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OHS and Professor Lin Fritschi
Professor Lin Fritschi is a cancer epidemiologist with a particular interest in occupational causes of cancer. Lin’s work often pops up in the occupational health and safety (OHS) sector and research...
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Hi-viz and safety – it’s all about the context
High visibility clothing has spread from the work site to the public arena and, as such, has complicated the reasons for hi-viz clothing. However the fundamental underpinning of high-viz is to...
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Asbestos – out of sight but not out of mind in Asia
By Melody Kemp Hmong uplander with child. Source: Melody Kemp Asbestos resembles polio. Just when you think it’s beaten, it returns like some ghoul. If you think this is overly dramatic, last year Laos...
View ArticleOHS and murder
In 2014, Glen Turner, an environmental officer with the New South Wales government was murdered will inspecting agricultural properties for illegal land clearing. Turner was shot repeatedly by local...
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Contrasting keynotes at ergonomics conference
It’s Jacaranda season in New South Wales which increases the pleasure of visiting the State for a safety-related conference. It has been over a decade since SafetyAtWorkBlog attended a conference of...
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Solar panel pledge incorporates workplace safety
Victoria’s Premier Daniel Andrews announced a State-supported program to install solar panels on an estimation of 65,00 homes if his Labor Party is re-elected this November. This election campaign...
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Glyphosate presents an OHS problem but maybe OHS is the path to a solution
Occupational health and safety (OHS) related decisions are made on the state of knowledge about hazards and it is up to OHS people to make sure the state of knowledge is at its best so that the best...
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By looking at the silicosis tree, we might miss the forest of dust
Rumours of a TV report on the increasing hazards of silicosis have floated around for a week or so. On October 10 2018, the show appeared on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s 7.30 program....
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Heat
The occupational risks of exposure to excessive heat have usually been assessed in remote locations in Australia, and almost exclusively for outdoor workers. The changing environmental conditions,...
View ArticleNew film provides an update on legal action over the 2014 Hazelwood mine fire
An independently-produced documentary, Our Power, about the Hazelwood mine fire had its Victorian premiere on March 2 2019. The Hazelwood coal mine fire was a major workplace disaster than generated...
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Glyphosate – read the label, assess the risk, take precautions
The debate on the risks of using glyphosate products to control weeds continues to ripple around the world largely sparked by the global penetration of media reports from the United States. It is...
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Agent Orange and Glyphosate
Discussions about the work-related risks of glyphosate exposure have calmed down until the next court case but it is useful to remember that there have been battles in the past about exposure to...
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Can this job be performed in extreme heat?
Parts of Europe are sweltering in extreme Summer temperatures similar to what Australian workers have experienced. A comparison of just temperatures is unreasonable as the European challenge is...
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Comprehensive info on preventing skin cancer risks
Unrelated to the article earlier today about working in extreme heat, last week Australia’s Cancer Council released an occupational health and safety (OHS) guide for working outdoors and to prevent...
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Business Leaders hear about the Vic Government’s OHS achievements, and about...
Cameron Ling and Claire Spencer (top) and Natalie Hutchins (below) October is Australia’s workplace safety month. It operates under different names in different States, but they all started on October...
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Scientific Meeting challenges
There is a difference between a conference and a scientific meeting. The latter, like the current meeting of the Australia and New Zealand Society of Occupational Medicine (ANZSOM), provides evidence....
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Workplace hazards outside the window
Alerts on December 7 2019 I am entering the last of my four week’s work on a construction site in Sydney. In my first week, the city was blanketed with thick smoke from nearby bushfires and all...
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This year’s bushfires should change the management of outdoor work
Sydney, NSW, Australia – November 20th 2019: Smoke over Sydney due to bush fires on edge of city. Fires have been burning for days and have been described as unprecedented. Safe Work Australia (SWA)...
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What employers need to know: the legal risk of asking staff to work in smokey...
The following article is reproduced from the excellent academic communication website The Conversation, and is written by Elizabeth Shi, a Senior Lecturer, in RMIT University‘s Graduate School of...
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New air quality standards for outdoor work
On January 30 2020, the Victorian Trades Hall released a new “approved safety standard” on air quality risks for outdoor workers. It is the latest of a series of alerts and guidelines generated by the...
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