Hi Everyone,
I'm Stuart Oakey, I'm HSQE Manager for a Construction &Project Management Company based in Auckland on a contract basis - I work from home in New Plymouth. I've had my NEBOSH General Cert since 2001, and have working in Power Plant operations until last year.

Even with the Exposure Standards, how many workplaces are actually enforcing the requirements? As Alan says in his post people think donning PPE takes too long.
I had a toolbox talk with our team about the risks involved. One of our team told us that of 60 welders in his former work place there are only 7 left alive. The others all died from cancer associated with welding fume exposure.

Knowing what harm this hazard actually does is, for me, the driver to make sure adequate controls are in place. This means extraction ventilation by the weld, forced air ventilated welding helmets - not cheap but the benefit far exceeds the cost.

Hi Jim,
Site based committees are a good idea, have you considered an H&S Committee terms of reference document? For me a committee would have reps from each site department, a management team rep, plus you. At my last site we asked for nominations for Committee Chairperson & Committee Secretary in November so we could elect the positions in December. These roles were for a year. Your terms of reference should mention a Quorum - the need to have at least 51% committee member attendance in order to vote on any decisions.
It's important for the committee to share meeting info & minutes, also encourage them & their teams to suggest agenda items so it's not all coming from you.

Hi Catherine, I believe Health & Safety records need to be retained for 7 years.

I'm just wondering why someone is "down the road" for making the same mistake continuously? Have you stopped to ask "why is this mistake happening repeatedly?". What insights to the tasks can the people who do the work offer? How do you accommodate deviation from the task procedure, which may well occur? The task hazards are always present, you need to build in capacity to allow this. There's some great advice & presentations online by Todd Conklin on this topic.

Was there anything in particular with PeopleSafe that you didn't like?

Hi Adam, have a look at Peoplesafe.co.nz . It's a popular application, and there is a waiting list. I showed my GM and he agreed it would be the right application for our company.