government – Page 202 – SafetyAtWorkBlog

Rainbow windmill deaths continue to affect the local community

In March 2010, SafetyAtWorkBlog reported on the deaths of two farmers in the rural town of Rainbow in Victoria. They died when a windmill they were transporting on a property made contact with overhead power lines. The deaths continue to be a difficult topic of discussion throughout the Wimmera-Mallee, as I found out over the Christmas holiday season.

The coronial inquest into the deaths of John and Michael Helyar began in Horsham in November 2010 and will continue in April 2011. Some of the inquest reports in the local newspaper make for harrowing reading but also provide an important insight into the decision-making process that occurs at the site of a workplace fatality and one that involves close friends.

The two articles are

Coronial inquest into tragedy at Rainbow, and

Inquest hears of agonising drama at Rainbow

Kevin Jones

Quad bike safety issues continue with no end in sight

SafetyAtWorkBlog has been following the discussions about safety of all-terrain vehicles and quad bikes for some time. This is because the use of these vehicles encapsulate so many of the issues that workplace safety needs to deal with:

Safe design
Personal protective equipment
Hierarchy of controls
The line between private activity and work activity
Personal responsibility
The “nanny state”
Regulatory safety guidance
Industry-based codes of practice

On 19 December 2010, the New Zealand Sunday Star Times ran a feature article on quad bikes, written by Amanda Cropp (I can’t find the article online but please send a link if you can) entitled “Risky Business”. The article is a fair summation of many of the perspectives and attitudes to quad bike safety.

For those readers who like statistics, Cropp writes that

“The annual ACC [Accident Compensation Corporation] bill for quad bike-related injuries is around $7 million, and Hobbs’ claim was among 2533 in 2009, a sizeable increase on the 457 new claims accepted in 2000.” [link added] Continue reading “Quad bike safety issues continue with no end in sight”

How much significant information do workplace fatalities provide?

Workplace fatalities are terrible, lingering tragedies that generally don’t teach anything new about OHS failures. I couldn’t find anything new in the frightening detail in the article below (dated 14^th December 2010) or in scores of Google searches of industrial/occupational fatalities; though disease fatality epidemiology can be informative.

If all workplace fatalities in Australia were stopped overnight, most workers wouldn’t notice a single improvement in their own workplace. They’d still be working in the same cluster of hazards, useless risk assessments and a regular sprinkling of near misses and daily shortcuts. Despite regulators’ and politicians’ shrieks of dismay at workplace deaths, such fatalities don’t represent the main OHS problem at work.

If any regulator was informed in advance – in some detail – that in a particular industry there would be three fatalities in the next three months (or even intolerable risk) they wouldn’t know how to prevent them. Example? Think of the insulation program, which still has some way to go and a few more surprises in store. Example? Over the next six months there are likely to be 3-6 quad bike-related fatalities in Australia, mostly as a result of rollovers.

Or think of the value of risk assessments: example? Consider the 60,000-80,000 barrels (10,000 tons) of the most dangerous hexachlorobenzene (HCB) waste stockpiled and being repackaged (ultimately, drum to drum) by workers in a primitive work process at Botany Bay Industrial Park, Sydney. One of the world’s largest stockpiles of such dangerous wastes that no one around the world is prepared to handle. This is the only place I’ve ever had to wear two layers of protection to inspect. What has the regulator done? Continue reading “How much significant information do workplace fatalities provide?”

WorkSafe tries new twist on OHS ads

On 2 January 2011, WorkSafe Victoria launched a new advertisement that presents a new twist on their “homecoming” campaign. It focuses on the “door knock” – a process many police dread where they must inform the family of the death of a relative.

The ad is a fresh and new dimension on the long-running OHS awareness campaign and is welcome. Continue reading “WorkSafe tries new twist on OHS ads”

Conkers and risk assessments

In September 2007, UK’s Health & Safety Executive produced a safety poster on the myth of students wearing safety goggles while playing conkers. HSE did not demystify the issue by examining the origin of the myth and only chose to debunk the myth.

The February 2011 edition of the Fortean Times provides a little more detail on the origin of the myth in its “mythconceptions” column. It reports on primary school teacher, Shaun Halfpenny’s, claim about starting the myth. Continue reading “Conkers and risk assessments”

The Social Media is the Message

Melody Kemp in Vientiane writes:

The apoplectic brouhaha that greeted Wikileaks in the past few months has shown us the power of the internet to upstage, discomfit and enrage. Governments like corporations operate under a variety of ‘commercial-in-confidence’ scores, the cadence of which changes with the degree of self interest at hand. That Wikileaks has been disclosing documents for years is of no consequence to our reactionary leaders. Just as labour groups and activists, long been warning industry about workplace hazards, have been greeted with similarly leaden ears.

Earlier this year, a delegation of international labour activists and trade union leaders visited Laos. While being taken around various work sites by Lao trade union and government officials, they were horrified to find bags of asbestos labeled Produced In China in one roofing tile fabrication shop. They should not have been surprised. The nominal communist bloc states of Asia have close trade, military and strategic ties. In that bloc the proletariat has little status and, like mushrooms, are generally kept in the dark.

One of Lao’s four Vice Presidents is known to foster and enjoy close and at times unseemly business relationships with Yunnan, Continue reading “The Social Media is the Message”

Mental health initiative needs broader remit

One of the fastest growing areas of occupational health and safety is psychological wellbeing. This goes under many different titles, brands and trademarks but mental health seems to be the dominant term at the moment. On 22 December 2010, the Australian Government faced the reality of the issue and created a mental health working group that includes many of the government’s harshest critics, including 2010 Australian of the Year, Professor Paddy McGorry.

This is a positive initiative but as with much of the recent criticism of mental health, workplace mental health often draws the short straw. There is a belief that social policies flow to the workplace but we know that this is not the reality. If it was, OHS laws would not have been required, as social morality would have ensured that workers were safe without governmental intervention. Continue reading “Mental health initiative needs broader remit”

Category: government

Rainbow windmill deaths continue to affect the local community

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Quad bike safety issues continue with no end in sight

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How much significant information do workplace fatalities provide?

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WorkSafe tries new twist on OHS ads

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Conkers and risk assessments

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The Social Media is the Message

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Mental health initiative needs broader remit

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