The standards specifically say if a person is not clean shaven do not do the fit test. I am sure a number of people may pass a fit test without a clean shave. That maybe on one day. Three days later with three days more growth they may not pass. If people could pass unshaven like the red sea opening a path to success would be found.

It is a great resource and good message. It is a pearl, but it is still hidden in the bottom of the ocean.

The most common ones are wood dust - such as joiners and other types of fabrication in factories and engineering workshops (welding and grinding.) There are a bunch of others, it is a long list. Mostly they are inside a building. The hazard predominantly is particulate (respirable, inhalable, black carbon, diesel, wood) and other hazards from welding fumes.

We have found that a lot of workplaces and homes have poor ventilation. Take the modern home, unless you make a conscious decision to put in a ventilation system there will be none.

My younger brother said he always keeps his sons door closed at night. So I set up a CO2 monitor in his room overnight. The concentrations by morning were well over 2000 ppm. He kept the door and a window open from that day on. New houses are often well sealed so you will not get any ventilation.

The bugs and fumes from building materials will off gas and circulate.

Then offices - a lot of building owners and tenants will have a high proportion of recycled air. That is often to retain the heat. The typical situation is the tenant has no clues on how much fresh air is coming into the offices. It is often maintained and run by an air conditioning company. Often it is not seen as an issue.

The filters in the air conditioning system often are not serviced and maintained to a standard required. They will not remove the fine particulate that has the greatest health effect.

So what to do, if you are going to rent an office
-stipulate in the lease the minimum air quality requirements.
- if you have a property you occupy then know how much air changes per hour are happing.
- know what the ratings of the filters in the air conditioning system and check to see they are working.
- do not accept that these issues will be managed well by the owner, sometimes they are not.

For houses
- Open the doors and windows
- If you have extraction systems - use them
- Get an air exchange system - there are lots about
- The best air exchange system recovers heat from the stale air.
- Open doors allow air flow.

Ahh - lightbulb moment. So the Officers due diligence is the key! This aids my understanding a lot. Thank you.

So if you were to go into any business, say a factory that is welding. There are risks from the welding that are not managed. Who is accountable, is it a person? The supervisor, the manager, the CEO, the share holder.

The same for all business's is a person held accountable for not managing hazards. If so who is that person?

Take Fred and Bill the builders who build houses. Fred and Bill are the bosses but the company is owned by Bert who has retired? There is Simon who is the supervisor.

Thanks - I have read that but it does not answer my question.

Good point re auditors - we are accredited to ISO 17025 a quality standard. What happens what they look at is very much determined by the auditor. They tend to zoom into the areas they know the best.

We have done the following.
1. ACC audit
2. Sitewise
3. OHSAS 18001 and Prequal
3. Looking at doing ISO 18001 and have renewed Prequal.

We do it as we want to have robust safety systems and not take our word for it have others review them. Some (not many) clients ask for it. To date we have found that 18001 audits in person are not that good. They don't add much value to our business. The audits we have had the person is going through the motions and not really engaging in reviewing our systems. We will give it one more shot.

The prequal is better and not as expensive but it relies on us having 18001 to get a good grade. Auditors are in an office at the other end of the country and have little understanding of our business.

I get the feeling all these audits are just a business people have and they generate revenue from it. Some people have to have them so they go through the motions. Getting a warrant on your car is often more beneficial. They tell you about risks you did not know. The others more of a tick boxing exercise. Have you got meeting minutes.....without really getting into actual details and investing mental energy.

It is a bit like when you goto a site and they have a huge folder of safety information. Often a photo copy of a photo copy of a photo copy. The same old same old information which is rarely read by anyone.

If you type into Google "chromium wes nz". You will be taken to a document Workplace Exposure Standard review. It goes into great detail on why the proposed standard is for chromium VI or chromium six. Some key points.

It

• is a based on research and risk to health.
• The standard set 0.02 µg/m3 or 0.00002 mg/m3 is based on human heath effects, (human data)
• Chromium VI is a Genotoxic compound, that is any concentration has potential to cause health effects.
  
  They do look at other countries and organizations what their assessments are of risks to health.
  
  In a workplace if you have potential exposure to chromium six you really must do all you can to eliminate this exposure. Or make it low as possible. You must not be driven by exposure standards you must be driven by reducing exposure to minimize health effects.
  
  In years gone by if you were stressed a doctor would prescribe smoking. We are learning always about what the health effects are of compounds. Just because it was ok yesterday does not it mean it is ok today.

The sign I originally thought would be a way of getting people in our building complex to slow down. There are kids there and they behave in unpredictable ways. The ideas put forward are valuable and thanks for that. Matt Wards ideas are a good starting point.

I think if we can get as much of the traffic away from where the kids are likely to be is a start. If we get Judder bars put in. Put in signs with reason for the speed limit may reduce the risk of the kids in the carpark getting hurt.

I also will put forward a commitment to each unit holder to stick to the speed limit. Hope that it may bring about a culture change so that it becomes self enforcing.

If there are any ideas on how to slow cars down in our carpark that would be helpful. There are 40 business units and no shops just commercial business.

In our work complex we have 40 units. Commercial and a motel. The motel has been taken over by social housing. The speed limit around the carparks is 5 km/hr. I reckon I am the only one that complies with that limit.

Recently I was meandering along and a kid about 4 years old shot out between two parked cars. I had the time to stop. Had I been doing 20 km/hr the result would have been different. If it has happened once to me it could happen again.

In my view as in the song, children are our the future, teach them well.......In my view they are the most precious gifts to us all. We need to protect them.

So what can I do to change the behavior of the other 40 unit holders occupants and visitors.

How can I prevent something bad happening. It troubles me often.

The sign I thought was one step in the right direction. Some people see the bad in it, but what can we do to protect the kids.

I present a photo and ask the students to identify the risks in the photo. They are only allowed to say one as we go around the group. The person at the end is really sweating as sometimes there is not many left.

I went to my builder and ask them to take a photo on the site and put in as many of the risks as they can. This becomes a challenge for them to find the risks then simulate them.

The benefit of this exercise is it gets everyone engaged, not just the ones that often speak up first. I usually do it first up so I can jot down peoples names so I can ask them questions during the presentation.

If you email me I can send you one of my photos I use.

Thank you all for the information provided. I have learnt more than I expected. Aaron your information on the flight crews is interesting. They are very prescriptive and detailed hours of rest and breaks. Jane the link to Professor Drew Dawson is priceless. Of considerable value and I will get our team to watch this at our next team meeting. It really reinforces the need to manage fatigue. Jessie thanks for the information on truck drivers. 13 hours max and 5.5 hours then you have to have a break. Dianne thanks for the comments on fatigue. I agree we need to manage this and it goes hand in hand with the message from Professor Drew Dawson.

I would suggest you consider the broader terms of the legislation.

(1) A duty imposed on a person by or under this Act requires the person—
(a) to eliminate risks to health and safety, so far as is reasonably practicable; and

(b) if it is not reasonably practicable to eliminate risks to health and safety, to minimise those risks so far as is reasonably practicable.

The standard (I have only seen the free bits) considers explosive atmospheres. There are going to be other risks that you need to manage. A occupational hygienist would be a good person to start with looking at what the hazards are. They can give you direction on how to manage the hazards.

Some examples of possible hazards are carbon monoxide, formaldehyde, black carbon/diesel particulate, noise, lack of oxygen.

Is it a hazard? Is there a potential risk to health? Should the ignition sources be considered?

Hello Tony,

You need to get your head around Hazard and Risk. Is a lion a hazard - yes. Is it a risk not always. If the lion is wandering the Serengeti and you are happily in your house at home the risk is low to zero.

Is noise a hazard - always. Is it a risk to health depends on the circumstances.

If you are asking this question then it is expected you have not had a competent person do the assessment. Any report by a competent person will answer this question.

It will also highlight other risks like the effect of ototoxins on your teams hearing. Did you know that some medication can affect a persons hearing. Some organisations a correction is made when staff are exposed to noise and ototoxins.

I suggest you consult this page. https://worksafe.govt.nz/topic-and-industry/noise/

Worksafe have some excellent resources here.

Smoking is known to cause cancer - but it is still done. Eating bacon increases the chance of bowel cancer. Does that change peoples behavior?

My grandfather has a drivers license but you would not want to travel with him. Agree having a plan does not mean they comply. But not having one or a generic one is not a good start. It shows what sort of commitment a PCBU has to ensuring the well being of the occupants of a property.

An asbestos removal company is not the best option for assessing where asbestos is. How the heck do you know what a good one is and are they any good and surveying for asbestos.

Worksafe provides very good guidance on what to look for in a surveyor. If they dont have P402 or IP402 and many years of experience (with examples of work) then there is a chance they dont have the required skill set to do the work.

https://worksafe.govt.nz/topic-and-industry/asbestos/working-with-asbestos/conducting-asbestos-surveys/