The Wall Street Journal and other media around the world have reported on systemic failures of the global oil industry and government regulators identified by the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling. These articles are based on the release of a single chapter, Chapter 4, of the final report due … Continue reading “Is capitalism anti-safety? Systemic failures in oil industry”
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 14th 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 … Continue reading “How much significant information do workplace fatalities provide?”
The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this blog did in 2010, and here’s a high level summary of its overall blog health: The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads Wow. Crunchy numbers The Louvre Museum has 8.5 million visitors per year. This blog was viewed about 160,000 times in 2010. If it were an exhibit at … Continue reading “2010 in review – SafetyAtWorkBlog”
Australian Professor Andrew Hopkins is currently in the United States advising the Chemical Safety Board in its investigation of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. Several months ago it was rumoured that Hopkins would be part of the Commission of Inquiry, a rumour quickly denied by Hopkins and others. According to a media release from … Continue reading “Australian OHS expert in advisory role on Gulf oil spill”
The Safety Institute of Australia‘s OHS Professional magazine has been out for a couple of editions now and the good news is that it is improving. The sad part is that it remains well-behind other OHS magazines. The latest edition has contributions, finally, from a freelance writer, Liam Tung. Liam is not an OHS professional, … Continue reading “OHS Professional magazine is a mish-mash”
The ramifications for corporate America and particularly, the oil industry, from the Gulf of Mexico oil spill are becoming clearer. In his 15 June 2010, address to the nation, President Obama stated his financial and operational expectations of BP prior to his meeting the company’s CEO, Tony Hayward on 16 June. In essence, BP will be required to fund … Continue reading “Off shore drilling safety will change forever”
The recent release of a new book on Operation Mincemeat has again raised the term “yesmanship” in the media. Online definitions explain the term as “An atmosphere in which people claim to agree with leadership for political reasons, even when they don’t actually agree with leadership” . The significance of the term in relation to the current trend of “safety culture” should … Continue reading “Yesmanship – the biggest threat to safety culture”