsham Magistrates Court after a grain auger fell, seriously injured a worker’s leg and hip.
Source: WorkSafe Media Release

Manufacturer fined $90,000 for hand crush injury

Victorian road transport vehicles manufacturer Maxitrans Australia Pty Ltd has been convicted and fined $90,000 after a worker suffered a crush injury to his hand.

In 2005 the worker for was pinned between an axle unit and a pneumatic axle-lifting unit after an unrated chain failed. The employer used chains that were not weight-rated and were reused by randomly bolting them together. The VWA found that there was no formal procedure for reusing the chain or for the selection of bolts, and employees did not receive training or instruction for the safe use of chains to suspend axle units.

Two weeks prior to the incident, a similar chain failure occurred but was not reported, and no preventative action was taken.
Source: WorkSafe Media Release

Q fever warning for meat and livestock industry

A Geelong animal products processing company was last week fined after four workers at became infected with Q fever because they had not been immunised against the debilitating condition.

Galpac Australia Pty Ltd was fined $20,000 (without conviction) in the Geelong Magistrates Court after pleading guilty to two charges under the 1985 OHS Act.

The company processes sheep placentas, which are used in cosmetics and as a health product. Galpac did not carry out a job safety analysis before beginning a trial of working with semi-thawed sheep placentas rather than frozen ones. Cutting the semi-thawed placentas into their component parts exposed the workers to Q fever.

The Director of WorkSafe’s Manufacturing, Logistics and Agriculture program, Trevor Martin said anyone working with potentially infected animals or animal products should be immunised. Vaccination is a completely effective, low cost, and readily-available means of prevention.
Source: WorkSafe Media Release Information on Infectious Diseases WorkSafe Guidance Note: Q Fever Prevention

International News

China: Lean Manufacturing – A case study of its impact on Workplace Health and Safety

Lean manufacturing, which establishes small production “cells,” or teams of workers, who complete an entire product from raw material processing through final assembly and shipment, increases health and safety hazards by mixing previously separated exposures to various chemicals (with possible additive and cumulative effects) and noise. The intensification of work leads to greater ergonomic and stress-related adverse health effects, as well as increased safety hazards. The authors of this study say that the standard industrial hygiene approach of anticipation, recognition, evaluation, and hazard control should be applied to lean operations, and that worker participation in identifying and solving problems is critical for reducing negative impacts.
Garrett Brown and Dara O'Rourke Lean Manufacturing comes to China – A case study of its impact on Workplace Health and Safety [pdf] International Journal of Occupational and Environmental Health

Europe: consultation on responsible research in Nanosciences and Nanotechnologies

The European Commission this week announced a public consultation on responsible nanosciences and nanotechnologies research to provide input for a Recommendation to the Member States on a possible Code of Conduct for this emerging area of science.

The potential economic impact of nanosciences and nanotechnologies (NST) research has been highlighted by analysts, with forecasts varying between US$150 billion by 2010 (approximately A$180 billion) according to a 2002 study by the Mitsubishi Institute, and US$2.6 trillion (approximately A$3.1 trillion) by 2014 according to a 2004 Lux Research study – implying that the market for nanotechnology-based products would be larger than the information and communication technology market and would exceed the future biotech market by ten times. Estimated worldwide public funding for nanotechnology R&D in 2004 was equivalent to approximately A$5.5 billion, reaching approximately A$8.3 billion in 2006. The consultation period is to 21st September only.

Unions and other groups have serious concerns related to the minuscule size of nanoparticles, their ability to cross natural bio-boundaries or potential to connect living creatures and man-made materials and systems.
EU Media Release. More information on Nanotechnology

ILO: Green jobs: Facing up to "an inconvenient truth"

Over the last year or so, it has dawned on policy makers, businesses and the public around the world that climate change looks set to become the biggest social and environmental challenge of the 21st century. Peter Poschen, ILO Senior Policy Specialist and focal point on climate change, looks at the social and labour impacts of this complex global challenge.
Read the article in: World of Work 60, Aug. 2007

Greenwashing?

2007-09-11T22:10:00.000+08:00

Saab Accused Of Greenwashing
Aug 01 2007

Australia's NSW Greens have complained to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, accusing Saab of making deceptive claims about its cars' greenhouse gas emissions and carbon neutrality by promoting the idea that Saab owners can drive with a "green conscience" regardless of their car's fuel efficiency or engine size, The Sydney Morning Herald reports.

According to the article, Saab's "Grrrrrreen" newspaper and internet campaign claims "every Saab is green" because, for each sale, the company will plant 17 trees on behalf of the customer to offset the emissions in the first year.

Saab is using Greenfleet to plant the trees. Greenfleet says that the trees would be planted about a year after it received payment from Saab.

http://www.environmentalleader.com/2007/08/01/saab-accused-of-greenwashing/

http://tinyurl.com/2fayp9

Green News Links in Australia

2007-09-02T17:01:00.000+08:00

An interesting link to environment news. http://www.plantchange.com/au/

Another Western Australian Family Company Bought

2007-08-25T23:49:00.000+08:00

"In a move perhaps motivated by a realisation that the company needed greater perspective and better resourcing beyond just a localised base and parochial attitude TCC Group a predominantly family based company was sold to international oil and gas services provider Cape Plc.The changes that this will bring in regrd to change management/organisational change will be interesting to say the least.To have to have sold to an overseas company is perhaps sad in the sens e that it no longer is a purely western australian owned and operated company but one controlled and based ultimately in the UK.Implications for sustainability devlopment/approaches and health and safety perspectives and fit will be intertesting to see as well.The company goes from approximately 700 workers to connecting with a company that has 8000 workers in 24 countries.similarity in activities is one fit the company has ..but cultures will of course still have to be merged and evolve/be managed effectively to gain the best out of such a deal.Lets hope for the best."

[q url="http://www.wabusinessnews.com.au/en-story/1/56085/UK-s-Cape-buys-TCC-from-Iannello-family-for-85m"]Sunday August 26, 2007

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UK's Cape buys TCC from Iannello family for $85m

23-August-07 by Mark Pownall

Safety and Directions for sustainability

2007-08-09T23:07:00.001+08:00

One of the biggest challenges I have found of recent times is trying to merge... or more re interpret and rejig the understanding and language of OHSE (occupational health safety and environment )into a meaningful expression of the safety ethos of change.How to bring the concept into developing practical applications for planning means integrating and merging or joining concepts in transversalist ways or making connections with ideas from different field and levels of actual and practice.It means differing things for the employee or worker compared to the company directors...though to thrive and grow a sustainable business needs both to see what this means and how it can be done for mutual benefit...it needs to be as popularly understood a management approach and plan/practice as the development of the change anagemnt approaches adapted and adopted by much of OHSE strategy.

Some ideas of what Sustainability could be In the Safety Arena-A personal View

2007-08-03T23:52:00.000+08:00

Sustainability is not just a concept, its about a lifestyle.

Be prepared for both an exciting but challenging carreer that will ask you to interpret and re interpret what sustainability is in each differing communal,industrial and commercial context in practice.It is also about long term and in context practical and analytical education,participation,consultation,decisionmaking and planning for the now and future.

Leadership and committment to collaboration and partnerships are important at all times
A Profile of A Sustainability committed safety advisor;

OHSE(occ.hlth safety &environ.)

Broad number of jobs which includes identifying hazards and implementing controls at many different levels and systems within an organisation to reduce exposures and prevent incident to both employee /employers.

Understanding and implementing management systems and organisational/cultural change approaches for best benefits all round and fullfillment of the duty of care in its full legal and communal sense.

I am motivated by a sense that all life is about justice,balance and change for the fulfillment of both personal and collective betterment /development and preservation of and promotion of a sustainable way of living for all on this planet and in our particular environment.

Hardest part is being misunderstood,persisting over time and being patient to bring about cultural change in organisations and peoples hearts and minds to quote a cliche'.its rather like maturing a good port.

Reducing Back Pains through Exercise

2007-07-26T21:26:00.000+08:00

Exercise after back pain

I found this to be an interesting article that reiterates the importance of properly planned rehab. and exercise post injury for lower back injury if it is not to be a long term problem.Importantly it cites the role of moderated and general/gradual return to activities whilst focusing on the fitness overall of the client(including things such as core strength/abdominal muscle strength etc.)

Exercise after back pain

Health Minutes Home » Exercise after back pain

Exercise after back pain

25 July 2007

For most of us when we get low back pain and don’t lie down to it, the serious discomfort will pass in a few days. But a proportion of people are still in some strife a few weeks down the road. The important thing then is to avoid the back pain becoming long term.

An Australian trial looked at the role of general exercise supervised by a physiotherapist and advice aimed at a steady return to regular activities and found that they both made a significant difference to pain reduction compared to routine care. The exercises were aimed at fitness and increasing tone rather than focussed on the back specifically.

It’s being increasingly recognised that the stability of the back is more than just having strong abdominal or back muscles and that being active has all sorts of benefits including improving your state of mind.

Australian physiotherapists have also pioneered techniques for strengthening what are called your core muscles. These are the ones along the inside of your spine and can be helped by using biofeedback to become more aware of them.

Experienced back physios should be able to help you with this core strengthening.

For reference

Liset HM et al. Physiotherapist directed exercise, advice or both for sub-acute low back pain. Annals of Internal Medicine 2007;146:787-796

Source: abc.net.au

Another Telstra worker 'commits suicide'

2007-07-09T22:31:00.000+08:00

Another Telstra worker 'commits suicide'
18th June 2007, 4:33 WST

Increasing performance targets and plans to install satellite tracking in his work van caused a Melbourne Telstra line technician to commit suicide, his friends and family believe.

Leon Dousset, a Telstra technician for 32 years, took his own life in March this year, depressed because new Telstra performance monitoring had forced him to adopt substandard work practices, his loved ones say.

They said he was also upset over a plan to fit work vans with GPS tracking.

The allegations, to be aired on the ABC's Four Corners program on Monday night, follow the suicide of Melbourne Telstra call centre worker Sally Sandic in January this year.

Her family also allege sharply increased sales targets and work pressure took their toll on Ms Sandic.

Former workmate of Mr Dousset John Hitchiner said he was well respected by his colleagues but became increasingly depressed under Telstra's new time-based performance system, which he said did not allow for preventative maintenance or for tasks to be finished satisfactorily.

Mr Dousset's daughter, Fiona Schulinus, said her father felt inadequate.

"He was made to feel inferior and I believe... that because they were isolated from the other workers, they were made to feel that other workers were achieving their targets even if they weren't, and that made him feel even more inadequate," she said.

Mr Hitchiner said his friend felt GPS tracking in workers' vans was "demeaning" and "showed a lack of trust".

Telstra's head of customer sales and service, John Rolland, said Mr Dousset's suicide was tragic.

"We were not aware of Leon's depression and so therefore for us to be aware and take action was very difficult," he said.

"We did understand he was upset about the GPS issue but he never made us aware of the extent of his condition."

Audio of a speech delivered by Telstra chief operations officer Greg Winn in May this year, to be aired on Four Corners, suggest a cut-throat corporate culture.

"We're criticised for it but the fact of the matter is we run an absolute dictatorship and that's what's going to drive this transformation and deliver results. It's a cultural issue," Mr Winn said.

"If you can't get the people to go there - and you try once and you try twice, which is sometimes hard for me, but I do believe in a second chance - then you just shoot 'em and get them out of the way and put people in that you can teach the new business process to and drive on, and that's the kind of thing that you have to do if you're serious about changing things, and we are obviously changing."

Mr Rolland called Mr Winn's language "colourful" and denied Telstra operated in that manner.
AAP

Source: thewest.com.au

Superficial Lumbopelvic Muscle Overactivity and Decreased Cocontraction After 8 Weeks of Bed Rest.

2007-07-09T22:24:00.000+08:00

Superficial Lumbopelvic Muscle Overactivity and Decreased Cocontraction After 8 Weeks of Bed Rest.

Occupational Health/Ergonomics
Spine. 32(1):E23-E29, January 1, 2007.
Belavy, Daniel L. BPhty *+; Richardson, Carolyn A. PhD +; Wilson, Stephen J. PhD *; Rittweger, Jorn PhD ++; Felsenberg, Dieter PhD [S]

Abstract:
Study Design. Longitudinal study.

Objective. To gain insight into the effects of inactivity on lumbopelvic stabilization.

Summary of Background Data. Some authors have suggested a link between inactivity and lumbopelvic (LP) pain. Studies examining the superficial musculature in LP pain have shown overactivity and increased cocontraction. Studies in inactivity (bed rest, microgravity) have shown similar effects on the musculature of the legs. Here we examine the effect of bed rest on superficial LP activity and cocontraction.

Methods. Ten male subjects participated in the "Berlin Bed Rest Study" and underwent 8 weeks of bed rest with a 1-year follow-up. A repetitive knee movement model at four movement speeds in non-weightbearing was used to assess, via electromyography, activity (amplitude-ratios) in five superficial LP muscles and abdominal flexor-lumbar extensor cocontraction for LP stabilization. Testing was conducted at regular intervals during and after bed rest.

Results. Analysis of the amplitude-ratio data showed a significant effect of testing date (F = 2.38, P = 0.005). This effect was generalized across all muscles, however (F = 0.59, P = 0.989). During bed rest, subjects exhibited higher levels of activity but lower levels of cocontraction (F = 8.84, P <>
Source: spinejournal.com

Workers,Employees ,Human resources

2007-06-08T00:40:00.000+08:00

One of the problems increasingly being faced these days is the complete devaluing of the importance and recognition of workers and their rights/ value in contribution to a business and organisations profit and purpose for being.To be specific it is a particular type of devaluing that I am referring to.It is the attitude and process of perceiving of workers as mere chess pieces or units of production to be traded and sought and managed ...not unique and creative ,expressive individuals and known identities with personalities with value innate.

OHS &E Contacts and links

2007-05-21T18:21:00.000+08:00

[q url="http://www.ohs.com.au/Sites/s-1.htm"] Government Health & Safety Sites

Australian Government - NOHSC

Australian Government - Comcare

Australian - Maritime Safety Authority

Australia - Offshore Petroleum Safety

Australian Capital Territory - Workcover

Queensland - Workplace Health & Safety

Queensland - Dept. of Mines Safety

New South Wales - Workcover Authority

New South Wales - Minerals & Mining

Victoria - Workcover Authority

Tasmania - Workplace Standards Authority

Tasmania - Marine Safety

South Australia - Workcover Corporation

South Australia - Mining & Quarrying

Western Australia - Worksafe

Western Australia - Industry & Resources

Northern Territory - Work Health Authority

Government Health & Safety Sites

ILO - International Labour Organisation

WHO - World Health Organisation

USA - NIOSH

USA - OSHA

USA - Center for Disease Control

USA - National Institute of Environmental Health

USA - Mine Safety

USA - National Transport Safety Board

Canada - Canadian Center

Canada - Ontario Health & Safety

Canada Manitoba Safety & Health

Canada - Workers H&S Centre

European Agency for Safety & Health at Work

UK - H&S Executive

UK H&S Direct

Ireland - H& S Authority

Finland - FIOHS

New Zealand - OH& S Service

AUSTRALIAN H&S SITES INTERNATIONAL H&S SITES

Subject Index

NOHSC - Site Index

NOHSC - Solutions

Comcare - Publications

Queensland - Subject Index

Victoria - Industries

New South Wales - Publications

Western Australia - Subject Listing

Subject Index

USA - NIOSH - Topic Index

USA - OSHA Alphabetic Subject Listing

USA - National Institutes of Health - Alphabetic

USA - National Ag Safety - General Topics

USA - CDC Safety & Health General

USA - CDC Health Information A - Z

USA - CDC Women's Health

USA - Navy Safety Downloads

Canada - OSH Answers

Canada - H&S Internet Directory

UK - H&SE Subject List

AUSTRALIAN H&S SITES INTERNATIONAL H&S SITES

OH&S Site Lists

Ergonomics

Health - QUT Public Health

Rescue Links

University of South Australia - Ergonomics

Emergency Services Sites

OH&S Site Lists

UK World Wide List - H&S Executive

UK Ergonomics Society Links

USA - OSHA General H&S Sites

USA - Department of Defence Site List

USA - Chemical Links

USA - Department of Energy - Sites List

USA - Nursing Resources

USA - Disability Links

USA - World List of Universities

USA - Oklahoma State University

USA - Oklahoma University

USA - University of Nebraska - Lincoln

Canada - Extensive List of H&S Sites

Canada - WH&S Center Links

South Africa - List of Sites & Resources

Government Links

Educational Links

OH&S Resources

H&S Publishing - List of Sites

Safetylink - many health & safety sites in list

Oshweb

OHSNET

AUSTRALIAN H&S SITES INTERNATIONAL H&S SITES

Professional Associations

Association of Risk & Insurance Managers

Australian Institute of Risk Management

Australian Institute of Occupational Hygienists

Australasian Faculty of Occupational Medicine

Aust & NZ Society of Occupational Medicine

Australian College of Occupational Health Nurses

Ergonomics Society of Australia

Safety Institute of Australia

Professional Associations

ACGIH (USA)

ACGIH - List of Professional Associations

American Association of Occupational Health Nurses

American Chemical Society

American Industrial Hygiene Association

American Risk & Insurance Association

American Society of Safety Engineers

American Society of Biomechanics

British Occupational Hygiene Society

College of Occupational & Environmental Medicine

Ergonomics Society (UK)

Illuminating Engineering Society

Institute of Occupational Safety & Health (UK)

International Ergonomics Association

International Risk and Insurance Assoc.

Risk & Insurance Management Society

System Safety Society

Society for Risk Analysis

Human Factors and Ergonomics Society (USA)

AUSTRALIAN H&S SITES INTERNATIONAL H&S SITES

OH&S Education Institutions

Ballarat University - VIOSH

Central Queensland University - OH&S Unit

Curtain University - OH&S Unit

Monash University OHS Unit

University of NSW - Safety Science

List of Australian Universities

OH&S Education Institutions

USA - List of Universities

World Wide List of Universities & Colleges

USA - Cornell University - Ergonomics

USA - Duke University

USA - Southern Illinois University

AUSTRALIAN H&S SITES INTERNATIONAL H&S SITES

Trade Unions

ACTU - OH&S Resources

PSA/CPSU - OH&S

Labour Council NSW - UnionSafe

Queensland Nurses Union

Trade Unions

UK - LabourNet - Worldwide List

Caution Line

If you find a good site Email us the location - mail@ohs.com.au

Feel free to bookmark this site for future use,

Email : Suggestions & Comments : mail@ohs.com.au

[/q]

Communication in confined spaces

2007-04-02T09:07:00.000+08:00

Often times work in confined spaces requires a leap of faith depending on the risk assessment process and protocols in place .Communication is essential and in our industry (i.e. sandblasting and coating) communication is essential.Often time the environment within a confined space for blasting and painting is quite noisy and difficult for visual communication to take place...making it at times a rather risky ,if impossible task to keep in direct contact and monitor for safe operation in the space .Options such as wireless communication are unreliable given interferences that can take place within operational refineries or other types of plants where much wireless equipment is used.
One option is to use hard wired intrinsically safe units that at least are not interfered with by random wireless interrference or location of a antennaed base station.

ACF Suggested actions for change

2007-03-30T18:53:00.001+08:00

FYI and ACF Action Suggestions

I thought I would include a little something from usual flood of email which could be relevant and useful to many people with a sustainability and environmental bent(and interest in climate change and needed lifestyle changes that will be required now and in the future to improve and make more sustainable our lifestyles on this fragile planet).Enough of the lectures though.Some good initiatives and information to be had.

Australian Conservation Foundation - 40 years of action

Hi !

Take action in March!

1. Demand action on climate change!

Federal Finance Minister Senator Nick Minchin continues to be the Government's number one climate change sceptic. Email Senator Minchin. Ask him to get his facts straight on climate change, and start financing the solutions - renewable energy and energy efficiency.

2. Order your free climate change action kit

Get all the information and tools you need to make a real difference and help reduce global warming...more

3. Become part of our Lights Off Australia challenge

Register to join thousands of Australian households that are participating in this monthly event...more

4. Start saving water today

Discover the easy things we can all do to reduce our household's water consumption...more

What's new on the ACF website:

1. Want to go 'carbon neutral'?

Been wondering how you can reduce your contribution to climate change? There are many ways to make your lifestyle more carbon neutral...more

2. Green Electricity Watch

Here's how each of us can help change climate change today by making the switch to accredited GreenPower electricity....more

3. Go green on a budget

You don't need to spend a fortune to help the environment at home - there's plenty you can do for under $20...more

4. Opposition to nuclear power and more uranium mining grows

New polling shows strong public opposition to nuclear power and nuclear waste and also uranium mining, in particular by women...more

5. Certification system for forestry industry

The Forest Stewardship Council has launched a certification system to better enable consumers to make ethical timber and paper choices...more

Last month's most read articles:

1. An Inconvenient Truth wins an Oscar!

2. Six critical tests for the Murray-Darling agreement

3. Clock ticking on Howard's nuclear agenda

4. The science is in: time for action on climate change

5. GreenHome offers sustainable alternatives to air-conditioners

Join our no new mines e-card campaign

Send an e-card to the ALP urging them to keep their no new mines policy

Events:

Palm Sunday Peace March and Festival (Melbourne)

Australian International green build & renewable energy exhibition and conference (Sydney)

The Trouble With The Traveston Dam (QLD)

Source: acfonline.org.au