Diverse innovators recognised in SA Safety Solution Award

The most competitive category of the annual South Australian Safe Work Awards has highlighted three diverse safety innovations among the nominees.

Sixty nominations were received for this year’s awards, with 28 entries alone for the most popular category, Best Solution to an Identified Workplace Health & Safety Issue.

The private sector winner was Health Safety Environment Australia (HSE), which developed a new sampling system to better control the risks from exposure to asbestos fibres during mineral exploration.

HSE’s Site Airborne Fibre Extraction (or SAFE) unit uses a vacuum pump, filters and sensors to test samples in an enclosed system, rather than the current drill core sampling which risks exposing operators to airborne asbestos fibres.

Of the private sector nominees:

• Leighton Contractors’ subsidiary, Mayfield, received a Commendation for developing a fall protection system, called Lucy to address safety issues in the manufacture of transportable switchrooms. Easily transportable and cost effective, it can be installed in 15 min as opposed to two days for scaffolding, and allows two operators to work at height between two H-frames and safely perform the variety of manual tasks this type of manufacturing involves; and
• Coonawarra winery Brands Laira Wines developed a rail-mounted lift to eliminate manual handling and the risks involved in carrying buckets and additives up staircases to its fermentation tanks.

The Courts Administration Authority won the Public Sector Award for redesigning the court clerk’s workstation bench to minimise the injury risks of manual tasks associated with courtroom practices, such as the exchange of heavy files. The new design significantly reduced the risk of injury and improved working conditions for magistrates and clerks alike.

The City of Onkaparinga earned a Commendation for the Hammerlock Grip Tool that its staff designed and had built to make playground maintenance safer.