Safety (Issue 35)

Explosives Guidance

THE following guidance may be of use to Members with regards to the storage, transport and use of explosives.

Explosives — Storage, Transport and Use —Terminology (AS 2187.0-1998)

Provides definitions for terms referred to in AS 2187, explosives series of Standards and those terms commonly used in the explosive and pyrotechnic industries.

Explosives — Storage, Transport & Use Storage (AS 2187.1-1998)

Sets out the requirements and precautions for the storage of explosives, including pyrotechnics as defined in AS 2187.0 and for the location, design, construction and maintenance of magazines. The Standard applies to portable magazines, relocatable magazines, fixed or permanent magazines, bulk storage and underground storage.

It does not apply to the storage of explosives ordnance for defence purposes where the provisions of the Defence Explosives Safety Manual are complied with.

The amendment (AS 2187.1-1998/Amdt 1-2000) to this standard outlines changes to Figures E1 and E3.

Explosives — Storage & Use — Use of Explosives (AS 2187.2-2006)

This standard sets out the requirements and precautions for the use of factory made commercially available explosives and certain explosives mixed or assembled at sites. This Standard does not apply to safety ammunition, propellant powders, pyrotechnics (including fi reworks, rockets, fog signals or the like) or purpose-designed and manufactured military explosives.

The Standard specifies the requirements for the safe use of explosives including the mixing, testing, initiation and fi ring of charges. The Standard also provides information on misfires as well as considerations such as ground vibration and air-blast.

Special topics including blasting in hot material, blasting under water and demolition by lasting are also included.

Note: The Standard should not be regarded as overriding statutory requirements, including licensing, but may be construed as a set of working rules to be used in conjunction with such requirements.

All of the above mentioned standards can be obtained from SAI Global at www.saiglobal.com or through the CMPA.

Guidance and a storage template for the storage of Security Sensitive Ammonium Nitrate (SSAN) can be obtained by searching for “SSAN” on the WorkCover website www.workcover.vic.gov.au

Contributing to fall down 10 steps

IN 2003 a self-employed courier was injured after falling down steps at a concrete plant.

Although she made a grab for the handrail on an external staircase as she fell, she did not use it for support.

However, when she sued the occupiers for negligence she claimed the staircase contravened Australian Standard 1657 because the edges of the stairs had lacked nosings, had been rounded, and the step that caused her fall was sloped forward by 2.5 degrees.

In court she claimed the occupier should have been aware of the risk of injury that the staircase posed, which had been significant. Her stance was supported by evidence from an ergonomist who stated that a 2.5 degree slope reduced traction by nearly 12 per cent.

The judge did not accept that the railings and steps were wet at the time of the accident or that moisture on the soles of the courier’s shoes had caused the slip.

After the accident yellow slip resistant nosing strips had been placed on the edge of each tread on the staircase to decrease the likelihood of such an incident occurring again.

This was noted by the Judge – even though the occupier claimed that the decision to take preventive steps flowed from a decision two years earlier.

The Judge was direct:

“To ask any person to take a series of steps down with each foot landing on a tread which itself slopes downwards is to fail to take precautions against a foreseeable risk of which the defendant should have been aware.”

The judge stated that a reasonable person would have installed the slip resistant nosing well before the incident had even occurred.

The courier was awarded $147,654 in damages and the occupier appealed the decision.

The case was then taken to the Court of Appeal of the Supreme Court of Queensland where the occupier challenged that a reasonable person in their position would have taken any further precautions other than to supply a handrail.

In the view of the occupier claimed a reasonable person would have taken into consideration the condition of the staircase and used the handrail in order to take reasonable care for their own safety.

The Court of Appeal found that the conclusion reached by the first judge whereby the occupier had been in breach of its duty to the courier visiting the premises was reached as a result of the occupier receiving instruction from its risk manager two years prior to the incident to take preventive action.

The appeal also focused on the original court decisions failure to find negligence on the part of the courier who had known that the steps were steep and had narrow tread as she had used them before for a week to 10 days.

The courier’s failure to hold the handrail while descending the steps was found to have contributed to her injury and the Court of Appeal agreed that she had been negligent. The Court stated that while the use of the handrail may not have prevented the courier from slipping it may have prevented her falling as far as she did.

The courier did state that she had been aware of the risks posed by the staircase and therefore not holding the handrail had been more than mere inadvertence.

The court allowed the appeal to the extent of reducing the damages awarded by 30 per cent to $103,358 for contributory negligence.

Case reported in National Safety Magazine, November 2007. Original court digest provided by CCH.

Construction & Utilities Business Plan 2007/2008

THE current arrangements between WorkSafe and DPI on the administration and enforcement of the OHS Laws in Victoria’s mining, quarrying and petroleum industries are now in a transitional period.

WorkSafe formally takes responsibility for the earth resources industries, from the DPI, on 1 January 2008. WorkSafe and the DPI are coordinating and managing the changeover to ensure a smooth transition.

The Business Plan summarises what WorkSafe Victoria’s Construction & Utilities Program seeks to achieve during the 2007/08 business year. CUP will continue to focus on the major causes of workplace deaths, injuries and diseases within our industries.

CUP’s primary means of direct intervention at workplaces are inspector field visits. CUP expect to conduct 10,050 site visits of all types during 2007/08. Every site visit undertaken by a C&U inspector is part of a particular field intervention that directly relates to WorkSafe’s statutory obligations to attend sites when requested, or investigation of reported incidents or reports of unsafe activities, or proactive targeting of the major causes of workplace injury and disease.

Statutory Field Visits

The Authority has a legal obligation to attend workplaces when requested to undertake certain functions specific to the Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004. This type of visit generally occurs where a workplace’s normal issue resolution processes fail to satisfactorily address the OHS issue and one or more of the parties involved requests WorkSafe to resolve the matter. They can also be generated over disputed Provisional Improvement Notices, work cessations and disputes about the exercise of powers by an Authorised Representative of a Registered Employee Organisation.

Response Field Visits

WorkSafe’s Advisory Service often receives requests for inspectors’ assistance with non-statutory OHS matters, and reports of dangerous work practices or allegations of noncompliance with OHS requirements at particular workplaces. Where the request or report may require attendance by an inspector a service request is recorded, which the Advisory Service then passes on to the relevant Construction & Utilities Field Team for action.

Strategic Intervention Program

The C&U Program will undertake a range of planned compliance projects and campaigns this year to verify adherence with OHS requirements. The individual projects and campaigns focus attention on different segments and sectors of our industries. These various interventions are coordinated under the strategic intervention program.

For a full copy of the Construction & Utilities Business Plan 2007/08
please contact the CMPA

You must be logged in to post a comment Login