The first control measure on the “hierarchy of controls” is to eliminate the hazard. OHS consultants and professionals should always consider ways to achieve this. It may prove to be impractical, or politically unpopular, but it should always be discussed or recommended. Reports and submissions that do not consider this control measure can be considered [...]
All posts for the month January, 2009
Eliminate the hazards
Posted by Kevin Jones on January 30, 2009
http://safetyatworkblog.com/2009/01/30/eliminate-the-hazards/
Cass Sunstein, Risk, Cost-Benefit and OHS – Part 2
Part 2 of Risk & Reason book review from SafetyAtWork magazine 2003 Sunstein closes the chapter “Thinking About Risks” with a short reference to September 11 2001 with which he says that “acts of terrorism show an acute appreciation of the psychological phenomena..” Throughout the book, there are snippets that can be related to safety [...]
Posted by Kevin Jones on January 28, 2009
http://safetyatworkblog.com/2009/01/28/cass-sunstein-risk-cost-benefit-and-ohs-part-2/
Comcare’s new role
The scuttlebutt in some Australian OHS circles is that Australia’s Comcare agency will be given a major upgrade through the National OHS Review recommendations that is nearing completion. Although the Minister for Workplace Relations, Julia Gillard, did not name the new agency that she intends to introduce through the Coalition of Australian Governments process, SafetyAtWorkBlog [...]
Posted by Kevin Jones on January 28, 2009
http://safetyatworkblog.com/2009/01/28/comcares-new-role/
Cass Sunstein, Risk, Cost-Benefit and OHS
On 26 January 2009, the Los Angeles Times reported on the appointment of Cass Sunstein as the “regulatory czar” under Barack Obama’s presidency. He is to be appointed the head of The Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs. In 2003 in the precursor to the SafetyAtWorkBlog, SafetyAtWork magazine, I reviewed Sunstein’s book – Risk & [...]
Posted by Kevin Jones on January 27, 2009
http://safetyatworkblog.com/2009/01/27/cass-sunstein-risk-cost-benefit-and-ohs/
How to talk safety
Safety advocates often say that safety begins at the top. Yet few CEO’s will talk overtly and publicly about safety to the extent that Janet Holmes a Court has in Australia. Janet is a rarity but John Bresland of the United States Chemical Safety Board is making a good attempt through YouTube technology. In January [...]
Posted by Kevin Jones on January 27, 2009
http://safetyatworkblog.com/2009/01/27/how-to-talk-safety/
New research on behavioral safety
The New York Times (and other newspapers) reported on an article in the latest edition of the NSC Journal of Safety Research. It is worth considering when the behavioural-based safety advocates come a-knocking. According the media reports the article reports on “knowledge gaps” in research into behavioural safety. It summarises the discipline, or alchemy depending [...]
Posted by Kevin Jones on January 27, 2009
http://safetyatworkblog.com/2009/01/27/new-research-on-behavioral-safety/
Possible cancer cluster at fish hatchery
For several weeks News Limited papers have reporting weird goings on around a fish hatchery in Queensland. In a small area of Cooloothin Creek people living on properties neighbouring the Sunland Fish Hatchery have been noticing an increase in cancers. The latest victim is a hatchery foreman who has been diagnosed with bowel cancer. The issue [...]
Posted by Kevin Jones on January 27, 2009
http://safetyatworkblog.com/2009/01/27/possible-cancer-cluster-at-fish-hatchery/
HR vs. OHS
I have written elsewhere in SafetyAtWorkBlog concerning the silo mentality of managers in relation to human resources and OHS. This weekend a reader posted the following comment on this blog: “You are right about the divide between HR & OHS. Fact is HR are the culprits of negligence, they exist to support Management. Any one [...]
Posted by Kevin Jones on January 27, 2009
http://safetyatworkblog.com/2009/01/27/hr-vs-ohs/
Government report into plastics and chemicals
Australia’s Productivity Commission has released a report into the national regulation of plastics and chemicals. The supplementary report has additional topicality as it is released a week before the Review Panel into Model OHS Law presents its report to the government. The key points of the Productivity Commission report are “The Productivity Commission has recently [...]
Posted by Kevin Jones on January 23, 2009
http://safetyatworkblog.com/2009/01/23/government-report-into-plastics-and-chemicals/
Gillard’s plans for new OHS agency – response
It was predictable for the Opposition party to accuse Julia Gillard of arrogance for bypassing the Parliamentary process. Senator Eric Abetz wrote to the letters page of AFR on 21 January 2009, the text of the letter is below (although there were slight changes in the published version) “It is highly arrogant and misleading for [...]
Posted by Kevin Jones on January 21, 2009
http://safetyatworkblog.com/2009/01/21/gillard%e2%80%99s-plans-for-new-ohs-agency-response/
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