After writing a recent article about the relevance of occupational health and safety (OHS) laws to sporting clubs, I attended a sports medicine seminar to access a different perspective on workplace safety. Having never played sports outside the obligatory high school activities, which in my high school also included snooker?!, the world of locker rooms …
Workplace safety is rarely simple or easy. It has become a standard recommendation in Australia recently for quad bike riders to wear helmets. Quad bike manufacturers recommend the wearing of helmets and some OHS regulators are making it mandatory but this should not be the end of the safety discussion. The Weekly Times newspaper on … Continue reading “Helmet debate misses the point of safe design”
On 29 October 2009, WorkSafe Victoria held its WorkSafe Awards event at the Palladium Room at Melbourne’s Crown Casino. SafetyAtWorkBlog attended as a guest. All the winners were deserved and there are short profiles of some of the winners below. The first award was for the Health & Safety Representative of the Year, won by Phyl Hilton. Hilton … Continue reading “WorkSafe Victoria Awards winners”
Occupational health and safety (OHS) has always dealt with death. Many of the most significant legislative and operational changes have resulted from one or more work-related deaths. The horror and tragedy of each death cause us to redouble our efforts to prevent untimely death. The reality of occupational deaths and the quest to prevent death …
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 … Continue reading “Two workplace incidents – zookeeper and jockey”
Last Friday the Australian Jockeys Association issued a media release in support of their safety campaign for increased compensation. The campaign was surprising on a number of points. The safety campaign is aimed to “help jockeys manage the risks inherent in their work”. Over the last few years there has been a marked increase in … Continue reading “When a safety campaign is not a safety campaign”
