Industrial Relations Minister Cameron Dick launched the Sawmilling Industry Health and Safety Guide at a timber industry safety workshop recently.

More than 20,000 Queenslanders and their families depend on the timber industry for their livelihood. But working with chainsaws, rolling logs, chippers, heavy machinery and the like, often at height or in confined spaces, can be dangerous work.

Historically, the timber industry has been one of the state’s most dangerous, with higher-than-average injury rates. That’s why Workplace Health and Safety Queensland and the industry have teamed up to produce the Sawmilling Industry Health and Safety Guide.

The guide highlights safety issues involved in the industry such as the use of chain saws, docking saws, conveyors, cranes, heavy machinery and plant, power tools, ladders, scaffolding and fire pits. It also contains tips for operating safely in dangerous working conditions such as working at height, working in confined spaces and working with hazardous substances. It includes safety surveys and checklists, contacts, information on what to do in an emergency and advice on what your legal obligations are.

For more information visit www.worksafe.qld.gov.au

Please feel free to add any comments or experiences!

General

•Ensure work method statements prepared, signed off and available

•Ensure workers have general safety induction cards

•Display appropriate site signage

•Use appropriate safety gear

Work at heights

•Keep controls in place if risk of fall = 2 m for commercial and 3 m for domestic e.g. edge protection, catch platform

•Provide and use adequate work platforms e.g. 5 planks

•Ensure no gaps in perimeter protection

•Make sure penetrations covered/secured

Tools/equipment

•Ensure tools and equipment maintenance are in good condition

•Use tools and equipment for intended purposes only

•Make sure guards are in place when using tools and equipment

Falling objects

•Do not throw tools and materials down from heights

•Make sure brick guards/mesh are in place in scaffold

•Use exclusion zone and/or catch platform

•Ensure controls implemented for loads being lifted over adjoining areas e.g. adjoining area closed/gantry erected

Electrical

•Keep electrical equipment away from water

•Make sure earth leakage switch installed on mains supply

•Secure and protect extension leads from damage and used from individual power points with leads not exceeding 30 metres Keep testing and tagging current e.g 3 monthly

 Access/housekeeping

•Keep working area clear/tidy

•Manage trip hazards e.g. material neatly stacked

•Dispose excess mortar appropriately e.g. designated areas

Manual tasks

•Use mechanical equipment (e.g. forklifts, trolleys, cranes) to reduce the force needed to lift, carry, move, hold or restrain material and tools.

•Adjust equipment to minimise bending, twisting and over-reaching (e.g. adjust height of work platforms to avoid over-reaching).

•Change work practices or equipment to avoid repetitive actions or prolonged tasks (e.g. use a crane or elevator to lift bricks to work level to avoid throwing bricks).

Noise

•Wear Hearing protection when cutting timber and metal

•Ensure controls implemented to minimise exposure e.g. hearing protection.

Hazardous substances

•Make Materials Safety Data Sheets (MSDS) available for substances classified as hazardous (e.g. cement, lime, hydrochloric acid)

•Store hazardous substances safely and securely when not in use

•Train workers in safe handling of hazardous substances (e.g. wear gloves when handling hydrochloric acid)

•Label hazardous substances (includes safety and risk phrases)

•Do not store hazardous substances in food and/or drink containers (e.g. hydrochloric acid not stored in drink bottles)

Personal Protective Equipment

•Ensure workers wearing steel capped boots, hard hat with shade brim, high vis shirts and sunglasses if necessary

Amenities

•Provide sheltered meal area

•Ensure workers have access to toilets (1 toilet for each 15 workers or part thereof)

•Provide hand and face washing facilities (separate from toilets)

•Ensure workers have access to potable, clean and cool drinking water

•Make sure first aid equipment provided is hygienic and appropriate for the size and complexity of the project

Emergency preparedness and response

•Keep fire extinguishers available and testing current

•Make sure emergency evacuation plan available

•Brief workers on emergency evacuation plan

· Ensure that you have first aid facilities available

Sun protection

•Recognise ultraviolet radiation 3-7 protection required; 8-11 extra protection required

•Ensure protection by seeking shade, wearing sun protection clothing, broad brim hat, sunglasses and using sunscreen

•Wear clothing with a 30+ ultraviolet protection factor

•Wear safety helmets extra brims and neck covers fitted

•Wear sun glasses and 30 + sun protection

Occupational stress

•Monitor work demands and control over work

•Provide support systems for talking about tough situations at work

•Provide clear work structures, particularly through times of change

•Recognise and reward workers

Occupational violence

•Use design or engineering measures to change the physical characteristics of the workplace, to reduce the risk, where possible.

•Change the systems of work or work practices to help reduce risks. For example, train workers in aggressive behaviour management, including the recognition and diffusion of potentially volatile situations; ensure sufficient number of appropriately trained staff, where possible; provide for emergency communication; implement a system of communication and support for home visits.

1) Dealing with Aggression

Healthcare workers may be exposed to patients, family members or members of the public who display aggressive behaviour. In most cases, healthcare facilities will have well established procedures in place to deal with these situations however there are a few steps that you can follow when responding to this behaviour. •Remain calm – be polite and do not raise your voice.

• Call for assistance – contact another staff member to assist.

• Keep out of reach – it is important to keep your distance (two arms length at minimum)

• Do not antagonise – never abuse or ridicule. Also, let the aggressor leave and do not attempt to detain the person.

• And finally, report the incident to both your supervisor in the workplace and Nursing Australia. It is also important that you complete an incident report.

2) Manual Handling

Manual Handling refers to any activity requiring the use of force exerted by a person to lift, push, pull, carry or otherwise move or restrain any animate or inanimate object.

Manual handling continues to be a major cause of injuries in the healthcare industry therefore it is important that members follow correct manual handling procedures at all times. Whilst working in a healthcare facility, you should:

1 Ensure that you have had appropriate training in manual handling and that this is updated on a regular basis. If you require training, contact a Nursing Australia representative

2 Use equipment provided including hoists, slide boards and ensure that you report any faulty equipment to your supervisor immediately.

3 Be aware of the client’s safe work procedures in relation to manual handling. These provide step by step instructions on how to perform a task safely.

4 Always check a patient’s care plan, mobility assessments or any other patient specific manual handling plans prior to the transfer to ensure that you are using the correct transfer method.

5 Do not lift outside your capacity and do not be afraid to ask for help.

3) Infection Control

Due to exposure to biological hazards, healthcare workers face a risk of acquiring or spreading infections in the normal course of their work. It is therefore important that appropriate precautions are taken and these include;

1 Ensure that you follow Standard Precautions.

2 Wear Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) appropriate to the task (e.g. gloves, aprons, masks).

3 Ensure appropriate handling and disposal of sharps and other clinical waste. Also, never re-sheath needles.

4 Wash your hands frequently.

5 Ensure contaminated waste is disposed of in line with the client’s waste disposal procedure.

If you sustain a needle stick injury, it is important that you contact your supervisor and a Nursing Australia representative immediately.

4) Managing Fatigue

Given the nature of healthcare, healthcare workers often work long hours through shift work and overtime. Fatigue caused by a lack of sleep and/or physically and mentally demanding tasks, has the potential to impact significantly on an individual’s health and wellbeing as well as their ability to perform their duties safely. Fatigue can also compromise clinical care.

The following are tips to help prevent fatigue;

1 Ensure that you have had adequate sleep (7-9 hours daily is recommended for adults).

2 Manage your shifts and workload to ensure that you are not overworked that you have adequate breaks to allow for rest.

3 Take at least a 30 minutes break after 6 hours of work.

4 It is recommended that rostered hours not exceed 48 hours per week.

5 Maintain your health and fitness at a good level.

6 Take care when driving home after a night shift. Consider alternate transport methods.

Nursing Australia takes fatigue management seriously and manages this through shift allocation. It is however the member’s responsibility to advise us if they are working additional shifts with another employer and that actions are taken to manage their workload to prevent fatigue.

5) Slips, Trips and Falls

Slips, trips and falls are also a common cause of injuries in the healthcare industry. It is important that hazards leading to slips, trips and falls be identified and removed from the workplace to minimise the risk of injury.

The following are tips to minimise the risk of slips, trips and falls;

1 Wear appropriate non-slip footwear and if provided, wear gum boots when showering patients.

2 Remove any unnecessary materials or equipment in the work area.

3 Always use handrails when walking up and down stairs.

4 Ensure that spills are cleaned up immediately.

5 Don’t rush, particularly when using stairs.

6) Chemical Safety

It is important that care be taken when handling chemicals in the workplace as these may trigger physical reactions such as skin or respiratory tract irritation.

When using chemicals in the workplace, it is important to follow the safety instructions provided. This includes information on the labels as well as the information provided in the Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS). MSDS’ must be made available in the workplace for all hazardous substances. It is important that all members are aware of the location of these.

MSDS’ are important documents as they provide information on the chemical. Importantly they provide information on what controls need to be implemented when using the chemical such as PPE requirements. They also provide information on what to do in the event of exposure.

For more information please visit http://www.nursingaustralia.com

Many investigations find the injured worker did not follow procedures but I have never known a worker to deliberately harm themselves. Often the worker will be injured when attempting to keep production going (and their supervisor happy) by clearing a blocked or jammed machine that may involve disabling a safeguard or interlock. Production machinery is often powerful and when human flesh and bones come into contact with machinery parts, serious hand injuries or amputations can occur.

Where an employer uses guarding to reduce the risk of machine-related injuries, all machinery – even brand new machinery – must be guarded to a standard that prevents, so far as is reasonably practicable, access to hazardous moving parts

Our experience shows that the integrity of electronic safeguards represents about 10 per cent of incidents and accidents whereas physical access represents 70-90 per cent.

All gaps should be guarded to prevent access to hazardous parts.
For example:

• a finger can reach through a guard where all dangerous parts are further than a finger length (100mm) away
• gaps under safety barriers or enclosures may be up to 180mm but the gap must be reduced if dangerous parts are within arm’s reach (within 850mm)
• common access points to hazards are through product in-feed gaps.

A hazard warning sticker or sign will not prevent this risk and will not meet the employer’s legal obligations to provide safe plant and equipment.
Machine guards must be strong, tamper-proof and either interlocked or require a non standard tool to remove. Equipment should not be restarted without all safeguards in place (eg guards interlocked).

Once machinery has been assessed and upgraded to a ‘zero access’ standard, a robust machine isolation (or lock-out tag-out) program is required to protect machine maintenance workers.

Read the Guidance Note Guarding of machines

For more information on safety distances and gaps allowed in machine guards read Australian Standard 4024, Safety of Machinery Series.

Staying a safe distance from overhead powerlines can save lives, prevent injury and avoid costly damage, according to the Queensland Electrical Safety Office.

When operating vehicle mounted cranes, plant and other machinery look out for overhead powerlines to make sure your equipment will not enter the safety exclusion zone (no-go zone).

The very clear message from Queensland’s Electrical Safety Office is to “look up and live”.

The Electrical Safety Act 2002 specifies certain electrical safety obligations, and the Code of Practice – Working Near Exposed Live Parts gives practical advice on ways to meet these obligations by adopting safe work practices.

The no-go zone is most commonly three metres for powerlines on wood or concrete poles but could be up to eight metres for powerlines on steel pylons.

It is important to stay clear of the powerlines because you or your vehicle and equipment don’t need to touch the conductor to cause electrocution or place others at risk. Many powerlines carry high enough voltages that can cause the electricity to arc, or jump, through the air.

Dump trucks, vehicle loading cranes, cranes, concrete booms, excavating equipment, garbage trucks, farm equipment, and elevating platforms have all been involved in electrical incidents because they came within the no-go zone.

If you are making deliveries, assess the situation and locate your vehicle so that it does not enter the no-go zone.

For limited situations where no-go zones maybe reduced then legal requirements must be met before a person or machinery are permitted to enter a reduced no-go zone. This involves training which can be accessed through a registered training organisation and other industry bodies. Also permission must be obtained from the powerline owner.

Look up and live, especially when operating heavy or tall machinery around powerlines.

Information about electrical safety laws and no-go zones is available from the Electrical Safety Office at www.electricalsafety.qld.gov.au.

What are your thoughts and comments?  Please feel free to add any stories or experiences you’ve had!

Related articles

• Forklift Safety (safetyconcepts.com.au)

Ray makes some distinctions in the below article:

The JSA  was originally put in place to allow workers the opportunity to have a look at the task they were to do after all the procedural  and Job Planning systems had been completed; called Job Planning. This was to allow the decision to be made by Supervisors that the Team can do the task safely, controlling all known hazards.

What has happened in most places is that we disregard the procedures and Job Planning and go straight to the JSA to be the catch-all for approval and the system to do the job. 

What is being missed again is the NEW REAL TIME HAZARDS and the workers are disengaged as they are bored through a process that does not add value to the safety or efficiency on how to do the Job. In fact most use a Generic JSA which is a cross between a Procedure, Hazard Control Tool, Job step Plan, Hazard Risk Study and a permit. WOW! It is no wonder the workers are disengaged as they know how to do the job and not encouraged to spend some time trying to find the hidden hazards.

The real pity of how the JSA has evolved is that in the event of someone being hurt, Management always ask why the JSA didn’t indicate the hazard. The main reason is that the workers were not encouraged to look and hence didn’t see the hazard.

The misuse of the JSA process is the reason that good people are still hurting themselves doing jobs where new real time hazards are not detected.

What is needed is to ensure people are trained and competent in doing the job and then do a JSA to find real time hazards and then a personal Safety observation program, Step Back 5 x 5. JSA was to be a Workers Tool – simple and involve all people doing the task.

It is not simple now and is a Management Tool not a Workers Tool.

This needs to change to get workers engaged in the job.

Your comments?

Just having a written safety policy will not keep people from being hurt. You need to make sure you are taking an active effort to keep your employees harm free. Here are some ways:

1. First Aid Training – No office wants any sort of accident where someone gets hurt, but if it were to happen, are your staff trained to help a hurt colleague? Basic First Aid training should be offered to all of your employees so they will know what to do in the event of an emergency.  By knowing what to do, and what not to do, an employee’s injuries may be kept from becoming worse.
2. Lessen Stress – While some think that stress is a ‘mental problem’, it also has many physical ramifications. Stress can lead to illnesses, keeping an employee from being able to attend work. At work stress can cause an employee to be less focused and more prone to making mistakes in which they, or someone else, can be hurt. Offer stress management seminars or even known stress reduction courses, such as yoga, or a quiet break room where they can take short time-outs as necessary.
3. Know Your Risks – While you may think you know all there is to know about the risks facing your workplace, there are a lot of things you may not notice that are threats. Once in a while, it pays to call in a professional. There are plenty of risk assessment groups that will come into your business and look for any potential threats that you had not noticed.
4. Learn Safety Laws – There is nothing to get your mind noticing problems like really knowing what the laws are.  Keep on top of the safety laws relating to your industry. The more you know, the more you may notice what needs to be fixed or improved in your workplace.
5. Routine is the Enemy – It’s too easy to get used to the routine of the workday. As you go through the mechanics of the job, you may not be noticing problems. Mix up your work schedule to help avoid this. In addition to keeping from complacency, you could also be keeping yourself from suffering with repeat work strain injuries.

Chances are that those least likely to be involved in incidents or accidents but are, are in fact victims of their own complacency, a lack of vigilance due to familiarity of task. One reason why people are assumed less susceptible to accidents or incidents is because they are deemed experienced. They have been doing what they do for a long time and know their job like the proverbial back of their hands. Herein lies the trap. As confidence grows, so too does the very real risk of becoming unaware of latent task related hazards. A loss of situational awareness occurs.

Living and working safely is a time-acquired existence. It is not something that automatically befalls us. We need to proactively maintain workable safety conditions in and around our personal space, and that is both at home and at work, to guarantee an acceptably safe environment. Now, before that’s misinterpreted as cocooning ourselves in cotton wool or donning suits of armour in the interests of safety, I did say “workable safety conditions.” So how do we achieve “workable safety?” We improve our basic levels of vigilance, which guards against complacency and thus, a loss of situational awareness.

So, how does complacency develop, how does it creep into your existence? It has to do with ongoing exposure to experiences that remain free of undesirable outcomes. A generic example to put it all into context:
 
Travelling along in your car, you decide to change lanes. Your recent attendance of a defensive driving seminar has you applying all of your newly acquired driving skills. You indicate with the mandatory 5 flashes of your indicator, check your blind spot by looking over your shoulder and gently accelerate into the vacant right lane. All very cool. A few months later, travelling on the same stretch of road at the same time of day, making for the same destination, you decide to change lanes. Five mandatory flashes of your indicator, you apply your now somewhat forgotten driving skills and gently accelerate into that “vacant” right lane.
 
The blaring hooter of an irate baseball bat wielding bogun has you realising that you’re about to become part of your state Road Rage Statistics. Veering back into your lane you look sheepishly ahead as Conan the Barbarian cruises past giving you the thousand foot stare for your transgressions, eagerly seeking opportunity to belt you with his bat! Sound familiar? I’m sure it does!! You’ve just become a victim of complacency by not checking your blind spot.

The key to avoiding complacency lies in proactively doing the following:

• Develop and practice your own safety habits until you are spontaneously safe.
• Share your complacency-related incidents no matter how big a “Goose” you feel.
• Find out what others are doing to stay vigilant.

Improve your situational awareness by thinking about what it is you’re about to do and whether your “doing” will achieve the desired outcome.

Remember, to err is human. Error consequence is directly proportional to your situational awareness.

Think back to when you were a kid in school. Do you remember the various hazard drills you had to practice? Depending on where you lived there were fire drills, tornado drills, earthquake drills, intruder drills, etc. The idea was that if such an incident were to happen, everyone would know what to do without thinking about it. They would just act.

Why is it that once we get into the working world, it seems these drills go by the wayside? Whether you are just in an office building where you could be threatened by fire or tornados, or a shop where there could be industrial accidents like chemical spills, why is it we don’t always think to conduct these same ‘worst case’ scenario drills?

It’s time to reinstate the emergency drill. But this will not be just any emergency drill. All businesses are different, and that means you will have specific needs that have to be met. Think about what needs to be met in your workplace in an emergency. 

Possible Threats
In addition to the fire and nature-related threats already mentioned, are there any specific threats that may impact your workplace (i.e. radiation leaks, chemical spills, explosions from combustibles). If there are, you need to train your personnel on how to deal with these situations were they to arise.

Employee Safety
It is important to make sure your employees know where they need to go, and how to get there, to be safe in an emergency situation.

Machine Shutdown
If you have a number of machines operating in your building, and some need to be monitored or assisted while running so they don’t burn up or cause more problems, you need a shut-down procedure that can be followed quickly while still getting your employees to safety in an emergency situation.

Materials Safety
If your workplace has a number of chemicals or other hazardous materials in use, it is vital that you have measures in place to attempt to secure these materials as an evacuation or other emergency operation is underway. Many of these types of companies have special rooms where the chemicals are kept which can be shut and sealed off as an evacuation is happening.

You should plan regular drills with your employees to make sure they know what to do, when to do it, and how to do it in case of an emergency. While you may not want to regularly close down all your operations for a drill, you can go department by department, and make the employees do a mock incident, and monitor their reactions, noting any mistakes they make in the process. 

While it may seem like an inconvenience, the more prepared your company is for the worst the better chance you will be able to safely shut down operations and get everyone out alive and well if the worst were to happen.