Occupational Health And Safety Reps. Information, Advice, Support...Speaking Up Together

Issue 156 - SafetyNet Journal 156

Welcome to the New Year and to the first 2009 edition of SafetyNet ! The VTHC OHS Unit and SafetyNet looks forward to a safe and productive 2009.  In this edition:  a reminder about receiving SafetyNet; the lastest news on asbestos, nanotechnology, and more.

Reminder: If you receive SafetyNet at work please ensure that we are added to your email filter’s “safe” or “white” list for spam protection. You may need to speak to your network administrator to do this. The journal is sent from the email address ohsinfo@vthc.org.au. Please ensure this address is added to your “safe senders” list. Recently we have seen an increasing number of rejections for fairly innocuous and legitimate terms. We want to bring you the best quality information and research about OHS but we need your help to do this.

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Union News
Research
WorkSafe News
Worksafe Prosecutions
International News
Events

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Union News

Asbestos news

ADF criticised for exposing personnel to asbestos
Last week asbestos groups across Australia called for a public inquiry into the navy's continued use of asbestos parts on its ships and bases, which they say is endangering the lives of sailors and other Australian Defence Force employees. The import and use of asbestos has been banned in Australia since December 2003, however the ADF gained an exemption from the ban, and an extension when the original timeframe expired. The exemption was granted despite submissions from the ACTU and State OHS authorities. This means that the navy, army, etc continue to use illegal asbestos-contaminated parts, years after they were outlawed.
The Age  Sydney Morning Herald

Too many Tasmanian employers have no idea when it comes to asbestos
A survey conducted by Unions Tasmania at the end of last year has revealed that almost 40% of employers in the island state don’t know if their workplaces contain asbestos and only 51% have an asbestos register or management plan, as required under Tasmanian law.  The peak union council is calling on the State Government to create a central office for asbestos registers and to fund an Asbestos Awareness Week education program each year.

Ask Renata –

What are the guidelines in relation to power cables being kept safe in a computer lab? For example, using something to keep cables together and away from feet etc?
There is nothing specific to computers/work stations/etc in OHS legislation, which is what we term ‘objective based’.  The legislation does not go to this level of detail. However, the OHS Act puts what is termed a ‘general duty of care’ on the employer and the person with management and control of a workplace.

The employer has a duty to provide and maintain so far as reasonably practicable .... a working environment that is safe and without risk to health.  The person who has, to any extent, management or control of a workplace the management or control of the workplace, has a duty to ensure that workplace and the means of entering it or leaving it are safe and without risks to health. More on Employer   and others’  duties. 

In this particular case, this means that the employer must make sure that any risk associated with the computer, including the cables, are eliminated or reduced so far as is reasonably practicable. Some obvious hazards which should be considered include tripping and falling hazards, ‘piggy-backing’ of plugs, etc.  More information and advice on powerboards and double adaptors and also extension cords.

Do you have an OHS-related query? If so, Ask Renata. 

Australia continues to allow use of toxic pesticide

Endosufan, a pesticide that is internationally recognised as highly toxic, will continue to be used widely by Australian horticultural industries, despite New Zealand becoming the most recent country to institute a total ban.  More than 55 countries, including Britain, most other European Union members, and a number of Asian nations including the Philippines, Indonesia and South Korea, have outlawed the use of endosulfan. In October, the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants, to which Australia is a signatory, will consider elevating endosulfan to the final stage of assessment. If passed, this would trigger a global ban. In the meantime, however, Australia’s Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority will not be revisiting its 2005 review of the chemical's use which while imposing some restrictions, allows its continued use, placing Australia in the minority of major economies still using the pesticide, along with the United States, Brazil and India.

Campaigners are angered by the AVPMA’s position, as endosulfan is a known hormone disrupter, capable of being handed down to subsequent generations through the placenta and in breast milk. Studies in rats have shown effects on the kidneys, foetus and liver.
Sydney Morning Herald 

First workplace fatality for 2009

WorkSafe is investigating the death of a worker at a metals product factory in Brooklyn, west of Melbourne on Wednesday morning. The incident is believed to have occurred after the worker was crushed by a 13-tonne metal baling unit when a guide rope holding a part of the unit broke. WorkSafe’s General Manager Eric Windholz said the tragedy reinforces the need for vigilance as Victorian workplaces open their doors, turn on machines or begin building after the Christmas break. “Returning from holidays is the perfect time for employers to revisit the basics of health and safety” he said. “Consult your staff on risks and controls, review safety procedures and ensure that everyone’s mind is back on the job.”  Mr Windholz also said that in the current economic climate Victorian employers should be cautious in making safety a casualty of cost-cutting because it was a false economy which could create human and commercial casualties and serious legal consequences.
WorkSafe Media Release

Nanotechnology news

FoE Australia launches new nano-free sunscreen guide
No-one wants to use sunscreens that may make sun damage worse. Friends of the Earth Australia has released Australia’s first consumer guide to avoiding high risk ‘nanoparticle’ ingredients in sunscreens. Until now, Australians have had no ability to choose to avoid nano-sunscreens. Seventeen of 68 Australian brands surveyed by Friends of the Earth told that their sunscreens are now free of nanotechnology ingredients. The guide can be viewed or download on the FoE nanotechnology website or is available free by calling (03) 9419 8700

As reported in SafetyNet 155, there are growing concerns regarding the safety of sunscreens containing nanoparticles (see the item from The 7.30 Report)

NSW government to appoint Nanotech Advisory Committee
The NSW government has announced that it will appoint a nanotechnology advisory committee to consider recommendations of a recent parliamentary inquiry. NSW Chief Scientist Professor Mary O'Kane has been asked to set up the committee, which will explore a number of the 18 recommendations coming from the inquiry. "This was the first parliamentary inquiry into nanotechnology in Australia and one that looked specifically at both the benefits and potential risks of nano materials," Science minister Jodi McKay said. "It is important we capitalise on this inquiry, and fully explore the viability of nanotechnology in NSW."  NSW will work with a range of groups to ensure safe working and living environments are maintained while researching the technology, the minister said. The Government's response to the inquiry and its recommendations is due at the end of April 2009.

Report derides US nanotech risk strategy
The US government's plans to research the potential health and environmental risks from engineered nanomaterials are woefully inadequate, an expert panel of the National Research Council has said in a highly critical report.  The report, Review of the federal strategy for nanotechnology-related environmental, health and safety research, calls for a significant revamp of the national strategic plan. 'Industry wants to run with it,' said Andrew D Maynard, chief science adviser to the Project on Emerging Nanotechnology at the Woodrow Wilson Institute, who was chair of the panel. But he added, 'one of the big barriers at the moment is understanding how to use it safely.' The panel's vice chair, Martin Philbert, a toxicologist at the University of Michigan, said that assessing the risk of nanomaterials was crucial because the materials would not be accepted if people lacked confidence that they were safe. In its assessment of gaps in existing research, the panel found the plan overstates the degree to which already funded studies are meeting the need for research on health and environmental risks.
* National Research Council news release. Review of the federal strategy for nanotechnology-related environmental, health and safety research
* The Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies news report  Source: Risks 387

Other Union News

Wal-Mart Must Improve Supplier Standards on Hours of Work, says Global Union
The International Textile, Garment and Leather Workers’ Federation (ITGLWF) has asked US retail giant Wal-Mart to amend the provisions of its code of conduct relating to working hours, as well as to address allegations that it is allowing its Indonesian suppliers to work up to 18 hours a week more than the legally permitted maximum. Neil Kearney, General Secretary of the Federation, said, “Wal-Mart’s Standards for Suppliers allow workers employed by its suppliers to work up to 72 hours per week,  or a maximum of 14 hours a day. Fourteen hour work days are abusive. In addition, excessive hours make no sense for the employer as they greatly reduce productivity and diminish quality”.
Media Release

Worker survives 50m fall at Yallourn

A power station worker last week survived a 50-metre fall while cleaning the walls of a boiler at Yallourn in Victoria's Gippsland region. He fell 10 storeys into an ash hopper - luckily the ash at the bottom was not hot because the boiler had not been operating for three days. Apparently the worker released the harness of a rope attached to him to drop down a level but ended falling all the way to the bottom. He was transported to Melbourne’s Alfred Hospital with rope burns and head and chest injuries including a punctured lung. Both WorkSafe and TRUenergy, which operates the Yallourn Power Station, are investigating the incident.
WorkSafe Media Release

Also: Yallourn Mine Batter Failure – Inquiry and Response
Both the Mining Warden Inquiry into Yallourn Mine Batter Failure and the Victorian State Government Response to the Inquiry are now available. The Inquiry into the November 2007 Yallourn Mine collapse/La Trobe River incident was tabled in Parliament in December 2008. Copies of the Inquiry and of the Response are currently available.  Both can be downloaded from the DPI website.

Research

Exposure to lead affects learning and memory

Recent research from the US shows that workers exposed to lead over their working lives have subtle cognitive effects later in life.  According to the study, men with higher cumulative lead exposure had significantly lower cognitive scores, particularly on spatial ability, learning, and memory, and greater cognitive decline.  The exposure had a significant impact on men older than 55 but not on younger men. 'Although the developing brain is known to be especially susceptible to lead toxicity, these findings suggest the aging brain is vulnerable as well,' the researchers said.
 
The study involved workers from a lead battery plant, and a comparison of findings with those of workers at a nearby truck chassis factory where there was no documented exposure to lead or other neurotoxic chemicals.
Association of Cumulative Lead and Neurocognitive Function in an Occupational Cohort [pdf] – Khalil, Morrow, Needleham, Talbot, Wilson & Cauley. Neuropsychology 2009, Volume 23, No 1.

WorkSafe News

Local news

Too many regional deaths in 2008
WorkSafe’s General Manager, Eric Windholz, has urged regional Victorians to take time in the first weeks of the New Year to set and reinforce the safety agenda. The call comes with figures which show regional Victoria has maintained the unenviable position of having more work-related deaths than Melbourne, despite its population being one quarter of the city’s.  
Media Release

Small and medium construction must build safety into the mix
The construction and utilities sector will be a major focus of WorkSafe’s activity in 2009 after it recorded nearly half of the state’s traumatic work-related deaths last year.  There were four deaths in the building construction sector, two deaths in utilities (linesmen) and one each in road works and non-building construction.  The Director of WorkSafe’s Construction and Utilities division, Chris Webb, said too many dangers in the industry’s small and medium sectors were not being addressed.
Media Release

Materials

• From WorkSafe WA: a Guide to testing and tagging portable electrical equipment and residual current devices at workplaces [pdf].
• 2006-2007 Workers compensation data: Updated workers compensation data is now available on the National Online Statistics Interactive (NOSI) service. The data includes fatal/non-fatal, age, gender, occupation, industry, nature of injury/disease, mechanism of injury/disease, bodily location of injury disease and agency of injury/disease.  In addition, the Notified Fatalities Statistical Report 2007-08 has been published on the ASCC website
  

National news

National dangerous goods transport laws
New legal requirements on the transport of dangerous goods commenced nationally on 1 January. Agreed to by Transport Ministers, the changes encompass the 7th edition of the Australian Dangerous Goods Code (ADG7) replacing ADG6. The new edition includes updated requirements in classifying, labelling, packing, and transporting dangerous goods, new documentation requirements, some clarified supply chain responsibilities, changes to eligibility for dangerous goods drivers, and licences issued for five years, instead of three. A transition period to comply with the new requirements now applies until 31 December.
More information from WorkSafe Victoria

States agree on national compliance and enforcement policy
State and Territory safety regulators have agreed on an OHS compliance and enforcement policy [pdf], which aims to ensure consistent and effective enforcement, ensure compliance with the law and maintain community confidence that the laws are being administered ‘fairly and consistently’ across the country.  It is interim, pending the development and implementation of model national OHS laws.

National campaign to reduce manual task injuries
Workplace safety authorities across Australia announced in December that they will cooperate to reduce manual handling injuries in the retail, wholesale, transport and storage industries. The Heads of Workplace Safety Authorities (HWSA) Chair, John Watson, said the national campaign aims to reduce injury rates that result from manual tasks such as loading and unloading vehicles.  “Injuries from manual tasks and moving objects are quite significant in the retail, wholesale, transport and storage industries and impose a considerable financial burden on industry. “By identifying why manual handling injuries in this industry are significant, employers can develop ways to reduce their incidence, and this can ultimately assist in reducing workers’ compensation claims costs to these businesses,” he said. The 18-month campaign involves a soon to be rolled out education program including advisory workshops and site visits to businesses in the road freight industry to assist employers increase their capability to lower safety risks. Workplace audits will follow the education campaign in late 2009 with the overall results expected to be released in the first quarter of 2010.

Useful Materials

From WorkSafe Victoria Health and Safety Solutions  

• Pallets - Handling items above shoulder height
  
• All-terrain vehicles (ATVs) - Attachments, loads and towing
  
• Preventing electrical shock from power tools and electrical leads 
  

From the Australian Bureau of Statistics: A Picture of the Nation: the Statistician's Report on the 2006 Census, 2006  The report has information on a wide range of topics, from Cultural diversity and Housing to Work (participation rates, types of employment, hours of work, skills, etc).

Worksafe Prosecutions

Company and director fined for multiple breaches

Permanent Er*ction Constructions (PEC), a building company specialising in renovation and extension construction work, commenced a building project in Apollo Bay in May 2006.  

On 16 June 2006, a partially constructed floor on a new second story collapsed, resulting in the death of one of PEC’s employees and causing injury to another. Attending WorkSafe inspectors believed there was a risk of further collapse, and issued a prohibition notice.  An inspector visiting on July 3 found the work had recommenced without the notice having been rescinded. He also found two scaffolds that did not comply with the Australian Standard.  The company pleaded not guilty to three charges under the Act, including failure to comply with a Prohibition Notice, but was found guilty on two and fined a total of $70,000 plus costs.

Two of the directors of the company were charged in relation to this incident breaches: John Leorke was found guilty on two charges and fined, without conviction $20k plus $8k in costs; David Ian Spedding was found guilty on one charge and fined $15k plus $5k in costs, also without conviction.

Before 7am on 16 August 2006, a very windy day, an incomplete wall PEC was constructing collapsed onto the adjoining premises (the Apollo Bay Seafood Cafe – luckily empty at the time). The company was charged and pleaded guilty to failing to provide and maintain plant and safe systems of work and failing to provide information instruction and training. It was fined a total of $100,000. John Leorke, who was the supervisor on the job at the time, was charged and fined $10,000 without conviction over this incident.

Company fined for failing to comply with multiple Improvement Notices

WorkSafe has prosecuted and fined a Coolaroo company S K M Recycling P/L for failing to comply with multiple Improvement Notices.  The first, dealing with waste trucks,  was issued in September 2005. The second was issued in December 2005 following an incident which resulted in the injury of a worker. After pleading guilty, the company was fined $20k for the first and $25K for the second – in both cases without conviction.

International News

Global: A bloody year for the news media

More than 100 journalists and media support workers died covering the news in 2008, according to an analysis by the International News Safety Institute (INSI). There were 109 casualties in 36 countries; the great majority were murdered apparently because of their work. An additional four deaths are still under investigation. At least 1,375 news personnel have died trying to gather the news in the 12 years since 1996, the start date for INSI's 'Killing the Messenger' tracker for global media casualties. And 2009 has got off to a grim start with three deaths in the first four days, two in a suicide bombing in Pakistan and one gunned down in Somalia. The figure for 2008, cross-checked with data gathered by the International Federation of Journalists, was significantly down from the 172 counted in 2007, a record year. This was due mainly to a major fall in deaths in Iraq, from 65 to 16, the result of a general reduction in violence there. A total of 252 news personnel, most of them Iraqi, have now died covering that conflict since the US-led invasion of 2003. 'Journalists in far too many countries continue to be targeted for murder because of what they do,' said INSI director Rodney Pinder. 'We call on all nations, in war and peace, to observe in letter and in spirit UN Security Council Resolution 1738 of 2006 on the safety of journalists and on ending impunity for those who kill them.'  
INSI news release

USA: Worker advocates issue safety wish list
Worker health and safety advocates in the US have published a wish list of seven key priorities for the incoming Obama administration. 'Protecting workers on the job - Priorities for Federal action in 2009', released by the National Council on Occupational Safety and Health and the American Public Health Association's occupational health and safety section, sets out to reverse the erosion of the worker safety protections that has put the nation's workers at a heightened risk of injury, illness and death, the groups say. 'Over the past eight years, federal job safety agencies have failed to fulfil their promise to protect workers' health and safety on the job,' said Tolle Graham, the National COSH president. 'Workers continue to be killed and injured on the job at appallingly high rates, yet federal OSHA refuses to issue new protective standards or adequately enforce existing safety and health rules. Acts of gross negligence or criminal behaviour leading to workplace deaths result in minor fines. And millions of public safety employees - the very workers that protect us all from natural or deliberate disasters -are outside the jurisdiction of federal OSHA entirely.' OSHA is the USA's national health and safety watchdog. The platform calls for an extension of worker protections, comprehensive OSHA coverage for all workers and penalties on safety offenders that offer a real deterrent. Celeste Monforton, the chair of the APHA occupational health section, said: 'We're very encouraged to know that the Vice President will be leading a taskforce examining this very issue, and we'd welcome participating in that process.'
APHA news release. National COSH news release. The Pump Handle. Protecting workers on the job - Priorities for Federal action in 2009

Events

Training at VTHC

It's time to think about enrolling in courses now that the new year has begun.
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)
February 2 – 6 Education (Carlton)
February 2 – 6 Initial Werribee
February 9 – 13 Initial Carlton
Course hours: 9am - 5pm.  Course fee $670.00
Initial 5-Day Country
March 2 – 6  Initial Morwell
March 16 – 20 Initial Ballarat
March 16 – 20 Initial Geelong
March 16 – 20 Initial Bendigo
Course hours: 9am - 5pm.  Course fee  $690.00
Comcare 5-Day OHS Reps Course (for Elected OHS Reps under the Comcare Act)
February 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.
March 26 and 27 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.
January 29 Health Services Legislative Update Carlton
February 26 Legislative Update Carlton
February 27 Psychological Hazards Carlton
Course hours: 9am - 4.30pm.  Course fee $180.00
Go to the 2008 Training program page of the website for all the dates of upcoming courses, and to download an application form.

VTHC Return to Work Unit
The Return to Work Unit has just released its timetable for training courses it will be offering FREE in 2009.  This will shortly be up on the OHS Reps website.  Contact Therese Carty at the RTW Unit on 9659 3511 or email her at tcarty@vthc.org.au for more information. The courses planned for January and February are as follows:

One day (9.30am - 4.30pm)	4 Hour Session (9am - 1pm)
Thursday January 22	Wednesday, January 28
Tuesday, February 3	Thursday, February 12
Wednesday, February 18	Tuesday, February24

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