Browsing: Dangerous substances | Page 7

• Defence faces more WHS charges, this time over two deaths; and
  
• Cancer compensation Bill follows Opposition pressure in Tas.

Printer toner and mould are among a range of workplaces substances that can trigger an abnormal autoimmune response in workers and lead to the development of a serious inflammatory disease, UK researchers have found.

All of Australia's eight harmonised WHS jurisdictions have now formally applied or committed to adopting provisions explicitly requiring PCBUs to manage psychosocial risks through a risk management process.

A PCBU has been handed a pre-discount fine of $600,000 for its "wholly inadequate" safety systems, which involved directing two inexperienced workers to perform a high-risk chemicals task, and left them with serious burns from an explosion.

An electricity company has spent nearly $14 million on a safety overhaul, and committed a further $1 million to safety undertakings to avoid prosecution over an electric-shock incident that occurred just months before one of its workers died in similar circumstances.

In a rare case, an employer has been prosecuted and fined for workplace health and safety breaches after high levels of the hazardous substance lead were detected in the blood of four of its workers.

• WHS insurance bans and other changes introduced in Tas; and
  
• Presumptive cancer Bill applauded for world-first development.

Australia has taken a significant step towards the blanket ban of certain silica-containing workplace products, with the Australian Labor Party declaring the ban "necessary" under an amended WHS resolution.

A worker could be jailed for up to five years, after being charged with recklessly endangering a colleague who was killed by a toppling forklift load. Meanwhile, a safety regulator has issued a special warning to "pranksters", after five workers sustained burns in a gas explosion.

The resurgence of debilitating lung diseases in a major industry has come with a shift in disease type and severity, which researchers have attributed to modern work methods. They say their findings highlight the importance of controlling respirable dust.