Darren Marinoff
Principal Consultant – Occupational Hygiene, Greencap
The high-risk nature of the Mining and Resources industry prescribes multiple layers of safety requirements that workers need to undertake to access a site and carry out specific works safely.
Greencap’s depth of experience in occupational health and safety within the Mining and Resources Industry includes the organisation’s engagement by the South Australian Mining and Quarrying Health and Safety Committee to undertake Respirable Crystalline Silica (RCS) monitoring at various mines and quarries throughout South Australia as part of their Health Surveillance Program. This project alone saw over 1,000 personal and static monitoring samples collected throughout 2016 to 2018.
This presentation will first give background information on the hazards of RCS dust and the risks of exposure. Analysis of the data collected from the monitoring programs will be presented with a focus on elevated exposures relating to Similar Exposure Groups, operational locations and mined/quarried products. Discussion will be presented on observations of existing controls and their effectiveness together with use of respiratory protective devices and a fit testing program conducted during the third year of the program.
Tim Mills
Product Manager – Environmental Monitoring, Ampcontrol
Ampcontrol delivers integrated electrical, electronic and control solutions to improve safety and efficiency in mining, renewable, infrastructure and industrial applications. From the most complex electrical infrastructure to the most hazardous industrial environments, we engineer solutions which focus on whole of life optimisation.
Drawing on the multi-disciplined technical resources within our business, we step outside the conventions of traditional problem solving, and seek new ways to improve electrical infrastructure design through smart electronics, intelligent data gathering, and operational networking and control.
Matthew Pederson-Howard, Vice President, Safety and Health, Peabody and
Adam Schloss,
Production Superintendent, Peabody Australia
James Pearce
Advocate, Black Lung Victims Support Group
The re-emergence of Dust Diseases in Queensland’s coal industry is having a devastating effect on workers, their families and mining communities. More than 100 employees have been diagnosed as suffering from different forms of pneumoconiosis, predominantly Black Lung and silicosis. There are many more Victims being regularly identified.
While the main challenge facing our entire industry is the effective prevention of Dust Diseases in our coal mines, the identification of all Victims is a moral obligation on all stakeholders in the industry. This involves not only world’s best practice testing of the present workforce but also of those who have retired from the industry and those who have left it before retiring.
While prevention and identification of Black Lung are essential, the most pressing issue at the present time is the treatment and health care of those who have been, and will continue to be, Victims of these Dust Diseases. This paper on behalf of Black Lung Victims will outline our proposals for how the industry working with government can provide for the life-long medical care needed for the best possible quality of life for sufferers. We owe them at least that.
David Pope
Principal, POPEHSE Pty Ltd
Richard Wall
CEO, EMEX
Behavioural Safety is helping many organisations make inroads into improving safety performance.
Founded on decades of psychology research, behavioural safety positively reinforces target behaviours. By interacting in a positive manner, the studies indicate behavioural change is initiated.
Interactions occur between people and is often called a ‘safety observation’. Safety observations are, in many cases, documented into a system to scoreboard the number and type of behaviours observed.
Scoreboards focus on how many observations occur, rather than why behaviours occur. Evaluating the effect of an interaction, assessing the behavioural change and its repeatability, is paramount in behavioural safety.</p .
Powerful algorithms have been developed using the latest data science techniques, to assess the effect of interventions, like safety conversations, on large groups. These techniques are widely used in Marketing/Advertising, Finance/Insurance, Healthcare, Law Enforcement, and Politics.
Safety conversations are a window into the individual interactions. With certain data, it is possible to identify positive, negative or neutral interactions, and the effect over time.
This paper presents a robust and novel approach to assess sentiment analysis of documented safety observations, to predict the persuasive effects of leaders on their groups, and the resultant safety outcomes.
Dr. Tilman Rasche
Principal Mining Engineer, Department of Natural Resources, Mines and Energy
The Minerals Council of Australia has identified that tyre fitters at mining operations are ten times more likely to be killed at work than mine diesel mechanics (Hassal 2016). Rim disassembly is particularly hazardous and resulted in seven fatalities in the Australasian region, over the last 15 years.
To better control this fatal hazard a mechanical interference feature, often called the Surelock bead seat band, was patented in 1986. It aims to prevent the inflation and consequential dangerous disassembly of earthmover tyre and rim assemblies, should a lockring be incorrectly fitted.
This presentation, based on the authors recent Australian Coal Association Research Project C26036, aims to raise awareness of this safety feature, explain some of the advantages, disadvantages and misconceptions about this design.
It will also reinforce the urgent need for better industry-wide training approaches around tyre and rim maintenance and highlight a much needed review and update of the Australian Standard ‘AS 4457.1—2007 – Earth-moving machinery—Off-the-road wheels, rims and tyres’, particularly around an improved universal marking and labelling standard of rim componentry.
This seemingly modest change will allow tyre fitters to better identify matching rim and wheel componentry thereby significantly reducing the reoccurrence of rim related fatalities.
Luke Ripper
Senior Occupational Hygienist, GCG Health Safety & Hygiene
GCG has provided the Queensland Mining Industry with occupational hygiene services for over 10 years. In light of winning an innovation award from Spotless/Downer, GCG has also been involved in driving solutions around data analytics for positive pressure in cabins.
This year we’re doing things a bit different – ‘Whiteboard Sessions with GCG’. This is available for anyone who has a challenging occupational hygiene problem at hand and interested in an interactive discussion with a qualified hygienist. Come have a chat!
Warren Smith
Executive Consultant, Dekra Insight Australia
Organisations commonly put controls in place to address typical workplace exposures that can cause harm. They also attempt to make use of human performance tools and other measures that aim to address human error. Unfortunately, these efforts often don’t yield tangible results as evidenced through operational upsets and unplanned events.
This session will explore Brain-Centred Hazards and will demonstrate how accurate, consistent and sustainable hazard recognition and situational awareness can only be achieved by first addressing these Brain-Centred Hazards in our workplaces. In particular, the audience will explore the difference between traditional hazard identification and an approach that increases deep noticing for optimal hazard ID.
Additionally, the audience will learn the hidden dangers of cognitive fatigue and how it diminishes situational awareness and hazard recognition, and simultaneously produces higher risk-taking actions that can lead to injury, upset, catastrophe, or reputational damage.
Mick Storch
Managing Director, 4PS Software
4PS software is an innovative Australian owned and operated company since 2009.
Streamlining business processes and compliance management of People, Plant, Processes and Procedures in your workplace. Access employees training and competencies with a click of a button, automated notifications to alert you before competencies and inspections expire, generated equipment registers and employee matrixes, project management tools, and so much more. Ensuring your people and plant get on to the work site on time, every time. Check it out here:www.4ps.com.au
Cristian Sylvestre
Managing Director, HabitSafe
There has been considerable research (empirical studies and academic papers) during the last 10 years investigating human decision making.
The most disruptive discovery is that what we think of as a deliberate choice (an “active” conscious decision) happens fundamentally in the subconscious and is fed to the conscious mind very late in the neurological process. This is why it feels like we only make conscious decisions.
Three thinking principles help explain human decision making and enable us to understand human behaviour better.
These are automatic thinking (autopilot), social thinking and mental thinking models. As such, they also provide valuable clues to determine how we can future-proof efforts by organisations to make behaviours safer.
The lessons from these three thinking principles can be applied to three different layers in organisations:
- Leadership
- Teams
- Individuals
The latest findings from studies in neuroscience, behaviour science, cognitive behavioural science and neuropsychology are used to explain how safety behaviour can be influenced more effectively.