Safety Risk Assessment for Heavy Industries 2010

Implementing safety risk assessment best practices to ensure a safe working environment for increased productivity

A safe and healthy working environment is the basic right of every worker. However, the global situation falls far short of this. This is more applicable in the heavy industry. The International Labour Organisation estimates that more than 125 million workers are victims of occupational accidents and disease in a single year. Of these approximately 220,000 workers die and about 10 million are seriously disabled. With world population increasing, the above figures are expected to rise significantly if present conditions prevail. The situation is grim in the third world. About 75 percent of the global workforce lives and works in third world countries, which have increased problems like poverty and unemployment and the status of health and safety is very low.

With the above stats in mind, it is clearly evident that there is a need to ensure safety in all organisations particularly in the heavy industry since they are the ones most prone to accidents / fatalities. The aim is to create a fatality free industry to ensure that work performance is increased while at the same time workers are guaranteed safer working conditions. Many organisations have to deal with losses and this adversely affects the company as a whole. The mining industry is one of the world s most unsafe working cultures. Official statistics related to the deaths of mineworkers in South Africa have not been released, but sources indicate that the death toll has breached the 140 mark, an average of 11 deaths a month in 2009. While there has been significant improvement in mine safety in the past decade, the consensus is that one death is one too many.

This conference aims to alleviate the adversities faced within heavy industries by addressing the implementation of particular strategies which may prove to be successful in lowering the accident / fatality rate. Speakers from various organisations within the heavy industry will highlight issues they are currently facing and ways of implementation. In this way, other organisations may learn and adopt new strategies and better ways of implementation.