04:15 pm, Tuesday 26 June, 2007

Source: Northern Daily Leader, NSW

THE Tamworth Regional Council could be sitting on a WorkCover accident just waiting to occur at its livestock selling centre, a leading livestock transporter, butcher, wholesaler and producer has said.

Taminda Bacon Factory’s Greg Townsend said he and his father had been doing business at Tamworth’s saleyards for more than 40 years and he believes the current state of the cattle selling facilities “are ridiculous”.

Mr Townsend said the condition of the yards had forced him to take drastic measures with his employees.

“So much so, that I instruct my drivers not load their trucks. I do it myself.

“Stock are unpredictable and it could be very dangerous if someone working in the pens could not take evasive action from a cow,” Mr Townsend said.

Mr Townsend was one of a number of vendors and buyers who contacted the leader to voice the concern at the conditions in the saleyards.

Attunga farmer Nick Bennett said he’d been selling at Tamworth for 54 years and described the yards as atrocious.

“I’ve been to cattleyards all over the place and Tamworth is as bad as I have seen,” Mr Bennett said.

“It takes six to eight months to prepare a beast for sale and when they are sold in these conditions it makes it pretty tough.

Also expressing his concern was a livestock buyer who has 30 years of experience in the beef industry.

The man, who did not wish to be named, said if he was a producer he would think twice about offering cattle for sale at the selling complex.

“I’ve never seen it as bad as it is now,” he said.

“The mud in some parts of the yards is so thick, it’s dangerous for the yard hands.

“The working conditions are awkward and it is a disgrace for the cattle.”

Tamworth Saleyard Selling Agents Association president Andrew Hosken said while recent rain across the region had been pleasing for livestock producers it had also caused problems at the saleyards.

“The association is highly supportive of the proposed selling complex and we look forward to the new facility being in place in 12 to 18 months time,” Mr Hosken said.

Mr Townsend said that producers buyers and butchers could not survive without the saleyards.

“If the yards aren’t fixed we can’t use them,” he said.

The council’s director of corporate and governance Steve Bartlett said rain and the traffic generated by 15,000 head of cattle through the saleyards had created plenty of challenges.

“There’s been significant changes in the weather too. It’s been raining, it’s cold, and the yards haven’t had a chance to dry out, like they normally do,” Mr Bartlett said .

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03:43 pm, Monday 25 June, 2007

Souce: AAP

THREE guest workers in Australia under the federal 457 visa scheme have been killed in separate incidents in the past four weeks, the construction union says.

The left-wing Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) claims the scheme, under which employers can apply to bring foreign skilled staff into Australia for temporary work, is responsible for the deaths because of inadequate safety standards.

The recent deaths occurred in Western Australia, Queensland and the Northern Territory, the union says.

“This notorious 457 program is out of control. How many more workers must die before the scheme is properly regulated?” Mr Sutton said.

“We call on the Government to release details of all incidents of serious injury or workplace death that have occurred to holders of section 457 visas since the Liberal Government deregulated this visa in 2002.”

Mr Sutton said Australians needed to know if these workers had been working in the stipulated occupation on their visas and what, if any, English they had.

“Safety standards for many of these workers are clearly appalling and the government has a responsibility to take tough action to ensure that more lives are not lost.”

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02:48 pm, Friday 22 June, 2007

Souce: AAP

The death of an Indian seafarer crushed by an oil tanker’s lift may have been avoided if the ship’s safety management systems had been more effective, a report has found.

The 36-year-old electrician was working on an elevator on the British Mallard tanker when the elevator car unexpectedly rose, crushing him on January 27.

He was one of 23 Indian crew members aboard the Isle of Man-registered BP Shipping crude oil tanker, which was dropping off oil at BP’s Kwinana refinery south of Perth.

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) released its report into the man’s death on Friday, finding the crew did not carry out a risk assessment or complete an appropriate work permit before starting to work on faulty second deck elevator doors.

The elevator responded to a call request, from another deck, and rose upwards, crushing the man.

“It is estimated the elevator moved upwards for about four seconds, giving the electrical technician little time in which to react and evade the moving elevator car,” the ATSB report says.

The electrician had not activated the emergency stop buttons, or the inspection button, so the only mechanism preventing the car from responding to a call were the door switches he was to repair, the report said.

ATSB said responsibility for risk assessment did not entirely lie with the technician.

Had the tanker’s safety management systems been more effective, neither he nor the two engineers working with him, would have considered working on the elevator without risk assessment.

“Had these strategies been in place on January 27, the accident that followed may have been avoided,” ATSB said.

The tanker had been delivering crude oil loaded at the Laminaria oil field in the Northern Territory.

OHS Recommendation: Permit to Work Form

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05:17 pm, Thursday 21 June, 2007

FOOD manufacturer Goodman Fielder has been fined $80,000 for a safety breach which left a North East worker needing steel plates and screws in her arm after it became trapped in a machine.

Deanne Young spent a week in hospital following the accident, which happened when she was cleaning a feed conveyor belt used in making Vita Brits, one of the Uncle Toby’s cereals produced by Goodman Fielder.

The Victorian Workcover Authority prosecuted the company over the June 17, 2005, incident which happened at its Wahgunyah factory and a sentence was applied yesterday after Goodman Fielder pleaded guilty to a charge of failing to provide and maintain safe plant and systems of work.

Magistrate Tom Barrett, who heard an $1100 safety guard was attached to the machine after the accident, imposed an $80,000 fine with $10,000 of that figure based on Goodman Fielder having two similar prior offences.

Goodman Fielder will also have to pay $3530.07 in costs incurred by the prosecution.

The previous offences were in 2001 at Goodman Fielder premises in West Footscray with a $40,000 fine applied after a security guard slipped on greasy stairs and a $30,000 fine imposed when a contractor installing a roller door fell from a ladder placed on an oily floor.

Ms Young had been working casually for four days a week as a plant operator at the time of the accident which involved an unguarded oven outfeed conveyor.

She was cleaning the conveyor belt with workmate Rick Begelhole and had a bucket of warm water and two rags.

As the process was nearing an end Ms Young switched the machine on, but then noticed some more residue on a roller and was flicking it off with a wet rag when disaster struck.

The rag became entangled in a nip point and her left arm was drawn into the rotating roller.

Ms Young used her right arm to switch the machine off and Mr Begelhole and another operator helped free her.

She suffered four fractures to her left arm which required three operations with multiple steel plates and screws inserted.

Workcover found Goodman Fielder had not done an adequate risk assessment on the plant.

Occupational health and safety consultant Jim Kent told the court in a report that the oven outfeed conveyor posed a significant danger.

“It was reasonable to foresee injuries such as that which occurred to Deanne Young, as well as even more serious injuries such as degloving, denuding of the arm (had she not been able to reach the isolater switch to turn off the conveyor when she became trapped) or scalping should the relevant part of the body be drawn into the trapping space,” Mr Kent reported.

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03:12 pm, Thursday 21 June, 2007

Source: AAP

SEVEN workers suffered chemical burns and about 160 workers were evacuated following a chemical spill at a Melbourne factory today.

About 1000 litres of the highly corrosive and flammable chemical N-butylamine (N-butylamine) leaked at Bostik Chemicals in High Street, Thomastown, about 12.45pm (AEST) today, a Metropolitan Fire Brigade (MFB) spokesman said.

The leak was contained to a safe area within the factory but six workers were taken to hospital with chemical burns, while a seventh was treated by ambulance crews at the scene.

A further 160 workers were evacuated.

A chemical absorbent was used to cover the spill, which will be cleared up by a specialist company overseen by MFB crews.

The cause of the spill will be investigated.

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12:25 pm, Thursday 21 June, 2007

A safety improvement project in Sunshine has been hailed a success with WorkSafe inspectors visiting 109 businesses between 28 May and 1 June.

The visits were part of the Safer Work Zones project in which up to 10 inspectors concentrate on a particular area for one week.

WorkSafe’s Executive Director, John Merritt, said 120 Improvement Notices and one Prohibition Notice were issued. One business received eight Notices.

Unguarded equipment, a range of forklift safety issues, inadequate fire protection and damaged electrical leads were among the major safety issues identified during the campaign.

Manual handling, which represents about 60% of all workers compensation claims, was also a significant problem.

Improvement Notices are a formal direction which clearly describes what is required to be improved. They have an agreed date for the work to be done. If improvements cannot be made by the due date, there is capacity for it to be extended.

“The Notices are to ensure the minimum legal standards are reached. We always encourage people to go further.

“Our role is to help build capacity to maximise safety. Notices are part of that process.”

”Our challenge to businesses in Sunshine and the western suburbs is to take safety more seriously.”

“People need to think about it in the same way they do about road safety. Progress is being made, but there is more work to be done.

“Safe practices need to become part of the work culture, just like wearing a seatbelt in the car. “

Mr Merritt said inspectors would soon re-visit premises that received notices to ensure they were being acted on.

“Workers and business operators have clear interests in making their workplace as safe as possible, not just when they know we’re coming, but every day of the year.

“Thinking safe and being safe – not saying ‘that should be OK’ but knowing it will be OK, and speaking-up when a potential problem becomes apparent is what everyone should be aiming for.”

“Relying on experience and good luck is not the way to ensure you, your employees or workmates get home safely at the end of the day.”

Of the 16 people whose deaths at work have been reported to WorkSafe this year– all but one of them were men. Most were over 40 and experienced in their work.

“A sign in your workplace saying ‘Be careful’ or ‘A safe worker is a careful worker’ should not be relied on as the basis of good health and safety practice.”

Between July 2001 and June 2006, more than 3600 serious workplace injuries were reported in the City of Brimbank. Treatment, rehabilitation and compensation costs were around $56.5-million.

WorkSafe’s advisory service can by contacted on 1800 136 089. Safety information and publications can also be found online at www.worksafe.vic.gov.au.

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11:00 am, Thursday 21 June, 2007

A plumbing company has presented a health and safety lecture to 36 apprentice plumbers at Holmesglen TAFE in the first case of its type under Victoria’s workplace safety laws.

Watsonia company, J Keogh Plumbing Pty Ltd, agreed to the Enforceable Undertaking as an alternative to prosecution.

Enforceable Undertakings are legally binding agreements between WorkSafe and a duty holder made possible under the Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004.

A charge against the company of failing to supervise its employees was withdrawn last week and the lecture was given on Monday.

The presentation covered:

• the circumstances that led to the charge;
• the positive duty of employers of apprentices to ensure they are adequately supervised;
• system upgrades undertaken by the company since the incident; and the benefits to the company gained from those upgrades.

The company has also agreed to be audited by WorkSafe between three and six times over the next six months.

On 27 May last year WorkSafe received information about two apprentices working in a deep trench without shoring behind a Vermont house.

A WorkSafe inspector found two unsupervised apprentices at the premises, one of whom was in a 2.7 metre deep trench without any shoring, shields or stepped/battered edges to prevent it from collapsing. Both were employed by J Keogh Plumbing Pty Ltd.

The inspector also found:

• there was no safe means of access/egress to and from the trench;
• the workers were not wearing hard hats;
• emergency procedures were not in place; and
• the apprentices were operating an excavator without supervision;

WorkSafe’s Executive Director, John Merritt, said the dangers of working in trenches were well known, as were the means of preventing injury or death.

“In this case, things could have got much worse than the leaking sewer pipe they were fixing.”

Safety checklists and guidance material on safe trenching is on WorkSafe’s website (www.worksafe.vic.gov.au) as can WorkSafe’s ‘Compliance and Enforcement Policy’.

OHS Recommendation - Safe Work Procedure for Trench Work

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06:29 am, Thursday 21 June, 2007

A 64-year-old boiler maker suffered serious burns after an accident at a Lane Cove industrial plant.

The Beacon Hill man was welding the top of a large steel vat when gases inside ignited, causing an explosion. The force of the explosion blew the hatch of the vat open, causing burns to the man’s back, legs and arm. Nearby workers heard the explosion and rushed to help the man, providing first aid until an ambulance arrived. He was stabilised at the scene before being taken to Royal North Shore Hospital with first, second and third degree burns to various parts of his body. He is currently in a stable condition.

A WorkCover Investigation into the accident has commenced.

OHS Recommendation - Welding Safe Work Procedure

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12:30 pm, Wednesday 20 June, 2007

Source: AAP

The asbestos-riddled ghost town of Wittenoom is being wiped off the map – literally.

The West Australian government announced today the site, where eight people continue to resist efforts to move them out, is no longer a designated town site and had been de-gazetted.

The move means Wittenoom, in the state’s north, will no longer be shown on maps and roads leading to contaminated areas can be permanently closed.

A government report on asbestos contamination in the former Pilbara mining town, released today, says there is an extreme risk of exposure to asbestos for the remaining residents.

There is also a high risk to the 40 Aboriginal people who regularly hunt and swim in the surrounding gorges and floodplains and a medium risk to up to 40 tourists who visit the area daily.

Regional Development Minister Jon Ford said the public health risk was unacceptable.

“The fact Wittenoom continues to attract people who are then potentially exposed to an unacceptable health risk is untenable.”

The report recommends demolishing the town and burying all asbestos-contaminated material as part of a larger remediation project.

It says the former townsite should be isolated by rerouting roads and removing the name from regional road signs.

The state government has been trying to close down Wittenoom since the 1970s.

It cut off power to the settlement in late 2005, but some hard-core residents have consistently refused to leave.

Mari Hartmann, 43, has lived in Wittenoom for 17 years and says he will stay on even though Wittenoom no longer officially exists.

“They’ve done everything they can, they’ve turned our power off, so it won’t make too much difference to us living here,” Mr Hartmann said.

“We love the place and we don’t want to leave.”

The government had offered him $43,000 for his house and $11,000 to move, he said.

“You can’t go anywhere with that, where can you go?“

The late mining magnate Lang Hancock began mining blue asbestos at Wittenoom Gorge in 1937 and Wittenoom was gazetted in 1950.

In their ignorance, original settlers used potentially deadly asbestos tailings in gardens, school yards, on the roads and at the race track.

The tailings, which can contain five per cent asbestos, were even used to build the airport.

Hundreds of the 20,000 people who lived in Wittenoom during the mining boom have died from asbestos-related diseases.

For more information – Visit Safely Handling Asbestos

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09:04 pm, Tuesday 19 June, 2007

Source: AAP

AN explosion at a Tasmanian food processing factory has left one worker badly injured and exposed 15 others to potentially harmful chemicals.

The blast occurred at the Simplot vegetable processing plant in Ulverstone, near Devonport in northern Tasmania, about 9.40am (AEST) today.

Tasmanian Ambulance Service regional supervisor Norris Hayes said the injured man, aged 50, had been mixing acids as part of his normal job.

“It exploded and threw him 2m backwards across the area he was working in, and he suffered very significant and serious injuries to his hand and both legs,” Mr Hayes said.

“He has very extensive glass injuries and acid burns on one hand and both his legs.”

He was admitted to the North West Regional Hospital in Burnie.

Paramedics decontaminated 15 staff inside the factory at the time who had been exposed to vapours and gases.

They were all taken to the same hospital for observation, Mr Hayes said.

“One of the acids he was working with was hydrofluoride, which is a very potent and corrosive acid with some nasty effects if it is breathed in or absorbed into the body,” Mr Hayes said.

OHS Workplace Standards and the company are investigating the cause of the explosion.

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