Machine guarding is one of the most effective and longstanding control measures for occupational hazards. Sometimes safety people even get excited about them. Equally safety people, regulators and magistrates, get angry when the guards are left off.
One company in South Australia on 1 February 2010 received two penalties for similar hand injuries that occurred only days apart in 2007. Continue reading “No guard = hand injuries + $50k penalty”
In November 2009, the Safety Institute of Australia published its first edition of its peer-reviewed journal. At the time it was described as a good start.
Also in 2009, another safety-related peer-reviewed journal was released and this one has avoided some of the SIA journal’s shortcomings…. in a way. For a small academic country this now makes three OHS journals. The International Journal of Social Security and Workers Compensation (IJSSWC) is published by Curtin University’s School of Business Law and is only available online. Continue reading “Another new Australian safety journal”
The Health & Safety Executive (HSE) has come in for a lot of “stick” over the last few years by seemingly over-reacting to OHS hazards. In many cases, these reports have come from a misinterpretation of OHS rules and guidelines or a misunderstanding of the basic principles of safety. In some cases it is simply a beat-up my England’s tabloid media.
However, this attitude to safety and the creation of a misperception of OHS has annoyed the HSE. Below is a video that the HSE produced, going by the tone of the video, in response to the bad press.
The “Right People” campaign seems familiar to many other campaigns attempted around the world and the introduction depicting silly headlines shows that the HSE is think-skinned.
Much more successful is the HSE’s recent campaign about safety in farming. Continue reading “Getting safety promotion right”
Twelve days in 2010 and Victoria has experienced its first workplace death and it was due to the use of a forklift. A 60-year-old man was crushed after a load being removed from a truck by forklift fell.
According to WorkSafe Victoria:
“…the man was guiding a forklift driver who was to remove the computer equipment weighing some 200kg and standing about 2m high, from the back of a semi-trailer. The equipment was on castors and not mounted on a pallet.”
As part of WorkSafe ongoing campaign on forklift safety, it has issued two safety posters. Originals should be available through the local WorkSafe Victoria offices.
The European Trade Union Institute (ETUI) has upgraded its newsletter to a hard-copy six-monthly magazine called HesaMAG. SafetyAtWorkBlog received its copy a couple of days ago and we applaud the ETUI for being innovative by going backwards. Continue reading “New (hard copy) OHS magazine”
In November 2009, Peter Sandman delivered the Berreth Lecture at the annual conference of the National Public Health Information Coalition (NPHIC). Significantly Sandman was asked not to present on risk communication but about his experiences in risk communication and how he came to prominence in the field.
The NPHIC has made the 65-minute video of his lecture available on-line. Sandman has the audio available through his website. The speech notes are also available but, as is his wont, Sandman diverges from the “script” frequently.
Judith Hackett, Chair of the UK Health and Safety Executive (HSE), reviews the performance of the agency in the December podcast produced by the agency. Transcript is available online
The podcast provides a positive outlook for the HSE which one would expect. Hackett talks about the need for the HSE to dispel the myths that have been promoted throughout the media and the lack of credibility of the regulator discussed by many in the UK, such as Jeremy Clarkson. Continue reading “HSE Chair’s review of 2009”