health – Page 119 – SafetyAtWorkBlog

Is overwork part of the Australian Government’s project management difficulties?

On the Insiders television program on 21 February 2010, host Barrie Cassidy closed a long interview with the Communications Minister Stephen Conroy but asking about the workload of public servants in supporting government programs. The video is available on-line and the comments are at the 11 minute mark.

Conroy says that the “cracking pace” the Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, established from the start of his government has continues. Rudd continues to expect high performance from his Ministers, staff and public servants. Conroy talks about the change that has been demanded of the public service and that this has generated more workload. He forecasts that the workload may ease if the Government achieves a second term of office.

Cassidy makes the link between the “pushing people too hard” and the failure of Government schemes such as the insulation scheme that was cancelled by the Environment Minister, Peter Garrett on 19 February 2010. Continue reading “Is overwork part of the Australian Government’s project management difficulties?”

Forklift incident leads to amputated foot and $60,000 fine

All workplace incidents result from a combination of actions and circumstances that come together at a specific point in time that can result in injury or damage. WorkSafe Victoria reported on 17 February 2010 about a company that was successfully prosecuted, and fined $A60,000, after a worker had his foot crushed under a forklift. The worker’s foot was later amputated.

Below is a summary of the incident taken from a WorkSafe media release (not yet available online):

“A Kilsyth company was convicted and fined $60,000 on Monday after a forklift driven by a 22-year-old man tipped over, crushing his foot which was later amputated.

The worker was not licensed to drive a forklift – nor was he wearing a seatbelt when the forklift tipped in December 2008. Continue reading “Forklift incident leads to amputated foot and $60,000 fine”

Promising work flexibility and health research doesn’t go anywhere

“A new evidence review* suggests that giving employees more flexibility over their work schedules is likely to boost their health as judged by measures like blood pressure and stress. But interventions that are motivated or dictated by the needs of the employer, such as cutting hours, either have no effect on employee health or make it worse.

“Control at work is good for health,” said review co-author Clare Bambra, a researcher at Durham University, in England. “Given the absence of ill health effects associated with employee-controlled flexibility and the evidence of some positive improvements in some health outcomes,” Bambra said, more flexibility in work schedules “has the potential to promote healthier workplaces and improve work practices.”

The above quote indicates that new evidence may help all of us in assessing the benefits or otherwise of allowing employees to telework, or of readjusting work practices to improve health and safety at work.

BUT

an article issued in support of the research clearly identifies the risks of drawing almost any firm conclusions from the evidence other than that more research is required: Continue reading “Promising work flexibility and health research doesn’t go anywhere”

Biomarkers for musculoskeletal disorders

Slips, trips and falls are often the neglected “bastard son” of occupational health and safety but the can cripple and can, literally cost an arm or a leg.

The traditional approach to control these hazards have been to make the working environment safer by mopping up spilled liquids, for instance, or be using a piece of equipment such as a stepladder, or in the long-term or in the beginning of a project, to design out hazards.

We also know that musculoskeletal disorders (MSD) make occur suddenly, and dramatically and painfully, but one’s body has accumulated weaknesses over time. The UK’s Health & Safety Executive (HSE) has released a research report that indicates a new approach to MSDs or at least a start. Continue reading “Biomarkers for musculoskeletal disorders”

Don’t get sidetracked by depression marketing

Over the last couple of months, SafetyAtWorkBlog has written several articles on the psychosocial workplace hazard of depression, stress and anxiety.

Science Friday is a regular feature of the NPR program, Talk of the Nation in the United States. Last Friday, it focussed on depression. Its speakers talked about how the diagnosis of depression has changed over the decades, sometimes to match the range of depression medications available.

Importantly there is a differentiation between depression and mental health. (Psychosocial disorders doesn’t seem to be a term used outside of OHS) Depression is slowly becoming the collective term for sad, melancholy, unhappy, miserable, anxious………. It is very important for workplace safety professionals to try to pierce the fug of depression marketing so that one is not distracted into the trap of treating workers for a personal problem rather than preventing the hazard through changing organisational attitudes. Continue reading “Don’t get sidetracked by depression marketing”

Okay, I don’t smell but am I safe?

King Gee recently released a range of work clothing that is manufactured using a technique that reduces the wearer’s body odour. A sample was sent to SafetyAtWorkBlog unrequested. For those tradespeople with a body odour issue, the clothing may be a godsend, maybe more so for the people they have to work with. The new clothing has received at least one media mention.

The issue that has stopped me from wearing the sample shirt is that the “odour-killing” properties are due to a process of:

“…. engineering molecules at the nanoscale …[that] transforms the very fibers of the fabric to provide unsurpassed odour elimination.”

Nanotechnology is a recent technology that is being applied widely but without a detailed consideration of the possible health effects to the user, the environment and to those who manufacture nano-materials. Continue reading “Okay, I don’t smell but am I safe?”

Two workplace incidents – zookeeper and jockey

On 1 February 2010 a zookeeper at the Werribee Zoo was pinned for several minutes under a gate weighing around 200 kilograms. The Metropolitan Ambulance Service reported that

“…the woman in her 20s was pinned under a gate weighing more than three hundred kilograms, for approximately three minutes.”

According to Paramedic Brett Parker,

“Thankfully a number of staff were nearby and three men managed to lift the gate off her body. Incredibly when we arrived the woman was upright and talking, but she was in significant pain. Given the potential for spinal injury we gave her pain relief medication before fitting her with a neck brace.” Continue reading “Two workplace incidents – zookeeper and jockey”

Category: health

Is overwork part of the Australian Government’s project management difficulties?

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Forklift incident leads to amputated foot and $60,000 fine

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Promising work flexibility and health research doesn’t go anywhere

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Biomarkers for musculoskeletal disorders

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Don’t get sidetracked by depression marketing

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Okay, I don’t smell but am I safe?

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Two workplace incidents – zookeeper and jockey

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