I have sometimes found that the objectives of Health and Safety are not always the same. When people talk about health and safety or a job is health and safety, the focus thereafter is invariably safety. I have thought of a few cases when Health and Safety concerns collide.
- When a mining haul road is damped down to minimise dust – and there is a safety issue because the road is slippery
- When hearing protection is worn to protect hearing and safety instructions and warnings are not as audible (only when the noise level is low)
- When a grill is placed on a vat to stop a person falling in and the lid does not seal, allowing vapours to escape
- When safety boots are mandated and skin problems arise from preservatives in the boot and the poor ventilation of safety boots
- When gloves are worn for mechanical protection and the skin gets hot and hydrated inside the gloves, enhancing local and systemic effects of chemicals (and contamination of sweat running down the arms into the gloves)
- When overalls are made electrically safe with zips and heavy fabric and a heat stress problem arises
- When irritancy is used to select chemicals. Benzene is less irritant than toluene which is less irritant than xylene. Toxicity is in the opposite order.
- When workers compensation statistics drive regulation. Injuries tend to get reported and compensated. Occupational disease is rarely compensated. Some 200 deaths a year in Australia from injury puts most of the regulatory focus on Safety. At least 2000 die from occupational disease (some say 5000 – one estimate is 7000), but most of the focus is on treating the disease. A minute amount of resources are given to prevention of occupational health conditions.
We need all the people who die from various diseases to die in one place on one day each year so there is a sea of bodies, to change community attitudes. A bit like having a couple of 9/11’s a year in Australia.
I’m not too sure what we would ask of the huge number of people with noise induced hear loss or industrial dermatitis.
