The invisible and often very personal OHS hazard
There is a rather delicate work health safety challenge in the air as people increasingly return to working in close quarters with colleagues after the COVID-19 pandemic. Fragrances or, more precisely,...
View ArticleCan we laugh at workplace health and safety?
Occupational health and safety (OHS) has never had a profile as high as that of the environmental protection movement. OHS has never had a single, focused advocate like Greenpeace to make it visible....
View ArticleNo one seems to know why farm deaths have declined
This week’s Weekly Times, a major Australian agriculture newspaper, is reporting the good news that work-related deaths on farms have declined (not available online). The numbers from Safe Work...
View ArticleSuicide prevention needs more than business as usual
That suicide is related to workplace mental health pressures and illnesses is undisputed, but the more independent analysis on the topic, the more complex the causes become. Sometimes, suicide can be a...
View ArticleWorld Day of Health and Safety – Climate Change
The need for occupational health and safety (OHS) to adapt to the changing (deteriorating) global climate has long been discussed. This discussion may spike later this month with this year’s World Day...
View ArticleThe immediate future of OHS in the UK
Later this week, the United Kingdom hosts an election which the Labour Party, the “party of working people,” is expected to win. Its party manifesto has been out for some time, but its workplace...
View ArticleESG and OHS
Recently, Herbert Smith Freehills (HSF) conducted a seminar on internal workplace investigations and ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) frameworks. Occupational health and safety (OHS) seems...
View Article“don’t trick people”– Greenwashing and Safewashing
Nobel-prize winner Joseph Stiglitz does not write about occupational health and safety (OHS). However, he does write about the sociopolitical and economic context in which businesses operate and from...
View Article“If you don’t sound the alarm, who will?” Matt Peacock and work health and...
Prominent investigative journalist, Matt Peacock, has died from pancreative cancer. Few of us are lucky enough to save people’s lives, some of us change the world. Matt did both. He was never an...
View ArticleThe United States approach to work health and safety is getting creepy.
For most of the world, Donald Trump‘s re-election to the United States presidency is a non-event. Politicians and journalists are really interested, but Trump has little direct impact on our lives, and...
View ArticleThis 2025 forecast offers mixed messaging
Risk and governance software company Navex published a forecast for 2025 which has some occupational health and safety (OHS) relevance. It wrote “Rising temperatures in the workplace: Addressing...
View ArticleLessons on management of heat from the Australian Tennis Open
One of the best articles about managing heat exposure at work is by Madi Chwasta of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, who wrote about the Australian Open tennis tournament. Tennis is usually...
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