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| For the latest update on Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) news and information from across Australia.
Gas Leak Leads To Evacuations
March 28, 2007 - 2:49PM Source: AAP
Eighteen businesses were evacuated and a busy street shut down amid a gas leak in Sydney's inner-west on Wednesday.
Construction workers on the corner of Norton and Macaulay Streets in Leichhardt cut through a gas main shortly after midday, the NSW Fire Brigades said.
Norton Street was shut to traffic and 18 surrounding businesses were evacuated before energy providers Alinta cut off the gas supply at 12.50pm (AEST).
No residential properties were evacuated.
Alinta workers were on the scene attempting to permanently fix the leak.
Properties were being checked by NSW Fire Brigades before businesses and traffic were cleared to return to the street.
First Cyclone Death Leads To Court Case
March 28, 2007 02:30pm Article from: AAP
THE husband of a woman killed when Cyclone George flattened a camp in Western Australia is suing billionaire Andrew Forrest's Fortescue Metals Group (FMG) and her employer, Spotless.
Perth woman Debra Till, 47, died on March 9 when the cyclone destroyed an FMG railway construction camp in the Pilbara where she was working as a kitchen hand for FMG contractor Spotless.
The cyclone's 275km/h winds sent temporary buildings flying and flattened the camp, injuring 20 other people including Craig Allan Raabe, 42, of Gympie in Queensland.
He died two days later in a Perth hospital.
Perth lawyer Shash Nigam today said he was starting legal proceedings to sue for negligence on behalf of Ms Till's husband John Till.
"We are in the process of commencing legal proceedings against Fortescue and Spotless," Mr Nigam said.
It is expected to take some time before a writ can be lodged.
Cyclone George also killed a third person, Sydney Desmond Baker, 74, who was found dead outside his destroyed donga at nearby Indee station.
Police later said an autopsy had confirmed Mr Baker suffered massive internal injuries when the storm struck his temporary hut.
FMG has admitted no liability over the two fatalities which occurred at a temporary camp set up to service workers building a railway as part of its $3.7 billion Pilbara iron ore project.
The railway link between FMG's lucrative iron ore deposit and a port, which is being built, was expected to allow FMG to start exporting iron ore in March 2008.
300kg Stone Slab Crushes Worker
March 27, 2007 01:38pm Article from: AAP
A LABOURER has been crushed to death under a 300kg stone slab he was helping to move in Perth's north.
WorkSafe said it was investigating the death of the 43-year-old man at a stone-working company in Wangara late yesterday.
It is believed he was helping to move the slab of engineered stone when it fell on him, WorkSafe said.
Inspectors arrived at the site soon after the incident, and began to interview witnesses.
Allowing employees to work without fall protection has cost a Victorian company a conviction, a $25,000 fine and costs of $4,700 after workers were found working on a first storey roof without fall protection.
Lawyers for the company said the family firm had 12 employees of whom five were apprentices. Although it initially tried to ‘contract out’ its OHS obligations they said it now conceded this was a duty that could not be delegated.
The company pleaded guilty to one charge laid under the Occupational Health and Safety Act*.
WorkSafe told the Melbourne magistrate, Charles Rosencwajg, that an inspector was called to the construction site in Copeland Street, South Yarra on 2 March 2005 after a member of the public saw roofing plumbers working on a roof without fall protection.
The height of the roof varied between 2.05m and 3.2m.
Magistrate Rosencwajg said it was an example of a failure to fulfil a positive duty and that falling from roofs was a hazard which cried out for safety measures to be taken.
He said the company was aware of a previous fatal incident on the site in January 2005, when a man fell from height.
The director of WorkSafe’s Construction and Utilities Division, Geoff Thomas, said many people did not understand the basic fact that safety responsibilities were shared, particularly on building sites, where there might be a number of different employers at different times.
“The employers of individual workers and whoever has overall control of the site share the responsibility for ensuring safety standards are observed. Failing to do this opens the door to tragedy.
“WorkSafe has investigated a number of cases of fatal falls from less than two metres. With a fall from three metres there is a high risk of death or permanent injury.
“No one should be put in the position of having to call the family of a workmate to say, ‘There’s been an accident’. There are many ways to address the risk of falls.”
* The charge: Sections 21(1) & (2)(a) of the Occupational Health and Safety Act 1985
s21 (1) An employer shall provide and maintain so far as is practicable for employees a working environment that is safe and without risks to health.
(2) Without in any way limiting the generality of sub-section (1), an employer contravenes that sub-section if the employer fails—
(a) to provide and maintain plant and systems of work that are so far as is practicable safe and without risks to health.
Salmonella hits 14 people
March 28, 2007 01:46pm Article from: AAP
FOURTEEN people have been stricken with salmonella poisoning in Tasmania's northwest, two of them requiring hospital treatment.
Tasmania's health authorities said they were investigating following the food poisoning outbreak over the past fortnight.
All of those affected are now recovering from the bacteria, which attacks the stomach and intestines, causing gastro-enteritis, with symptoms including nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea and abdominal pain.
A bakery at Somerset in the state's northwest temporarily closed for business on Monday after some of the victims said they had eaten its products.
VJ's Bakery owner Peter Shaw said he thought eggs were the likely source of the bacteria, The Advocate reported today.
“Because we are food manufacturers, we have decided to temporarily close down as a precaution,” the Advocate quoted him as saying.
“The possibility is that something is contaminated, but it's not something we've done directly,” he said.
Tasmania's Director of Public Health Dr Roscoe Taylor said test results had confirmed 14 people were affected, two of whom had been treated in hospital for dehydration.
Salmonella can cause severe dehydration in infants and the elderly and patients are advised to see a doctor if symptoms persist.
Dr Taylor said the bakery had suspended operations pending further investigations into the cause and were helping with investigations.
But he said: “The investigations cover other businesses in the area as well as food suppliers from elsewhere in Tasmania”.
The Public and Environmental Health Service (PEHS) was alerted last week and contacted all GPs in the area on Friday asking for tests on anyone reporting symptoms of gastro-enteritis.
Dr Taylor said the PEHS was investigating with help from the Waratah-Wynyard Council.
Salmonella is a notifiable disease under the Public Health Act and all cases are followed up to determine if any foods are implicated.
Man dies after pergola fall
March 27, 2007 6:15 p.m Article from: AAP
A BUILDER has died in hospital after falling through the roof of a pergola he was constructing in the Victorian city of Bendigo.
The man, aged in his late 50s from the Bendigo suburb of Eaglehawk, fell through the pergola's plastic sheet roof to the ground at a property at nearby Epsom about 1pm (AEST) today.
He later died in hospital.
The man's death takes Victoria's workplace death toll to 11, up from five at the same time last year.
Four of this year's deaths were in the construction industry, WorkSafe executive director John Merritt said.
Of the 41 workplace deaths since the beginning of last year, 11 were in the construction industry, he said.
"Planning a safe work site does not take long or add significant cost," he said.
"Most importantly it protects workers, workmates and families the horror of a tragedy. It protects business.
"In small businesses, the injured person often is the business. They own it; they do the work alongside others."
Asbestos Find Stops Work
March 25, 2007 08:16pm Article from: The West Australian
The discovery of potentially lethal asbestos at Alinta’s construction site within Alcoa’s Wagerup refinery grounds prompted worried contractors to flee the area this week.
About 120 Alcoa workers also stopped work yesterday while management tried to allay their fears.
The asbestos was found in packaging for pipes imported from India, prompting a major clean-up, the installation of air-monitoring stations, the affected area to be quarantined and medical tests to be offered to all workers.
Alinta, which is using contractors on its Cogeneration construction site, has also bagged and removed soil from the affected area and locked all the containers which had carried the pipes.
“Alinta Limited regards this as a serious matter and is actively working with accredited safety officials and union representatives to mitigate any risk this may present,” the company said in a statement.
Yesterday, the Australian Workers Union, the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union and the CEPU (Engineering and Electrical Division) met Alcoa about members’ concerns — the Alinta site is separated only by a wire fence.
CEPU assistant State secretary Jim Murie said it was easy to understand why workers were so anxious.
“It only takes one tiny fibre of asbestos which you can’t even see to lodge in the lungs and kill a person, but of course it doesn’t then permeate for about 20-odd years,” he said.
“There’s also concern it has blown into the carpark and was it on cars? Has it been taken home? This morning a whole range of confusions erupted.”
Sufficient reassurances were made during yesterday’s meetings to persuade Alcoa staff to return to work, and a full investigation will be carried out, with the Alinta contractors and unions involved.
But AMWU State president Steven McCartney insisted the asbestos should never have been allowed into the country in the first place.
“It seems ironic that for the last 63 years or so asbestos has been outlawed here yet we choose to use Third World countries to manufacture pipe work which can be done here, then when we import it we get Third World conditions in the wrapping,” he said.
AWU branch secretary Tim Daly condemned the fact that workers might have been exposed to the asbestos.
Alcoa said all its workers would receive a letter of confirmation that the site was clear and safe.
Steel from fork lift crushes man
March 16, 2007 09:14pm Article from: AAP
A 51-YEAR-OLD man was crushed to death when 15 tonnes of steel fell on him as it was unloaded from a truck south-east of Melbourne.
The incident happened at about 4.20pm (AEDT) in a warehouse at BlueScope Steel in Bayview Rd, Hastings.
WorkSafe spokesman Michael Birt said a forklift was used to unload the steel from the truck when the accident occurred.
“The steel has fallen and the man was struck,” Mr Birt said.
Mr Birt said people were urged to keep their distance from machinery as heavy materials were moved and transported.
He said another crushing incident had occurred on January 19 in West Melbourne, where 10 tonnes of steel killed a man as he worked in a ship's hull
The man was working on the vessel Cape Conway at Appleton Dock when the steel swung from a crane.
Mr Birt said 10 people had now lost their lives at work this year in Victoria, twice the number of deaths the same time last year.
Medical examinations lead to Industrial action
March 15, 2007 06:45pm Article from: AAP
THREE hundred workers at a central Queensland coal mine will walk off the job tomorrow morning after enterprise bargaining negotiations (EBA) with mine management broke down.
Workers from Anglo Coal's Dawson mine near Moura will stop work for four hours from 7am (AEST) tomorrow over proposed changes to the mine's EBA.
Construction, Forestry, Mines and Energy Union (CFMEU) vice president Stuart Vaccaneo said permanent employees at the mine, including electricians and production workers would take part in the strike.
According to Mr Vaccaneo, a key element of the dispute is Anglo Coal's efforts to require staff to submit to medical examinations at any time, rather than at five-year intervals.
"The company are seeking to remove rights which currently exist and we are certainly seeking to protect those award provisions," he said.
An Anglo Coal spokeswoman said the company would continue negotiating the EBA with the workers.
"Anglo Coal is intending to continue to work cooperatively with our employees and their union to achieve a satisfactory resolution and we don't intend to negotiate the agreement with our employees through the media," she said.
Asbestos may not have 'peaked' yet
March 14, 2007 02:31pm Article from: AAP
AUSTRALIA has one of the highest rates of asbestos-related disease in the world, according to a new report.
The international analysis, published in the Lancet journal, found a clear link between historic asbestos use and recent asbestos-related disease deaths.
The Japanese researchers analysed the amount of asbestos consumption per head of population in 33 countries during the 1960s, the decade when the product rose in popularity.
They compared consumption with rates of related lung and chest diseases between 2000 to 2004, and gave Australia one of the highest placings worldwide.
The team said their results foreshadowed a "global epidemic" of asbestos-related disease which was a cause for "widespread concern".
"This ecological study reveals clear and plausible positive relations between amounts of historical asbestos consumption and deaths from diseases associated with asbestos," they wrote in the journal.
"Our results lend support to the notion that all countries should move towards eliminating the use of asbestos."
Asbestos, and building products containing the fibres, were banned Australia-wide in 2003, but every year hundreds still die from conditions sparked by contact with the product decades ago.
The illnesses, including asbestosis, lung cancer, pleural disorders and the lethal cancer mesothelioma, have been the subject of a large-scale compensation deal involving the building company James Hardie.
Asbestos researcher Alison Reid, from the University of Western Australia, said the number of Australians dying from the disease would not peak for another decade.
"After that the rate should start to drop off but it will take us a while. Australia is just riddled with it," Ms Reid said.
"We took it up so enthusiastically, importing it, mining it, using it everywhere in everything."
Treatment for the disease is very limited, and it is universally fatal, with most patients living just nine months between diagnosis and death.
Some doctors have had limited success with chemotherapy and radical surgery, but Ms Reid said it was only palliative care, not a cure.
She said that despite the study's alarming results, there was little point in screening for the disease.
"Even if we find people who have it, we have virtually no treatment to offer them," Ms Reid said.
"You'd just be really frightening people."
Excavation work causes gas leak
March 14, 2007 10:01am Article from: AAP
A GAS leak in Adelaide's eastern suburbs today forced residents indoors and windows closed and air-conditioners off.
Police said the leak at suburban Norwood was caused when a gas main was damaged by excavation work this morning.
Roads around the leak were closed as emergency services were called.
"This is now a major gas leak and residents are asked to remain in their homes, shut windows and turn off their air-conditioners until the gas leak can be contained," a police spokesman said.
March 13, 2007 10:37pm Article from: AAP
A 28-year-old man has died in hospital after he received an electric shock while working at a Melbourne restaurant last Friday.
The man was initially revived after workmates pulled him unconscious from the roof cavity of the Upper House restaurant at Federation Square.
He was taken to St Vincent's Hospital in a critical condition but died yesterday morning, Worksafe Victoria said.
This is the second electrocution death on Victorian work sites this year.
A man died from an electric shock while working under a house at Camberwell on January 2, WorkSafe said.
In the latest incident, the 28-year-old man received CPR from workmates. He was clinically dead when paramedics arrived, but they managed to revive him.
The number of work-related fatalities reported to the Victorian agency this year now stands at nine, four more than in the same period last year.
WorkSafe executive director John Merritt said the rising death toll was a reminder for workers and employers to put workplace safety first.
“The high number of fatalities already this year, and the 29 in 2006, should be the greatest incentive for workers and employers to do everything they can to ensure a safe workplace,” he said.
“It is WorkSafe's tragic experience that all too often safety improvements are made after a death or serious injury. That's too late.”
New Fight For Bernie Banton
By Karen Davis March 13, 2007 06:55pm Article from: AAP
ASBESTOS campaigner Bernie Banton has taken up a new fight - against the New South Wales Government's personal injury laws.
Fresh from a successful six-year battle with building products company James Hardie over compensation for asbestos victims, Mr Banton today announced he's joining a campaign calling for fair compensation for people injured in accidents.
The campaign, A Fair Go for Injured People, was launched in September by four peak legal bodies in response to sweeping government changes to NSW personal injury legislation.
Under the changes, people injured in civil liability cases, motor vehicle accidents or in the workplace must meet a certain threshold of bodily impairment before they can be awarded compensation for pain and suffering.
Mr Banton labelled the threshold ridiculous and said too many people were missing out on fair compensation.
"I see this is a repeat of the James Hardie issues, people being denied their right to compensation," he said.
"We need to get it on the agenda and get commitment from government and alternative governments that they are going to attend to this issue because it needs to be attended to now, not in the future.
"People are missing out on what is rightfully theirs."
Mr Banton said he would use similar tactics in this campaign to those he used against James Hardie.
"We've just got to keep at them. The only way to win these wars is to keep at them and not let the issue die," he said.
"It's so important for people's financial future that the money is there and available to them and we've got to get people over this ridiculous threshold ... I believe that all that is necessary is a stroke of the pen.
"It's this threshold that's got to be adjusted so everybody gets a fair go, all we're asking for a fair go."
Campaign spokesman and NSW Bar Association president Michael Slattery QC said 95 per cent of people were unable to access proper compensation.
As an example, Mr Slattery said green slip insurers had taken in $10 billion in premiums since 1999 and paid out just $2.7 billion in benefits to the injured.
"It's a very important campaign and having someone like Bernie Banton on board and assisting with it will give it a great boost and hopefully it will get real attention from the NSW government and the opposition," he said.
"Thousands of workers are missing out ... I think Bernie's going to make a difference."
The campaign is being driven by the Law Society of NSW, the NSW Bar Association, the Law Council of Australia and the Australian Lawyers Alliance.
Carnival Carriage Falls On Men
March 13, 2007 03:28pm Article from: AAP
TWO men were injured when a 800kg carriage from a carnival ride toppled onto them while they were dismantling it after Moomba festivities in Melbourne.
The accident happened about 1.30am (AEDT) today on the north bank of the Yarra River near the city centre as the men were helping to pack up the ride, police said.
"Whilst dismantling an 800kg carriage of the ride, it toppled over and struck the men, trapping one underneath for a short time, and injuring the other," a police spokeswoman said.
"After being rescued by workmates, the men were treated by paramedics at the scene before being taken to The Alfred hospital with non-life threatening injuries," she said.
Both men are from NSW.
WorkSafe inspectors are investigating the incident.
Bus Explosion Burns Man
March 13, 2007 07:23am Source: AAP
A MAN is in a serious condition in a Melbourne hospital after being hurt in an explosion as he worked on a bus engine.
A Rural Ambulance Service spokesman said the accident happened about 6pm (AEDT) yesterday near Echuca.
Paramedics believe the 45-year-old man had been trying to start the engine by pouring petrol on the carburetor when it ignited.
The man was treated at the scene before being flown to the Alfred Hospital in Melbourne.
He suffered burns to his body and face and was this morning in a serious but stable condition.
Mine Policy Review After Cyclone Deaths
March 12, 2007 04:07pm Source: AAP
A MINING company that owns a camp where two people were killed when Cyclone George swept through Western Australia's far north today announced a review of its procedures.
Fortescue Metals Group (FMG) chief executive Andrew Forrest said his thoughts and deepest sympathies were with the families, friends and work colleagues of those who died and the injured.
Gympie man Craig Raabe, 42 died in hospital on sunday after he was injured when the cyclone hit an FMG railway construction camp 105km south of Port Hedland early on Friday.
Perth woman Debra Till, 47, died when the storm flattened the camp.
More than 20 people were injured.
Mrs Till's family has threatened legal action against FMG for not evacuating staff before the cyclone hit.
"I've lost my wife, the boys have lost their mother and Debbie will never see Tyson, our grandson, again," Mrs Till's husband John said on Southern Cross radio.
"You cannot imagine how hard that is."
Mr Forrest said FMG had commissioned a complete review of procedures and processes to be headed by what he said was an independent risk management and incident investigation specialist.
"We are also co-operating with the coroner's office and Worksafe in their investigations," Mr Forrest said.
A third person, Sydney Desmond Baker, 74, died of a suspected heart attack, at Indee Station, near the FMG camp, during Cyclone George.
Scalping victim warns of perils of the workplace
THREE years after being scalped and losing his right ear in a horrific drilling accident, David Holland wants the public to know his injuries could have been prevented.
"I'm just a quiet Australian, a quiet Melburnian who went to work out there one day. It could happen to each and every one of us," he said outside the Melbourne Magistrates Court yesterday, before urging people to report workplace dangers to their employers.
The 38-year-old Albert Park man had just recounted the terrifying accident that nearly took his life three years ago.
The accident happened on a Braeside housing estate where he was doing soil testing work.
The company was convicted and fined $30,000 after pleading guilty in the Magistrates Court yesterday to one count of failing to provide a safe workplace.
Mr Holland, a geotechnical soil technician, was operating a drill at the Braeside housing development in 2004 when his hair became caught in a rotating auger connected to the machine.
In a victim impact statement tendered to the court, Mr Holland graphically described how his ear, scalp and half of his face was ripped off by the drill, from which he had to physically tear his body in order to save his life.
"There was a loud tear and suddenly I was looking at the inside of my face as it was pulled horizontally off the front of my skull to the end of my nose," he said in his statement.
Realising he had fractured his neck while freeing himself, Mr Holland said he was forced to balance his head like a basketball on his index finger as he walked towards help.
"I could hear a voice on a phone and I knew there was a building site close to where I was so I methodically started to walk towards it," he said.
"I'm told that I covered more than 70 metres — probably the most painful exercise I will ever encounter in my existence."
The court heard the help button installed in the drill was too far away for Mr Holland to reach and that the model did not have any physical guards on it to prevent such accidents.
For the company, Dr David Neal, SC, told the court that at the time of the accident similar drilling machines were routinely used without any guards because it was believed none were available. But the company, which pleaded guilty to breaching the Occupational Health and Safety Act, now conceded it was possible to have guards fitted, he said.
Dr Neal apologised to Mr Holland in court on behalf of the company, saying it had already attempted to provide compensation for his pain and suffering.
While Mr Holland's face and neck have been painstakingly pieced together over the past three years, he still lives with chronic pain, terrible flashbacks and post-traumatic stress disorder.
"The flashbacks are all-encompassing, they're physical in their response and they take time to recover from, in the same way you recover from sickness," he said outside the court.
Mr Holland is now studying for an Occupational Health and Safety diploma and he hopes his story will encourage others to prevent workplace accidents.
Payout Debate Reignited After Payout
March 09, 2007 Source: Chris Merritt and Brendan O'Keefe The Australian
A BRAIN-damaged worker who won delayed compensation of almost $1 million this week would have had his damages slashed under the current compensation system in NSW.
House painter John Takacs won damages of $913,390 from the Uniting Church after he fell from the roof of a Sydney retirement village in 1999.
Lawyers said restrictions on damages payouts which had since been introduced in NSW would have reduced Mr Takacs' compensation by "hundreds of thousands of dollars".
The judgment was seized upon by NSW Bar Association president Michael Slattery QC, who is leading an election-linked campaign for better compensation for injured people.
He said the Takacs case highlighted how much money the changes had cost the state's injured workers.
Mr Slattery is trying to persuade both sides of politics to eliminate inconsistencies in the different compensation systems that operate within NSW.
Premier Morris Iemma has vigorously resisted pressure to change these arrangements, saying the proposals would cost too much money and would benefit lawyers who run personal injury cases.
The Premier has said he will not go back on the tort law reforms introduced by his predecessor, Bob Carr, in 2001.
Mr Slattery rejected Mr Iemma's argument and said there was ample capacity to increase awards for injured workers.
He said operating costs for WorkCover, which covered employees for workplace injuries, grew last financial year by $365 million, or 57 per cent.
Most of that blowout in operating expenses is believed to have gone to private insurance companies that operate the scheme on behalf of the Government.
The Coalition parties are having talks with the legal profession and will make an announcement during the campaign.
Under the current compensation system, injured workers cannot go to court unless their injuries pass a threshold test.
And those who require significant medical care are unable to sue for the cost of their continuing treatment. This forces most injured workers to pursue their claims through the state Workers Compensation Commission where payouts are significantly below those once awarded by courts.
Barrister Ross Letherbarrow SC said there was no doubt that Mr Takacs would have lost "hundreds of thousands of dollars" had his injury occurred after the compensation changes.
Mr Takacs, now 39, fell 9m off the roof of the Northaven Retirement Village in suburban Turramurra. He was knocked unconscious and suffered traumatic brain damage, broke his right elbow and wrist, damaged nerves in his right arm and suffered a nose injury that required surgery.
Mr Takacs said he suffered long-term anxiety and depression and short-term memory loss after the fall. A doctor told the NSW Supreme Court Mr Takacs had sustained a permanent disability in his right arm.
The court heard that after the accident, Mr Takacs had endured "interference with the marital relationship, with his ability to socialise with his children, and with his pre-accident occupational, social and recreational activities".
He was unable to return to full-time work.
He claimed against the church for general damages, out of pocket expenses, economic loss and loss of earning capacity and domestic assistance, both past and future.
Mr Takacs said the Uniting Church had failed in its duty to provide a fence or safety harness. He tripped on a ridge in a metal roofing material known as Kliplok.
Mr Letherbarrow said that if Mr Takacs had been injured after the introduction of the new compensation arrangements, he would probably have needed to seek compensation from the Workers Compensation Commission.
He said it was still theoretically possible for people to seek court-ordered damages if they met the threshold test of 15 per cent "whole person impairment".
But he said there were now severe restrictions on compensation awards made by courts. This meant most injured workers needed to rely on the Workers Compensation Commission.
"All the systems are different - the motor vehicle accident scheme, the civil liability scheme that covers injuries in public places and the new workers compensation system," Mr Letherbarrow said.
Smelter Resumes Work After Explosion
Work has resumed in an area of the Port Pirie lead smelter in South Australia where a worker was seriously injured in an explosion yesterday.
A 36-year-old man was airlifted to the Royal Adelaide Hospital with burns to 60 per cent of his body.
Zinifex's general manager, Matt Howell, says an investigation has found that the explosion was caused by moisture coming into contact with molten copper.
He says he is not happy that it is the third injury at the plant in as many months.
"We'll be clear that our philosophy here is about safety before production, and any accident is too many, so we're all disappointed by this," he said.
"The fact was however, it was in a different part of the plant."
Mr Howell says procedural changes have been made, and the area where the explosion happened is safe.
"That plant was in fact brought on stream last night, in a very safe manner, without incident and without issue, so it demonstrates that the engineering integrity of the plant, it's first plant, there was no issue with the plant itself," he said.
Electrician Brought Back To Life
By Kellee Nolan March 09, 2007 04:06pm Article from: AAP
WORKMATES have saved the life of a electrician who was left clinically dead after he received a suspected electric shock on a job in Melbourne.
The 28-year-old man remains in a critical condition in hospital after the accident at the Upper House restaurant on Federation Square about 9am (AEDT) today.
He was found unconscious in the roof of the restaurant by workmates who gave him CPR before paramedics took over.
The paramedics arrived to find the man had gone into cardiac arrest and was clinically dead for a period, ambulance spokesman Phil Cullen said.
“He has gone into cardiac arrest at the scene and his workmates have pulled him out of the roof cavity where he was working and given him CPR,” Mr Cullen said.
“Paramedics said the workmates did an excellent job with their CPR, which made it easier for paramedics to re-start his heart.
“The man was clinically dead and paramedics have re-started his heart.”
The man was taken to St Vincent's Hospital where a hospital spokesman said this afternoon the man remained in a critical condition in intensive care.
WorkSafe sent two inspectors to the scene today.
The State Government's safety regulator for electrical and gas safety, Energy Safe Victoria, also has inspectors at the scene testing the electrical circuits.
A Federation Square spokesman said the restaurant remained closed today during investigations.
However, he said no other operations at Federation Square were affected.
Man with child porn had 'toxic fumes disease'
By Jade Bilowol March 07, 2007 02:28pm Article from: AAP
A FORMER labourer was suffering a disease caused by toxic workplace fumes when he downloaded hundreds of images and movies of child exploitation to his computer, a court has heard.
Terrence Robert Cox, 38, of Deception Bay in Brisbane's northern bayside, today pleaded guilty in the Brisbane District Court to possessing 292 child exploitation images and movies.
Judge Walter Tutt sentenced Cox to a suspended 12 months' jail term.
Police raided the married man's home following a tip-off on August 28, 2005, the court was told.
The prosecutor said the "very explicit'' imagery found on his computer featured girls and boys aged five to 11 years, and showed children having sex with each other as well as with adults.
Cox's defence lawyers tendered a letter from his doctor which stated he'd suffered "toxic fumes disease'' from working as a welder.
The letter suggested the disease may have impaired his judgment.
Cox has since established his own full-time IT business and is studying to become a Microsoft system engineer.
He told police that he knew the material was illegal, but he denied being a child molester.
The court heard Cox obtained the images and movies through a computer file-sharing system but he didn't distribute any materials.
Cox argued he had looked at the images only once.
His wife of five years was present in court.
In handing down the sentence, Judge Tutt said viewing such images was "a sign of a sick, perverted mind''.
"Without the likes of you, there wouldn't be a market of such degradation of children,'' Judge Tutt said.
"You've contributed to its proliferation by your conduct.''
He said his crime was worsened by the fact he was a married man "with the love and support of your wife''.
"You hardly fit the profile of one who participates in this sickening behaviour.''
Judge Tutt recorded a conviction against Cox and ordered the forfeiture of the material.
EPA Wants Gas Leak Victims
By Michael Newhouse
7th March 2007 12:30:08 PM
Sydenham News
THE Environment Protection Authority is calling on members of the public affected by last month’s toxic gas leak in Sunshine North to come forward to help its continuing investigation into the leak.
Last week the EPA’s senior manager of rural services, John Williamson, described the leak as a “serious pollution event” and called on anyone who experienced discomfort or illness such as burning eyes, sore throat, running nose, or irritated skin to contact the EPA.
“Our inquiries are being assisted by members of the public who may have experienced a physical reaction to the gas that leaked during the incident,” Mr Williamson said.
Residents in the area were told to stay indoors and a number of people were taken to hospital or treated at the scene when sulfur dioxide escaped from chemical company Air Liquide’s Sunshine North plant, in Bunnett St, on 9 February.
The EPA said the gas spread at least four kilometres from the plant in the first hour after the leak began at 6.30am.
Air Liquide spokesman Ross McKenry said last week a handling error caused the leak. He said an employee failed to fully seal a valve when transferring the gas, which is dangerous at a high concentration.
He said the company had been in consultation with WorkCover and had since automated the sealing process to remove the possibility of human error, and the chance of another leak.
“We value safety and see safety as being extremely important to us, and we don’t take things lightly,” Mr McKenry said.
An EPA spokesperson said last week the authority would continue its investigation, and then make a decision about whether it would fine or prosecute Air Liquide over the breach.
Air Liquide could face a maximum $250,000 fine if the EPA chose to launch a prosecution against the company, the spokesperson said, or the EPA could chose to impose a fine itself.
Anyone affected by the gas leak is encouraged to call the Pollution Watch Line on 9695 2777.
NSW Launch Safe Work Campaign
Ken Phillips
March 6, 2007 Source SMH
The NSW Government has launched a new attack on the unacceptably high death and injury rate in the state's workplaces. In 2004-05 there were 125 deaths and 50,000 serious injuries in work-related incidents in NSW.
The new campaign is a multimedia blitz, Homecomings, and is based on a successful Victorian campaign last year, punching the message that work safety is about coming home to your family. If you are injured or killed at work your loved ones and friends bear the emotional and other consequences as much as you suffer.
This psychological tilt at work safety attitudes targets a great weakness: one of the hardest attitudes to create at work is to have everyone thinking about safety every moment of every day. Injuries and deaths too often occur because of inexplicable lapses of safety attitude.
Accident case studies groan with such instances. A big trick in work safety is to achieve a 100 per cent safety focus all day every day. Homecomings says: "For your families' sake, think safe."
If work safety is to be improved, state governments need to learn from each other. Best practice needs to be repeated across Australia. But this is where NSW needs to learn a lot more.
The Homecomings campaign in Victoria emerged from a 2004 sea change in Victorian work safety laws. This produced a big shift in the approach of the Victorian WorkCover Authority to how it relates to businesses and workers on safety.
Before 2004 Victoria had experimented with highly aggressive prosecutions against employers. Because work safety is such an emotional issue, often the reaction is to blame someone. This reaction reasons that employers always cause work safety incidents and that tough laws and aggressive prosecutions are needed to scare employers into behaving.
This is the policy approach used in NSW. It's the design feature of NSW work safety legislation and is the force underpinning NSW prosecutions. But after much public debate Victoria rejected this approach. The 2004 Victorian laws are built around the recognition that everyone at work contributes to safety. The laws hold everyone, employers and employees, equally responsible over what they control. Prosecutions target everyone who may have contributed to a safety breach.
Further, the Victorian laws removed legal blockages to the WorkCover Authority's capacity to advise and help business with work safety procedures. Co-operation rather than aggression is seen as the first, essential part of a total package to improving work safety. Out of this new approach the creative Homecomings campaign was born.
But the NSW approach of aggressive, fearsome attacks against business is at odds with Victoria's. So obsessed is NSW with instilling employer fear that natural criminal justice has been stripped from the system. Occupational health and safety criminal prosecutions impose presumption of guilt, apply unachievable criteria for proving innocence and deny full rights to appeal or trial before jury.
This stripping of justice is justified on the grounds of needing to obtain convictions regardless of safety behaviour, to create a culture of employer fear. Academic literature on the topic openly promotes this. But inevitably injustices occur under such a regime.
Many cases have emerged of clearly blameless persons being convicted. Irregularities in prosecution processes have been documented. And the judiciary is concerned. A senior NSW judge recently described one prosecution as "constituting more than prosecution and amounting to persecution of the defendants", said the prosecutor had acted "inappropriately", and argued for fixing of the laws and the sacking of the NSW WorkCover Authority as the Government's prosecuting department.
Last year the Government seemed to recognise the problem. It tried to reform the laws but NSW unions campaigned against them. The Government backed down and the laws and culture of employer-hate on work safety remain. Co-operation and guidance as the first benchmark for safety are not part of the NSW Occupation Health and Safety system design or practice.
NSW is at a threshold on work safety. The Homecomings campaign is a great initiative. But the Victorian ads are underpinned by a realistic and practical approach to achieving better work safety cultures. NSW does not have this. The NSW campaign may fail because it's marketing spin lacks policy substance.
For work safety's sake, NSW needs to take the next step and fix its laws.
Ken Phillips is work reform director for the Institute of Public Affairs.
Farmer Injured By Tractor
March 03, 2007 02:17pm Source AAP
A MAN has been airlifted to hospital with serious injuries after being run over by a three-tonne tractor on the New South Wales south coast, rescue services say.
The 60-year-old man, from Randwick in Sydney's eastern suburbs, was working on a farm on the northern headland of Gerroa when the accident occurred at midday today (AEDT).
He sustained a fractured left leg, fractured ribs and injuries to his chest, face and head.
Crew of a Westpac Life Saver helicopter treated the man's injuries before airlifting him to St George Hospital.
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