OSHA has developed a new set of E-Tools for those interested in Ergonomics and musculoskeletal injury prevention. The include:
Guidelines, OSHA is developing industry-specific or task-specific guidelines for a number of industries based on current incidence rates and available information about effective and feasible solutions.
Enforcement, OSHA will conduct inspections for ergonomic hazards and issue citations under the General Duty Clause and issue ergonomic hazard alert letters where appropriate.
Outreach and Assistance, OSHA will provide assistance to businesses, particularly small businesses, and help them proactively address ergonomic issues in the workplace.
National Advisory Committee, OSHA will charter an advisory committee that will be authorized to, among other things, identify gaps in research to the application of ergonomics and ergonomic principles in the workplace.
What guidelines does OSHA provide?
Nursing Homes | Retail Grocery Stores | Poultry Processing
How do I look for conditions that may contribute to musculoskeletal disorders?
Review of Injury Records | Job Analysis
How do I find examples of possible solutions for ergonomic problems?
OSHA Ergonomic eTools | Additional Resources | Success Stories
Where do I find additional assistance?
eTools | Cooperative Programs | Training and Education |
Tuesday, September 12, 2006
The Risks of Spear Fishing - Not what you'd expect
Here is an unusual one but a good warning for all those young spear fishermen/women and I couldn't help but highlight this article.
Fish kills spear-fishing diver
From correspondents in Miami
September 12, 2006 06:01am
Article from: Reuters
A FLORIDA diver shot a large grouper with a speargun then apparently drowned when the fish sped into a hole, entangling the man in the line attached to the spear, investigators said today.
The 42-year-old man, whose name was withheld, was free-diving in about 7.5 metres of water off the lower Florida Keys on Saturday and speared a Goliath Grouper, Monroe County Sheriff's Detective Mark Coleman said.
"It looks like the fish wrapped the line attached to the spear around the victim's wrist. The fish then went into a hole in a coral rock, effectively pinning the man to the bottom of the ocean," Detective Coleman said in a news release.
Police divers found the speared fish tightly wedged into the hole, with the man's body still tangled in the line, a sheriff's spokeswoman said.
Goliath Grouper are the largest members of the sea bass family and can weigh hundreds of pounds.
Link
Fish kills spear-fishing diver
From correspondents in Miami
September 12, 2006 06:01am
Article from: Reuters
A FLORIDA diver shot a large grouper with a speargun then apparently drowned when the fish sped into a hole, entangling the man in the line attached to the spear, investigators said today.
The 42-year-old man, whose name was withheld, was free-diving in about 7.5 metres of water off the lower Florida Keys on Saturday and speared a Goliath Grouper, Monroe County Sheriff's Detective Mark Coleman said.
"It looks like the fish wrapped the line attached to the spear around the victim's wrist. The fish then went into a hole in a coral rock, effectively pinning the man to the bottom of the ocean," Detective Coleman said in a news release.
Police divers found the speared fish tightly wedged into the hole, with the man's body still tangled in the line, a sheriff's spokeswoman said.
Goliath Grouper are the largest members of the sea bass family and can weigh hundreds of pounds.
Link
Steve Irwin and My Grand Dad
Just an interesting point!
I'm sorry for the loss of Steve Irwin who's work touched many hearts, but an interesting fact is that he died in a similar way to my Gradfather! My Grand Dad died after being speared by a sting ray through the leg on Werribee beach. Back then though it took so long for an ambulance, actually just to contact one in the first place that my Grand Dad died from blood loss and a heart attack.
But for Steve what a way to die! If I was Steve I would not have wanted it any other way, doing what I loved! Sure there is a risk in our oceans but if we don't take risks we never have fun. And for people to kill sting rays and chop their tails off like happened yesterday is a disgrace and not only an insult to Steve and his family but also mine.
Regards
Daniel
Video : Public Farwell to Irwin
I'm sorry for the loss of Steve Irwin who's work touched many hearts, but an interesting fact is that he died in a similar way to my Gradfather! My Grand Dad died after being speared by a sting ray through the leg on Werribee beach. Back then though it took so long for an ambulance, actually just to contact one in the first place that my Grand Dad died from blood loss and a heart attack.
But for Steve what a way to die! If I was Steve I would not have wanted it any other way, doing what I loved! Sure there is a risk in our oceans but if we don't take risks we never have fun. And for people to kill sting rays and chop their tails off like happened yesterday is a disgrace and not only an insult to Steve and his family but also mine.
Regards
Daniel
Video : Public Farwell to Irwin
Road Safety and a main factor ignored will lead to spike in road toll.
With the confines of the safety profession in this country and around the world the lack of knowledge and willingness to explore and create is obvious.
To highlight this lack of knowledge, understanding and ability to look at all factors, we can look at the previous post and the chart associated! For instance there is trend of reducing road tolls from the period of 2002!
While some would argue it's becuase of speed reductions, it is quite obvious that it is not due to this factor at all and becuase of the lack of knowledge and education of our safety leaders they just can't see that this drop in the road toll correlates perfectly with the rising fuel prices in the world.
So with rising fuel prices people do less driving, move closer to their workplaces etc etc and as such there is no real drop in the road toll, just a drop in the total Kilometres travelled, due to family budget restrictions!
Now with fuel prices dropping rapidly and if they continue to do so as predicted, the road toll will again rise again due to the financial ability to drive more, in fact they are predicted to drop below a dollar a litre before Christmas so this Christmas the road toll will be a record at least since 2002.
If we think back to 2002 fuel prices were below 70 cents per litre so with the price around $1 a litre this year there still will not be the level of driving as pre 2002 but with more disposable income there will be a spike in the road toll this year and if fuel prices continue to remain relatively low the road toll will head back on an upward trend due to the fact that the safety experts still can't see it's the objects that are hit in a loss of control of a vehicle that causes the energy release that kills and untill roads are designed without these objects the road toll will continue to fluctuate!
It could also be argued the same in the State of Victoria which the chart is based! Not only has there been a dramatic increase in fuel prices, the state government has been raising revenue from speed camera's (around $400 Million a year with a population of 4 million approx) which has reduced the disposable income of Victorians significantly, thus reducing kilometers travelled by each vehicle.
And to highlight how much money they stip of the Victorians! Every single Victorian on average contributes $100 to the Government each year in speeding fines. Now we know there are many children and other non drivers in that figure of 4 million people and many leaving the state for better states, that makes the figure for motorists a lot more (from memory there are around 1 million drivers) so that would increase this figure for motorists to $400 each year in speeding fines. Now we also know the speed camera system is focussed mainly in areas that raise the most revenue (not black spots as should be) so there are many motorists paying far more in speeding fines.
This all reduces the number of kilometers travelled and hence the reducing in the road toll dramatically.
But then consider someone on a low income is paying far more of a percentage of income than their high income earning counterparts so the effects of speed camera's on the poor is even more dramatic taking those motorists from the road becuase of lack of affordability and you can see clearly why there is a reduction in the road toll! Becuase people cannot afford to drive as far or as often!
So if I am seeing clearly the road toll should start to rise again with the fuel cost dropping! In fact it will correlate perfectly.
Regards
Daniel
To highlight this lack of knowledge, understanding and ability to look at all factors, we can look at the previous post and the chart associated! For instance there is trend of reducing road tolls from the period of 2002!
While some would argue it's becuase of speed reductions, it is quite obvious that it is not due to this factor at all and becuase of the lack of knowledge and education of our safety leaders they just can't see that this drop in the road toll correlates perfectly with the rising fuel prices in the world.
So with rising fuel prices people do less driving, move closer to their workplaces etc etc and as such there is no real drop in the road toll, just a drop in the total Kilometres travelled, due to family budget restrictions!
Now with fuel prices dropping rapidly and if they continue to do so as predicted, the road toll will again rise again due to the financial ability to drive more, in fact they are predicted to drop below a dollar a litre before Christmas so this Christmas the road toll will be a record at least since 2002.
If we think back to 2002 fuel prices were below 70 cents per litre so with the price around $1 a litre this year there still will not be the level of driving as pre 2002 but with more disposable income there will be a spike in the road toll this year and if fuel prices continue to remain relatively low the road toll will head back on an upward trend due to the fact that the safety experts still can't see it's the objects that are hit in a loss of control of a vehicle that causes the energy release that kills and untill roads are designed without these objects the road toll will continue to fluctuate!
It could also be argued the same in the State of Victoria which the chart is based! Not only has there been a dramatic increase in fuel prices, the state government has been raising revenue from speed camera's (around $400 Million a year with a population of 4 million approx) which has reduced the disposable income of Victorians significantly, thus reducing kilometers travelled by each vehicle.
And to highlight how much money they stip of the Victorians! Every single Victorian on average contributes $100 to the Government each year in speeding fines. Now we know there are many children and other non drivers in that figure of 4 million people and many leaving the state for better states, that makes the figure for motorists a lot more (from memory there are around 1 million drivers) so that would increase this figure for motorists to $400 each year in speeding fines. Now we also know the speed camera system is focussed mainly in areas that raise the most revenue (not black spots as should be) so there are many motorists paying far more in speeding fines.
This all reduces the number of kilometers travelled and hence the reducing in the road toll dramatically.
But then consider someone on a low income is paying far more of a percentage of income than their high income earning counterparts so the effects of speed camera's on the poor is even more dramatic taking those motorists from the road becuase of lack of affordability and you can see clearly why there is a reduction in the road toll! Becuase people cannot afford to drive as far or as often!
So if I am seeing clearly the road toll should start to rise again with the fuel cost dropping! In fact it will correlate perfectly.
Regards
Daniel
Proof that speed camera's increase the road toll!
Proof that speed camera's increase the road toll can be seen in this chart!
With the introduction of speed camera's in Victoria in 1986 you can clearly see the road toll rise in correlation!
You can see clearly that the rates only started to drop again with the introduction of intensified random breath testing in 1989!
And this correlates perfectly with the introduction of Random Breath Testing in 1976 where we see another dramatic reduction in the road toll!
There have only been two significant campaigns based on human behaviour that have shown any decrease in the road toll! The introduction of compulsory seat belts and random breath testing! And you may include the introduction of 50km/h zones in residential areas, which I will not dispute.
There is also a decrease with the introduction of 40km/h zones around schools, however I see this as a total failure as schools should not have roads all the way around them!
However in all other evidence there is clear proof that the distraction on focussing on the speedometer becuase of speed camera's has increased the road toll significantly enough to hold that gain and even increase the road toll, untill further alcohol testing was introduced.
Further studies in the U.K. have revealed dramatic increases in the road toll clearly correlating with the introduction of speed camera's and this is accross the board in every area they have introduced them in the U.K. there has been a significant increase in the road toll of up to 32%.
And the icing on the cake is in the U.K. where speed camera's haven't been introduced the road toll is actually reducing significantly at around 10%, which highlights the impact of better car design and added safety features! Again speed camera's are negating all the efforts of the vehicle manufacturers to design safer cars by increasing the road toll! (For information on road toll stats in the U.K. contact Top Gear)
Regards
Daniel
Monday, September 11, 2006
Civil Aviation Safety Authority Introducing Drug and Alcohol Testing causes Aust First Commercial Airline Fatal Crash
It's become obvious that the Civil Aviation Authorities approach to safety by focussing on human behaviour with Drug and Alcohol Testing will lead to Australia's first fatal Commercial Airline Crash!
Sure there is evidence against alcohol and angel dust that shows it to increase risks substantially but other recreational drugs I doubt there is any evidence other than that which shows that those using those drugs recreationally are actaully at less risk than the general population and that includes the general population of pilots as testing showed.
Sure I focuss on marijuana but that is becuase we have over 200 years of evidence and scientific examinations showing there is no proven risk to health, there is no proven risk of mental illness and most importantly the risks of driving a car a substantially reduced over the general population.
Other drugs I'm not so sure of becuase their hasn't been a campaing spanning 2 centuries and $billions to find something bad with God's own medication!
And to highlight the hypocrasy, we can look at mobile phone towers and high voltage electrical towers and their emissions, there is substantital evidence that children living near high power electrical towers from the U.K. showing there is a much higher prevalence of Luekemia in the children that live and go to school near these lines.
But that is not enough evidence to stop the exposure of our children to electromagnetic radiation fields, in fact it is just enough to prevent them from doing more substantial studies becuase it may effect the massive profits of the electrical and telecommunications industries. It surely won't send them broke just stop a record profit for a year or two!
And that's the point the reason that marijuana is attacked constantly without any evidence suggesting risk is becuase the potential loss of profits to pharmacutical companies from selling drugs such as morphine, valium, methotrexate and the like is enormous if patients can grow their own medication for free! The loss of profits to industries such as nylon and cotton is also enormous becuase we have an environmentally friendly product that exceeds the quality of nylong and cotton is also a major issue in the propeganda machine.
So in an argument for safety and health the pharmacutical companies issue lies about marijuana and when the lie is proven a lie they just come out with another lie about it's effects to protect their profit margians!
And the funniest part is the pharmacutical companies will continue to peddle their legal drugs such as morphine, valium, vioxx and hundreds of others and make $trillions each year from the lies they spread.
So to summarize my initial statement, the focuss on something that presents no significant risk is a total waste of money and resources that could be spent actually reducing risks in the workplace and designing the workplace and planes to significantly reduce risks.
So with the resources being spent on issues that pose no or little proven risk then the airlines in this country will compromise safety in other area's leading to Australia's first commercial crash causing hundreds of deaths!
Regards
Daniel
Sure there is evidence against alcohol and angel dust that shows it to increase risks substantially but other recreational drugs I doubt there is any evidence other than that which shows that those using those drugs recreationally are actaully at less risk than the general population and that includes the general population of pilots as testing showed.
Sure I focuss on marijuana but that is becuase we have over 200 years of evidence and scientific examinations showing there is no proven risk to health, there is no proven risk of mental illness and most importantly the risks of driving a car a substantially reduced over the general population.
Other drugs I'm not so sure of becuase their hasn't been a campaing spanning 2 centuries and $billions to find something bad with God's own medication!
And to highlight the hypocrasy, we can look at mobile phone towers and high voltage electrical towers and their emissions, there is substantital evidence that children living near high power electrical towers from the U.K. showing there is a much higher prevalence of Luekemia in the children that live and go to school near these lines.
But that is not enough evidence to stop the exposure of our children to electromagnetic radiation fields, in fact it is just enough to prevent them from doing more substantial studies becuase it may effect the massive profits of the electrical and telecommunications industries. It surely won't send them broke just stop a record profit for a year or two!
And that's the point the reason that marijuana is attacked constantly without any evidence suggesting risk is becuase the potential loss of profits to pharmacutical companies from selling drugs such as morphine, valium, methotrexate and the like is enormous if patients can grow their own medication for free! The loss of profits to industries such as nylon and cotton is also enormous becuase we have an environmentally friendly product that exceeds the quality of nylong and cotton is also a major issue in the propeganda machine.
So in an argument for safety and health the pharmacutical companies issue lies about marijuana and when the lie is proven a lie they just come out with another lie about it's effects to protect their profit margians!
And the funniest part is the pharmacutical companies will continue to peddle their legal drugs such as morphine, valium, vioxx and hundreds of others and make $trillions each year from the lies they spread.
So to summarize my initial statement, the focuss on something that presents no significant risk is a total waste of money and resources that could be spent actually reducing risks in the workplace and designing the workplace and planes to significantly reduce risks.
So with the resources being spent on issues that pose no or little proven risk then the airlines in this country will compromise safety in other area's leading to Australia's first commercial crash causing hundreds of deaths!
Regards
Daniel
Peter Brocks Death will lead to calls to ban motor racing!
The ramifications of Peter Brocks death can be seen with the safety investigators having no idea about safety! They are looking at the cars recorders to look for evidence as to what led to the loss of control!
Well guess what Peter Brock was Australia's greatest and probably the most highly skilled driver there is in Australia and would be up there accross the entire world!
So the facts are there was a loss of control of the vehicle! And the car hit a tree that released enough energy to kill instantly!
These safety investigators are only interested in covering their total lack of knowledge in safety and looking at ways to blame the driver for the loss of control, which distracts from the real issue and that is what caused the energy release!
The energy release was caused by hitting a tree! Simple isn't it, so why can't these so called safety experts see the common factor? Becuase the Safety Institute of Australia allows people to be members, Fellows and Chartered Fellows without proving their competency through qualifications! And becuase of this they cannot see the wood from the trees!
But what's worse is this current crop of safety professionals will look at banning motor racing and in particular this type of rally! But that's not what safety is about in my book! We should be allowed to undertake activities that are fun and most fun things have a certain level of risk to health and safety!
And so that leaves a quite simple control for this type of risk not only in rallying but in general motoring and that is to remove the trees, poles, speed camera's and other objects that cause the energy release in the event of a loss of control of a vehicle.
But they can't see that and never will that's why we have so many dying on our roads and in our workplaces becuase the safety profession has forgotten the kiss principle and instead focusses on goobledy gook and techinical reports to cloud the issue from the general public and the truth is they do this to cover their absolute lack of knowledge and committment to safety and common safety principles.
And to prove it, look how close the trees are to the outside of the corner! The most likely place for a vehicle that has a loss of control to end up slidding off the road to the outside of the corner!
These safety investigators are blind, totally blind to the common cause of death and that is the fixed object on the outside of the road just waiting for someone to loose control and release the energy that killed.
Regards
Daniel
Video: Peter Brocks Last Race Footage
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