Workplace toxic incident notification: results of a survey of 16 factory sites in western Sydney.
Workers in the chemical industry are often employed where there is a potential for significant exposure to hazardous materials. Many of these events go unrecorded and are not notified to agencies charged with the responsibility of regulating the workplace. Therefore, a survey was conducted of factories covering a range of activities where poisonous chemicals are in use, aimed at proactively reviewing toxic incident reporting, including (i) underlying principles of notification, (ii) any relevant criteria used in the reporting of incidents, and (ii) compliance with existing legislation. Sixteen factories in the Western Sydney area were inspected by a government safety inspector over a 4-month period. Forty-eight employees were interviewed and data describing 46 exposure events were obtained covering a 12-month period. In all, 10 incidents were identified as significant exposure events, with 5 events (11% of total) at 5 different factories (31% of sites inspected) involving 8 workers (17% of workers interviewed) being definite breaches of statutory accident reporting requirements. The survey revealed a failure by employers to notify significant toxic exposure events due to reluctance or ignorance and or lack of clarity of occupational health and safety regulations. It also revealed that substantial numbers of workers are exposed to incidents involving poisonous materials, and that with this nonnotification, regulatory agencies are largely unaware of their magnitude.
Department of Safety Science, University of New South Wales, Kensington, Australia.
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Winder
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Musry
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Tandon
D001315:Australia; D002617:Chemical Industry; D003625:Data Collection / Q000379:methods; D006801:Humans; D016273:Occupational Exposure / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000592:standards*; D017751:Safety Management / Q000592:standards*