Sydney construction company fined $240,000 by SafeWork following explosion

The blast took place on a residential construction site in Eastwood, NSW, when a worker attempted to remove three underground petrol storage tanks using an excavator. The explosion heavily damaged nearby structures and even broke the windows of several buildings across the road.
SafeWork NSW charged the construction company, with a breach of the Work Health and Safety Act 2011 for failing to ensure the health and safety of workers and others.
SafeWork’s investigation found that the company hired an unqualified contractor to remove the tanks.
Executive Director of SafeWork NSW, Peter Dunphy said although no one was injured in the explosion, the incident could have been catastrophic.
“Storage tanks that previously contained flammable liquids or gases must be handled with extreme care as there can be vapors which, even after many years, may ignite when exposed to heat,” Mr Dunphy said.
“Businesses and workers should take extreme care working near or on items that contain chemical residue, especially solvents.
“It is extremely fortunate that the contractor and people in nearby buildings were not killed or injured in the explosion.”
Mr Dunphy added that the company also failed to provide notice of their planned demolition work.
“The company failed to notify SafeWork NSW about demolition work as well as the schedule 11 hazardous chemicals in the abandoned petrol storage tanks at the site,” he said.
“The company took no steps to address the risks and chose to rely on the contractor’s claimed experience, with near-disastrous consequences.”
Failure to manage contractors can result in costly incidents. So, as well as putting worker and public safety at risk, businesses can be left exposed to substantial financial penalties, criminal and civil prosecution and loss of reputation.
Don’t risk noncompliance. ISOsafe’s services will protect your business. We will prepare safe systems of work, safety instructions and all other documentation you require. Call us now 1300 789 132 to learn more about our services for businesses.

The training and compliance paradigm

Well-trained staff and qualified professionals are essential in making sure the business is safe. Companies that provide health and safety information and training, not only meet their legal responsibilities, but also ensure staff know how to work safely and without risks to themselves or others.

Effective training will contribute towards making your employees competent in health and safety and it can help businesses avoid the distress and costs that accidents and ill-health can cause.

Training can be on the job, online or in a classroom setting. In-company training can be useful as the course can be designed to fit the organisations exact needs.

ISOsafe’s fully tailored training solutions will consider your organisations health and safety documentation, general operational policies and procedures, site specific needs, and include organisational branding.

Our training solutions are pragmatic, focusing on environments and situations that the learners are familiar with, thereby making the training more engaging. An example of this is our sought-after Risk Assessment in Practice training. By using the organisations scenarios for hazard identification and risk assessment, it makes the learning readily applicable to learners.

Many clients have found our training to be particularly effective in ensuring company processes are adhered to, resulting in operational efficiencies and greater customer satisfaction.

To learn more about our training solutions, contact us today.

Are you killing your sedentary workers?

One news story that keeps coming back time and again is that of the health risks associated with sedentary jobs. It doesn’t take a genius to realise that sitting down all day is bad for our waistlines and general health, but research suggests that the long-term risks are worse than previously thought.

Sitting causes cancer?

One particularly scary headline that has been doing the rounds claims that sitting for eight hours at work is directly linked to breast and colon cancer. Looking into the details of the research, however, it becomes clear that sitting for long periods merely increased the risk of developing either form of cancer (in conjunction with other contributing factors like obesity).

Time magazine went even further, claiming that an eight-hour day increased the risk of developing cancer by 66%. This horrific sounding statistic is tempered by looking at the specific incident rate – the odds of a 30-year old man developing colon cancer by the age of 60 is just under 1%.

The importance of movement

Although the study indicates that the chances of developing colon cancer are quite small, they also help to underscore the importance of getting away from the desk regularly. By spending two out of every eight hours of a working day standing (or better still, moving), workers can reduce their colon cancer risk by 0.8%.

Obviously this sounds impractical, but the same net result can be achieved by spending just 15 minutes each hour walking away from the desk. For instance, instead of calling or emailing a colleague in the next office, walking to speak to meet them and having a conversation face-to-face – talking directly may even raise the standard of communications throughout the business.

A ticking time bomb

In the same way that the symptoms of asbestos exposure take many years to develop, the full impact of a sedentary lifestyle may take decades to become apparent. The move from traditional physical labour, to an information-based economy has changed the way we work, encouraging us to do less physical exercise as part of our normal work routine.

It is important then that employers take the potential dangers seriously as part of their standard workplace risk assessments. Every employee should already be subject to a workstation health check to verify that their screen is positioned correctly and is glare-free, and their chair provides suitable support for the lower back.

But in light of mounting evidence that sitting all day is incredibly bad for health, employers should also be looking at ways to encourage employees to take more exercise. Risk assessments and operating procedures should be adapted to encourage light exercise during the working day – like suggesting employees use stairs rather than lifts, or that they stand for 10-15 minutes every hour.

Keeping employees safe and healthy is not only important for their wellbeing, but it also has a direct impact on productivity, and therefore profitability. If your workforce develops long term illnesses related to desk-based work, your business will suffer as a result.

So over to you – how does your business approach the potential problems related to an increasingly sedentary workforce?

Contact ISOsafe today to learn more about our office-wellbeing initiatives for your workplace.