Mine to Market November-December 2012 - Mount Isa Mines

Safety
SafeSpines at GFM
This year, Xstrata Zinc’s George Fisher Mine operators have been taking part in an
innovative health, wellness and injury prevention initiative, SafeSpine, developed
by Onsite Health Solutions. SafeSpine is an industry leading musculoskeletal health
education program proven to reduce soft tissue injuries in ‘industrial athletes’.
Soft tissue injuries are statistically
overrepresented in heavy
industry. In fact, data gathered
by Safe Work Australia shows
that injuries to joints, muscles, ligaments
and soft tissues account for 43 per cent of
all serious workers compensation claims
in Australia. Between 2010 and 2011,
there were 2,585 workers’ compensation
claims lodged across the Australian mining
industry, with seven claims made each day
from employees requiring one or more
weeks off work due to injury. This equates
to almost 15 serious injury claims per 1,000
Australian mining employees, 33 per cent
of which were a result of musculoskeletal
stress or soft tissue damage while lifting or
handling objects.
Julie Boyer, Manager Sustainable
Development Xstrata Zinc North
Queensland says ensuring the health
and wellbeing of our people helps us
to operate as safely and productively
as possible.
“Education is the first step towards
improving our employees’ health
outcomes,” Julie says.
“We recognised that an injury
prevention initiative with a behaviour
change emphasis would improve the
health risk profile of our employees
and assist us to proactively prevent soft
tissue injuries.”
The dynamic and interactive workshops
teach a number of key principles useful
both at work and at home. The program
also introduced SafeStart; a pre-shift
musculoskeletal warm-up and conditioning
routine designed to prepare the body and
mind for daily work activities.
Encompassing joint mobilisation,
stretching and toning exercises, the
introduction of SafeStart is already seeing
a decline in the aches, pains and niggles
often felt by our people in physically
demanding roles.
“It’s also resulted in a lot of fun,
laughter and positive energy, enhancing
crew moral and ensuring switched on
minds ready for a day’s work,” says Julie.
Damien Stringer, Boilermaker Rebuild
Workshop George Fisher Mine says the
SafeSpine program and SafeStart daily
warm-ups have been a hit with the crews,
and the program is having a flow-on
positive effect for many of his colleagues
outside of work.
“SafeStart gets the heart rate up and
the body moving at the beginning of a
shift, so you’re physically prepared and
mentally alert to start the working day,”
Damien says.
“Some of the guys are even starting to
get out and exercise on their days off as
a result of what we’ve learned during the
program about how having strong postural
muscles and supple joints can significantly
reduce your chances of injury, and also
ward off those persistent, niggling aches
you can get as a result of the physical work
we do.”
Supported by a Scientific Advisory
Council, Onsite Health Solutions is a
national provider of workplace health
and injury prevention services for
heavy industry.
22 mine to market