Kate Cole, MAIOH COH

Transcription

1 Kate Cole, MAIOH COH

2

3 Kilometres of Tunnelling TU Melbourne, North Westerrn Sewer WA, Port Hedland Harbour Tunnel Sydney, New Southern Railway Sydney, Airport Rail Link Melbourne, Domain (City Link) Perth, Northbridge (Graham Farmer) SA, Heysen Tunnels Sydney, Northside Storage Tunnel Sydney, M5 East Tunnel Sydney, Eastern Distributor Tunnel Brisbane, South East Transit Project: Section 1B Adelaide, Mt Barker Brisbane, Inner City Bypass Sydney, Cross City Tunnel Sydney, Epping to Chatswood Rail Line Sydney, Lane Cove Tunnel Perth, MetroRail City Project Melbourne, East Link Gold Coast, Tugun Bypass Brisbane, Boggo Road Busway & Eastern Busway Brisbane, M7 Clem Jones Tunnel Sydney, City West Cable Tunnel Sydney, City East Cable Tunnel Perth City Link Brisbane, Airport Link Sydney, Scenic Railway upgrade Sydney Opera House VAPS Gladstone, Narrows Marine Crossing Brisbane, Legacy Way Sydney, Wynyard Walk Byron Bay, St Helena Tunnel Sydney Metro Northwest Sydney, NorthConnex Sydney, WestConnex M4 East Sydney, WestConnex New M5 Perth, Forrestfield Airport Rail Link Sydney Metro City & Southwest Melbourne, West Gate Tunnel Project Melbourne Metro Brisbane Cross River Rail Sydney, WestConnex Stage 3 M4-M5 Link Sydney Metro West

4 65% 65% of all tunnelling occurs insydney All tunnelling in Sydney encounters Shale and Sandstone CRYSTALLINE SILICA Over exposure to Respirable Crystalline Silica is known to cause an incurable lung disease known as silicosis as well as lung cancer 20 TIMES During tunnelling, Crystalline Silica exposures can be more than 20 times the legal limit 7YEARS We plan to tunnel further in the next 7 years than we have in our entire tunnelling history since 1995 QUARTZ Sandstone mainly consists of quartz Tunnelling through quartz-containing rock generates Respirable Crystalline Silica 77% The risk of developing silicosis from exposure to Crystalline Silica at the legal limit over a working life has been estimated to be from 12% to as high as 77% of workers P2 DUST MASK The most common last-line of defence applied to protect the health of tunnel workers

5 Fact or Myth? Telling workers to wear dust masks will prevent occupational lung disease?

6 Investigating Best Practice to prevent illness and disease in tunnel construction workers United Kingdom, Norway, Switzerland, USA

7 Where are the gaps in our current systems? 1. Causes of work-related illnesses are not always well understood 2. The cost of ill-health associated with construction is not always taken into account during design 3. Health risks assessments are not routine 4. No centralised health surveillance scheme with no requirement to report illnesses such as silicosis 5. No standardised training in health hazards e.g. white card 6. Limited enforcement of legal standards 7. No mandated minimum levels of competency 8. No standardised frequency requirements for exposure monitoring 9. Limited independent research 10. Results of monitoring aren t submitted to any centralised agency 11. No exposure standards for respirable dust. Silica standard remains higher than in black lung inquiry. 12. Limited sharing of lessons learned across the industry. 13. Short-term project focus can prevent a long-term view.

8 Best Practice Elements

9 Leadership Visible and effective leadership starting with the Client organisation, was found to be an essential part of preventing illness and disease by the time workers commenced onsite. Leadership at the Client level was demonstrated to create more Stakeholders that also began to drive health within their own organisations. The focus on occupational health started at the design phase before Tenders were awarded, and continued to be promoted and outlined through Contractual requirements and Tender evaluation.

10 Engagement & Collaboration Collaboration across multiple projects resulted in sharing of knowledge whereby good practices were adopted earlier than they may have otherwise. Industry groups have both raised awareness and driven a best practice approach. Engagement with research partners enabled a greater understanding of the magnitude of the issues leading to better control measures being implemented.

11 Training & Awareness

12 Training & Awareness

13 Standards Disease notification requirements. Construction and tunnelling projects internationally have mandated targeted Contractual requirements or referred to Legal Standards that are more stringent than in Australia at time of Tender.

14 Health in Design Addressing health in design has resulted in higher-order controls being able to be applied prior to construction. If health risks are not eliminated at the design stage, then there is a requirement to demonstrate how health risks will be mitigated, what controls will be applied, and how they will be applied for the project life-cycle from construction through to the operation and maintenance phase.

15 Program Health Risk Management Initial health risk assessment to drive decisions on controls, monitoring, and health surveillance. Health surveillance includes the use of occupational physicians complimented by competent health clinical services, a standardised approach for what is deemed fit for duty and the centralised collection of data to enable trends to be reviewed to inform future interventions and policy. Ongoing independent verification of exposure controls by an authority able to stop work was demonstrated to drive compliance and further improvements and in turn, lower risks of disease development.

16 Targeted Health Risk Management Targeted ventilation design Covered conveyor systems in tunnel Specific nozzles for dust control Enclosed cabin filtration systems with lower grade filters Canopy air curtains Reduced Workplace Exposure Standards Prohibition of dry brush sweeping Fit testing, medical assessment, clean shaven policies Re-usable rather than disposable RPE Routine dust monitoring (personal only) Increased medical surveillance for high-risk workers P3 PAPR for high risk groups such as shotcretors P2 RPE not used for routine control of silica dust, unless specific exemption granted

17 Targeted Health Risk Management

18 Sustainability Legacy Learning Websites Occupational Health Maturity Matrix

19 Best Practice Leadership is driven by the Client, working in collaboration with the Contractor, and complemented by the Regulator Major projects engage and collaborate through the supply chain, with research institutions, and with other major projects Health, Medical Surveillance, and Wellbeing are managed through a holistic approach Contractual requirements and tender evaluation occurs for health aspects Many new tools available to assess and control risks to health Performance metrics that push best-practice have resulted in healthy competition and better control of health risks Knowledge sharing is commonplace through legacy websites and industry forums

20 Where are our areas for improvement? Greater leadership is needed on this issue Increase our amount of training and awareness on silica exposure Treat health like safety when it comes to safety in design Engage professional occupational hygienists such as a COH and embed them in tunnelling projects Use initial health risks assessments to drive decisions on exposure monitoring and health surveillance Greater focus on engineering controls for silica dust Work to control the risk of silica dust exposure before exposure monitoring is done Perform standardised and frequent exposure monitoring (personal air testing) Centralise exposure data for all operating projects so that companies can observe trends over and above the project level (i.e. historical database) Mandate exposure standards for respirable dust and take actions to further control exposure at 50% of the Workplace Exposure Standard Share your lessons learned across the industry Encourage and welcome independent research in this area

21 The Solution?

22 More Information