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Your Health And Safety Guide To Quarries
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What is a quarry?
A quarry is a pit or excavation made in the land below the natural surface to extract or remove stone and other materials. Victoria’s quarries supply a variety of materials, including:
• sandstone or freestone used for building construction
• basalt, granite or limestone used for construction, manufacturing or building roads
• quartz
• slate or gravel
• clay
• peat
• sand, earth or soil.
What are the risks?
The quarrying industry has inherent risks because of the varied nature of the work and the environment in which
it is carried out. Fatalities and serious injuries most often occur as a result of:
• being struck by moving plant
• becoming entangled in fi xed plant, such as conveyors, crushers and screens
• falls from height and falls on the same level
• lifting, carrying or handling objects.
Other risks include explosions, electrical hazards, noise, rocks and ground falling on workers, dust, silica, asbestos, vibration, UV radiation, heat, cold, dangerous goods and hazardous substances.
Employers
By law, employers must provide a safe working environment for their workers so far as is reasonably practicable. In addition to protecting the safety of your workers, you also must ensure that other people (such as drivers, visitors and the general public) are not exposed to risks as a result of your business.
Furthermore, if you manage or control a workplace, you are responsible for ensuring so far as is reasonably practicable that the area you control or manage is safe and without risks to health. This duty extends to entrances and exits, and it applies to your employees as well as the general public. This means:
• you must eliminate any risks to health and safety so far as is reasonably practicable
• if it’s not reasonably practicable to eliminate the risks, you must reduce them so far as is reasonably practicable.
If you store dangerous goods (e.g. substances that are fl ammable, explosive or toxic), you must comply with a range of specific legal requirements. You also have specifi c duties in relation to hazards such as:
• falls
• manual handling
• noise
• plant and machinery
• asbestos
• hazardous substances
• confi ned spaces
• licensing (including high risk work and explosives).
If a worker has a work-related injury or illness, you have duties under the Accident Compensation Act, one of which is to ensure their safe return to work. The employer’s return to work duties include:
• appoint a return to work coordinator
• develop and implement a return to work plan, and
• support and monitor your worker when they return to work.
Employees
Your employer is required to protect you from risks in your workplace. At the same time, you have a general duty to take reasonable care for your own health and safety and that of others who may be affected by your work, and to
cooperate with your employer’s efforts to make the workplace safe. This may include:
• following workplace policies and procedures
• attending health and safety training
• helping to identify hazards and risks.
Consult
Employees’ expertise can make a significant contribution to improving workplace health and safety. Regular proactive consultation can help identify issues in the workplace and build a strong commitment to health and safety by including all views in the decision-making process.
Under the OHS Act, employers must consult with employees when identifying and assessing hazards or risks and making decisions about risk control.
Find
There are many potential hazards you need to think about when identifying things that could go wrong. Consider what risks the following hazards could pose:
• sloping, unstable ground
• rocks and ground falling on workers
• mobile plant, including collision, rollover and vibration
• fixed plant, including conveyors and crushers
• heavy transport equipment
• fires
• airborne dust, which may include silica
• UV radiation
• asbestos
• tailings dams
• electrical hazards
• noise
• dangerous goods, including explosives
• hazardous substances.
You also need to consider different operational situations, including shut-down, emergencies and maintenance, as well as any changes to throughput, materials or equipment, design and staffing levels.
For existing quarry sites, you should take into account hazards that may have been introduced during the exploration, design and development phases of the quarrying operation.
Assess
Once all the hazards have been identifi ed, you need to assess the risks to health and safety. This includes considering:
• the nature of the hazard
• the likelihood of it causing any harm, and
• the possible severity of the harm that could be caused.
Fix
Work through the following list to control quarrying risks. In many instances, a combination of approaches will result in the best solution.
1. Eliminate the cause of the risk. The best option is to remove the hazard completely, so you should always try to
do this first.
2. Substitute or isolate the hazard, or use engineering controls. If you can’t remove the hazard, think about changing the work to involve a lesser hazard, separating the hazard from people or using engineering controls. 3. Use administrative controls. If there is still a risk, reduce it by changing the way the work is done. 4. Provide personal protective equipment (PPE). If no other measures will totally solve the problem, use PPE to reduce the risk.
Review
It’s important to review your risk controls regularly to ensure they are implemented correctly and to monitor their effectiveness. You should review (and, if necessary, revise) your risk controls whenever any changes are made to the work or the workplace, such as changes to the way work is done or to the tools or equipment used.
A quarry is a pit or excavation made in the land below the natural surface to extract or remove stone and other materials. Victoria’s quarries supply a variety of materials, including:
• sandstone or freestone used for building construction
• basalt, granite or limestone used for construction, manufacturing or building roads
• quartz
• slate or gravel
• clay
• peat
• sand, earth or soil.
What are the risks?
The quarrying industry has inherent risks because of the varied nature of the work and the environment in which
it is carried out. Fatalities and serious injuries most often occur as a result of:
• being struck by moving plant
• becoming entangled in fi xed plant, such as conveyors, crushers and screens
• falls from height and falls on the same level
• lifting, carrying or handling objects.
Other risks include explosions, electrical hazards, noise, rocks and ground falling on workers, dust, silica, asbestos, vibration, UV radiation, heat, cold, dangerous goods and hazardous substances.
Employers
By law, employers must provide a safe working environment for their workers so far as is reasonably practicable. In addition to protecting the safety of your workers, you also must ensure that other people (such as drivers, visitors and the general public) are not exposed to risks as a result of your business.
Furthermore, if you manage or control a workplace, you are responsible for ensuring so far as is reasonably practicable that the area you control or manage is safe and without risks to health. This duty extends to entrances and exits, and it applies to your employees as well as the general public. This means:
• you must eliminate any risks to health and safety so far as is reasonably practicable
• if it’s not reasonably practicable to eliminate the risks, you must reduce them so far as is reasonably practicable.
If you store dangerous goods (e.g. substances that are fl ammable, explosive or toxic), you must comply with a range of specific legal requirements. You also have specifi c duties in relation to hazards such as:
• falls
• manual handling
• noise
• plant and machinery
• asbestos
• hazardous substances
• confi ned spaces
• licensing (including high risk work and explosives).
If a worker has a work-related injury or illness, you have duties under the Accident Compensation Act, one of which is to ensure their safe return to work. The employer’s return to work duties include:
• appoint a return to work coordinator
• develop and implement a return to work plan, and
• support and monitor your worker when they return to work.
Employees
Your employer is required to protect you from risks in your workplace. At the same time, you have a general duty to take reasonable care for your own health and safety and that of others who may be affected by your work, and to
cooperate with your employer’s efforts to make the workplace safe. This may include:
• following workplace policies and procedures
• attending health and safety training
• helping to identify hazards and risks.
Consult
Employees’ expertise can make a significant contribution to improving workplace health and safety. Regular proactive consultation can help identify issues in the workplace and build a strong commitment to health and safety by including all views in the decision-making process.
Under the OHS Act, employers must consult with employees when identifying and assessing hazards or risks and making decisions about risk control.
Find
There are many potential hazards you need to think about when identifying things that could go wrong. Consider what risks the following hazards could pose:
• sloping, unstable ground
• rocks and ground falling on workers
• mobile plant, including collision, rollover and vibration
• fixed plant, including conveyors and crushers
• heavy transport equipment
• fires
• airborne dust, which may include silica
• UV radiation
• asbestos
• tailings dams
• electrical hazards
• noise
• dangerous goods, including explosives
• hazardous substances.
You also need to consider different operational situations, including shut-down, emergencies and maintenance, as well as any changes to throughput, materials or equipment, design and staffing levels.
For existing quarry sites, you should take into account hazards that may have been introduced during the exploration, design and development phases of the quarrying operation.
Assess
Once all the hazards have been identifi ed, you need to assess the risks to health and safety. This includes considering:
• the nature of the hazard
• the likelihood of it causing any harm, and
• the possible severity of the harm that could be caused.
Fix
Work through the following list to control quarrying risks. In many instances, a combination of approaches will result in the best solution.
1. Eliminate the cause of the risk. The best option is to remove the hazard completely, so you should always try to
do this first.
2. Substitute or isolate the hazard, or use engineering controls. If you can’t remove the hazard, think about changing the work to involve a lesser hazard, separating the hazard from people or using engineering controls. 3. Use administrative controls. If there is still a risk, reduce it by changing the way the work is done. 4. Provide personal protective equipment (PPE). If no other measures will totally solve the problem, use PPE to reduce the risk.
Review
It’s important to review your risk controls regularly to ensure they are implemented correctly and to monitor their effectiveness. You should review (and, if necessary, revise) your risk controls whenever any changes are made to the work or the workplace, such as changes to the way work is done or to the tools or equipment used.
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Videos
References
http://www.vwa.vic.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0 ... s.pdf
http://www.hseni.gov.uk/news/events.htm?id=12731&q ... minar
http://www.hse.gov.uk/quarries/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8cQSgbGtdp0
http://www.hseni.gov.uk/news/events.htm?id=12731&q ... minar
http://www.hse.gov.uk/quarries/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8cQSgbGtdp0
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