Caesarstone Asia Pacific managing director David Cullen told the Australian Financial Review (AFR – paywalled) on October 27, 2023, that: “A full ban on the use of engineered stone would double the cost of benchtops..” So? That seems to be enough of a reason to continue to allow the use of a product that is …
Safe Work Australia has recommended: “a prohibition on the use of all engineered stone, irrespective of crystalline silica content, to protect the health and safety of workers.” So that should be it. No more engineered stone products for use in Australia. Apparently, that decision is difficult to make even though the top occupational health and …
The Housing Industry Association (HIA) is an effective government lobbyist for its members who can be relied on to make a submission to whatever opportunity the governments offer. The HIA does not provide details of membership numbers or names, but it does list its sponsors and partners. Recently HIA made a submission on “the prohibition …
Reading Safe Work Australia’s latest ten-year strategy forced me to think creatively. SWA’s discussion of Persistent Challenges suggests controls that are almost all at the Administrative Control level – education, awareness, knowledge, training, understanding, support, communication and more. This is after admitting that: “Injury and fatality rates have fallen significantly over the last decade. However, progress has slowed.” Page 5 How can …
The calls for banning engineered stone‘s importation are curious and likely to be acted on later this week. Politicians, unions and some OHS associations have undertaken a risk assessment and determined that elimination is the most effective harm prevention strategy. Previous risk assessments of silicosis have been reported on in this blog for some time …
“One of our key roles as the regulator is to understand why workplace injuries happen” – Dr Natassia Goode. Worksafe Victoria, February 9, 2023. Dr Goode made this statement at a research seminar for the Institute for Safety, Compensation and Recovery Research. She went on to explain those “widely acknowledged” causes in an expansive discussion …
The issue of quad bike safety has largely disappeared from the mainstream media. This is largely due to the decline in opposition to installing Crush Protection Devices (CPD) on newly-purchased quad bikes in line with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) mandated safety standards. On November 24 2022, the ACCC released statistics that showed …
