The Noggin Blog

In Australia, environmental health and safety risk is getting critical. On the contemporary events broadcast, A Current Affair, respiratory physician, Dr Ryan Hoy singled out the silicosis crisis, calling it “unprecedented” – even warning that silicosis was worse than asbestosis.

The reporting makes it clear: the silicosis crisis is back, and it’s particularly acute for stonemasons and other tradespeople. What happened?

We get it, deciding to digitize your manual processes and invest in safety management software is a big step. But after the decision’s made, there’ll still be a heavy lift ahead.

Risk managers in the world of hazardous operations are acutely aware of the need to implement stringent work controls: documented measures that go far beyond safe work protocols for more routine jobs. 

Nowadays, more people are working than ever before. And with the advent of remote work, those people are working from anywhere, at any time.

Accident reports show that as many as 90 percent of industrial accidents are attributable to human error. But poor procedures and processes can make those human errors well-nigh inevitable, especially in the world of hazardous work. And that’s why teams involved in non-routine work need to implement stringent work controls to keep everyone safe and reduce risk.

We’ve all been following major shifts in occupational health and safety. And perhaps, no one recent change has been bigger than the introduction of ISO 45001. The new ISO standard supplants OHSAS 18001 to give organizations of any size and in any market a systematic, integrated way to manage work safety risk.

The LINX Group is a pretty big deal in the logistics infrastructure and solutions space. How couldn’t it be? Built on more than a century’s worth of ports and logistics experience, the company brings together the skills and expertise of four market-leading operations. As a result, it boasts customers across a wide array of industries.

In the last decade, Australia and New Zealand launched broad-based reforms to retool their occupational health and safety systems. Australia implemented a rigorous harmonisation regime: its commonwealth Model Work Health and Safety Act now forms the basis of the majority of state WHS laws. New Zealand, then, used Australia’s Model Act as the basis for its regulations.

Nowadays, most jurisdictions impose a strict duty of care obligation on employers. In other words, employers must provide a baseline level of care for their employees, i.e. ensure security and safety. That requirement, however, doesn’t just apply to employees working within the four walls of the traditional office; it also extends to lone workers.