A new safety campaign by Arrium Mining and OneSteel Whyalla has its employees starring in ‘Living Safely With Electricity’, a video with a message about electricity: it can be fatal, and its impact will be felt profoundly by the family of the deceased.
The videos feature company employees with their families, filmed at the Whyalla Steelworks and South Middeback Ranges, re-enacting events which place them at risk of receiving an electric shock.
The campaign will be gradually rolled out across all of Arrium’s operations through Australia and overseas, with employees already taking it to local schools. More than 600 students have seen the videos, which demonstrate how they and their loved ones can be safer around electricity, in the last week.
Whyalla Steelworks General Manager Theuns Victor said the videos are part of an overarching ‘Living Safely With Electricity’ program created by the Arrium Electrical Safety Network to address five common root causes of electric shocks within Arrium.
“The video demonstrates how certain common electrical hazards can be present not only at work, but also in the home,” Mr Victor said.
“That’s why we’ve highlighted both home and work situations in the videos, so our employees and members of the community can realise these dangers are ever-present, not merely at industrial sites such as ours.
“The good news is that we can manage these hazards by following some simple guidelines, which the overall program addresses.”
Some of the key statistics as to why safety around electricity is so vital include:
- Twenty people die in Australia every year from electrocution. Half of these deaths occur outside work. 75% of them are non-electrical people
- Over 600 people in Australia are hospitalised every year due to electrical injury. Again, mostly non-electricians
- The root cause themes for electric shocks in Arrium are the same common themes we see in Australian statistics
“Our employees, contractors and local schools have all been really receptive to the videos so far,” Mr Victor said.
“If we can make even one person think twice before taking a risk when it comes to electricity, then the program will have achieved its goal.”
The two videos can be found by searching for ‘Living Safely With Electricity’ on YouTube.
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