Everyone deserves to come home from work healthy and safe.  As the workplace health and safety regulator, WorkSafe New Zealand is committed to working with businesses to achieve that aim. 

Our work-related health newsletter provides information to help businesses and workers talk about and achieve better health outcomes in their workplace.  A work-related health risk is something that has potential to harm worker health. 

Readership of our work-related health newsletter is on the increase.  It’s encouraging so many people take health at work seriously. If you have any suggestions, comments or feedback, email wrh@worksafe.govt.nz.   Feel free also, to encourage workmates and colleagues to sign up.  Finally, if you know of a workplace doing a great job to look after its workers, we’d love to hear from you with a view to sharing the story.

There are some invisible health threats out there in the workplace which can have serious consequences for workers. Those responsible for staff must put steps in place to minimise risks.  This month’s issue covers:

• Handling soil, compost or potting mix to reduce the risk of legionellosis
• Reducing the risk of Legionnaires’ disease from cooling towers and evaporative condensers
• Keeping safe from harmful substances sometimes found inside containers

We’ve also got insights from our inspectors on the most common work-related health risks they see. 

For work involving handling soil, compost or potting mix, businesses must manage potential risks to workers of contracting legionellosis, a pneumonia-like lung condition.  If left untreated, it can progress to Legionnaires’ disease, a sometimes fatal severe form of pneumonia.  See our fact sheet on Legionnaires' disease: What to know if you work with soil, compost or potting mix. 

Legionella bacteria may grow on wet surfaces in cooling towers and evaporative cooling plants and can cause Legionnaires’ disease. Our updated fact sheet on Preventing Legionnaires’ disease from cooling towers and evaporative condensers has information for businesses on how to eliminate or minimise risk where practicable. This is particularly relevant for:

• Designers, manufacturers, importers and suppliers of cooling plants
• Installers, constructors and commissioners of cooling plants
• Those managing or controlling the workplace with cooling plants
• Those who manage, maintain or service cooling plants
• Those who are tenants in buildings with a cooling plant as part of an air conditioning system

WorkSafe New Zealand’s health and safety assessment inspectors see a lot of work-related health issues on workplace visits.  Between January and June last year, the most common health issues inspectors discussed with businesses related to noise, agri-chemicals, silica and asbestos. Read on for the details.

• Visit the WorkSafe website for more work-related health information
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