Browsing: Health and mental wellbeing | Page 144

Many safety professionals are "obsessed with disasters" and fail to learn from what "went right" in near misses, according to leading safety lawyer Michael Tooma. He also warns that few employers are taking adequate steps to prevent psychological harm.

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.

• Safety controls encouraged for Fatality Free Friday;
  
• Vic initiatives tackle bullying and PTSD; and
  
• New safety laws to protect police and others in NT.

Workers who are bullied are more likely to think about suicide, and organisational rather than individual interventions are needed to tackle the problem, Australian researchers have found.

Psychological distress among employees and managers costs the Australian coal mining industry nearly 10 per cent of its pre-tax operating profit, but intervention programs are cost-effective, a unique study 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.

A major employer has more than halved its total-recordable injury frequency rate since implementing a new health and wellbeing program that connects workers to health professionals.

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.

Employers have been warned against rewarding workaholic behaviour, after a study found that workaholics are more likely to suffer depression and perform poorly.

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.