Articles
Ensuring switchboards deliver safe electricity
Late last year, Energy Safe Victoria (ESV) issued a ‘Safety Alert’ to warn the community of the importance of installing safety switches in premises and ensuring that all electrical equipment is in good condition and not damaged in any way. It was issued following the death of a man in the state’s east, whose body was found in his garage still clutching a damaged extension-lead socket. He would have been saved if a safety switch had been installed on the power circuit.
[ + ]OHS harmonisation update: model work health and safety Act
As the harmonisation of OHS legislation progresses, Workplace Health and Safety Queensland has issued an update on its progress.
[ + ]Seven lessons to prevent worker deaths during hot-work in and around tanks
Research by the US Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board has identified the need for more effective hazard assessments and use of combustible gas monitoring to save the lives of workers engaged in hot-work.
[ + ]Leadership equity in safety to empower workers
Every organisation wants long-term growth and profit. A company’s long-term success - what the Australian Institute of Management calls ‘corporate endurance’ - recognises the critical necessity of ‘people’ performance. Therefore, a company has a vested interest in looking after the safety and wellbeing of its people. People drive business performance - up or down. People are a company’s key competitive advantage or disadvantage.
[ + ]You can’t manage what you can’t measure
This year has brought with it many interesting challenges: the global financial crisis and, just recently, the outbreak of Swine Flu. In spite of all these things happening, we still have the ongoing challenge to ensure people enjoy that basic human right of being safe at work.
[ + ]Communication is a vital safety tool
Communication has always been considered a vital tool in emergency and first-response situations to ensure the safety of operatives and to enable them to carry out their important functions. The same is true in industrial safety because the common thread between first-response and industrial safety situations is that they are all mission critical.
[ + ]Purchaser demand should influence commercial vehicle safety
Commercial vehicles are the workhorses of Australian industry and therefore the acknowledged ‘workplaces’ of many drivers. These vehicles all carry a very precious cargo - humans. While the safety standards of roads and vehicles in general have improved in recent years, more needs to be done to provide a safer ‘workplace’ for the thousands of workers whose job is ‘on the road’.
[ + ]OHS becomes ‘sexy’ for investors
Occupational health and safety has come a long way in the eyes of company and corporate management. Far from being considered just another cost that takes away from the bottom line - the way many companies may have viewed it in the past - it is now being considered ‘sexy’, especially by investors.
[ + ]Is the Australian glove safety standard AS/NZS 2161 right for you?
There are several issues to consider in the selection of gloves to provide proper hand protection for workers in real-world situations that are not adequately addressed in the AS/NZS 2161 standard.
[ + ]Distributed control provides plug-and-play safety functionality
Distributed processing architectures provide machine builders with more flexibility in meeting clients' operational and safety requirements.
[ + ]Optimising mill safety and reliability
The Finnish-headquartered minerals and metals processing solutions company Outotec has combined high-efficiency hydraulic technology with advanced ultrasonic bolt load testing to optimise the speed and safety of bolting operations in the construction of SAG (semi-autogenous grinding) and ball mills.
[ + ]Scissor lifts for inner-city goods delivery
Optimum Handling Solutions has recently supplied a double scissor lift for a building project in the Sydney CBD that has eliminated the problem of bulk food deliveries to a retail outlet situated on the second level of a commercial building.
[ + ]Pallet-wrapping savings at a large meat processing plant
Palwrap from Optimum Handling Solutions has generated significant pallet-wrapping savings at a large meat processing plant.
[ + ]Senior safety executives' salaries have tumbled
The salaries of Australia’s top safety executives fell by an average $59,000 during the last 12 months, a recent survey reveals.
[ + ]Kirk’s new Enterprise - The High Court reigns in OHS regulators
The implications of the recent High Court ruling in the Kirk case have far-reaching effects on the powers of OHS regulators.
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