Slips, trips and falls are often the neglected “bastard son” of occupational health and safety but the can cripple and can, literally cost an arm or a leg. The traditional approach to control these hazards have been to make the working environment safer by mopping up spilled liquids, for instance, or be using a piece … Continue reading “Biomarkers for musculoskeletal disorders”
One of the occupations with the clearest need for personal protective equipment (PPE) is that of a firefighter. There are few other industries where PPE has such a high priority in workplace safety but sometimes PPE can still be forgotten. A report on ABC radio and online in Australia on 11 January 2010 shows that … Continue reading “PPE can be a lazy OHS solution”
What would you do if a work colleague strips, screams, acts “like a child having a tantrum”, starts to sing and then jumps out of a window to her death? That is the situation that was faced by staff at the Sydney office of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians in December 2005. Only days … Continue reading “Self development course contributes to a workplace suicide”
Australia has many safety awards programs. SafetyAtWorkBlog has reported on some of the practical solutions from the awards and lamented how the prominence of such solutions fades quickly as the mainstream media ignores them. The blog has also shown examples of a hard copy solutions database that existed in Victoria and Australia for a couple of decades. The … Continue reading “A good book of safety solutions case studies”
In Australia there is increasing pressure to work more hours than what one is paid for. Many different organisations use this fact to push for various improved benefits, in many circumstances the statistics are used in support of wage improvements. But working beyond contracted hours will certainly affect one’s work/life balance as there are only … Continue reading “Unpaid overtime is the new danger money”
Yesterday Associate Professor Tony LaMontagne spoke at the monthly networking meeting of the Central Safety Group in Australia. His presentation was based around his research into job stress and its relationship with mental health. LaMontagne was talking about the dominant position in personnel management where negative thoughts generate a negative working environment, one of stress, dissatisfaction and lower productivity. SafetyAtWorkBlog … Continue reading “Behavioural-based safety put into context”
As one gets older, the “where are they now?” columns in the newspapers or the summer magazine supplements become more interesting. The articles of faded pop stars and political one-time wonders are diverting but every so often one makes you stop and think. OHS is not renowned for “where are they nows?”. The discipline and the profession has few celebrities but there are … Continue reading “The personal cost of surviving a major hazard explosion”