we are also in the process of establishing an area on our site to provide shelter and receptacles for smoke butts and vape trash, currently due to us stating we are a smoke/vape free site, the smokers and vapers all drive out our front gate and park on the side of the road to smoke, couple of issues with this,
1. we state we are a team and then we isolate some of our team because of a habit,
2. the increase in traffic exiting/entering site increases the risk of an incident, they have to drive via two stop signs,
3. with the roadside not being maintained to the usual standards by council, the risk of a fire is extremely high and this can be increased with rubbish being left as well.
4. if one of the team smoking/vaping offsite is required urgently back in the work area, they then rush back onto site, park their car, run into area...multiple risks!
So we conducted a survey with our site "we want you back", requesting their views on a smoking/vaping area etc... the outcome has been positive,.
There is another organisation that is close to Darfield that has the same sort of policy as us and everyday you can see people parked by the main highway, this has led to an incident before with traffic.
Smoke free is fantastic, but lets not isolate specific team members who may have an addiction etc...support them by providing good detailed and relevant material in a sheltered area offering advice on quitting or support they can get to deal to the addiction.

These days I feel like I am the dinosaur lol

Awesome resources you and your team have provided, I particularly liked the Flip Your Lid video

We are using the Meridian app that is free to anyone that requests it, just a donation to Kidscan, it is easy to use via sharepoint and recordes all relevant information instantly and accurately, contact John Skudder <JohndotSkudderatMeridianEnergydotcodotnz> and he maybe able to assist
email me and I can flick you some screen shots from my phone of what it looks like.
steffandotstclairnewmanatfreshporkdotcodotnz

its more the "Association" enforcing guidelines, but I continue to try and influence our organisation to have faith in our risk assessment and enhanced protocols.

We have conducted an extensive risk assessment for our workplace in relation to the wearing of masks, we process meat, do not export and the majority of staff work in cool store environments, this leads to all sort of issues with masks including fogging, slipping down, becoming damp very quickly, having to change masks at least 6 times if not more daily, and before you state "the fogging is due to masks not being fitted correctly", this is not the issue as we have trialed several masks, conducted fitting trials and training, the issue is the cold conditions.
We completed our risk assessment and the biggest risk for us is the use of masks due to constantly adjusting them due to the environmental conditions, having to replace masks often and therefore touching the masks with our hands etc, so for us it would make sense not to wear masks due to barriers, curtains, not face to face, etc...but we are forced by MPI and another association to follow the guidelines for mask use, I wonder if they have conducted a analysis to see what effect the breathing in of bad air due to the gap between the face and mask, or the touching of the mask due to conditions, the increase in headaches, neck pain and frustration due to masks...

In our industry we didn't really get a choice regardless if we completed a Risk Assessment or not and yes this is very frustrating when you look at how the teams complete their tasks, the hygiene requirements regardless of Covid and the need for additional PPE, no matter what we have tried, due to the cool environment and physical work, our masks get damp very fast, fog glasses up etc and we have tried just about everything except a space suit...

Just emailed you

Hi Ian
Due to our working environment we have to wear masks on our sites and working in a cool-store type environment leads to several issues with masks, we have to follow the direction of an Association due to Auditing reasons, and they state only N95,P2 type can be used or 3 ply medical masks. As you can imagine no matter what mask we use, they get damp fast, fog up glasses and cause other issues, however we have no option but to wear them and some of the team are changing their masks 4 - 5 times daily which leads to the need to purchase excessive amounts of face masks, the Association also states cloth masks cannot be worn - which is annoying as you can get replaceable filters for some of the cloth masks to make them last longer, so in short, our guidance to our teams is...once it becomes TOO damp and hard to breath, dispose and replace.

In order to operate under level 4 conditions, all our teams have to wear face-masks and yes we have had issues with certain types due to fogging up of glasses whilst wearing them, we are governed by what has been approved for use in areas where we cannot ensure team members do not get within 1m of each other and have had to purchase a large amount of N95/KN95/P2 variants and the biggest complaint so far is that its hurting in behind the ears, so we are trying different types to try and address this, along with correct fitting to try and avoid fogging up...we have had a massive buy in from the team

We have to conduct daily temperature checks as part of the Meat Industry Association Operating under level 4 guidelines and we also use this activity as a way of checking in with the team as they turn up for shift, asking them how things are, hows the family etc....

Interested in this topic as well, will look at the options suggested and see if they would suit our needs.:grin:

After our meeting with one of the board members we have looked at what they would like to see and discussed these requirements, funny enough a robust discussion around LTIs etc was had with my question being "so what", lucky for us we are moving away from this sort of reporting, some other topics we are investigating for the report include the following type of graphs :Event Classification by Critical Risk, Critical Risk Event Causation Factors (particular interest in SOPs) and Critical Risk Event Control Effectiveness...more work in progress but good progress!

Morning Alex,
We too are reviewing our reporting and what is actually providing value rather than just pretty graphs and statistics, it appears for sometime it has been about LTI's, MTI's...etc etc etc and not much thought on the positive side of things....we are hopeful we will have our format locked in by late next week.:smirk: