Publications
Click on a reference to view the abstract. Full versions of the papers may be downloaded in pdf format (right click on link and choose "Save As .." to save file to disk, otherwise it will open in a new window.)
- M. Wakelam, G. Sinclair and M. Rendell, "Media Headlines - Occupational Health and Safety Communication Challenges", AIOH conference, 2008.At 5:26 pm on the 11th of May 2006 the following headline was published by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) "Brain tumour cases prompt uni building closure" (ABCNewsOnline 2006). The article further stated that "Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) has launched a second health and safety investigation in just five years, after seven staff members from the University's Bourke Street campus were diagnosed with brain tumours." (ABCNewsOnline 2006). This report was quickly followed by a range of media reports in which telecommunications equipment was highlighted as a causative factor for these tumours (Jones 2006, Morton & Rood 2006, Australian Associated Press 2006). These media reports resulted in a large amount of work for health and safety professionals at RMIT University as well as at many unrelated sites. This paper will explore the impacts and communication challenges faced by occupational health and safety (OHS) staff at Monash University as a result of this issue at RMIT University.
- M. Wakelem, "Does CGI Have A Future In Art? And Is It Photorealism? ", unpublished essay, 2003.If we contrast the history of painting with the history of photography and look beyond the mere technical or physical natures of these media we can see that photography has followed the evolutionary process that occurs with any new visual medium (Gray 1986). If we consider the issues that have surrounded the acceptance of photographs as a valid art form, we must also question whether CGI will be readily accepted as art by both the art world and by the general community (Mueller).
- P. Barton and M. Wakelam, "Risk Assessment In A Large Complex Organisation", AIOH conference, 2002.At the core of Victoria's OHS regulations IS the requirement to undertake risk assessments across a range of hazards. In 1999, Monash undertook a review of its existing risk assessment processes. The review revealed a varying level of integration of risk management into the University's activities and highlighted a number of the difficulties of implementing a risk assessment program across a large complex organisation. Based on the findings of the review, a new risk control program has been developed. At the centre of the new program is a five by five risk assessment matrix. Similar matrices are used across the major hazards relevant to a university enviromnent. The COSHH essentials program has been used as the basis for the chemicals matrix. Additional challenges were posed by the need to integrate special hazard groups such as ionising radiation and biosafety into the program. The new risk control program has proved to be successful and has increased the integration of risk management in the University's activities. The final challenge to ensure successful implementation of the program is to provide an information management system to support the data generated by the program.
- M. Wakelam and G. Sinclair,"Multimedia As A Means To Train In The Workplace – Viable Alternative Or Latest Fad?", AIOH conference, 2001.Faced with an ever-increasing training load, Monash University's Occupational Health, Safety and Environment (OHSE) Branch has recently begun the process of transferring many of its existing training courses into multimedia format. This is designed to reduce the resources required by the OHSE Branch to training commitments whilst providing a more flexible delivery timetable for trainees. This paper will discuss the means of multimedia development from a health and safety perspective as well as the resources required. Multimedia format training is contrasted with traditional methods of providing health and safety training.
- M. Wakelam, "Conceptions of Teaching – Essential Skills For The Health & Safety Professional", CSHEMA conference, USA, 2000A traditional face-to-face teaching style has been used for provision of training on safe practices for use of ionising radiation. To increase the availability of the training for research staff and students funds were sought to convert the existing package to a multimedia format. In investigating funding sources to develop a multi-media course for radiation safety training the author became aware of another resource that was missing from the project: knowledge of educational theory. In addition an assessment of radiation safety practice of some course participants had been performed. This assessment indicated that the traditional radiation safety training had a low success rate in terms of long term knowledge retention on a number of specific key points. The assistance of an educational expert has resulted in the development of a training module that measurably changes the students existing conceptions and takes the student beyond a surface approach to learning.
- C. Tillman, M. Wakelam and A. Wilson, "Total Risk Indicators For Managing Occupational Hygiene Programs", IOHA international conference, 2000.The three stages of any occupational hygiene program are hazard identification, risk assessment and risk control. The last of these, implementation of risk control measures, is the most important component of any occupational hygiene program, unfortunately the program is often viewed as complete once the risk control options have been identified (Figure 1). The control implementation stage is normally in the hands of the business managers as resources are generally required. Frequently only limited resources are allocated to the implementation of risk controls, especially when regulatory pressures are minimal. Many managers view expenditure on occupational hygiene risk control measures as non-essential add-ons to normal business operations and subsequently do not consider that the expenditure is justifiable. The blame for this misunderstanding is generally directed at the business managers and their lack of understanding of the science of risk assessments. The financial reality of any business is that limited resources must be shared between many competing interests in addition to the occupational hygiene control programs. The idealistic approach is to argue that resources must be allocated to all of the hygiene controls as all of them are equally important to the well being of the employee. Another view is to consider that an organisation will have a dramatic effect on the life of it's employees when it does not maintain financial viability. Thus the commercial viability of the business is also important to the well being of employees. Occupational hygiene programs must be able to be shown to be an integral part of the business operation rather than a separate function to maximise resource allocation. In addition an effective method for allocating limited risk control funds needs to be identified. The use of a total risk index model, as developed by the University of California, San Diego, will be discussed. A specific example of use of the model for occupational hygiene programs and other health and safety programs within the framework of a large Australian University will be discussed. The advantages and disadvantages of the model for allocation of resources to risk control programs will be detailed.
- M. Wakelam and C. Tillman, "Development of a Simplified Dangerous Goods Storage Plan for Effective Management of Dangerous Goods in Laboratories" AIOH annual conference, 1999.In large scientific research institutions it is often hard to apply the standard dangerous goods regulatory package in a cost effective or time effective manner. This paper discusses the development of a simplified dangerous goods storage plan which is based on complying with the intentions of the dangerous goods regulations whilst providing simple practical guidelines that allow research staff to effectively manage the storage of dangerous goods in their own laboratories. The alignment of this type of approach to dangerous goods management with the proposed national model regulations for dangerous goods will also be explored.
- M. Wakelam, "Investigation Of Indoor Air Quality Complaints", AIOH conference, 1994.There are a large number of contaminants that may be present in the indoor environment. The levels at which these may impact upon the building occupants'comfort and well-being is often significantly below workplace exposure standards. There are also physical factors which may impact on the comfort and well-being of building occupants. For this reason, recognition of the cause of indoor air quality complaints is often complex. The assessment strategy is dependant upon the type and consistency of occupant complaints. A broad range of tests are used to identify potential problems when complaints are general and non-specific. If complaints are specific then inspection of the site combined with specific confirmatory tests is a more effective technique. Two case studies illustrate these assessment approaches.
- M. Wakelam and G. Sinclair, "Service at a Cost: the Consulting Dilemma", AIOH annual conference, 1994The basic principles of occupational hygiene are recognition, evaluation and control. In the evaluation (risk assessment) phase, it is good practice to obtain enough data to perform statistical analysis and thus characterise the exposure profile with a high degree of certainty. This means that a minimum of approximately six homogeneous sarnple results are required for evaluation of each exposure situation. The consulting experience is that few small to medium sized companies can afford this type of assessment. In fact, for many workplaces, the assessment may be as costly as the control measure. For this reason, it is important when devising an evaluation strategy to consider sarnpling costs relative to the information obtained in order to ensure that the client is supplied with an appropriate risk assessment.
- S. Bennett and M. Wakelam, "Noise Assessment Program: the Role of Education and Communication", AIOH annual conference, 1992.Conceptually, many employees have difficulty in grasping the implications of noise exposure. For this reason, it is essential that training is part of any noise management program. Prior to commencing noise dosimetry, the use of training sessions discussing the fundamentals and the measurement of noise has been found to be very successful in enhancing worker involvement and response. Similarly communication of dosimetry results together with a noise map of the workplace, promotes employee acceptance of implemented control measures.
- K. Ng and M. Wakelam, "Industrial Hygiene involved in Turnarounds", AIOH annual conference, 1992.In the majority of factories or plants, there will be times when they will be shutdown for maintenance or refitting, commonly known as turnarounds (t/a). These can be of a few days to a few months duration. These turnarounds are not times for hygienists to catch up on other work or even take holidays! In fact turnarounds are very busy and exciting times. From the turnaround work the hygienist(s) are able to: 1) identify, assess and document effectiveness of decontamination (preparation) and maintenance procedures; 2) deal with IH concerns before they become issues; and 3) identify future directions. This paper is a brief insight into turnarounds and how they can be managed effectively and thus cover a majority of the issues.
- S. Bennett and M. Wakelam, "Combined Analysis of Acrylonitrile and Aromatic Hydrocarbons", AIOH annual conference, 1992.In industry, acrylonitrile is often used together with styrene and other organics. It is therefore convenient to be able to determine air concentrations of acrylonitrile and other organics using the same sampling and analytical methods. In the past, Chemplex has included acrylonitrile analysis in the NIOSH general aromatics method (No. 1501), sacrificing a high desorption efficiency for acrylonitri le for the convenience of using one method and one tube only. A sampling validation has been performed, using the NIOSH acrylonitrile method (No.1604) instead, and it was found desorption efficiencies for the other organics generally also increased. The experimental method used at Chemplex for obtaining the desorption efficiencies varied slightly from the NIOSH methods, but remained within the NIOSH guidelines. The carbon tubes were spiked via an auxiliary bulb which was injected with a standard, generating a standard air concentration. The solvent used for the spiking standard was methanol. This method gives realistic evaluations of the desorption efficiencies for the sampling techniques used.
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