New survey data on business attitudes to safety was revealed at the Safety In Action Conference on 20 April 2010. The data was released jointly by the Australian Institute of Management and the Safety Institute of Australia (SIA).
In short there was not much that was new in the survey data but the survey was important for several reasons. Continue reading “New business safety survey released at safety conference”
In Australia, safety management is being progressed most obviously through sociology and the work of Andrew Hopkins. But perhaps it is possible to cut through some of the commercial “safety culture” twaddle by looking at the work of philosophers and the concept of phenomenology. As any modern student seems to do instead of reading the original, look to the movie.
On 20 April 2010, Australian lawyer, Andrew Douglas, channeled The Matrix in trying to challenge the thinking of the audience of OHS professionals at the Safety In Action conference.
In his conference paper, Douglas compared the positive and negative safety cultures to the blue and red pill choice that Morpheus offers Neo. Continue reading “Phenomenology and the safety professional”
Workplace fatality data is an essential ingredient in benchmarking safety performance for business and government. Suicide statistics are equally important in the social and public health context.
The editorial in the current issue of the Medical Journal of Australia has some interesting comments on how suicide statistics have been collected in Australia over the last decade.
“….a great deal of caution must be employed when interpreting trends in suicide in Australia during the past decade, Continue reading “The fragility of evidence – suicide example”
While the New Zealand government is investigating agricultural safety issues, researchers from the University of Otago have looked at the ergonomic issues associated with the loss of control (LOC) of quad bikes by drivers.
According to a University of Otago media release, researchers Dr Stephan Milosavljevic and Dr Allan Carman published a paper in the current edition of Ergonomics. The researchers
“….set out to analyse the driving behaviour of people who regularly use quad bikes, recognising a need to find out why people lose control of them so frequently.
Of the 30 male rural workers and farmers studied, 19 of them, or 63 percent, had experienced loss of control on a quad bike. They were in their mid 40s on average, and about eight to nine years younger and less experienced than those who did not lose control. Continue reading “Ergonomics of quad bikes – new research”
In December 2008 Fortescue Metals Group said it would contest charges it breached OHS laws over the death of two people. In April 2010, it is seeking to avoid the charges.
On March 9 2007, tropical cyclone George hit a camp site in north-west Australia killing two people and injuring others. The temporary accommodation shelters, “dongas”, in which workers were sheltering provided insufficient protection for many workers.
According to one media report on 12 April 2010, the lawyer for FMG, John Karkar,
“…. said his clients’ operations were governed by the Mines Safety Inspections Act because the Pilbara camp was built for the accommodation of mine workers and workers who were building a railway line which was to be used to transport iron ore.” Continue reading “Fortescue Metals contests cyclone deaths”
In 2005, a series of safety posters based on The Simpson TV characters was released in support of the National Safety Council’s Orlando Congress, as reported in SafetyAtWork Bulletin at the time, picture right). The posters have finally reached Australia and will be unveiled at the Safety In Action exhibition on 2 April 2010. They are sure to be popular.
A small selection of Simpsons posters will be available through WorkSafety Solutions, the Australian distributor. Many more have been added through the original US distributor, SafetyWorld since the original launch. Continue reading “Simpsons safety reaches Australia after 5 years and at twice the price”
Australian OHS research has raised some concerns about the “adequacy of personal fall arrest energy absorbers in relation to heavy workers“. In summary:
“The research demonstrates that most energy absorbers are not able to ensure that the two test criteria are not breached during the arrest of a heavy worker in the worst case scenario fall.”
There are many variables in this statement but it means that safety professionals may need to review their fall arrest devices to verify that the safety devices meet the needs of the (increasingly obese) workforce. Continue reading “Can current fall protection systems save fat people?”