There is a strong campaign to improve the level of professionalism in occupational health and safety in Australia. Several safety-related bodies have achieved this already by being far-sighted and progressive, others have not. Concerns over the inconsistency of health and safety advice spurred WorkSafe Victoria to coordinate the establishment of a Health & Safety Professionals … Continue reading “Should the OHS Profession be Regulated?”
In the Australian Financial Review on 17 February 2009 (page 8 but not accessible online) Steven Scott reports that the Western Australian Treasurer Troy Buswell is in a stoush with the Federal government over OHS laws. They are not. Buswell is quoted as saying “My view is that it’s much more appropriate to make sure … Continue reading “Response to National OHS Law Review”
Several OHS colleagues on an international discussion forum have expressed some opinions on the final report of the Australia’s National Model OHS Law review. Safety Alerts One asked that better and more frequent safety alerts be published by the regulators and that those reports be based on fatalities, injuries and near misses. There is … Continue reading “National OHS Review – initial comments”
At the end of March 2009, the Safety Institute of Australia (Victoria Division) is conducting its annual Safety In Action conference. In order to help promote the conference the SIA organised for several conference speakers to be filmed. The filming occurred in early-February 2009 and the short 10-minutevideos will be available at the Safety In … Continue reading “Upcoming OHS Videos”
There are two reports of concern in the next edition of the journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine. One (Cancer risks in chemical production workers exposed to 2-mercaptobenzothiazole – Online First Occup Environ Med 2009; 10.1136/oem.2008.041400) raises the increasing likelihood that 2-mercaptobenzothiazole, or MBT, could be carcinogenic. The article reports on a study of workers in … Continue reading “New potential carcinogen and occupational asthma”
The Australian Medical Association (AMA) has commented on an article in the Medical Journal of Australia (MJA) entitled “The incidence of race-day jockey falls in Australia, 2002-2006”. The AMA summarises the report’s statistics “Falls occurred at a rate of 0.42% in flat racing and 5.26% in jumps racing. Although most falls occurred pre- or post-race, falls … Continue reading “Evidence of horse racing risks”
WorkSafe Victoria has had considerable advertising success by focusing on the social impact of workplace injuries and death. In the newspapers and television over Christmas 2008, WorkSafe ads, like the billboard above, were on high rotation but, after the high number of workplace fatalities in January 2009, the strategy must be needing a review. In … Continue reading “Safety promotion needs backup”