Browsing: Emerging risks | Page 50

A workplace defibrillator can increase the chances of an employee surviving sudden cardiac arrest from as little as two per cent to 70 per cent, according to a St John Ambulance Victoria training provider.

Workers in a number of natural-resource industries are at increased risk of prostate cancer, Canadian researchers have found. Meanwhile, a Spanish study has found that workers in one industry are six times more likely than others to die of bladder cancer.

A study of tunnel construction work has identified the types of workers exposed to high concentrations of hazardous ultrafine particles, which are associated with respiratory and cardiovascular disease.

A major intergenerational report has driven home the importance of employers reducing the health risks associated with sedentary work among older employees, according to a leading researcher on the ageing workforce.

• Employer fined $240k over drum explosion; and
  
• Dangerous goods updates from across the country and overseas.

The dismissal of a worker, for using his mobile phone to play music while driving, was harsh because his employer's safety policy for phones was unclear on the use of "broadcasting devices", the Fair Work Commission has found.

Nearly every worker in three of Safe Work Australia's priority industries is exposed to at least one carcinogen, while the majority of workers in one sector are exposed to four or more, new research reports show.

Allowing workers to smoke in the workplace doesn't amount to "encouraging" them to take up or persist with the deadly habit, a tribunal has ruled.

A mining product advertised as a safe alternative to cyanide actually contains high levels of the toxic substance, and workers could be handling it without taking the proper precautions, a regulator has warned. Meanwhile, another worker has been diagnosed with black lung in Queensland.

Occupational exposure to particulate matter causes irregular heartbeat associated with cardiovascular mortality, a study has found.