Why Drug Testing is an absolute waste of money and resources!

I think I've harped on enough about the total lack of evidence showing marijuana is a risk to anyone but the user and even then that is debatable.

So I'll take another track just to highlight the idiots running safety in this country and accross the world.

In Vietnam there were over 60 different plants that soldiers could smoke or ingest to give them a high and take their minds off the hell on earth they were in, in fact if you look hard enough you will find governments importing certain drugs for the soldiers in Vietnam.

And as we see with olympians and the like, whenever they come up with a new test for a certain drug, the pharmacutical producers just design a new undetectable drug.

So what will happen with drug testing for only a minute number of drugs? People will just turn to more dangerous products, over the one's they know are relatively safe, and to prove a point I will list a few:

• Opium is one of the biggest money spinners for the pharmacutical companies but for someone to self prescribe they will be arrested and charged but what about Lettuce? Common garden lettuce can have an opium like quality!!!! The milky juice is best collected when the lettuce is in flower, the juice is then dried in the sun. You can ingest or smoke the residue. Warning can be extremely dangerous if used intravenously!!!
• 
  
• Marijuana is one of the safest drugs on this planet with some of the widest variety of benefits for illness but as the pharmacutical companies and their buddies in politics need to make profits it is also one of the most attacked to protect those profits! But a substitute is Lions Tail (Leonotis Leonuris clik on link to read reviews) When smoked lions tail gives one short lasting extroverted exuberance and a positive high. Some marijuana users use lions tail with thier mix for it's positive less dopey effect. Using the root for a cup of tea gives a hypnotic like focuss especially when watching television. It is regarded even today as a cannabis, and a panacea for illness such as, asthma, coughs, colds, diabtes, diarrhoea, fever, skin diseases, menstruation, liver problems and worms.
• 
  
• Madagascar Periwinkle (Catharanthus roseus) is grown throughout the world as an ornamental plant and has historically been used to treat an assortment of disease, with over 70 healing alkaliods. The leaf can be smoked for euphoric and psychotropic effects. Warning this plant is very dangerous when ingested or smoked too often. Causes immediate reduction of the white corpuscle. Long term use will cause itching and burning skin, hair loss, nausea, ataxia and degeneration of muscle tissue.
• 
  
• Banana, the dried pith (underskin of the banana peel) is reported to have an effect and is called mellow yellow, the smoking of banana pith seems to give a mild body stone. Others say it just gives you a headache.
• 
  
• Blue Lotus (Numphaea Caerulea) gives a relaxed cannabis opium like body stone. The mind remains clear but zones out, it has the dream state of opium and provides a deep sleep afterwards. Should not be mixed with alcohol or used when driving or operating machinery.
• 
  
• Catnip (Nepeta Cataria) gives a mild euphoria, unfortunately it is more potent mixed with tobacco. Catnip helps you get higher if used with marijuana (wouldn't recommend with hydroponic cannabis) I would list all the medical uses for catnip but it would take too long, just say it is has been shown to be helpful with over 46 illnesses. Precautions it does make some cats really horny but doesn't work for humans.
• 
  
• Motherwort (Leonorus sibinricus) Known as the herb of life, or the merrie cheerful herb. Gives a mild high and short lasting stone, know in the Phillipines as false marijuana. It is very useful for menstrual periods, cramps and after birth but also over a dozen other illneses.
  

I have a list of over 50 naturally occuring plants that give a high of some sort but also have many medical benefits; even the seeds from the nutmeg tree for crying out loud.

But as we have seen prohibition of certain plants and drugs just raises there profile and encourages more to use them, Marijuana being a great example and alcohol being the other.

So as a safety profession we are actually advertising the drugs we test for and making them even more popular than they already were. Marijuana is useful for over 50 illnesses especially pain related and for illnesses where treatment causes nausea and lack of appetite eg, cancer and MS.

The best form of protection for people against drugs is education as prohibition makes them more popular but as there is no evidence of any sustaintiated risks with marijuana the pharmacutical companies would loose profits with people turning away from prescription morphine, valium, enbrel and the like and the polititians wouldn't get their kick backs for protecting those profits and it seems the safety profession is a bunch of dopey sheep that can't research for themselves.

Oh that's right the Safety Institute of Australia can't research because they can't even be bothered getting an education and proving their competence.

Regards
Daniel

Requirements of a Safety Professional in Australia

Well seeing as you do not need any tertiary qualifications to become a member, fellow or Chartered fellow of the Safety Institute of Australia, I guess qualifications aren't needed!

So I'll start with the Royal Children's Hospital requirements!

Now working around and with children you will find this disgusting but it's the truth:

• First of all you need to accept that management, especially previous safety managers who are highly respected in the safety profession will need to have pornography on their computers. I was disgusted at all the fat chicks on my computer in skimpy lingerie that I complained and was dissiplined for complaining about pornography. Now management were fully aware as the computer was on the hospital network and yet I was disciplined for it.
• You also need to accept that you are running induction training for contractors on $750 Million rebuilding project of the Children's hospital with a 486 computer and 14 inch monitor for up to 30 participants a day. This I found was pathetic yet the contractors would have been dismissed and in the event of an incident prosecuted for not following procedures, yet there is no way the could see a 14 inch monitor from the back of the room.
• You need to accept and not say anything if you raise your concerns with the main safety body of the hospital becuase the manager was a Safety Institute of Australia and becuase it might show up their lack of knowledge you are told to ignore the situation and they actually raise it with your own management so you can be told off for raising concerns including safety concerns over unloading of 20 - 40 tonne generators over scores of contractors and delivery people.

That's just a start and I wont go on any further about the RCH as they deliver a great service to the children of Australia but someone should at least raise the above, so I'll go onto another charity the St Vincent de Paul Society:

• You need to accept that management will be drinking alcohol on the premisis and if you raise your concerns about drinking on the premisis you will be disciplined as they are management and priests. Managers were also caught driving home from work in work vehicles by the police over the limit.
  
• You need to accept that when ordered to hide coroners reports, and statistics showing the recommendations in the coroners report were spot on as there had been numerous other incidents from the same item of plant, hospitalising staff. You need to act illegally and hide the coroners report or you will be dismissed even though your job description would have you prosecuted if it was ever found out.
• You also need to accept that some managers will have pornography on their computers and may even send you some pics even though it's against all your beliefs.

With Defence, I am critical of the defence department but they also have some of the best systems in place, just when it gets back to the office or training of young personnel the safety rules go out the window. The major thing you need to accept is that if a war starts you will be put in an office, with nothing to do and no funding to carry out your role, you can either resign or become a public servant with nothing to do.

That's enough, you get the picture, all you need to do to be accepted into the Safety Institute of Australia and keep your job in Australia is be dishonest by ommision!

Regards
Daniel

Requirements of a Safety Professional in Australia

Well seeing as you do not need any tertiary qualifications to become a member, fellow or Chartered fellow of the Safety Institute of Australia, I guess qualifications aren't needed!

So I'll start with the Royal Children's Hospital requirements!

Now working around and with children you will find this disgusting but it's the truth:

• First of all you need to accept that management, especially previous safety managers who are highly respected in the safety profession will need to have pornography on their computers. I was disgusted at all the fat chicks on my computer in skimpy lingerie that I complained and was dissiplined for complaining about pornography. Now management were fully aware as the computer was on the hospital network and yet I was disciplined for it.
• You also need to accept that you are running induction training for contractors on $750 Million rebuilding project of the Children's hospital with a 486 computer and 14 inch monitor for up to 30 participants a day. This I found was pathetic yet the contractors would have been dismissed and in the event of an incident prosecuted for not following procedures, yet there is no way the could see a 14 inch monitor from the back of the room.
• You need to accept and not say anything if you raise your concerns with the main safety body of the hospital becuase the manager was a Safety Institute of Australia and becuase it might show up their lack of knowledge you are told to ignore the situation and they actually raise it with your own management so you can be told off for raising concerns including safety concerns over unloading of 20 - 40 tonne generators over scores of contractors and delivery people.

That's just a start and I wont go on any further about the RCH as they deliver a great service to the children of Australia but someone should at least raise the above, so I'll go onto another charity the St Vincent de Paul Society:

• You need to accept that management will be drinking alcohol on the premisis and if you raise your concerns about drinking on the premisis you will be disciplined as they are management and priests. Managers were also caught driving home from work in work vehicles by the police over the limit.
  
• You need to accept that when ordered to hide coroners reports, and statistics showing the recommendations in the coroners report were spot on as there had been numerous other incidents from the same item of plant, hospitalising staff. You need to act illegally and hide the coroners report or you will be dismissed even though your job description would have you prosecuted if it was ever found out.
• You also need to accept that some managers will have pornography on their computers and may even send you some pics even though it's against all your beliefs.

With Defence, I am critical of the defence department but they also have some of the best systems in place, just when it gets back to the office or training of young personnel the safety rules go out the window. The major thing you need to accept is that if a war starts you will be put in an office, with nothing to do and no funding to carry out your role, you can either resign or become a public servant with nothing to do.

That's enough, you get the picture, all you need to do to be accepted into the Safety Institute of Australia and keep your job in Australia is be dishonest by ommision!.....

Regards
Daniel.........................

Australian Governments move to kill off the poor faster!

All the locusts from government and industry are moving to increase the price of water in Australia, claiming that it's too cheap and should be more in line with electricity pricing!

The first question I ask is where do all the tax dollars go? Our hospitals are stuffed personally it will take 4 years to get a knee operation, our schools are crowded and seem to constantly have peadophiles in charge of them or at least teaching in them, education is way out of reach of those not working or the poor of the country, electricity and gas have had massive price rises in the last 10 years and now the poor won't even be able to afford to drink water.

In simple terms the taxes go to overseas junkets and providing ever increasing salaries for polititians and government officials and all the while the poor are getting further and further behind.

If you happen to have unfortunate situation of being unemployed in this country the only training you will be able to afford is work for the dole which is pretty useless and doesn't give you any skills or qualifications. Education for example is not subsidised in this state and even when you write to the minister for assistance they haven't even got the fortitude to even reply.

But water! Drinking water should be free! Farmers use 70% of our drinking water and then include industry and there is very little being used for drinking anyway.

So this is a further move to murder all the poor in the country by not providing them water! Disgusting this government in power supporting all their business and farming bodies at the expense of the lives of the poor, retired and dissabled!

And then they carry on about the efforts they make to supply free drinking water to 3rd world countries, all a furphy to cover up blatant murder of the poor in this country!

They also carry on about the social security support systems but apply a GST to anything these people purchase (including essential services such as electricity, food and water) making it impossible to survive without the support of the one and only Holy God. In fact even if they kill me off I know I will be saved but these people making these laws, taxes and charges to support the multi Billionaires shows just how unjust they are!

What a disgusting bunch of uncaring bruts they are when they have no sympathy for the poor yet move to protect those that use the majority of our water (farmers and industry) so they can make greater profits at the expense of more lives. Criminals the whole lot of them, murders the whole lot of them and they still give themselves a pay rise and increase superanuation for themselves.

No wonder we have Australians training with Islamic extremists groups, they would get treated far better than in this country. And Redfern riots and other riots covered up through this country will just become more common and more extreme as these people are fighting for their lives against a rich, uncaring leadership.

Again I have warned them and again they will ignore the warning but people who can't afford to heat their houses becuase of the dramatic increase in power costs and GST added with only a $4 dollar increase to their pensions or support payments now won't be able to afford to drink water, so it's time to start stealing water so they can survive with the essential of life and rioting so they are heard.

The more damage and destruction they cause the more they will be heard, other wise they will just be left to die in silence.
Regards
Daniel

The Road Safety People and Designers Need to go to jail for this!

The road junction in north-western Victoria where seven people were killed in a horrific head-on crash. Picture: David Caird


Seven killed in head-on horror

Shannon McRae, Jacqueline Freegard and Anthony Dowsley

September 27, 2006 12:00am
Article from: Herald-Sun

SEVEN people were killed when their vehicles smashed head-on and burst into twin fireballs on a country road.
A group of five in a car and two people in a small truck are believed to have died on impact before they were incinerated.

The tragedy happened at a dangerous Y intersection 9km north of Donald in the Wimmera

Sad how they can even design an intersection like this, but I've seen worse intersections! But the road safety people are aware this is a dangerous (high risk) intersection and all they do is focuss on behavioural controls instead of redesign the interesection and for that matter the whole road so you can't have a head on even with a loss of control of the vehicle.

This is manslaughter at best and murder at worst as there is a hierachy of controls and when a risk is identified it needs to be controlled and that's not with behavioural controls as the only option!

Will someone start prosecuting these road safety experts for impersonating safety professionals and the government and road designers for manslaughter please. At least then we might get our roads redesigned to save lives, trauma and money.

Regards
Daniel

Victoria's Road toll proves me right again!

I informed people not that long ago that the road toll would rise dramatically with decreasing fuel prices and that drug testing and other behavioural controls were a complete failure and waste of resources that could be better spent redesigning roads, but that's right the uneducated Safety Institute of Australia bans me becuase of my insight.

Well Victoria's road toll is proving all my comments right and the insight given to me as brilliant! The accident continues a horror month on Victorian roads with the death toll now 34 in the last 18 days.

Correlates perfectly with the dramatic decrease in fuel prices! And proves the marijuana testing is a huge failure becuase those using marijuana are actually at less risk of an accident than the general population so if they continue to waste resources on individual bias such as marijuana testing in the name of safety then they will also dramatically increase the road toll, instead they should be spending that money on actually designing roads without objects that if hit release the energy to kill!

Then they will reduce the road toll. And I for one am sick of the police going on junkets and designing new one's in the name of safety when there is no statistical/scientific basis to claim it is safety oriented but it is more the uneducated in safety becoming the moral police and finding new ways of raising revenue.

If you look at any drops in the road toll you will discover it correlates perfectly with a rise in fuel prices! They are absolutely lacking any knowledge of safety to focuss on speed and marijuana testing.

Regards
Daniel

James Hardie I told you so!

I told you James Hardie was a criminal organisation and they didn't care about the people they had killed or maimed! In fact they are murders supported by the government which makes the government accomplices to murder but not one of them has faced prosecution for murder.

And with the government turning a blind eye to murder of Australian workers and the public there is no reason to see James Hardie setting up this support fund for those with asbestos related disease in a hurry, as they are earning interest everyday they can avoid it.

And with the federal government supporting these murders I don't think they will do anything to support the worker and this proves they are accomplices to murder becuase they don't protect the majority only the minority in charge of industry.

Sad but true and I told you James Hardie wouldn't support the injured and dead becuase they killed them and the only way would be through legal action and legislation which the government in it's efforts to protect their murdering buddies in control of these organisations will not legislate for adequate compesation for workers becuase they support killing and injuring the worker.

Regards
Daniel

Howard's IR Laws making Australia the Dumb Country

The effects of John Howards IR Laws are starting to show in a negative way.

These new laws are making Australian workers the Dumb workers of the world! If it's not bad enough that now employers are requiring employees to supply their own PPE, all you have to do is look at the job adds and see that people are required to supply their own safety boots, overalls and other ppe. A total disregard for safety laws which require the employer to provide a safe workplace and along with that goes ppe, under the guise that they are now contractors becuase of the new laws. This is a disregard totally for the safety laws and makes the majority of employers in the country criminals (break a law you are a criminal) as a contractor is still an employee (in the majority of cases) and as such the employer is ignoring their duty to provide a safe workplace and the Safety Institute stands by and just lets this crap happen! This makes the SIA a criminal organisation in my book.

But worse is the dumbing down of Australian workers with contracts. As an example I am going to use the supermarket trolley pusher.

Now when I was a teenager working for Safeway and then Franklins, you not only pushed trolleys, but you learnt stock control restocking shelves, dairy cases, produce sections and the like and you might even get on the registers and learn money handling and also would be required to unload trucks with goods.

But now, the kids are kept dumb becuase of the IR Laws and contracts and the trolley pusher now only pushes trolleys and takes their drugs while waiting for more trolleys in the cars park.

How dumb is this federal government? I believe they just don't care about people and money is the only objective but in a generation when the young have grown up without any real skills the finacial burden will be huge and as such the IR Laws are going to have long term consequences that will turn Australia into the dumb country and most probably a poor country to boot. At the very least there is no control over the PPE being supplied and therefore our safety standards are being eroded enormously.

Regards
Daniel

Racing industry must employ SIA members for this to happen!

Well again the horse racing industry has shown how it employs inexperienced or more likely unqualified Safety Institute of Australia members by The MRC had three of its track staff tie rope to the rail and then themselves to hold the rail in place in the back straight in case a gust of wind blew it over.

Well sure they have screw in rails these days but maybe the screw in rails are the problem here, in the old days we used to hit the pegs in with sledge hammers and they never blew over.

This industry does employ safety people and it's incredible their total lack of knowledge tying staff to the rails to stop them blowing over! Man this is what I would expect from the Safety Institute of Australia and their members, haven't they ever seen a 2 tonne horse go through a rail?

If they had they would realise that these people tied to the rails faced imminent death!

This is absolutely pathetic from the Racing industry and the safety people employed by the racing industry, not only are they covering up extremely high levels of respirable silica that not only workers are exposed to everyday but also members of the public, now they show their complete lack of competence in safety by anchoring the rail with human bodies, or maybe their total lack of care of people which is more likely.

Someone should sack the safety people in the racing industry for lacking, knowledge, qualifications and most of all the guts to stand up and say this is wrong.

Regards
Daniel

The Industrial Locusts that KILL and responsible for the majority of deaths.

Well the proof is in the pudding, with 5,ooo Australian workers being killed in Australia each year we can clearly see why! Industry is always crying poor because the share holders are never held responsible for the decisions of the organisation, and yet the share holders have the ultimate control.

And we can see why the Governments of this world make laws to protect their rich buddies and gain huge donations to campaign funds.

There is no money left for the safety of the workers and compensation of those seriouly injured (eg James Hardie workers) becuase 25 people hold the majority of the worlds money, yep the worlds most exlusive club has it's top 10 billionaires holding $275.4 Billion and the top 25 holding $511.6 Billion, now Bill Gates has to be the biggest contributor to death with a massive $50 Billion all to himself.

This is disgusting, and even more important than the workplace deaths is that these people alone could feed the entire third world and still have $Billions left over.

Guess it's a sign of the political structures in todays world that allows people so much money and deprives a large part of the world even food.

Disgusting and for Bill Gates to call himself a philthrapist is a complete wank he could save the entire third world by himself.

Regards
Daniel

Australian Defence Force purchases out of date tanks!

$528m tanks take us into brave new world: Nelson
24th September 2006, 10:15 WST

Australia’s new army tanks could see action on the battlefield, unlike their predecessors, Defence Minister Brendan Nelson warned.

Taking delivery of the first of the army’s new M1A1 Abrams tanks at Port Melbourne, Dr Nelson said the world was a more dangerous place than when the Leopard tank was bought in 1977.
Australia has bought 59 Abrams battle tanks from the US for $528 million. Each weighs 63 tonnes and can reach almost 70kmh.

“The 59 Abrams tanks that we are likely to be using over the next 30 years, I hope and pray that they will never have to be used in anger,” he said.

But he said the reality was that the world was changing quickly, particularly over the past five years.

The tanks have been reconditioned from tanks built in 1989 but Dr Nelson denied Australia had bought second-hand goods, saying most components were new.

Well it seems the Federal Governments $11 Billion surplus is being wasted again, oh that's right the surplus included these purchases, just shows how the poor in this country missing out on a health system that works, dental treatments, and facing fines the same as their millionare counterparts for trivial matters just to keep them poor.

So we as a country have purchased used tanks! What an absolute waste! If I brought a car in 1989 it would be 17 years old, uneconomical and unsafe but the defence force, especially Armour sections are thought that little of that the Defence Force doesn't care that they are old unsafe tanks!

If the government was going to spend money they should at least purchase modern, up to date equipment not old outdated equipment past it's use by date.

Regards
Daniel

Sleeping on the Job

Sleeping on the job
March 02, 2005

Half the world does it, so why can't we take a mid-afternoon nap when we feel like it?

You know the feeling. It's mid-afternoon; you partied hard last night, your screen is moving in and out of focus and you're so sleepy you risk waking up in a pool of drool with QWERTYUIOP imprinted on your forehead.

You'd kill for a few minutes' sleep, but instead you reach for your third can of Red Bull or start sticking paperclips in your thighs just to stay awake.

But what's so wrong about succumbing to that universal urge to grab a quick sleep in the middle of the day?

Nothing at all, according to growing evidence that shows a quick nap is just what you need to shake off that drowsy afternoon deadspot.

No longer just the preserve of old-aged pensioners and grumpy toddlers, scientists are finding the old-fashioned nap can be a boon to productivity.

Professor Leon Lack, of Flinders University, is an expert on the fine art of the workplace siesta.

"There is a lot of evidence that a brief sleep can be beneficial," Lack says. "There are quite a few people who regularly have a brief nap and report that they do feel rejuvenated and that the sleepiness cloud that was hanging over them has been lifted."

Click on above for rest of the article, seems the SIA have been napping constantly!

Rail Crossing Safety is a wank!

The Courier Mail Sept 23 page 13 has some report by some dopey, inexperienced, unqualified academic comenting on safety! Angela Wallace has reported that mistakes by drivers and risk taking are the major contributing factors on Queenlands 3,500 rail crossings. Ms Wallace is a PhD researcher with Queensland Centre for Accident Research and Road Safety!

Man with stupid comments like this she will probably be a chartered fellow of the Safety Institute of Australia, if not she will certainly get their quickly, she doesn't even have to finish her PhD (probably psycology) she has already made the uneducated leaders of the Safety Institute very happy ignoring totally the hierachy of controls and basic safety principles in favour of behavioural controls and focuss.

Now the article also refered to 74 deaths over 5 years, I was quite suprissed that there weren't a lot more given the number of crossings so I would suspect drivers are fully aware of the risks of rail crossings to keep this figure this low.

So the evidence to me points to Identifying the risk, (energy release from a collision) and control using the hierachy of controls, remove the crossings in favour of bridges and tunnels.

Simple hey and only a acedemic focussed on behaviour could come up with some stupid waste of money focussing on behaviour instead of removing the risks.

Regards
Daniel

Road Safety - U.S. adopting some postive controls.

Yes finally after over 3 years of posts and hassling the leaders in road safety, someone has been listening and in the U.S. are adopting more pysical controls over behavioural controls.

I'm not saying their approach is perfect but a big well done must be given for increasing the focuss on pysical controls and especially adopting the Hierachy of controls in their approach to road safety.

Wisconsin officials say cable barriers - designed to prevent head-on collisions caused by motorists who cross lanes into oncoming traffic - work because they absorb impact better than concrete. They also don't cost as much.

Removing roadside barriers, from trees to light poles, also helps.

Many states have installed breakaway barriers, most notably on supports for overpasses, that "give" when struck by a car. Georgia, reacting to figures that show three of four fatalities occur when cars hit trees, is reacting by removing roadside trees.

They are also experiementing with white lines called 'speed bars' that apparently " Seeing optical speed bars painted on the roadway is supposed to give drivers an optical illusion -- that they are going faster than they actually are"

Now some highly paid psycologist has come up with some idea to protect their existence in safety, I believe its a total wank as we are already going way too slow so any feeling of going faster is great but these are a total load of crap. They are also experimenting with white dots to prevent tailgaiting, man who let these psyco's into safety and especially having such influence as to come up with stupidity like this?

But then I guess if they are focussing on removing tree's and poles and working at putting energy absorbing barriers in to prevent head on's they can have thier junkets too as the positives of this initiative far outwiegh the negatives of some psyco's white line fever.

And even more positive is they recognise reduced fuel costs will lead to more driving and the potential to increase accident rates dramatically Falling gasoline prices, coupled with increasing airport hassles, have convinced many consumers to travel by car rather than air -- especially for trips of under 500 miles.

As a result, state transportation agencies are redoubling efforts to make roads safer. But paying for it often poses problems.

It shows to all those safety practitioners out there that if you keep persisting even though, the scared unqualified Safety Institute of Australia will ban you, that you can make a difference in this world as some people listen as have done on this occasion. The SIA thinks they can fob off those with the knowledge, experience and qualifications to protect their unqualified men's club, but I guess the mistake they made with their lack of experience and knowledge is that they thought I would go away. If you have an issue just keep persisting with it and eventually it will be heard as I will continue to do with the Safety Institute of Australia, just keep persisting untill the old school who have done it that way for 30 years retires and we actually get qualified people leading the safety profession in this country anyway.

Regards
Daniel

BP hasn't stumbled it just kills and maims all the time!

What a classic BP is claiming it has stumbled in OHS reponsibilities over the last few months! To me BP has never even got close to complying with it's OHS responsibilities and you just have to look back to Longford in Victoria to see the truth! Not only did it kill workers with the Longford explosion it set out $Millions to try and blame a supervisor for it's failure to adequately resource safety. So we know the truth but they still lie about the state of safety in the organisation, instead of actually addressing the issues.

Imagine if they spent all the $Billions from propaganda saying how good they do OHS, on real OHS initiatives! They could actually improve workers conditions but no some Public Relations manager wouldn't have that or the current crop of uneducated safety managers becuase it might put them out of a job in favour of saving lives. A great big pffffffffffffftttttttttttttttttt


09/19/2006
BP Exec Addresses Safety Shortcomings

BP has "stumbled" in recent months in meeting its occupational safety and health goals. According to the Bloomberg news service, that's what Robert Malone, the company's chief U.S. executive, told a congressional energy subcommittee.

Malone also described BP's intention to create an independent board of experts that will issue recommendations for improvements. The action comes in light of a record-breaking pipeline spill on Alaska's North Slope this summer.

According to Malone's prepared testimony, "We have fallen short of the high standards we hold for ourselves and the expectations that others have for us."

Also at the hearing, Representative Bart Stupak, D-Mich., reported that BP had "apparently created a chilling atmosphere for workers to report health and safety issues."

Stupak said he questions whether budgetary pressures affected the actions of the BP corrosion monitoring group. The former chief of corrosion inspection for BP Alaska apparently had been called to testify before the panel but declined, citing constitutional protections against self-incrimination.

A BP official who did testify said that several years ago, BP had received anonymous phone messages indicating that contractors had falsified corrosion inspection reports. An audit revealed that a small percentage of the inspections had been falsified. BP allegedly fired that contractor.

In a related development, BP has announced that Stanley Sporkin, a former federal judge, has been brought in to serve as an ombudsman. He will be a conduit for complaints by U.S. workers of any corporate wrongdoing.

Celebrities have the power to fight BHP

Unlike the workers in Australia who have to just accept the risk of death or long term injury or illness those with money and power fight back against BHP and it's propaganda machine.

Hollywood’s biggest stars are going to war with Australian resources giant BHP Billiton.

A who’s who of A-List celebrities, including Tom Hanks, Charlize Theron, Barbra Streisand and Cher, have launched a high-profile campaign in the US to halt BHP Billiton’s $6.6 billion plan to build a massive liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal off the coast of the Los Angeles seaside community of Malibu.

Australian singer and actress Olivia Newton-John, a longtime resident of Malibu, has also joined the fight against the company.

“We want to stop the BHP Billiton LNG terminal now!” a letter signed by the 45 high-profile actors, singers, supermodels and Hollywood executives states.

Leading the A-List campaign is former James Bond, Pierce Brosnan, who gave a keynote address at a fundraiser in Malibu last week.

The function’s attendees were asked to donate $330 each.

“This proposed liquefied natural gas terminal is part of a globalised assault taking place on our Earth,” Brosnan said.

“We cannot let this project be approved.”

The campaign, if successful, would be a blow to BHP Billiton and the Australian economy, with the project potentially worth $15 billion to Australia in exports.

Safety Paradigm! Is it dangerous?

The current safety paradigm is definately leaning towards behavioural control but is it dangerous?

Paradigms in safety are interesting to say the least so what is a paradigm?

Paradigms are a way in which we view safety or for that matter life. It's like a pair of internal sunglasses, when they are on, we forget they are changing the colour of the way we view safety!

If you've ever stepped inside on a sunny day still wearing sunglasses or driven into a tunnel with the on, you'll find you are temporarily blinded untill you take them off!

The sunglasses (paradigm) have distorted the true colour (risks) and light (controls). They can be useful as long as we acknowledge that they have filtered out some of our world.

In the same way the safety paradigm filter our views on safety. They allow us to set boudaries and make sense of all the death in our industry.

They allow us to live comfortably so we don't have to reexamine something everytime we encouter it! A good example is generic Risk Assessments or JSA's.

Examaning or changing the safety paradigm is not always easy as people have witnessed through people feeling threatened banning me.

Many feel uncomfortable becuase something that seems secure is taken away or altered eg behavioural controls and my stance against them.

But the safety paradigm is robbing the profession from experiencing a richer more fullfilling profession. It's a great loss to those who lead our profession becuase they have to change their paradigm and are unwilling to do so.

However the current safety paradigm focussing more and more on blame of the individual and hence increasing laws based on modifying behaviour is seriously clouding/distorting the Safety Professions ability to actually reduce death, injury and disease in our workplaces, on our roads and in the general community.

It's time the leaders of safety took their sunglasses off (demolished safety paradigms) so they can see clearly we are not saving lives by focussing on behaviour but actually destroying lives, even if this sort of focuss removes a problem from the immediate vicinity, it will shift it to another area of our society and hasn't achieved anything for the good of the community or the workers.

For example if we heavily drug test our workforce and remove all those using illegal drugs, we haven't achieved anything just moved the problem somewhere else and in all likelihood made that problem even bigger. The drug user who had hope with employment will now feel hopeless and be thrown on the scrap heap only to turn to drugs more heavily and hence create an even bigger problem than there was before.

I ask the leaders of safety to stop running scared and banning people like me who have a totally different view but embrace the views and the people so we may open up the safety paradigm to actually help the whole community not just our own workplace.

Sincerely
Daniel Di-Giusto

I must thank Dr Norm Wakefield and Jody Brolsma for the wonderful reference in the book Men are from Israel Women are from Moab

Polititians are telling as we are completely safe in Thailand, Yeah Sure

It's a good thing we know polititians are complete liars or we might believe the following comments from Mr Downer!


Australians in Thailand safe: Downer

September 20, 2006 09:23am
Article from: AAP

AUSTRALIANS in Thailand are safe despite an overnight coup and the declaration of martial law in the capital, Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said today.

The Thai army seized control in Bangkok last night without a shot being fired, dismissing Prime Minister Thaksin while he was in New York for the UN General Assembly.

The army revoked the constitution and promised a swift return to democracy after political reforms, as tanks and troops took over Government House in the nation's first coup in 15 years.

Armoured vehicles and soldiers took up positions on street corners, but life in most of Bangkok continued largely uninterrupted.

Mr Downer said Australians in Thailand were safe as far as he was aware.

"As far as we know at the moment, they are perfectly safe, yes," he told ABC radio.

Just to clear it up though and show pollies will lie about anything there has been a travel warning issued by the U.S. , UK and Australian Governments! Remember the above statement was made at 10am and the below warnings were issued around the same time.

Thailand Coup Prompts Travel Warnings by U.K., U.S., Australia

By Ed Johnson

Sept. 20 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S., Australia and the U.K. led travel alerts following the military coup in Thailand, warning their citizens to avoid visiting the country or exercise caution if already there.

For all travel warnings go to Australian Department of Foreign Affairs

How to you do a Risk Assessment for this?

In Australia the behaioural safety people have made laws so you don't have guns (except organised crime) so how do we assess for this if we are to believe the behavioural safety guru's?


Railwayman hit by bullet

September 20, 2006 09:39am
Article from: AAP

A RAILWAYMAN has been hit by a bullet that ricocheted around the cabin of a freight train in South Australia's mid-north.

Police say the bullet struck the thigh of the train's observer at Tellowie Beach, near Port Germein, on the line heading north from Adelaide at about 10pm (CST) last night.

"The shot hit a light on the train near the driver's cabin, ricocheted into the cabin, hitting a control panel and then ricocheted again, hitting the train's observer in the left thigh," a police spokesman said.

"Fortunately the bullet had lost velocity and only caused bruising to the man."

After a search of the area, police arrested two men, aged 19 and 20, in a utility near Port Pirie.

Who protects the children from the government department designed to protect them?

In a sad state of affairs the Queensland Government has released figures showing that 51 children died that were known to The Governments Child Safety Department,
State under fire as child deaths mount

Rosanne Barrett

September 19, 2006 12:00am
Article from: The Courier-Mail

AT LEAST six children linked to the Child Safety Department have been fatally assaulted since June last year. Four more killed themselves.

The shocking figures were revealed in a Commission for Children and Young People statement detailing the deaths of 51 children known to the department last financial year.

They came three years after Premier Peter Beattie promised wholesale reform of child protection in Queensland. It also follows the tragic death of a three-year-old girl on the Gold Coast who had been put back into her mother's care by the Child Safety Department.

Typical of these Government departments, they usually make the situation worse and this example is no exception. I ask the question who protects the children from the Queensland Governments Child Safety Department? Probably no one as in the rest of the safety profession, if you speak up you are banned.

Regards
Daniel

The State of the Safety Profession

I think the following sequence of pictures sums up what happens when the Safety Institute of Australia and it's overseas counterparts ban qualified and experience professionals in favour of their mates without the dedication and committment to prove they are competent in safety with qualifications!

But again the truth is to be hidden so we can have members, fellows and chartered fellows without qualifications! To bad the court system doesn't recognise they can't be classed as professionals without qualifications! Maybe that will change if we keep revealing the damage the Safety Institute is doing to the reputation of safety by allowing unqualified leaders!

It's called a risk assessment for those unqualified fellows and chartered fellows and this thing happens in oz everyday, just look at Caloundra and the barge sinking and you'll see the truth.

Regards
Daniel



Would have been cheaper to hire me! What a bonus that someone had a camera becuase this is what the Safety Institute of Australia hides to keep it's good name. pppppppffffffffftttttttttttt

Lies of the Safety Institute of Australia

In an effort to conceal the truth the Safety Institute of Australia lies about it’s web forums! Yep they use lies to ban people that raise the truth about the unprofessionalism of the institute!

They carry on that they can be sued because of statements posted on their web forum to the point they threaten to close the forum down! Now if we look at precedents set, especially with E-Bay we see that the SIA cannot be held responsible for comments posted by others, in fact the same goes for the Workplace Health and Safety web forum and Aussie Yabber.

The lies are an attempt to conceal the truth and the lack of knowledge of the membership of the Safety Institute of Australia!

The more often they ban me based on an absolute lie, the more they prove they are liars and lacking any knowledge in not only the safety field but across all laws that are relevant to Health and safety.

The only action that could have been taken against any of these forums for posts made on them was a court order to remove the post! Simple isn’t it, but the thing is they wouldn’t have had any removed and the corruption in the Safety Profession is the only reason they were removed.

Time for change in Safety Leadership for people who are honest but not only honest, they need to be committed enough to safety to be able to discuss all issues in Safety and especially the workplace, but when they cover it all up in favour of their buddies in business and government the less safe the world becomes.

Regards
Daniel

Road Safety - School Zones - Behavioural Controls

School zone speed limits are probably the only speed limits I agree with in this country but yet it was obvious to me this morning they still fail as all behavioural controls do! Of all vehicles a school bus would have been the one vehicle that I would expect to comply with these slow speed limits of 40 kph, yet I followed a bus into a school zone this morning with kids running around everywhere and yet the bus sped away at I estimate 20kph over the limit (QLD Rego 328 IJR).

This just highlighted to me even more that behavioural controls on our roads are only good for one thing and that is raising revenue!

Now if Road Safety experts were skilled and educated they would understand the hierachy of controls and know that behavioural controls are right at the bottom becuase they fail constantly!

If we followed the hierachy we would be looking at eliminating the risk and that would be easy if we followed the Canadian experience, we would be building schools without road crossings!

That may sound hard to the undeducated Safety Institute of Australia but it's quite simple actually, we just build schools on dead end streets so there would be no through traffic.

But again when we have a Safety Institute of Australia that allows members, fellows and chartered fellows in without tertiary qualifications we can see the results! They have no idea so they focuss on blamming everyone and implementing behavioural controls!

Sad state of safety in Australia with the SIA representing the safety profession when it's not even professional itself.

Regards
Daniel

Australian Defence Force Propeganda

Man the spin doctors at the Defence Force are looking aroundund for anything to cover up their incompetent leaders! Yep the latest footage of soldiers letting off a bit of steam is a blatant lot of propaganda to take the heat of the Defence Force leaders.

But if they had half a brain they would realise by releasing these videos they are actually highlighting just how incompetent the leaders are! What happened to adequate supervision? By the way I don't believe given the environment those soldiers are in, that the video's are that bad and are only highlighted to take the heat off the Pvt Kovco issue.

Now lets focuss on the main issue of the moment and that is the incopetence of the Defence Force in stuffing up the body being returned to Australia!

But lets look into Kovco in more depth! I would say the misshap with the wrong body being shipped back was not a misshap at all! I would say it was deliberate so the Defence Force had the time to remove all evidence of what really happened!

Regards
Daniel

Jockey Safety proves behavioural controls do not work!

It is absolutely pathetic the attempt by the corrupt racing industry to use behavioural controls as the only approach to jockey safety!

Look at motocross or motor cycle road racing and you will see an awesome array of safety devices that could easily be adapted to protect jockies in the event of a fall, but what does the racing industry do? They send the jockies to school to teach them to ride safer! Pffffffffffttttttttttttt

Recent events highlight this total negligence in the racing industry and not only do they cover up high levels of exposure to respirable silica for it's workers and members of the public but they continue to go on maiming and killing the jockeys: Today in Melbourne there was another two horse fall, with one jockey being resusitated on the track and is in a coma and the second with broken bones in a number of places on his body, and below we have a couple of recent falls, highlighting just how the racing industry corruptly ignores Jockey safety.

Jockey Hoopert critical after race fall
Saturday Jul 29 19:50 AEST

Jockey Jason Hoopert is battling for his life in Royal Brisbane hospital following a two-horse fall at Kilcoy, west of Brisbane, on Saturday.

Hoopert was flown by helicopter to Brisbane after his mount, Iris Kiap, crashed approaching the home turn in the second race on the program.

Apprentice Alisha Winfield, who rode the Les Ross-trained Kaadeema, escaped unhurt when her mount crashed over the top of the fallen Iris Kiap.

A Royal Brisbane hospital spokesman said Hoopert was in a critical condition in an induced coma.

AM - Monday, 26 June , 2006 08:24:00
Reporter: Jennifer Macey
TONY EASTLEY: The dangers of the racetrack have again been highlighted. Australian champion jockey, Shane Dye, is in a coma following a bad fall at a race meeting in Hong Kong.

Dye was riding at the Sha Tin track yesterday when his horse clipped heels with another mount and fell soon after the start of the race.

He was conscious and talking to ambulance officers at the racetrack but later lapsed into unconsciousness.

Shane Dye is regarded as one of the top jockeys in Australia and Hong Kong where he's been racing for the past six years.

Marijuana

While Schapel Corby sits in jail for the next 20 years or longer, the bali bombers only get 8 years for killing and maiming hundreds and Indonesia New Drug Haven In Region, Says Report

MELBOURNE, Sept 19 (Bernama) -- Indonesia is emerging as a drug haven and a key transit point for deadly shipments of heroin, cocaine and amphetamines in the region, according to a report by the Australian National Council on Drugs.

The report also reveals an alarming rise in the use, production and trafficking of illicit drugs across the Asia-Pacific region.

And it identifies a new breed of drug users in Asia -- the affluent children of those who are riding the region's economic boom.

"Amphetamines are making substantial inroads into rapidly growing and economically powerful youth cultures in many countries.

"This is especially the case among children of political leadership in some countries," it says.

The report, obtained exclusively by "The Australian" newspaper, finds that Indonesia and China have emerged as key players.

"Following the end of the Suharto era, there has been a considerable growth in the drug trade (in Indonesia).

Now to me Marijuana hasn't killed anybody, there is no proof of such, yet it's clear Ambrosi killed heaps directly and only gets 8 years and heroin and speed also kill heaps of Australians each year. A crazy mixed up world we live in when people are penalised significantly in an effort to protect the pharmacutical companies profits for use of marijuana, yet people get off relatively lightly for directly killing millions!

Satan certainly rules our countries leaders for this to happen.

Regards
Daniel

James Hardie highlights why shareholders need to be fined for murdering people for profits.

There is no doubt in my mind that the leaders of James Hardie industries are murderers in the highest degree, by killing 100's of 1000's of workers with knowledge of the murders for scores of years but the profits were too great and the penalties non existent so they continued to murder for profits.

And just to rub the salt into the wounds of the families of those murdered for profits,The top executive at James Hardie Industries has received a pay rise of more than 60 per cent in the past year.

The information is contained in the company's annual report, which also reveals that the company has spent $45 million so far dealing with the scandal arising from its provisions for asbestos victims.

The report shows the pay packet of CEO Louis Gries grew to $4.7 million, including bonuses and other benefits.

James Hardie Industries says the chief executive's pay reflects an increase in the company's profit.

So with no penalties issued towards share holders who are accesories to murder the company goes on reaping larger profits. It's time to do something positive for safety and that is to legislate for not only CEO's and Board Members to be treated as the criminals they are and be put in jail for murder (at least manslaughter) but also share holders to be penalised significantly!

The only way we are going to turn this trend of murdering workers for profits is to penalise those that exert influence over the companies responsible and that is the shareholder. Once shareholders start getting scared of loosing profits they will vote to make workplaces safer! Simple as that, but as it stands the shareholders reap the rewards of murder and as such keep ignoring workers and communities safety.

But an even worse example of the arrogance of these people in getting away with murder ELEANOR HALL: The Chairman of building products company James Hardie has told shareholders about the company's frustration at the continued stalemate over compensation to victims of the Hardies asbestos products.

But that failure hasn't stopped James Hardie's directors from proposing a much richer package for themselves. They're asking shareholders to vote for a 130 per cent increase in their fees.

Our reporter Barney Porter is at the meeting in Sydney and joins us now.

(to Barney Porter) So, Barney what did the Chairman tell today's meeting about the compensation package for asbestos victims?

Yet those still dying slow deaths are not going to get compensation for 12 months or so, the arrogance of James Hardie not only murdered many many workers but the one's still dying are to suffer waiting for a poor compensation package. Sure the chairman is frustrated, NOT! She is laughing all the way to the bank as well as the shareholders, the longer they can hold onto these compensation payments the more interest they earn on the money that has been put aside for it and hence increasing profits on the backs of those dying every single day they hold onto it. In fact in 12 months they probably earn enough interest to pay out without any hurt on the organisations bottom line.

This is a sick world when CEO's, Board Members and Shareholders get away with murder scott free, in fact they are rewarded with payrises for doing such a good job of murdering people. Too bad Johnny Howard is in their pocket, in fact I would class John Howard as an accessorie to murder the way he protects them.

Regards
Daniel

Australian Defence will do everything they can to hide the truth in Kovco inquiry

It's clear to me after seeing how things are covered up by the Australian Defence force that the truth will never be clear about Private Kovco's death, in fact it wouldn't suprise me if the latest release of soldiers clowning around with their weapons was a set up by the Defence Force to cloud any truths that come out. The easiest way to tell will be when those soldiers in the video are still in the Defence Force as that will tell you they were ordered to do it! But then we won't hear the truth about that either.

The beauty of war is those in command of our defence forces can do whatever they want and kill off whoever they want without any focuss being put on those in command, and blame will be laid at the soldiers feet for something they most probably had no control over.

Kovco may be partly to blame, says inquiry

Bellinda Kontominas and AAP
September 19, 2006
AdvertisementAdvertisement

THE board of inquiry into Private Jacob Kovco's fatal shooting may pin part of the blame on the soldier for his own death.

The three-man board of inquiry began hearing closing legal arguments yesterday about evidence relating to Private Kovco's death in Baghdad on April 21.

But last night his mother labelled the inquiry an army cover-up.

Judy Kovco told ABC television she had not yet come to terms with the loss of her son.

"This is face-saving from the army, this is not about my son's death," she said.

Mrs Kovco said she was prepared for the inquiry to come back with an open finding but was "100 per cent positive" that her son did not kill himself.

"There is no way known that Jake would have shot himself purposely.

"I was close to my son, he was happy, he loved his wife, he loved his children, he loved his family," Mrs Kovco told The 7.30 Report.

Judy Kovco is spot on in her comments and when you've seen people being exposed to live fire to take photo's during training becuase the Colnel didn't like them or girls being raped in the field becuase they raised an issue of concern against their C/O then you will understand the defence force is a corrupt law unto itself.

Regards
Daniel

Muslim's across the world have proven the Popes comments

Even after the Pope has bowed to political correctness and apologised we see the truth to his statement about Islam and now we have a Jihad against the Pope and the Cross, it's clear that suicide bombers are Islamic.

Al-Qaeda in Iraq warned in an Internet statement today it would wage jihad, or holy war, until the West is defeated.

"We say to the servant of the cross (the Pope): wait for defeat... We say to infidels and tyrants: wait for what will afflict you. We continue our jihad," said the statement attributed to the Mujahideen consultative council.

"We will smash the cross," it said, and "conquer Rome".

Another armed group linked to al-Qaeda, Ansar al-Sunna (Partisans of the Precepts of the Prophet), denounced the Pope as "Satan's hellhound".

In Tehran, Iran's supreme leader Ali Khamenei compared the Pope's remarks to caricatures published in a Danish newspaper last year deemed insulting to the Prophet Mohammed. The cartoons set off deadly protests in the Muslim world.

Contractor Safety

Well John Howards workplace legislation is starting to show it's ugly head! Yep he wants you to pay to go to work! And in the following article Safety Issues aren't even addressed as these new I.R Laws cut contractors payments to the bone (well employees but they are now contractors) so that safety planning is not even on the agenda, as they cannot afford to think of safety when they can't even feed the kids!


Telstra contractors 'suffering pay cuts'

September 19, 2006 01:14am
Article from: AAP

MORE than 100 Telstra contractors are refusing to repair and install phones in rural NSW because of pay cuts that make their jobs untenable, unions say.

The ACTU and NSW Communications Workers' Union said the telephone technicians were facing pay cuts of between 25 and 50 per cent of their contract pay rates.

The technicians were employed as sub-contractors for Downer Engineering but carried out the majority of their work on residential and business telephone lines for Telstra, the ACTU said.

“They say they cannot afford to accept most country work under the new contract rates and have been forced to halt rural repair work and in-place installations until their rates of pay are restored,” ACTU president Sharan Burrow said.

Peter Brock - May his death not be in vain!

The cost of leaving trees and poles on the outside of corners to release energy that kills is highly evident today!

Thousands to farewell Brock today

September 19, 2006 02:32am
Article from: AAP

MOTOR racing legend Peter Brock will be farewelled at a state funeral in Melbourne today.

A 1000-strong congregation, including the cream of Australia's racing fraternity, will pack St Paul's Anglican cathedral, in the city centre, for the service which starts at 11am (AEST).

Thousands of motor racing fans are also expected to line the streets around the cathedral to pay their respects to one of the country's most recognisable sporting heroes.

Brock's brother Lewis and daughter Alexandra will address the congregation on behalf of the family.

The family's local federal MP, Liberal Fran Bailey, will represent Prime Minister John Howard at the funeral.

The State of the Safety Profession in Australia

I think the following sequence of pictures sums up what happens when the Safety Institute of Australia and it's overseas counterparts ban qualified and experience professionals in favour of their mates without the dedication and committment to prove they are competent in safety with qualifications!

But again the truth is to be hidden so we can have members, fellows and chartered fellows without qualifications! To bad the court system doesn't recognise they can't be classed as professionals without qualifications! Maybe that will change if we keep revealing the damage the Safety Institute is doing to the reputation of safety by allowing unqualified leaders!

It's called a risk assessment for those unqualified fellows and chartered fellows and this thing happens in oz everyday, just look at Caloundra and the barge sinking and you'll see the truth.

Regards
Daniel



Would have been cheaper to hire me! What a bonus that someone had a camera becuase this is what the Safety Institute of Australia hides to keep it's good name. pppppppffffffffftttttttttttt

Bullbar study highlights the increased risks bullbars pose on the public

Bullbars are another classic example of poor design and ignorance by our road safety experts becuase of their never ending persuit of increasing revenue based on behavioural controls.

A study into Performance of bull bars in pedestrian impact tests has shown.

Vehicle Manufactureres ignore child restraints!

It's become apparent to me over recent years with the old man selling cars is that vehicle manufacturers are ignoring the need to mount child restraints and child car seats and the like.

Every vehicle these days (almost a ferrari or the like may be excused) has a split fold rear seat and every one I have tried has either buttons for the seats to fold down in the road of the restraints for a child capsule in the road of the straps, easily breaking in a collision and alowing a wiplash effect.

Or the split fold seat itself is a cause of great concern with belts from these child car seats working themselves down between the cracks.

Too bad they haven't the time to have children and discover these things where they do all this testing for vehicle safety hey, they might see things in the real world.

Regards
Daniel

How much could be saved with road redesign and construction?

Well if we look at S.A. figures (they are pretty up to date, Well Done!) the annual cost of road accidents is approx. $1.18 Billion and if we consider a few other states road tolls are far greater than South Australia's we can see there is scope for huge cost savings.

If we removed the trees, poles, ability to have head on's and other objects that release energy then it would be at least 50% of that figure and I would say we could reduce the road toll even further with these initiatives.

In fact just removing the ability to have head on accidents would reduce the road toll by a large percentage, easily!

So if the state put in half a $Billion a year in redesigning the roads it would pay for itself! And I would make the assumption that it would also reduce other accidents where vehicles have run off the road trying to aviod a head on, which would be a good percentage of road accidents, in themselves.

But we look at Victoria and what they have is lots of money wasted on people making up formula's for calculating whether it's financially profitable to seal the sides of our roads even though sealing the sides of roads reduces the accident rates in those areas! Example of some of that waste of money below:

*s houlder sealing was associated with a statistically significant reduction in casualty accident frequencies at sites where it was installed on 2-lane 2-way rural highways in Victoria,
* casualty accidents were reduced by 43 per cent, on a per vehicle kilometre basis, at such sites,
* this is equivalent to a reduction of 0.073 casualty accidents per million vehicle kilometres,
* the breakeven point (the point at which it is economically worthwhile) to install sealed shoulders is at a traffic flow of about 350 veh/d,
* the benefit/cost ratio of shoulder sealing can be calculated from:

benefit/cost ratio = 2.9 x (AADT in thousands)
where AADT is Annual Average Daily Traffic

* for example, if the AADT is 4,000 veh/d, a benefit/cost ration of about 11.6:1 could be expected,
* the main accident reductions are in rear end, overtaking - out of control, off carriageway to left, and off carriageway to right into fixed object crashes.

Now it's all well and good being able to do calculations like that but when they show you reduce the road toll, how can you justify the cost of a life???????

Isn't that what taxes are for, to protect the people????? So redesign the roads and stop killing people!

Regards
Daniel

Behavioural Control in Road Safety forgets the most important factor in behavioural control!

In the CASR001 Annual performance indicators of enforced driver behaviours, 2002
Report it highlights just how lacking in understanding and knowledge our road safety experts are, as they focuss on modifying motorists behiour, it becomes apparent they know little about energy release and the like and are just a bunch of psycologists not people with safety knowledge!

And the most glaring aspect that makes their lack of knowledge obvious is the fact that there is not even a mention of modifying the behaviour of those that design and build our roads! If they had knowledge they would understand they need to remove energy release points from the sides of our roads and to do this we need to educate the road designers and engineers in energy release and removing these.

But then it appears someone needs to educate the road safety experts first.

Regards
Daniel

If speed kills this guy would be dead and so would his mates

Australia's Casey Stoner has been clocked at 343 km/h this season!!!!!

Yep if those road safety boffins were to be believed he would definately be dead and so would all his mates!

And yep they do fall off!

Just more proof that if we remove the objects from the sides of our roads that cause energy release and remove the ability to have a head on collision added to removing pedestrians from our road ways where possible, we will save lifes!

Can't raise revenue out of that though.

Nissan Motor Vehicles promotes base jumping

In the latest advertising campaign in Australia Nissan has one of it's four wheel drives head for the hills and then we see the guys get out. They rig up and jump of the cliff with parachutes on their backs.

and in light of the latest death

Thrillseeker's death plunge

By Ricky Sutton

September 14, 2006 12:00
Article from: The Daily Telegraph

A SYDNEY basejumper who proudly told on the web about his thrillseeking life has plunged to his death on a jump in Mexico.

Adam Gibson, 25, died after jumping off am 800m cliff in the Sumidero canyon but his body hit the rocks on the way down before plunging into a river below.

It was unclear whether Mr Gibson's parachute had also malfunctioned.

BASE is an acronym for building, antennae, span and earth, the types of platforms from which participants in the extreme sport jump.

On the website http://www.cookiecomposites.com, Mr Gibson said he had completed more than 400 jumps over his career.

Just seems ironic that these police of all things moral can ban adds where a couple of lads are doing circle work on some salt pans, which I believe a good learning opportunity for any of our young yet they allow promotion of such high risk activities as base jumping.

Ammonia Leak in Brisbane

300 workers evacuated after gas leak

September 14, 2006 08:17am
Article from: AAP

HUNDREDS of workers were evacuated from a Brisbane abattoir last night following a gas leak.

Emergency services crews were called to Teys Brothers Meatworks on Logan River Road, Beenleigh, around 7pm yesterday after ammonia gas leaked from a faulty valve in the cooling system, police said today.

One worker suffered breathing difficulties and was treated at Logan Hospital.

Up to 300 employees were evacuated until the valve was repaired.

They returned to work about 10pm.

This is pretty toxic stuff and it appears from the article that the leak occured for around 3 hours! Hmmmmm I wouldn't want to be one of the residents in the area (either private or business) knowing this has occured for such a long period and the only concern the Meatworks had was to evacuate the employees, what about those downwind of the leak.

But then I have been into organisations that operate with Ammonia and seen some of our so called safety experts work and it fails big time when it comes to evacuation!

In fact one organisation had 7 consultants come in and write 5 or 6 different evacuation plans and after reading through them not one would be effective in an evacuation! The majority would be evacuated but they had no idea how to inform workers and the public.

I was asked to re-write them again and I coped heaps of flake for my response at the time (in a report) and that was after investigating the whole plant!

Yep these safety boffins had written some good plans (one consultant was the fire brigade) but not one of them had any idea about the workplace and communications.

I identified that there were no communications in place in the event of an emergency, in fact the safety boffins had been that good at the writting of policy and proceedure they had even developed an emergency response group in the event of an emergecy.

I asked two questions and the first was if an ammonia leak how would people know which way was upwind! And the second was how do you communicate with the emergency response group and isolated workers in the event of a leak.

They could not answer even though they had employed 7 different safety experts to write these procedures. Recommendations of the report (short version) update emergency communications systems to meet basic Australian Standards and install a device that lets people know which way the wind is going!

Other recommendations included co-ordinating with business around the site so they were aware of an Ammonia spill and help with their evacuation plans. Some of those businesses included McDonalds and the local hospital as well as the usual needs with emergency services.

Another important recommendation was to contain any leaks! Yep have a secondary containment facility so if the primary facility leaked it would be contained in the secondary system.

I guess this was too hard as organisations don't want to develop best practice but only want to comply with the minimum, at least they complied with the rest of the report after a couple of weeks complaining.

In this instance it would seem that it would have been appropriate to have a secondary containment of the ammonia as a leak occuring for three hours is pathetic and places the whole community at risk of exposure.

Regards
Daniel

National Uniformity - For better or is it for worse?

I've followed the sheep on the issue of national uniformity of OHS Legislation over the years believing it will be better for everyone if we ever developed a uniform safety system accross the country.

However when you look at it from an outside perspective you can see the problems national uniformity would cause.

At present we have numerous states and territories delivering their own legislation and if you read through the states legislation it is all pretty uniform anyway! The good part of this is it promotes competition amongst the states as each govt department of each state believes they have the best, most concise legislation!

This competition is good for the worker and safer work environments, keeping each enforcement agency (except those run by insurance companies) on it's toes and motivating them to improve their legislation so they feel they have it better than the other states.

What we have seen since a number of enforcement agencies have been taken over by insurance companies and states have moved towards a more uniform system is a lack of competition!

This has led to the legislation becoming stagnent, for example if you read through the QLD Act you will notice it is very similar to the legislation brought into Victoria in the mid 80's!

So the lack of competition has led the states to be stagnent and not pushing for worlds best practice but only pushing to keep the Federal Govt happy.

The opposite can be said for compesation legislation in all it's forms! Competition amongst the states has left the worker with very little support and protection if they happen to be injured in the workplace. This has also had a negative effect on safety in that there is no financial incentive to make the workplace safer becuase employers do not face the finacial burden once placed upon them if they injured or killed workers. So competition in the compensation field has led to a legislative approach to watering down protection for workers from common law claims.

So I would believe it healthy to have competition amongst the states on OHS legislation with each state pushing the others for best practice. However the opposite could be said for compensation legislation accross the country with competition forcing each state to rip off the workers to encourage business to move to their states due to less costs associated with injuring or killing workers. And when you get a bad workplace all the other organisations in that industry sector cover the costs for the poor performer in safety, hence destroying all incentive to actually make the workplace safer for that poor performer and destroying incentive for those that want to move to best practice safety managment becuase they will still be paying for that poor performing organsition through their premiums.

Regards
Daniel

Proof of the uneducated in Safety Institute have no idea

I was told I was looney for highlighting the risks to our water supplies terrorists pose a couple of years ago and assured by the safety profession that the water supplies were safe!

Seems those same people in safety were absolutely lying to defame my name and now the threat to our water supplies is taken seriouly after all these years.

US defence warns of new terrorism targets
Nuclear power plants and water supplies are among the planned targets for future terrorist attacks on American soil, according to US defence officials. They say documents and maps recovered from Afghanistan reveal what Al Qaeda terrorists have in mind.

Typical of those in leadership of safety in this country discredit anyone that has the foresight to think laterally and lie to protect their lack of knowledge. Seems I was just a couple of year ahead of them.

Regards
Daniel

U.S. Airline proves that wasing resources on drug testing will lead to death

In a classic example of how using up safety resources to screen for drugs which over 200 years have shown no increase in risk over the general population when it comes to the workplace or roads for that matter, U.S. Airline Comair didn't even have the resources left to ensure their pilots have up to date maps of airfields, which led to the death of 49 people on an airline that crashed.

Take note becuase with these uneducated safety people heading up the Safety Institute in Australia they will come up with all these wastes of resources becuase they cannot look at the evidence only look at whether it makes them popular with the boses, which will lead to more and more of these incidents killing people.

And in this incident the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration used all the resources up on drug testing for drugs that present no evidentual risk such as marijuana, and left nothing to issue vitally important maps to pilots on runway changes!


Airline had outdated airport map

From correspondents in Lexington

September 13, 2006 04:47am
Article from: Agence France-Presse

COMAIR was using an outdated diagram of a Kentucky airport when a plane crashed after taking off from the wrong runway, killing 49 of the 50 people on board, the airline said today.

While the airport said it sent out notices advising pilots of recent construction on the runways, the pilots were using maps distributed in January that did not reflect the taxiway changes.

Those changes were also not reflected in new maps which were sent out to pilots on Saturday.

The airline responded by sending out warnings to pilots stating that "published airport diagrams do not accurately reflect actual airport signage and markings", spokeswoman Kate Marx said.

The maps are created by the National Aeronautical Charting Office, a branch of the US Federal Aviation Administration and provided to Comair through a private vendor.

Very few trust a government warning becuase of all the lies they spin

Evidence of peoples total lack of trust in governments becuase of the lies they spin to protect themselves and their big business buddies is in the pudding!

ALMOST 50 per cent of Australians ignore government travel warnings when considering an overseas holiday, a survey has found.

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) issues advisories warning Australian travellers of dangers present in countries ranging from the UK to Iraq.

But an online poll by tourist website totaltravel.com found one in four travellers were willing to take a risk and only sometimes took advice.

Another 20 per cent of respondents believed they could look after themselves and rarely followed travel advice.

A slight majority of the 500 respondents to the poll said they always followed travel warnings.

So the result of lies is people not trusting the government on serious issues!

Marijuana the truth behind it being illegal

Well not satisfied that Vioxx led to a high increase in Heart Attack rates, now we are seeing the results of the pharmacutical companies peddling their drugs, Voltaren has now been identified as increasing the risk of heart attack by 40% Both these drugs are used for arthritis!

Yet we have a drug that after 200 years of research has shown it's never killed anyone, marijuana! But it's illegal and the evidence is obvious, if it were legal these pharmacutical companies wouldn't be able to peddle their drugs of death on the general public as there would be a relatively safe alternative (compared to legal alternatives anyway) for arthritis sufferers in marijuana.

But the governments must be getting kick backs from these $multi billion companies to keep it illegal while they peddle there drugs of death and destruction! Such as Vioxx and Voltaren and most probably as we will see after they have been used for 20 or 30 years many other of these new drugs by the pharmacutical companies.

But I guess peoples health and safety is not as important as keeping the profits safe for these pharmacutical companies and their political buddies.

Regards
Daniel

Voltaren Research Link

Billabong Pools get away with pleading ignorance!

In the tragic death of Amanda Boyce (13) who died when her hair was caught in a spa at Seahaven Resort in Noosa in 2001, the manufacturers or suppliers of the spa have pleaded ingnorance to OHS Legislative requirements and gotten away with it! From experience ignorance is no excuse and this judge was way off in his sentencing! For a start the resort only was fined $7,500 for a death, pathetic!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Especially given the spa didn't comply with Australian Standards (an absolute minimum compliance)!!!!!!!! But further Billabong Pools were let off and when you look at the comments from the company:

Quote
Billabong Pools director Barry Mulligan denied his company, which was contracted to maintain the spa's pumps and pipes, was responsible for the death.

“We are not safety experts,” Mr Mulligan said.

He said the industry lacked guidelines, so it was “quite unfair to put the responsibility on a small service company”

We see they have gotten away with pleading ignorance! A great big pfffffffffffffftttttttttt either the judge was paid off or the inspectors failed to provide credible evidence against the supplier!

When we look at the Queensland Workplace Health and Safety Act 1995:

7 Objective of Act

• (1) The objective of this Act is to prevent a person’s death, injuryor illness being caused by a workplace, by a relevant workplace area, by work activities, or by plant or substancesfor use at a workplace.

It is clear the objectives of the Act were not met in the extreme as death wasn't prevented!

And then when we look at Section 32 B of the Act we see:
Workplace Health and Safety Act
1995 s. 32B
(1) A supplier of new plant for use at a
relevant place for the plant has an
obligation—
(a) either –
(i) to examine and test the plant to
ensure the plant is safe and
without risk to health when
used properly; or
(ii) to ensure the manufacturer of
the plant has given an
assurance that the plant has
been examined and tested to
ensure it is safe and without risk
to health when used properly;
and
(b) to ensure the plant is accompanied
by information about the way the
plant must be used to ensure
health and safety.
(2) A supplier of used plant for use at a
relevant workplace for the plant has an
obligation–
(a) to take all reasonable steps to
ensure the plant is safe and without
risk to health when used properly;
and
(b) to ensure the plant is accompanied
by information about the way the
plant must be used to ensure
health and safety, if the information
is available.

It is clear in this case that the supplier has failed in their duty but becuase they have pleaded ignorance they have gotten away with manslaughter without any penalty and the penalty on the owner of the equipment is basically given a warning with only a $7500 fine, it is obvious that something is severly wrong, either bribes, an ignorant judge or failing of the Inspector and Dept to provide enough evidence.

Regards
Daniel

GBH vs Marijuana

Now the forces that make $trillions out of keeping marijuana illegal have made it out to be the most dangerous thing on this planet but if we consider it hasn't killed anyone and then look at what a drug that no safety experts are testing for GBH can do, you'll understand why the youth don't believe us anymore!

Night of drugs, love and friendship that ended with a mate dead
By Natasha Wallace
July 21, 2004

Found dead on hotel room floor ... father-of-two Sam Ramoundos.

They were four close friends in their 30s who had come to Sydney from Newcastle to celebrate another mate's birthday. Around midnight, they walked arm-in-arm from Circular Quay, drunk on rum and champagne and euphoric on the party drug GHB.

As David Dray told a court yesterday, the drug - also known as GBH, for "grievous bodily harm" - made them feel "in love with the world" and each other.

By the next morning, he and his wife, Karin, were in hospital after collapsing on the street, convulsing and vomiting. Their friend Alison Ramoundos was found unconscious in a Potts Point hotel room. Her husband, Sam, lay dead on the floor.

Mr Ramoundos, a 35-year-old father of two, died on March 16 last year of multiple drug toxicity, a four-day coronial inquest into his death heard yesterday.

An autopsy revealed high levels of GHB (gamma hydroxybutyrate, also known as fantasy) as well as MDMA (ecstasy) and diet pills, Glebe Coroner's Court heard.

A Gatorade bottle containing clear liquid was found in the Ramoundos's room at the Devere Hotel. Later analysis found it was 1,4-Butanediol, the chemical used to make GHB, the court heard.
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The chemical, used to manufacture plastic and adhesives, is not listed on the prohibited or restricted drug schedule.

Clearly there is something going wrong with our advice and it is that the pharmacutical companies and chemical manufacturers can make a profit out of GBH but marijuana takes their profits away by allowing people to self medicate for illness.

So they kill for profits and lie for profits and the kids have no idea anymore becuase of it.

Regards
Daniel