A group of United Water employees in South Australia has invented a device that could greatly reduce the risks of serious injury for water utility workers around the world.

Before a gathering of 450 of their engineering peers, the Trans-Tasman Siemens Prize for Innovation was awarded to a duo from the University of Auckland on June 6.

Bionic man - or more accurately polymer person - has arrived, thanks to a team from Wollongong University and Sydney's Royal North Shore Hospital.

The NSW Environment Protection Authority (EPA) recently said the results of its year-long dangerous goods blitz across NSW showed the transport industry was making a real effort to comply with environment and safety regulations.

The US Department of Health and Human Services will begin testing a system using handheld personal digital assistants (PDAs) for transmitting urgent information about biological agents to clinicians.

The Materials Engineering Research Laboratory of the United Kingdom has been called in to help with a NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) program to improve helicopter safety and reliability.

Almost one third of Australia's motorists continue to use handheld mobile phones while driving despite acknowledging the practice is dangerous and against the law, according to new research commissioned by Telstra.

A car dealership has been fined $180,000 following the electrocution of a panel beater in its maintenance workshop.

The revamped WorkCover NSW scheme will continue to lose money at least until next year, an independent assessment said recently.

An underground tunnelling system for use in mines, a portable device that records bad driving habits and a new treatment for skin disorders are examples of the innovative Queensland projects to be offered funding in the latest round of the Federal Government's R&D program.

Research at Oregon Health & Science University (OSHU) and the Center for Research on Occupational and Environmental Toxicology (CROET) have shown that a benzene derivative damages the nervous system. In fact, the substance is much more active than non-benzene analogs already known to cause peripheral nerve damage (loss of limb sensation and muscle weakness) in solvent-exposed workers.

Birdstrikes continue to be a problem for aviation worldwide, costing approximately US$3 billion annually. Increasingly, funds are being directed towards research which focuses on bird control and avoidance methods. Two such methods which are proving to be successful are the use of handheld laser devices to scare birds from the airport environment, and the use of the US developed Avian Hazard Advisory System (AHAS), which allows aircraft to avoid high-risk birdstrike areas.

Quick thinking by workmates prevented a Graincorp employee from suffocating when he was sucked into wheat grain during the unloading of a silo at Gilgandra in May 2000.

The number of people diagnosed with deadly asbestos-related diseases has reached epidemic levels and is expected to rise dramatically in the next 30 years, a victims' support group has warned.

Exposure to agricultural chemicals, petroleum products and other substances are leading occupational health and safety concerns on Australian farms.