April Updates
Axento Safety provides you with health and safety, expert witness and risk management solutions to enhance your business success.
In addition to incident investigations and expert witness services, Axento Safety focuses on helping to create safe, healthy, innovative AND PRODUCTIVE workplaces. Axento Safety partner with you to take the pain out of health and safety. We can assist with safety management systems, reducing the paperwork, achieving certifications, enabling increased compliance, enabling productivity improvement and achieving this cost effectively. Contact Jon Temby to grow your business and to make your life easier.
Protect your hearing – Chemicals can damage hearing
Apparently some chemicals can damage your hearing. These are called ototoxic chemicals. Many workers are also at risk of hearing damage from noise exposure. For an ototoxic chemical to affect the hearing system, it first has to enter the bloodstream, either by being inhaled, swallowed or absorbed through the skin. The chemical then circulates to the blood vessels supplying the inner ear and damages the cells. See WorkSafe. (2014). Ototoxic chemicals – chemicals that result in hearing loss. If Noise is a potential problem as well, see Safe Work Australia’s. (2011). Code of Practice – Managing noise and preventing hearing loss at work and guidance from the state regulators.
Jons Comments: Most of us think of noise (and aging) as the primary cause of hearing loss. The use of/or exposure to solvents, lead, styrene and carbon monoxide (among others) can also damage our hearing. If your workers are in a noisy environment and use these chemicals, even greater efforts will be required to protect them from hearing loss and the associated Workers Compensation claims. A good poster to help you to raise employee awareness is available here: Protect your hearing – Chemicals can damage hearing
Chain of Responsibility reforms to align with OHS laws
Reform of Australia’s Chain of Responsibility (CoR) regime under the Heavy Vehicle National Law looks likely to occur, according to an expert in the area. Read more…
Jons comments: The potential alignment of CoR responsibilities with national health and safety legislation has the potential to eliminate the current conflicts and allow organisations the flexibility to use many of their health and safety processes to meet these obligations. It would also provide greater ability to tailor their CoR procedures to their specific needs as occurs under health and safety legislation. These would be very worthwhile reforms. The challenge for some organisations will be moving to an integrated management system rather than a compliance based CoR system and a performance based Health and Safety system.
Mental disorder workers’ comp claims – higher for women
The workers’ compensation claim rate for mental disorders is 2.3 times higher among female employees than their male counterparts, according to Safe Work Australia . Read more…
Jons Comments: This is not related to gender so much as the occupations that have above average mental health disorder claim rates. This includes many of the occupations involving significant interactions with other people including the public as well as jobs that are done in challenging environments. These occupations include teachers, carers and their assistants, nurses, the defence forces, police and firefighters among others. The article states that “While female employees have a higher rate of workers’ compensation claims for mental disorders, women are less likely than men to experience a fatal or serious injury at work.”
Significant Incident Report – Traffic management failure
The Department of Mines and Petroleum has released a Significant Incident Report relating to mobile plant interaction results in crush injuries. Read more…
Jons Comment: If you use any powered mobile plant such as forklifts, trucks, tractors, vans, tugs etc this incident should be read. The causes of this specific incident can occur in any workplace, it just happened that this one occurred in an underground mine. If you use powered mobile plant, you need a Traffic Management Plan and you need to ensure that it is implemented at all times. People are easily crushed by powered mobile plant: you will be crushed in a different way if one of your workers is badly hurt. Prevention is far better than wishing it hadn’t happened.
Primary producers urged to improve on-farm safety
Identifying and fixing safety risks on-farm isn’t a complex task if primary producers follow a few basic steps, according to Primary Industries Health and Safety Partnership (PIHSP) advisory panel chair Gordon Gregory. Read more…
Jons Comments: Between 1 July 2003 and 30 June 2011, 356 people died while working on a farm –17 per cent of all worker fatalities according to Safe Work Australia. If you need assistance to identify your most significant hazards and want practical advice on how to manage them without going broke, please contact me.
Smoke alarms –are they up to date and working?
Hopefully everyone changed over the batteries on their smoke alarms with the change from Daylight Saving. Some quick tips to keep your smoke alarm in working order are:
- Test smoke alarms once a month. The alarm should produce a loud “beep beep beep beep”sound when you press the test button using a broom handle.
- Use the brush attachment on your vacuum cleaner to dust the smoke alarm every six months.
- Smoke alarms have a ten year life span. Replace all smoke alarms – both battery-powered and hard-wired – every ten years.
- Purchase smoke alarms that meet Australian Standards. Look for the AS3786 marking.
- Help your elderly family, friends and neighbours to make sure their smoke alarm is working.
Waiting until the smoke alarm beeps before you change the battery is too late – this indicates that the batteries are already flat and your family or business is not protected. Click here… for more information on getting the most out of your smoke alarms.
NZ modifies it Health and Safety at Work Act
The article Changes in the Health and Safety at Work Act (HSW Act) by WorkSafe NZ explains a few key points of their modified HSW Act using practical examples.
Jons Comment: This article introduces the basic performance based health and safety concepts in a very simple way as applied to a building site. It is important to recognise that the same approaches are required in all other workplaces as well. Note: the NZ legislation is very similar to ours however it is not identical.
Keeping active at work is necessary for your health
Safe Work Australia CEO Michelle Baxter has called on employers and workers to aim to reduce their time sitting at work following the release of a literature review commissioned by Safe Work Australia to examine excessive sedentary work, its likely consequences and potential control options.
Professor Straker of Curtin University said: “For some jobs there are simple ways to prevent prolonged occupational sitting, such as standing to read a document, having a standing or walking meeting, standing while talking on the phone, or walking to deliver a message to a colleague rather than emailing,” Summary information is available on the Safe Work Australia website here: Safe Work Australia’s literature review on sedentary work and the complete literature review is available on this link: Sedentary Work: Evidence on an Emergent Work Health and Safety Issue.
Jons Comments: This issue can be significant especially for white collar and screen based workers, drivers and others. Too much sitting is bad for us, the report identifies the hazards and suggests options to prevent or manage them. It is worth reading at least the executive summary and the following page, then decide whether to browse through the rest of the report.
Safety Alert: Guards and disks on angle grinders
Workplace Health and Safety Queensland has issued a Safety Alert highlighting the risks associated with removing guards and using incorrect discs on angle grinders. There have been a number of serious incidents involving angle grinders in Queensland, including a fatality one month ago.
Read more…
Jons Comments: The caption at the bottom of this excellent alert should be read carefully: 9” angle grinders are frequently associated with horrific injuries to the user or those nearby from discs disintegrating, jumping, jamming, gyroscopic effects and incorrect/incompatible discs being used –all of these problems are exacerbated if guards are removed or modified. If you can do the job another way or you can use a smaller angle grinder than seriously consider doing so, they are a high risk hand tool.
Safety Alert – high pressure water jet injection injury
Queensland’s Department of Natural Resources and Mines has issued a Safety Alert after an incident in which a worker conducting a pre-start check on a truck-mounted high pressure (28,000 psi) water jet blaster sustained a lower abdominal injury when the water jet blaster hose ruptured. Read more…
Jons Comments: This hazard also applies to any high pressure fluids, whether liquid or gas and is even more hazardous when the material itself is toxic, poisonous, corrosive etc. I understand that high pressure injections of air from a standard cleaning nozzle can lead to heart attacks and strokes, if your injection risks include hydraulic fluid or many other chemicals, medical treatment is even more urgent. If you use high pressure fluids, it is important to verify that the equipment and work-practices are reliable and safe. Read more…
Prosecution summaries (Victoria) updated to March 2016
WorkSafe has updated its list of prosecution summaries Read more…
Jons Comments: This is sobering reading and most of the problems would have been easily avoided. They clearly demonstrate why it is better to focus your attention to preventing incidents from occurring and why good information, instruction, training and supervision of your workers should occur. My Expert Witness work exposes me to this negative side of the health and safety spectrum. I can assure you that not only is good health and safety good for business, but bad health and safety performance is bad for your business and very bad for your psychological as well as financial health as an Officer under the Corporations Act. Please contact me if you are concerned about your health and safety prevention status.