New Zealand Journal of Health and Safety Practice

Exposure to dust and bioaerosols at GB municipal waste handling sites

Christine Keen — 2024-11-21

Background

Municipal waste in Britain contains organic matter. Handling this material can risk exposure to substances, including airborne dust and bioaerosol (airborne fungi, bacteria and their cellular components) that can impair human respiratory health. This paper combines the main findings of a series of studies conducted by the Health and Safety Executive in Great Britain to assess exposure to bioaerosols in various facilities processing municipal waste.

Methods

Site visits were conducted by a team of occupational hygienists and microbiologists. The key aims of the site visits were to quantify exposures to airborne dust and bioaerosol, to assess how waste processing methods and working practices contributed to worker exposure and to assess the effectiveness of exposure controls. Exposure measurement visits were conducted at materials recovery facilities (MRFs), waste transfer stations (WTS) and mechanical and biological treatment plants (MBTs).

Findings

High bioaerosol exposures, including endotoxin and Aspergillus fumigatus, both of which are associated with specific respiratory health conditions, were measured for several work activities. Higher risk tasks included work around unenclosed, high energy mechanical waste processing plant, cleaning operations using compressed air and high-pressure water jetting and hand sorting of waste at MRFs.

Conclusions

The higher exposures measured during this work could be reduced by increased sorting of waste at source to separate out food waste, a significant source of contamination in unsorted waste, improved plant design to provide greater containment of automated processes, targeted use of well-designed and suitably maintained LEV systems where practical and the adoption of low dust cleaning techniques.

An integrated industrial risk assessment methodology for accident safety, chronic health, and chemical exposure

Dirk Pons — 2024-11-21

Context – Industrial safety primarily uses ISO31000 risk assessment based on consequence and likelihood to anticipate and prevent accidents. The method focuses on avoiding the occurrence of temporally immediate biophysical harm. Chronic health conditions are more difficult to include, as the harm is not necessarily immediate and the consequences can remain long after the hazardous event is removed. Furthermore the consequence scales vary for the different hazards. In the case of chemical hazards, the Globally Harmonised System (GHS7) measures these by severity (dose required for death), but this metric is incompatible with the graduated harm scales used in ISO31000. Consequently it is difficult to include chemical hazards in the methods used for other workplace hazards. There is a need for a single integrated method that can accommodate all aspects of industrial safety.

Approach – The GHS7 chemical exposure scale is reworked and extended to non-death outcomes to make it compatible with the ISO31000 Risk management approach.

Originality – A set of three harmonised consequence scales are developed for safety (immediate accident consequences), health (long term & chronic ill-health), and chemical exposure (death as well as less severe outcomes). This allows a single ISO31000 compliant methodology to be used.

Design of survey to evaluate the core industrial ecosystem of lean, health and safety, quality, and organisational culture

Kongting Lee — 2024-11-21

Context: Efficient industrial operations require the integration of lean practices, quality systems, safe methods of work, and a supportive organisational climate.

Need: There is a need to manage work-related risks and ensure the safety and well-being of workers while maintaining operational efficiency and quality. While surveys exist for each of these facets and may be used to evaluate performance, there is no integrated survey of the core industrial ecosystem.

Objectives: The objective was to develop a survey to measure the adoption of effective work practices- lean methodologies, the presence of health and safety in the workplace, the effectiveness of quality systems, and the role of organisational support and culture.

Method: The survey combines extracts from existing surveys with new questions created to capture all the research objectives.

Outcomes: A composite survey was designed to measure workers’ perspectives of lean practices, occupational and health system, quality systems, and organisational support and culture. This is original as there is no holistic survey instrument for this in the literature.

The role of effective strategic leadership in transforming New Zealand's work health and safety system

Henry Koia — 2024-11-21

Hard working New Zealanders continue to die in New Zealand workplaces more than a decade after the Independent Taskforce on Workplace Health and Safety told us that all injuries and deaths in New Zealand workplaces are preventable. The single critical factor behind New Zealand’s poor workplace health and safety record is the gap in the provision of effective strategic leadership. Closing that fundamental gap will require the Minister who is for the time being responsible for the administration of the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 to take accountability for the performance of the work health and safety system in meeting set harm prevention targets, and be answerable to the Prime Minister. To have any chance of upholding that accountability the Minister must lead effectively and strategically. To achieve that, the Minister’s strategic advisers must acquire many new insights generated from new thinking, theories, and models for aiding harm prevention such as the Chain of Interventions Model and the Risk Management Compliance Continuum Model.

Constructing sleep health: understanding risks and interventions in the New Zealand roofing industry

Chris Polaczuk — 2024-11-21

The study investigated sleep health in terms of obstructive sleep apnoea and chronic insomnia amongst the Roofing trade in the New Zealand construction industry. Despite efforts to support workers, intervention uptake remained low, indicating a necessity for more tailored approaches. Addressing work-related stressors and offering sleep health education could enhance treatment acceptance. Future research should investigate cultural and experiential influences on sleep quality. However, limitations like the small sample size and convenience sampling must be acknowledged. In conclusion, while the study provides valuable insights, further exploration and nuanced interventions are imperative to address sleep-related challenges in the construction industry effectively.

Writing academic articles of interest to practitioners

Christopher Peace — 2024-11-21

Professionals (including health and safety practitioners) may be expected to carry out small-scale, applied research that can be shared with others. Writing up and publishing the findings can be hard: Is there an appropriate journal? What do journals expect in manuscripts? Will they publish such research?

Drawing on academic and practitioner literature and journal requirements, this article shows how a manuscript meeting those requirements could be structured, written and submitted to a journal to increase the chances of selection for review, revision and publication. The requirements of the New Zealand Journal of Health and Safety Practice, a newly established, practice-oriented journal, are used here to give specific examples of journal expectations.

It’s all rubbish: Notes on OHS in the waste industry

Christopher Peace — 2024-11-21

Note to readers: this paper has not been reviewed or revised since it was prepared in 2021 in preparation for a webinar for the New Zealand Institute of Safety Management.

The objectives of this background note are to:

(1) complement a continuing professional development webinar for NZISM members

(2) provide a preliminary research agenda for Victoria University of Wellington students carrying out a research project in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Master's of Health (Workplace Health and Safety), providing research-based documents and legal decisions.

This work is incomplete and requires further investigation of the waste industry in New Zealand and overseas trends. With one exception, special wastes and hazardous substances have not been included.

From the Journal Editor

Christopher Peace — 2024-11-21

Research papers

In this edition we are delighted to publish an applied research article report on “exposure to dust and bioaerosols at GB municipal waste handling sites” by Keen, Sandys & Crook, three leading scientists from the British Health and Safety Laboratory. Internationally, the waste industry is very hazardous; this article makes a major contribution to our occupational health knowledge in New Zealand. It should be circulated to officers and senior managers in the New Zealand waste industry. It may also suggest areas for applied research and investigations.

Other research articles in this issue also touch on occupational health.

An article by Koia gives an interesting perspective on strategic management of work health and safety, including issues for the New Zealand government as it reviews submissions on proposed reforms.

HASANZ Conference 2024

In September 2024, the Health and Safety Association of NZ held its biennial conference in Wellington. The official conference opening in the Beehive was addressed by the Hon Brooke van Velden, Minister for Workplace Relations and Safety and brought together many attendees in a social setting. The Minister referred to the-then current consultation on proposed reform of the health and safety system (Van Velden, 2024) that led to 10 articles in the second edition of this journal available at https://ojs.victoria.ac.nz/nzjhsp/issue/view/1006).

Over the two-days of the conference attendees could listen to four keynote speeches, choose from 18 presentations in six concurrent sessions, listen to a panel discussion, and attend discipline specific sessions. Attendees could also inspect a wide range of posters and engage with diverse stands.

Complementing the article by Keen, Sandys & Crook were poster displays on use of the dust lamp by Levinge and combustible dust explosions by Yu.

This edition of New Zealand Journal of Health and Safety Practice contains some of the abstracts and posters. We hope they will lead to full reports in due course but here they help make the conference “the conference that keeps on giving”.

Case study

To complement the article by Keen, Sandys & Crook, the New Zealand Institute of Safety Management (NZISM) has kindly given permission for a case study paper on the waste industry, originally published in 2021, to be reprinted in this edition. Some of the sources cited were written by or contributed to by Keen, Sandys & Crook. The paper was research for a webinar for NZISM and carries a warning that it has not been reviewed and may be out of date in places, especially in relation to cases in the District Court on work health and safety.

For 2025

In April 2025 we plan to publish a special edition to mark International Workers Memorial Day. Submissions on work-related death are welcome and should be submitted by 10 March 2025.

The New Zealand Occupational Hygiene Society (NZOHS) is calling for conference abstracts and papers about work-related health for its conference on 26-28 May 2025. The focus should be on occupational exposures, associated health effects and occupational health research. We hope to publish the papers and abstracts later in 2025. Contact events@nzohs.org.nz for further information.

Abstract: Harnessing evidence and knowledge to move to practice

Joanne Crawford — 2024-11-21

The use of evidence by those involved in health and safety practice is at times sporadic with knowledge often kept behind paywalls and practitioners being unable to access it. There are additional problems with a gap between research within tertiary institutions being focused on single issue problems and the timing of research projects. This adds to the at times difficult, development of workplace interventions in a complex work environment.

This presentation will highlight some of those issues around enabling translation of research into practice and talk about the pilot project, the Wellbeing at Work Hub. The Hub, based on a “what works” centre design was developed to take research evidence, synthesise it into a series of principles that can then be applied in practice. However, our immediate learnings from the pilot are that of credibility, thus any items shared have to be tested and validated through a systematic approach. While the hub pilot has been completed and we continue to build the hub, there is a need for further engagement involving stakeholders, industry, researchers and practitioners to identify the research questions that need to be addressed.

The development of a research/practitioner network at VUW is ongoing and taking the example from Canada, where networks work together to co-design research which is both useful and doable. Working together we can build that evidence base, drawing from international research and building our own local research knowledge; with the aim of influencing and improving practice.

Abstract: Death by compliance - The benefits of a risk-based approach to Health & Safety

Agnès Khyn — 2024-11-21

Could we all say with the hand on our heart that we are doing everything ‘so far as is reasonably practicable’ to prevent injuries or incidents?

This thought-provoking session will encourage a shift in mindset within health and safety practices. By emphasising the benefits of a risk-based approach over a compliance-focused one, it not only aims to enhance the performance and credibility of H&S professionals but also support Business Leaders to promote safer work environments and prevent injuries.

Abstract: Mental Safety at Work – New Research and What It Means for Your Organisation

Dougal Sutherland — 2024-11-21

Mental safety is at the foundation of psychological health and safety, making it of utmost importance for health and safety practitioners, business leaders, and managers to prioritise. In this presentation, we share research from a study aiming to better understand mental safety in Aotearoa New Zealand workplaces.

Abstract: Towards a risk techniques taxonomy

Christopher Peace — 2024-11-21

My research has shown that health and safety practitioners mainly use professional judgement, workshops, and the consequence/likelihood matrix as risk techniques, suggesting a lack of knowledge of the roughly 450 other management techniques. I also found there was a need for a risk technique identification key to help choose between known, documented techniques that might be relevant to an assessment. An identification key is often used in biology to help identify animals and plants but one has not been developed for risk or other management techniques. A “risk canvas” was developed as part of my research and helps risk assessors place 12 techniques in a relevant risk assessment stage but does not provide a structured process to help identify and choose among others that might more relevant or give better results.

This presentation will report on work in progress that builds on limited guidance in IEC/ISO31010 to help structure such an identification key that can be used by practitioners to help choose techniques relevant to an assessment. The work showed that the intention to develop a risk techniques identification key should have been titled “Towards a risk techniques taxonomy”. When completed, the taxonomy will help ‘unlock’ access to other techniques. It will help improve the competence of health and safety practitioners and help them become connoisseurs of a wider range of risk techniques. It will give confidence that an assessment has yielded the best available information that management can then use as the weight of evidence for decision making. The taxonomy will also help “mixed methods research”.

Poster: Tackling dust in the workplace - the role of dust lamps in New Zealand

Robyn Levinge — 2024-11-21

Problem

Dust exposure is evolving from an occupational concern to an emerging public health crisis in New Zealand, impacting a wide range of workplaces. The health implications-from immediate respiratory issues to long-term conditions-underscore the urgency for effective intervention.

Study objective:

Investigate the use and effectiveness of dust lamps in New Zealand workplaces for monitoring and mitigating dust exposure.

Methodology:

Case studies were conducted in diverse New Zealand workplaces with various dust- generating practises to assess dust lamp functionality.

An online survey engaged with health and safety practitioners, occupational specialists and other relevant personnel.

Results

Dust lamps, while not a standalone solution, offer significant promise when integrated into a broader, holistic dust management strategy. They help make invisible dust visible and can be a vital part of a comprehensive approach, provided there is increased awareness, proper training, and broader adoption.

To address the current gaps in knowledge and practice, it is crucial for researchers, regulators, and industry stakeholders to collaborate. This will enhance the efficacy of dust lamps, improve overall health outcomes, and ensure that New Zealand's workplaces are safer and healthier for all workers.

Poster: A Safe and Responsible Work Life in NZ Dairy Farming

Deborah Rhodes — 2024-11-21

A Master of Health Research Pilot: Workplace Health and Safety at Victoria University of Wellington, used the Nordic Occupational Safety Climate Questionnaire (Kines, 2011) for the first time in a NZ industry. It was undertaken in dairy milking sheds, and determined the workgroup had low perceptions of safety. It followed with interviews of owner/managers, answering safety-based questions from domains of the NOSACQ-50. The findings and discussion formed the basis for PhD research.

Poster: Is Hybrid Working Good for Health, Safety and Wellbeing? An Overview of Systematic Reviews

Roya Gorjifard — 2024-11-21

Hybrid working: Working from home or away from an employer’s location, part-time or full-time, using information technology (IT).

What do we know about the health and wellbeing of hybrid workers so far?

Poster: A New Management Model for An Ancient Risk

Lawrence Yu — 2024-11-21

Most finely divided combustible materials are hazardous. When suspended in air and ignited, they can cause severe explosions. This phenomenon has been known for over 200 years. The first recorded dust explosion occurred on December 14, 1785, at a flower dust explosion in a warehouse in Turin, Italy. The entire industrial spectrum, including agricultural, chemical, metallurgical, mining, plastics, and woodworking industries, continues to be plagued by this problem.

Although the basic principles for controlling dust explosions have been understood for many years, knowledge is becoming increasingly sophisticated as incidents continue to occur.

The International Network of Safety and Health Practitioners Organisations framework requires health and safety practitioners to have some knowledge of explosions. This poster identifies some accessible sources of information that could be used by practitioners.