Up to 26 lives may have been saved on Victorian roads in the past 12 months through a ground-breaking program examining the link between driver health and truck accidents, Workcover Minister Rob Hulls announced today.

A US National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) study suggests an association between occupational exposure to ethylene oxide (EtO), a disinfecting agent, and increased risk of breast cancer in women. The study of 7578 women found that those at the highest levels of exposure had a nearly twofold increase over the normal incidence of the disease.

The inaugural Safety Show, Sydney, held at the Sydney Showground during October, recorded 5600 visitors - far in excess of the 4000 visitors predicted by the event's organisers, Australian Exhibitions & Conferences.

Inventors of devices aimed at making the nation's roads safer are invited to be part of the 2004 Australian Road Safety Inventors Forum to be held in Brisbane next May.

Workplace injuries, strains and sprains caused by lifting are the biggest cause of Worksafe claims in Victoria.

The family of 16 year old Joel Exner, who died after falling 12 metres through the roof of a storage shed at a construction site at Eastern Creek in NSW in October, says the death could have easily been prevented.

Energy Brix Australia Pty Ltd was fined a total of $135,000 in the Sale County Court in October over the death of a 48 year old man who was engulfed in molten ash while removing solidified ash inside a hopper at the Morwell power station, in Victoria's Latrobe Valley, in May 2001.

The recommendation that helmets should be compulsory for skateboarders came after an inquest into the death of Daniel John Peach, 16, from head injuries after falling from his skateboard on a Stafford road, on Brisbane's northside, on September 27 last year. He died in the Royal Brisbane Hospital on October 1.

In October, a 40 year old man died in hospital following a fall of approximately 7 metres through an asbestos cement sheet roof at a site in Melbourne's eastern suburb of Dandenong, while removing roof sheets.

The winners of the 2003 NSCA/Telstra National Safety Awards of Excellence were announced at a gala dinner and presentation on 14 October 2003 at the Grand Ballroom, The Wentworth Hotel, Sydney.

Melbourne's West Gate Bridge collapsed during construction on 15 October 1970, claiming the lives of 35 workers. It was the worst single workplace catastrophe in Australian history.

The Woolcock Institute of Medical Research is holding a one-day symposium entitled 'Sleep Loss - Risk and Solutions in the Workplace' on Monday 13 October, at the Powerhouse Museum Sydney.

Understanding terrorism for risk managers, property managers, engineers & architects.

A high-tech interactive CD-ROM will be mailed to Victoria's 200,000 small and medium sized workplaces as part of a new $3 million campaign to improve workplace health and safety, WorkCover Minister Rob Hulls announced recently.

Professor John Hermon-Taylor and colleagues from St George's Hospital Medical School in London, UK, have found the strongest evidence yet that Chrohn's disease and irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) may be caused by the bacterium Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis (MAP).