Scoop has an Ethical Paywall
System for reducing workplace injuries recommended
24 October 2006
Surveillance and Control of Workplace Exposures in New Zealand
New report recommends system for reducing workplace diseases and injuries
A new report
stresses the importance of an effective ‘surveillance
system’ for
improving New Zealand’s performance in
preventing work-related diseases
and
injuries.
Commissioned by the National Occupational
Health and Safety Advisory Committee
(NOHSAC), the report
states that the overriding goal of any workplace health
and
safety system is to prevent occupational diseases and
injuries. This reflects the fact that, in New Zealand each
year, 700 to 1,000 people die from work-related diseases,100
people die from injuries received at work, there are 20,000
new cases of work-related diseases and injuries, and 200,000
people are injured at work.
“This is a huge and
unacceptable burden for New Zealand, and we must act
to
address it,” says NOHSAC Chair Professor Neil
Pearce. “Surveillance – that is,
collecting,
analysing and interpreting data and using it for preventive
and control purposes – is an important first
step.”
The new report builds on and complements a
previous NOHSAC report, Surveillance
of occupational
disease and injury in New Zealand, which recommended a
major
emphasis on measuring workplace diseases and
injuries. The report suggested that
this surveillance be
integrated with ‘exposure surveillance’ and ‘exposure
control system surveillance’ – with the term
‘exposure’ relating to hazards and risk factors such as
environmental, technological, organisational, human and
other factors that contribute to occupational injury and
disease.
“While it’s vital that we have a system to record the number of work-related deaths and cases of work-related diseases and injuries in New Zealand, this doesn’t really address their causes,” says Professor Neil Pearce. “Identifying and acting on the workplace exposures and hazards behind these diseases and injuries, as well as the controls in place, is just as important.
”Unfortunately, as the report reveals, New Zealand lacks any system for collecting workforce or workplace exposure data. This means we can’t undertake accurate risk assessments for workplace diseases, develop effective prevention policies and activities, evaluate the effectiveness of interventions or identify occupational safety
Ends
Gordon Campbell: On unemployment, Winston Peters’ low boiling point and music criticism
The Treasury: New Treasury Paper On The Productivity Slowdown
NZ Government: Government Recommits To Equal Pay
Emily Ireland - Local Democracy Reporter: Deputy Mayor ‘disgusted’ By Response To Georgina Beyer Sculpture
Te Pāti Māori: Māori Unemployment Rate Increases By More Than Four-Times National Rates
Government: Streamlining Building Consent Changes
Koi Tu - The Centre for Informed Futures: If Not Journalists, Then Who?
