SafetyNet JOURNAL
SafetyNet Journal 139
Issue 139 - SafetyNet Journal 139
Welcome to SafetyNet Journal 139, your source for the latest information on OHS from Australia andaround the world.Union News
Research
WorkSafe News
Worksafe Prosecutions
International News
Events
Union News
Activities & news for reps
ABC breast cancer study goes nationwide
The ABC has announced a national epidemiological study into the incidence of breast cancer in women working at the ABC's studios between Jan 1, 1994 and July 31, 2007. The move comes following confirmation of a 17th case of breast cancer linked to the broadcaster’s former Toowong studios in Brisbane.
The NSW Cancer Council will conduct the nationwide study. The ABC-funded study will determine whether there is an "excess risk" of breast cancer in women working at the national broadcaster. The aim of the study is to determine whether the cancer cluster is isolated to Toowong or whether there are wider systemic factors at work.
Read more about the study
;
Zero Occupational Cancer Campaign
Cancer probe for fire fighters
The high rate of cancer in firefighters will be the subject of a study ordered by the Queensland Government which may go national.
A report into cancer cases at the Atherton Fire Station prompted the move. The study found the rate of brain cancer among firefighters at the station ranged from 21 to 62 times higher than the rest of the State.
The report recommended that a full epidemiological study of brain cancer incidence in the State’s firefighters should be conducted. Queensland Health will begin the cancer survey in the next few weeks, and it is expected Monash University will begin a national study in 2009.
QLD Government report [
pdf
]
ACTU parental leave campaign
The ACTU has launched a website allowing ordinary people to make a submission to the Government’s Productivity Commission inquiry into paid maternity leave. Australia and the US are the only OECD countries that have no provision for paid maternity leave.
The ACTU supports a national system of proposes a national system of 14 weeks paid maternity leave at full income replacement. In this model, the Federal Government would fund a maternity leave scheme of at least 14 weeks, paid at federal minimum wage rates plus 9% superannuation for all women including those who don't work. Employers would contribute a top-up payment to fully replace the income of working women who earn more than the minimum wage.
The Productivity Commission is accepting submissions until 2 June.
Support the
ACTU campaign here
; Read more on the
Productivity Commission Inquiry
Agent exposures at work linked to asthma
Thousands of asthma cases each year in Australia are caused by workplace exposures to agents such as paint fumes, wood dust, solvents, latex and baking flour says a new Australian Institute of Health and Welfare report.
The report, Occupational Asthma in Australia [pdf], says anywhere from 9% to 15 % of adult-onset asthma, as many as 3000 new cases every year, are caused by exposure at work. The report is based on research from Australia and overseas.
There are between 300 and 400 potential causal agents of occupational asthma including isocyanates (the raw materials used in polyurethane products), coffee bean dust, formaldehyde and solder flux. Manufacturing and health/community services tend to be the industries with the workplaces of highest risk.
The report says occupations with the greatest risk for occupational asthma include farming, painting, cleaning, baking, animal handling and chemical work. Other at-risk occupations include nursing, welding, food processing, dentistry, timber and forestry industries, and industries that produce metals, plastics, electronics, rubber and textiles.
Occupational asthma is largely preventable through actions that avoid or reduce exposure to workplace sensitisers and irritants. The report calls for the gathering of more systematic data on the causes, prevalence, incidence and impact of occupational asthma in Australia.
Australian Institute of Health and Welfare 2008. Occupational asthma in Australia. Bulletin no. 59.
OHS Reps
Asthma Action Plan for Reps
; OHS Reps page on
Asthma
Ask Renata
The aisles and exit doors are constantly blocked at my work. What are the rules and what can be done when management won’t act on unsafe work practices?
Aisles and exits must be kept clear and should not be blocked. It's about safety both at the workplace and in the event of emergencies. Aisles in factories, warehouses, depots and similar premises should be suitably marked and management must ensure that emergency exits are adequate at all times.
Once a rep has raised an issue and has asked for the employer to take action, then the rep has a number of options:
- issuing a PIN;
- seeking the advice of any person (such as the union);
- or call WorkSafe to arrange for an inspector.
OHS Reps on
Fire escapes
; OHS Reps on
A PIN – how to use it
Do you have an OHS question? Click here:
Ask Renata
Asbestos news
Plumbers union says WorkSafe ignoring concerns
The Plumbing Trades Employees Union says WorkSafe has ignored union concerns over the raft of recent legislative and regulatory changes in Victoria and highlight changes that would remove asbestos dust and debris from the definition of friable under the new ‘Asbestos Removal in Workplaces’.
The PTEU says the move could open the way for a huge increase in the unlicensed removal of the most hazardous form of the deadly material and have vowed to campaign against the changes.
The union is also highlighting concerns about the number of visits by the WorkSafe Inspectorate which dropped significantly in 2007. They cite an increase in claims in the construction and utilities industries as reason to be worried. Construction has recorded a 6.3% increase while the utilities industry has seen a 15.6% increase compared to 2006/07 figures.
Plumbing Union News;
PTEU website
International Union news
South Africa’s deadly price of gold
South Africa’s deadly mining industry is failing to address its appalling safety record, with at least 14 miners killed in the past few weeks. On 1 May nine workers were killed at South Deep Mine near Randfontein.
Global mining unions' federation ICEM said the nine were killed in an 'inexcusable safety breach that saw a chain attached to an elevator cage snap, causing death when the cage plummeted 60 metres inside a mine shaft.' Two days earlier, on 29 April, three miners were killed and one seriously injured in a rock fall, this time inside another shaft of the South Deep complex. On the same day, a driller's assistant was killed in a rock slide at the Twin Shafts mine.
South Africa's second largest gold producer was forced to suspend mining operations in the country by the Department of Energy and Minerals in order to secure a full review of safety procedures. However mining union NUM complained that management was putting pressure on workers to make an early return to work.
ICEM news release
Risks 355
Research
Workers suffer lung damage after exposure to vermiculite
Researchers in the US have found that workers who were exposed to the mineral vermiculite 25 years ago show a prevalence of lung damage, including scarring and thickening of the membrane that lines the chest wall.
The study tracked the ongoing health of workers at a plant in Montana. It began in 1980, when researchers examined 513 individuals who worked in a plant processing vermiculite. The material these workers handled would meet current legal levels of exposure.
A recent follow-up study examined 280 of the 431 surviving workers from the original group and found that even though the plant has not used the asbestos-like material in 25 years, many of these workers are affected by lung damage. Lead researcher Dr. James Lockey of the University of Cincinnati, also the principle investigator of the 1980 study, found that even low levels of exposure to the asbestos-like fibres could cause thickening of the chest wall membrane.
“When humans are exposed to any mineral fibres that are long, thin and durable in human tissue and can reach the pleural membrane, these fibres can cause health problems,” Lockey said. “Six types of asbestos are currently regulated, but other existing types of fibres that share similar characteristics are not.”
The study’s findings appear in the American Thoracic Society’s American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.
Occupational Hazards
Common weed killers cause work cancers
The links between commonly used weed killers and cancer are becoming clearer thanks to two recent studies. A US study suggests that women whose jobs regularly expose them to weed killers may have a higher-than-normal risk of a particular form of brain cancer.
Researchers reported that among more than 1,400 US adults with and without brain cancer, women who had ever been exposed to herbicides at work had a two-fold higher risk of meningioma than women with no such exposure and showed the risk climbed as the years of exposure increased. Meningiomas are slow-growing tumours in tissue covering the brain and spinal cord. The study was reported in the American Journal of Epidemiology.
In another study, US researchers found that a chemical that comes from the pesticide DDT may raise a man's risk of developing testicular cancer. They found a clear link between testicular cancer and DDE, a breakdown product of DDT. Men with the highest levels of DDE were 70 per cent more likely to have developed testicular cancer than those with the lowest levels, according to the study published in May in the
Journal of the National Cancer Institute. The findings suggested about 15 per cent of the testicular cancer cases in the men in the study could be attributed to DDE. DDT is banned but has proved to be highly persistent in the environment.
Claudine M Samanic and others. Occupational exposure to pesticides and risk of adult brain tumors, American Journal of Epidemiology, volume 167, pages 976-985, 2008 [
abstract
].
Katherine A McGlynn and others. Persistent organochlorine pesticides and risk of testicular germ cell tumors, Journal of the National Cancer Institute, volume 100, pages 663-671, 2008 [
abstract
].
OHS Reps
Zero Occupational Cancer Campaign
; Global Unions
zero cancer campaign
.
Risks 355
WorkSafe News
Electric shock sparks safety call
WorkSafe is investigating an incident in which a young worker suffered an electric shock at South Yarra on 5 May. The 22-year-old man was using a hammer drill to prepare a footpath for a concrete pour.
WorkSafe said the drill struck an 11,000 volt cable embedded in the concrete.
The ambulance service said the injured man was given first aid by co-workers and was taken to the Alfred Hospital in a stable condition with serious burns to his hands and flash burns to his face.
WorkSafe media release
Pit worker breaks leg
WorkSafe warned against working in close proximity to mobile plant after a worker’s leg was broken at Narre Warren on 13 May. WorkSafe investigators understand the man was carrying out maintenance work at the bottom of a three-metre deep pit when he was struck by the bucket of an excavator.
The pit was part of stormwater management infrastructure and may have been improperly supported, slowing the attendance of paramedics to the injured man. It took several hours to rescue the injured man because of safety concerns.
WorkSafe media release
WorkSafe’s annual roadshow gearing up
WorkSafe will conduct its annual roadshow of metropolitan and regional centres and is inviting employers and workers to attend community briefings in late May and June. Specialists from WorkSafe’s workplace health and safety, premium and return to work teams are running 17 briefings covering a range of topics.
These include:
- Making your workplace safer: Check your understanding of safety basics, find out where to get information on health and safety and learn about new WorkSafe projects.
- Innovative return to work initiatives: Learn about new ways you can meet your obligations to help injured workers get back to work as soon as possible.
- Your WorkSafe premium for 2008/09: Find out how your WorkSafe Injury Insurance premium will be assessed in 2008/09, and the important link between better safety, effective return to work practices and the amount you pay.
To book go to www.seminar.worksafe.vic.gov.au or call the WorkSafe Advisory Service on 9641 1444 or 1800 136 089 (toll free). WorkSafe media release
Other Workcover news
NSW, Tas and Qld launch 2008 safety awards
The NSW, Tasmanian and Qld WorkCover Authorities are inviting submissions to their state's safety awards. Entries for the 2008 NSW WorkCover SafeWork awards close on July 11. The awards ceremony will be held on Oct 29.
Tasmania's WorkCover Safety Awards will close on July 4, with an award ceremony on October 18. Queensland’s Work Safe Awards closes on July 31.
Worksafe Prosecutions
Interstate Workcover prosecutions
Charges laid over fatal Gladstone explosion
SafeWork SA has charged a company whose munitions factory exploded in Gladstone two years ago, killing three workers and injuring two. The explosion happened at Beetaloo Valley at the Quin Investments explosives factory in May 2006.
Court documents allege that Quin Investments failed to provide and maintain a safe working environment and failed to provide and maintain its plant (machinery) in a safe condition.
If convicted the company faces a maximum penalty of $100,000 for each offence, because the incident occurred before SA’s increased penalties came into effect this year. The first hearing on these charges is likely to be heard in June.
SafeWork SA media release [
pdf
]
International News
Iraqi journo killings highlight peril
The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has warned that the killing of a freelance reporter in a 4 May kidnap attempt reveals that the situation for media workers in Iraq remains as perilous as ever. Sarwa Abdul-Wahab, a lawyer who defended journalists and also worked as a reporter for a Kurdistan News Agency, was killed in Mosul in the north of Iraq when she resisted attempts by gunmen to bundle her into a car.
The killing follows the assassination of a radio journalist on 25 April in the southern city of Basra and last weekend's attack on Hiro Ibrahim Ahmed, wife of Iraqi president Jalal Talabani, who is also a journalist. 'These brutal killings illustrate that talk of an easing security crisis in Iraq is misplaced optimism,' said Aidan White, IFJ general secretary. 'Journalism is as dangerous as ever, with targeted murders of reporters on the increase.' The IFJ says that its affiliate in Iraq, the Iraqi Union of Journalists, has counted more than 270 killings of journalists and media staff in Iraq since the invasion of the country in 2003. 'As long as political divisions and lawlessness persist journalists will be in the firing line,' said White. 'We need to see more action from the Iraqi authorities to find the killers and to protect journalists while they are working in the field.'
IFJ news release
USA: Dust law pending - but in meantime workers die
US legislators have taken the first steps towards a law to protect workers from dust explosions. The measure comes after decades of inaction, hundreds of factory explosions and a shocking death toll. The House of Representatives voted 247 to 165 on 30 April to approve the Worker Protection Against Combustible Dust Explosion and Fires Act. The law now heads to the Senate for final approval.
It requires the official safety watchdog OSHA to issue an interim final combustible dust standard within 90 days and a final standard within 18 months. The law comes in the wake of a February sugar dust explosion at the Imperial Sugar Company refinery in Georgia, which killed nine workers and injured many more.
US safety blog, The Pump Handle, says the legislation wouldn't be necessary if OSHA were doing its job. It cites the Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB), which reports there were 281 combustible dust incidents between 1980 and 2005 which killed 119 workers and injured 718. According to The Pump Handle in 2006 the CSB recommended that OSHA issue a new national regulatory standard designed to prevent combustible dust fires and explosions in general industry. OSHA failed to act and since this time there have been 67 combustible dust explosions that injured 75 workers and killed 14.
The Pump Handle
. US House of Representatives Committee on Education and Labor
Risks 355
Events
Training at VTHC
The OHS Training Unit has a range of courses coming up in 2008. Check out the training page of the website for all the latest news and sign up for courses.Contact Judith Rodda on 03 9663 5460 for more information on scheduled courses or what we can do for your workplace, and to enrol.
Initial 5-Day Metropolitan (for Elected OHS Reps under the Victorian OHS Act - this course is approved by the VWA under Section 67)
June 2 – 6 Initial Carlton
June 11, 12, 13, 26, 27 Health Services Carlton
June 16 – 20 Initial Frankston
July 14 – 18 Initial Carlton
July 21 – 25 DEECD Carlton
Course hours: 9am - 5pm. Course fee $620.00
Initial 5-Day Country
July 7 – 11 Initial Shepparton
Course hours: 9am - 5pm. Course fee $650.00
Comcare 5-Day OHS Reps Course (for Elected OHS Reps under the Comcare Act)
June 16 – 20 Carlton
Course hours: 9am - 5pm. Course fee $650.00
2-Day Metropolitan
This 2-day course is an overview designed for managers, supervisors and committee members. It is NOT a replacement for the VWA approved 5-day training for elected reps.
July 24, 25 Carlton
Course hours: 9.30am - 4.30pm. Course fee $350.00
1-Day Refresher
The Refresher course is approved by the VWA under Section 67 of the Victorian OHS Act 2004 for elected reps and deputies.
June 5 Legislative Update Carlton
Course hours: 9am - 4.30pm. Course fee $180.00
Go to the 2008 Training program page to download an application form.
Return to Work Unit Training
The VTHC Return to Work Unit challenges the barriers that stop injured workers returning to full and meaningful employment. The RTW Unit provides free training to workers and their representatives and includes practical tools, information and advice about injured workers’ rights to return to work.
Call the RTW Unit for information (03) 9662 3511 or go to the website for more information .