Ep.53 Do parachutes prevent injuries and deaths?
Topics:
Are parachutes for life-risking activities or a life-saving tool? Measuring the usefulness of parachutes. The arguments against evidence-based medicine. When and why you only need a small sample size. Why it’s hard to design an experiment to translate to real-world results. Why we need more experiments on events with direct causal mechanisms. Practical takeaways.
Quotes:
“…They hide a few key considerations. One of the big ones is, that it’s not really a choice between at the point you have to jump out of a plane, whether to wear a parachute or not; it’s things like, do we make laws that all planes should carry parachutes just in case?”
“So it’s not just that more research is needed, it’s that more research is almost guaranteed to reverse the result of this bad study.”
“Very often, when it’s come to the practicality of how do we investigate this within an organization, we’ve decided that an experiment is not the best use of our time and resources.”
A damning occupational health and safety report has revealed how a “lack of structure and systems poses risk of serious harm” for Betsi Cadwaladr Health Board staff.
The report, presented to the board’s meeting on Thursday, highlighted “serious concern over the management of key areas” concerning staff safety.
It said the failures have left the board open to “enforcement action, prosecution and fines for the most serious offences” and calls for a “fundamental shift in the safety culture”.
Despite a catalogue of faults in how it manages health and safety, violence on health board premises is following a worrying trend.
Webinar: Can digital technology help embed a strong patient safety culture?
The issue of patient safety is – rightly – never far from the headlines, and that includes in the midst of a pandemic. Despite scandals over quality of care in recent years, it is clear that embedding a strong culture of safety throughout the health service is a constant and continuing mission.
Earlier this year, for instance, it was announced that Bill Kirkup would be leading an inquiry into maternity services at East Kent Hospitals University Foundation Trust – five years after he investigated such services at University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay FT.
What does continue to evolve, however, are digital solutions intended to bolster patient safety. Can such solutions help support a strong safety culture? What are the challenges in using technology in this context? How might they be overcome? In what specific ways can emerging digital solutions potentially help clinicians improve patient safety?
WorkSafe shuts down 12 Throsby construction sites over safety concerns
Twelve residential construction sites were shut down in Throsby by WorkSafe ACT last week after a spate of prohibition notices were issued, predominately in relation to unsafe scaffolding.
WorkSafe also issued 42 improvement notices and four infringement notices for unsafe electrical and falling risks that came with an $11,000 price tag.
The infringements were handed out after an inspection blitz of 18 residential construction sites in Throsby on Wednesday (4 November) as part of Operation Safe Prospect, an ongoing campaign to improve industry safety.
Inspectors have been alarmed at the lack of workplace health and safety compliance on residential construction sites in greenfield suburbs, Work Health and Safety Commissioner Jacqueline Agius said.
READ ALSO: Scars of workplace motivate WorkSafe commissioner’s crackdown
“We continue to see the same issues on construction sites such as scaffolding safety and risk of falls from heights, poor site security, a lack of signage, electrical hazards, poor housekeeping, and a lack of basic facilities, like toilets, for workers,” she said.
“The safety culture needs to improve so workers in this industry can go home safely at the end of their shift.
“It is time to get real about safety in the ACT.”
Federal regulators issue record fines against TVA over Watts Bar startup problems in 2015
Federal regulators have slapped the biggest combined civil penalties ever against the Tennessee Valley Authority for a handful of violations of federal regulations during the restart of one of its Tennessee nuclear reactors.
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Friday proposed three fines totaling $903,471 against TVA for providing inaccurate and insufficient information to regulators and violating proper procedures in November 2015 when pressurized water levels rose uncontrollably during the restart of the Unit 1 reactor at the Watts Bar Nuclear Plant near Spring City, Tennessee.
The NRC also issued citations against two managers and the plant operator at Watts Bar for their roles in the 2015 incident and for failing to adequately investigate and correct the problem.
Although the incident did not ultimately cause any harm to the public or plant employees, NRC investigators criticized TVA’s safety culture and approach to running its newest nuclear plant where TVA also added another nuclear reactor in 2016. That reactor remains the last new commercial reactor added to America’s power grid.
In a letter to TVA Friday, the head of NRC’s enforcement special project team, Kenneth G. O’Brien, singled out the top officials at Watts Bar five years ago for not giving plant operators enough discretion to stop or delay plant operations unless they could directly prove there was a safety problem.
UPDATE - Lithuanian President Urges EU To Stop Commissioning Of ‘Unsafe’ Belarusian NPP The first Belarusian NPP started generating power on Tuesday. Lithuania has immediately ceased all power trading with its neighbor.
The Lithuanian Foreign Ministry, in turn, sent a note of protest to Belarus on Wednesday.
“Belarus is urged to postpone the commissioning of its nuclear facility until the highest standards of nuclear safety and environmental requirements have been met,” the ministry said in a press release.
According to the ministry, the NPP has been constructed in violation of the Espoo and Aarhus conventions and Belarus has maintained only “selective cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency.”
“Lithuania also reminds that Belarus has so far failed to answer questions regarding a proper seismic safety assessment of the Ostrovets site, its potential impact on the environment and the population of our country, safety culture, resilience to the impact of a heavy aircraft crash, and other issues raised by the responsible Lithuanian authorities,” it continued.
Federal Appeals Court Deals Blow to OSHA’s Ability to Cite Repeat Violations On Tuesday, October 27, 2020, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit issued a long- awaited decision in Sec’y of Labor v. Wynnewood Refining Co., LLC. That case originated in 2012 when OSHA inspected the company following a boiler explosion that killed two employees. OSHA issued several repeat citation items under the Process Safety Management (PSM) standard. The company litigated the validity of the citations and repeat classifications at trial and the Administrative Law Judge affirmed all but one of the PSM violations but changed several repeat violations to serious. The ALJ found that the violations occurred under Wynnewood, Inc. and not Wynnewood LLC, a new company formed in December 2011 after Wynnewood, LLC’s parent company acquired all the stock in Wynnewood, Inc’s parent company.
On appeal to the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission (“the Commission”), the Commission upheld the PSM violations but declined to find repeat liability finding that OSHA did not satisfy the substantial continuity test. Under that test, the Commission considers the totality of the circumstances of the change in ownership to determine whether the current company should be held liable for repeat citations based on citations from the previous company. In making this determination, the Commission applies a three-factor test: (1) the nature of the business, including the continuity in the type of business products or services offered and customers served to determine whether the activities associated with the business and the inherent safety and health considerations have changed; (2) the jobs and working conditions because of their close correlation with particular safety and health hazards; and (3) the continuity of personnel, specifically those who control decisions related to safety and health because their decisions related directly to how well the employer complies with the requirements of the Occupational Safety and Health Act.
The Commission found that the first two factors leaned in favor finding substantial continuity test, but OSHA did not satisfy the third factor. Although there were many supervisors who were the same at either company, “these managers merely implemented the safety policies set by the previous parent company and then the new parent company because new management focuse[d] on improving safety, health, and the proper implementation of [the] PSM [standard]” and that it made substantial investments in safety personnel and equipment, causing a “safety culture shift.”
The Tenth Circuit determined that the Commission correctly applied the substantial continuity test. The Tenth Circuit then reviewed the Commission’s decision under the substantial evidence standard, in which the appellate court asks whether a reasonable mind would consider the evidence adequate to support the conclusion, without reweighing the evidence, second-guessing the factual inferences made from the evidence, or substituting their own judgment on witness credibility. In so doing, the Tenth Circuit determined that substantial evidence in the record supported the Commission’s finding that there was no substantial continuity between Wynnewood, Inc. and Wynnewood.
This decision affects employers across all industries on the issue of repeat citations when companies change ownership and the new ownership makes significant safety improvements. This decision reinforces the Commission’s decision which properly recognized that a new owner should not be penalized for the OSHA history of its predecessor, where it is striving to improve safety and health in the workplace. It also represents a check on OSHA’s authority to issue Repeat citations.
Are Generational Categories Meaningful Distinctions for Workforce Management?
Headlines frequently appear that purport to highlight the differences among workers of different generations and explain how employers can manage the wants and needs of each generation. But is each new generation really that different from previous ones? Are there fundamental differences among generations that impact how they act and interact in the workplace? Or are the perceived differences among generations simply an indicator of age-related differences between older and younger workers or a reflection of all people adapting to a changing workplace?
Are Generational Categories Meaningful Distinctions for Workforce Management?
Headlines frequently appear that purport to highlight the differences among workers of different generations and explain how employers can manage the wants and needs of each generation. But is each new generation really that different from previous ones? Are there fundamental differences among generations that impact how they act and interact in the workplace? Or are the perceived differences among generations simply an indicator of age-related differences between older and younger workers or a reflection of all people adapting to a changing workplace?
The Navy and Marine Corps are proud to have gone a full year without a fatal aircraft crash
The Navy and Marine Corps are pleased to announce that, for the first time in nearly a century of United States naval aviation, the services have collectively managed to not lose any pilots in the last year.
Navy and Marine Corps aviators closed out fiscal year 2020 without a single fatality resulting from aviation mishaps, the service announced on Monday.
“After 98 years of recorded aviation history, this unprecedented milestone serves as testimony to the Naval Aviation Enterprise’s tireless commitment toward fostering a safety culture of excellence,” Naval Safety Center chief Rear Adm. F.R. “Lucky” Luchtman said in a statement.
While the reduction in mishaps accompanied a 10 percent reduction in flying hours due to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the Navy noted that both services continued to perform “approximately” 90 percent of their missions with the same standard flight risks.
“It’s a remarkable achievement that’s really the result of years of training, proficiency and adopting a good safety culture,” said Capt. Scott Kramarik, NAVSAFECEN director of aviation safety programs, said in a statement. “Without that, there’s no way we could’ve gotten here.”
U.S. Coast Guard Signals Intent to Require Safety Management Systems
More than 6000 U.S. flag commercial vessels carry more than 200 million passengers annually on domestic voyages in the United States. These include ferries, dinner-cruise vessels, sightseeing and excursion vessels, dive boats, and overnight cruise vessels, among many others, operating along the coastlines and internal waters throughout the United States. By way of comparison, prior to the coronavirus pandemic, approximately 14 million passengers annually embarked on large cruise ships that call on ports throughout North America.
… Safety Culture: Last, but certainly not least, perhaps the single greatest factor in determining the effectiveness of any SMS is the “safety culture” of the company. Establishing and maintaining that level of corporate commitment from top to bottom is hard work. While a strong safety culture will not completely eliminate the risk of a casualty, it is undeniably essential to implementing an efficient and effective SMS.
IFALPA Calls for Immediate Release of Russian Air Traffic Controllers
MONTREAL–(BUSINESS WIRE)– The International Federation of Air Line Pilots’ Associations (IFALPA) was extremely disappointed to learn about the final verdict passed by a Court of the Russian Federation where three Air Traffic Controllers were sentenced to 5, 5 ½ and 6 years imprisonment in the aftermath of the take-off accident of a Unijet Falcon 50 at Moscow-Vnukovo airport on 20 October 2014.
This decision to single out and punish individuals who are already under intense psychological pressure due to an accident will not prevent a similar event from happening again. It is extremely detrimental to flight safety to criminally prosecute individuals involved in aviation accidents, as such prosecutions have the potential to seriously hinder our ability to learn from incidents and accidents so that future mishaps can be prevented.
Further, sentencing these controllers shows a complete disregard for the positive safety culture principles laid out by Annexes 13 (Aircraft Accident and Incident Investigation) and 19 (Safety Management) to the Convention on International Civil Aviation, and for the work of the technical experts who were assigned to this investigation. It may also lead the general public to conclude that the accident resulted from the controllers’ intentional acts, rather than technical issues or a string of simple errors caused by multiple factors.
Ep. 47 Does individual blame lessen the ability to learn from failure?
Topics: Accountability in regards to safety in the workplace. The papers referenced are commentaries, instead of studies. Policy shifting to no-blame reporting systems. A Tale of Two Stories gives two narrative perspectives on one incident. Employee voice. A climate of voice vs. a climate of silence. Creating communication opportunities. How blame can be a default. Practical takeaways from the discussion.
Quotes: “ ‘Employee voice’ covers a whole range of behaviors that people can do in organizations that are discretionary.”
“Ironically, when they spoke to a number of managers…as part of the study, managers believed they were encouraging employees to speak up, but on the other hand, they’re employing all sorts of informal tactics to silence this dissent.”
“There’s so many broader forces in their organization that are seeking resolution…that if you enable an approach where an individual can be blamed, then I think that will be the dominant logic in your investigation…”
Bipartisan House Bill Aims to Fix Boeing 737 Max Safety Lapses
The top Democrat and Republican on the House’s transportation committee unveiled a bill on Monday aimed at addressing some of the problems that contributed to two fatal crashes of Boeing’s 737 Max jet.
Many of the changes in the bill, which is expected to be formally announced on Tuesday, would fix safety lapses that Democrats on the committee identified in a scathing report less than two weeks ago. The report blamed Boeing and the Federal Aviation Administration for a series of safety failures.
“For the past 18 months, the Boeing 737 Max has been synonymous with the tragic loss of 346 innocent people, a broken safety culture at Boeing and grossly insufficient oversight by the F.A.A.,” Representative Peter A. DeFazio of Oregon, the Democratic chairman of the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, said in a statement. “And like many people, I was alarmed and outraged by many of the findings that were revealed over the course of our committee’s investigation into the certification of this aircraft.”
The 85-page bill is sponsored by Representative Sam Graves of Missouri, the committee’s top Republican, and Representative Rick Larsen, the Washington State Democrat who leads the aviation subcommittee. It includes dozens of changes, including strengthening whistle-blower protections and requiring experts to review Boeing’s safety culture and make recommendations for improvement.
The bill also requires that manufacturers give the F.A.A., airlines and pilots detailed information about any system that can alter a plane’s flight path without input from a pilot. One such system, MCAS, has been blamed, at least in part, for the crashes of the Max in Ethiopia and Indonesia. In their report, the committee’s Democrats accused Boeing of downplaying the role of that system in the design of the Max to avoid a time-consuming federal review.
Ep.46 Is risk compensation a real thing?
Topics:
Defining risk compensation. Risk compensation in road traffic. Argument by analogy. What causes people to believe in risk compensation. Why robust data equals a real effect. Practical takeaways.
Quotes:
“…I think this is the sort of phenomenon that causes people to believe in risk compensation.”
“Basically, what they’re saying is, if there was a real effect, it would be robust regardless of how you crunched the data.”
“Just because someone does lots of citing of literature or quotes from scientific literature, doesn’t mean that their interpretation of that literature is rigorous and scientific.”
2019 Port Industry Accident Statistics Published: Accident Stats Show Positive Trend www.hellenicshippingnews.com/2019-port…
The Accident Stats Report clearly demonstrates that considerable progress has been made over the last two decades, fostered by an ever increasing atmosphere of cooperation between ports operators. However, there is still work to be done. While accident rates have declined since 2018, the longer trend indicates that accidents have plateaued. To remedy this, PSS has developed an initiative called the “Whole Person” approach. By addressing the mental and general health of workers as well as onsite skills, core safety systems and safety culture all together, organisations can help to crack the industry’s accident plateau.
Twenty-four organisations declared zero Lost Time Injuries in 2019, indicating that accidents are not inevitable, and we encourage our members to keep up the momentum and proactively work with PSS to protect Britain’s frontline.
PSS is the UK’s professional ports health and safety membership organisation. We exist to promote continuous improvement in health, safety and skills in ports. PSS is recognised by Government departments and agencies, including the Department for Transport, Health and Safety Executive and the Maritime and Coastguard Agency.
Safety Culture Assessments: Similar for Freight and Commuter Rail Operations, Report Says
The Short Line Safety Institute (SLSI) can expand its freight railroad Safety Culture Assessments (SCA) to another industry sector: commuter rail. A recent study shows that its multimethod assessment process, which has been conducted across 90 short lines to date, is transferable.
SLSI defines “safety culture” as “the shared values, actions and behaviors that demonstrate a commitment to safety over competing goals and demands.” It has been conducting “voluntary, non-punitive, confidential” SCAs at short lines and regionals since 2015. SLSI also offers technical assistance for implementing changes and conducts follow-up assessments.
An analysis of the methodology and outcomes of an SCA conducted at a commuter railroad in 2019 has found that the process produced the “same robust result” as an SCA conducted at a freight railroad. The Federal Railroad Administration Office of Research, Technology and Development published the study earlier this month.
The commuter rail SCA only required two notable procedural changes. Additional federal regulations specific to commuter operations had to be evaluated. Also, SLSI assessors rode the trains as passengers as part of their observations. (In freight railroad SCAs, assessors do not ride trains.) Maintenance and mechanical observation procedures remained the same.
Reps. DeFazio, Larsen release Boeing 737 MAX report
A report from the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure has found that serious flaws in design, management, and oversight of the Boeing 737 MAX led to two deadly crashes that killed 346 people.
U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-OR), chair of the committee, and Rep. Rick Larsen (D-WA), chair of the subcommittee on Aviation, released the report Wednesday.
The 238-page report found repeated and serious failures by both The Boeing Company and the Federal Aviation Administration. The report identified five central themes and more than six dozen investigative findings.
“Our report lays out disturbing revelations about how Boeing—under pressure to compete with Airbus and deliver profits for Wall Street—escaped scrutiny from the FAA, withheld critical information from pilots, and ultimately put planes into service that killed 346 innocent people. What’s particularly infuriating is how Boeing and FAA both gambled with public safety in the critical time period between the two crashes,” DeFazio said. “On behalf of the families of the victims of both crashes, as well as anyone who steps on a plane expecting to arrive at their destination safely, we are making this report public to put a spotlight not only on the broken safety culture at Boeing but also the gaps in the regulatory system at the FAA that allowed this fatally-flawed plane into service. Critically, our report gives Congress a roadmap on the steps we must take to reinforce aviation safety and regulatory transparency, increase Federal oversight, and improve corporate accountability to help ensure the story of the Boeing 737 MAX is never, ever repeated.”
The themes included: production pressures that jeopardized the safety of the flying public; faulty design and performance assumptions; a culture of concealment; conflicted representation, and Boeing’s influence of the FAA’s Oversight structure.
“The Committee’s thorough investigation uncovered errors that are difficult to hear, but necessary to confront about the 737 MAX certification,” Larsen said. “This report, combined with the findings and recommendations from the Lion Air and Ethiopian Airlines investigations, National Transportation Safety Board, Joint Authorities Technical Review and other entities, serve as a roadmap for changes to the FAA certification process. The 346 victims of the two tragic crashes and their families, as well as the traveling public, rightfully expect Congress to act. As the Committee moves into the next phase of oversight, I will continue to work with Chair DeFazio and my colleagues to address the significant cultural and structural deficiencies identified in the report in order to improve safety.”
Uber Expands Self-Driving Safety Report After NTSB Slams Culture
So far, 23 companies have made their self-driving safety assessments public, according to NHTSA, including Apple Inc., Ford Motor Co., General Motors Co., Lyft Inc., Mercedes-Benz AG, Toyota Motor Corp. and Waymo. Beuse, a former NHTSA associate administrator for vehicle safety research, said Uber is among a handful that have updated its voluntary disclosures.
The fatality occurred around 10 p.m. on March 18, 2018, when a 49-year-old woman was hit by a 2017 Volvo XC90 SUV operated autonomously by Uber, according to police in the Phoenix suburb. Authorities said the vehicle was in self-drive mode with a safety operator behind the wheel when the pedestrian, who was walking a bicycle outside of a crosswalk, was struck. She died at a local hospital.
The NTSB voted in 2019 that the probable cause of the crash was “the failure of the vehicle operator to monitor the environment and the operation of the automated driving system because she was visually distracted throughout her trip by her personal cellphone.”
The board also cited three shortcomings by Uber: the company’s inadequate safety risk assessment procedures; ineffective oversight of vehicle operators; and lack of adequate mechanisms to address complacency by operators as the cars drove themselves.
The Tempe crash roiled the debate about self-driving cars in Washington, where legislation was being considered to drastically increase the number of such cars auto manufacturers would have been able to put on public roads. Uber suspended all testing of self-driving cars for four months before resuming testing in Pittsburgh in July 2018. The company closed its driverless testing program in Arizona and let go almost 300 workers there in May 2018.
Consumer advocates have seized on the incident to urge tougher regulations of self-driving cars.
“It’s nice that Uber has decided this is the right time to update its so-called report, but a consumer-focused agency would have long ago mandated all driverless vehicle manufacturers regularly submit useful safety details regarding their public road tests,” said Jason Levine, executive director of the Center for Auto Safety.
NTSB members applauded Uber for cooperating with its nearly two-year-long investigation when it released its findings in late 2019, but also cited an “ineffective safety culture” that played a role in the 2018 crash.
TWU IN NEW CALL FOR CLEANAWAY CRASH PROBE REOPENING
The management revelations engulfing waste handling and transport firm Cleanaway have put a cloud over its safety culture.
Led by the Australian Financial Review, mainstream media reports focusing on CEO Vik Bansal have elicited an “independent investigation” and a stern public warning from the company’s board on any “unacceptable conduct and an acknowledgement of the “feedback” from Bansal.
The board says it has implemented a range of measures including executive leadership mentoring, enhanced reporting, and monitoring of the CEO’s conduct.
Despite a huge improvement in injury reduction, the conduct so far has reported led to a culture of fear that hindered bad news being passed up the management chain, experienced managers leaving, pressure on truck drivers to perform other duties when vehicles were awaiting maintenance and cost-cutting impinging on upgrades to its fleet of 4,000 waste vehicles and garbage trucks.
The issues have caught the attention of the Transport Workers’ Union (TWU), which reiterates its call for South Australia’s SafeWork SA to reopen its investigation on fatal crash on Adelaide’s South Easter Freeway.
Maritime Workers Back Ports Of Auckland Health And Safety Review
The Maritime Union is backing a health and safety review at Ports of Auckland.
The inquiry was announced on 14 September by Auckland Mayor Phil Goff after the death of a stevedore working as a lasher aboard a ship at the port on 30 August.
Maritime Union National Secretary Joe Fleetwood says the Union has repeatedly called for a review of safety practices at all ports in New Zealand.
He welcomed the announcement by the Mayor and the interest from the Minister of Transport Phil Twyford in the issue.
“It’s very sad another worker had to die before this much needed review of the industry was announced.”
Mr Fleetwood says the health and safety culture is a national issue at ports, not just at Auckland.
“When you combine long hours, night shifts and relentless pressure for productivity, then the result is workers being killed and injured on the job.”
Mr Fleetwood says the Union has always maintained that owners of ports have the responsibility to ensure the wellbeing of all port workers.
Ep.44 What do we mean when we talk about safety culture?
Topics:
How “safety culture” came about in the 1970’s. What Chernobyl has to do with safety culture. Safety culture vs. safety climate. What the paper studied and what it concluded. The factors that influence the definition of safety culture. Who studies and talks about safety culture the least. Types of studies done on safety culture. Practical takeaways.
Quotes:
“The argument is, really, that culture only matters, because it influences climate. And climate’s what we measure and what we try to change.”
“42% of the papers are by engineering authors. 30% of them are by psychology authors. 14% from the health sciences. 10% from the social sciences. 3% from business. Which I find remarkable, given that organizational culture comes out of social science of organizations.”
“…That’s remarkable that 30% of the papers weren’t empirical in any sense. They were just people talking about safety culture as if they knew about it or summarizing other people who had talked about it.”
Metro To Investigate Top Manager After Audit Describes ‘Toxic’ And Dangerous Culture
Metro will conduct an independent review of a senior WMATA rail employee following an audit report that called Metro’s Rail Operations Control Center a “toxic workplace” with a culture “antithetical to safety.”
The audit, conducted by the Washington Metrorail Safety Commission (WMSC), found that senior rail operations leadership “regularly directed controllers to ignore procedures and checklists” that concerned safety. In particular, it said that on multiple occasions, Senior Vice President for Rail Services Lisa Woodruff “violated or instructed controllers to violate safety procedures.”
The audit also said that Woodruff told employees not to talk to the auditors and pressured workers to “paint a rosy picture” of the control center during an internal review.
“We take these allegations seriously,” Metro General Manager Paul Wiedefeld wrote in a memo to staff on Thursday. “For this reason, WMATA’s General Counsel has directed an outside law firm to conduct an independent review of the personnel matter.”
Do you need a health and safety representative? Do you need a health and safety representative? Gary Wilcox from health and safety system Monit, used by hundreds of Australian bodyshops advises us.
Short answer, no. Best answer, yes.
Firstly, the role of a Health & Safety Rep (HSR) is not to fix health and safety problems, nor be an expert on WHS issues, however the benefits of having one is good for both the business and workers.
BENEFITS:
•Having a HSR is a clear statement to the authorities your organisation is committed to health and safety by engaging workers to have a responsible role in assisting the organisation to improve its safety culture.
•Their role is to represent workers’ WHS issues that often need to be actively communicated to the business.
•They can often provide an effective way of linking the business to the workforce when it comes to improving safety on the ground. This is particularly helpful in a larger organisation with diverse workers.
•They provide an additional set out of eyes on how effective the business’ health and safety is.
BEWARE
Using a third party, off the shelf health and safety system in your panel shop is not in itself a silver bullet to compliance. The real secret to these systems working effectively is to ensure your workers are proactive towards the business’s goal of improving productivity in a safe manner. In other words, a great health and safety system is no match for a poor safety culture.
Lubrizol fire: a vast epidemiological investigation launched Tuesday on more than 5,000 people
Did the fire at the Lubrizol factory, on the night of September 25 to 26, 2019, have any impact on the health of the inhabitants of the Rouen conurbation? To determine this, Public Health France announced on Monday August 31 that a large epidemiological study will be launched on Tuesday “to describe the health and quality of life of the population” following the spectacular fire at the chemical plant.
Nearly 10,000 tonnes of chemicals had burned on the Lubrizol site and on that of its neighbor Normandie Logistique. A 22 km long cloud of black smoke had formed. For several weeks or even months after the accident, residents of the Rouen metropolitan area complained of odors emanating from the site but also of symptoms such as headaches or vomiting. In mid-August, the residents of the factory had thus noted an increase in bad odors and hydrocarbon-like fumes, reported France 3 Normandy.
This survey will be carried out among 5,200 inhabitants of Seine-Maritime selected at random, to analyze the “fire perception” by the population and “the impact on his health”, said the health agency, which had mentioned the launch of this study in early June.
“4,000 adults and 1,200 children” of 122 municipalities in this department will be invited to answer an online or telephone questionnaire, in order to collect “information on their perception of this industrial disaster and their exposure to the nuisances and pollution it generated, on the symptoms and health problems that may have been experienced during the accident and its consequences, as well as on their state of current health “. The study will also interview 1,000 adults and 250 children living in Le Havre and its surroundings, the “control zone”.
“The first results of the study will be available at the end of 2020-beginning of 2021”, adds Public Health France, specifying that “this survey is part of a set of epidemiological studies set up (…) to assess the overall impact on health, in the medium and long term, of this large-scale industrial accident”, baptized “Santé Post Incendie 76”.
In early June, the Senate commission of inquiry into the disaster published a report denouncing health monitoring “late and incomplete” and a lack of “risk culture in France”.
The plant partially restarted in mid-December. It was authorized in mid-July to significantly increase its activity by the Seine-Maritime prefecture, which considered that the reduction in the quantities stored and the security measures undertaken allowed “to limit the probability and consequences of a fire”.