Glossary

The sum of lost time injuries and medical treatment cases.

Medications for the treatment of infection by retroviruses, primarily HIV.

A part of health risk assessment, involving the measurement of such parameters as height, weight, body mass index, blood pressure, heart rate, waist girth, etc.

A person or organisation providing services to an employer at the employer's workplace in accordance with agreed specifications, terms and conditions. For the purposes of Rio Tinto's health, safety and environmental standards, contractors have been classified into three categories:

• Category 1: Individuals engaged on temporary contracts to work within existing operations
• Category 2: Companies or individuals engaged for a discrete project which will be carried out in a designated area separate from existing operations
• Category 3: Companies or individuals engaged under contract to carry out specific tasks or provide specified services within existing operations areas.

A person in full or part time employment at a Rio Tinto business and listed on the payroll of a business.

When one or more person(s) die as a result of a work-related injury or occupational illness occurring during their employment. Lost and restricted days are not calculated for fatalities.

The measures of performance for each of the metrics of injury or illness, eg:

• All injury frequency rate (AIFR) = number of all injuries x 200,000 / hours of exposure
• Rate of new cases of occupational illness = number of new cases of occupational illnesses x 10,000 / number of employees (based on average monthly statistics)
• Rate of employee exposure to noise = number of employees exposed to more than 85dB(A) noise x 10,000 / number of employees (based on average monthly statistics)

Rio Tinto uses AIFR to assess performance against the goal of zero injuries and zero fatalities. This assessment includes employees and all categories of contractors.

Rio Tinto's health targets (rate of new cases of occupational illness and rate of employee exposure to noise) are evaluated using employee data only. Whilst diagnosed occupational illnesses are recorded for contractors, this data is not included in the evaluation of performance against our health targets. Developing operations that were not part of the target baseline and operations acquired during the target period are excluded when assessing performance against these targets. Divested or closed operations are removed from the baseline when assessing performance against these targets.

Where HIV prevalence has passed the one per cent mark in the general population, based on national estimates of HIV prevalence using data generated by surveillance systems that focus on pregnant women who attend a selected number of sentinel antenatal clinics, and in an increasing number of countries on nationally representative sero-surveys.

Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).

The total number of hours worked by employees and contractors at a facility where one or more employees/contractors are working or are present as a condition of their employment and are carrying out activities related to their employment duties.

• For employees: This can be determined by either "Planned time + overtime - all absences" or actual time (collected via gate pass or timesheet systems) or represent reasonable estimates made by a Rio Tinto company supervisor.
• For contractors: Hours worked are provided by either the vendor or represent reasonable estimates made by a Rio Tinto company supervisor. These hours are recorded by month, vendor, work area and organisation unit, they reflect the total time spent by contractors on Rio Tinto sites.

Any injury such as a cut, fracture, sprain, amputation, etc, which results from a work related event during a single shift. All occupational injuries are to be reported as safety incidents with safety impact. All occupational injuries must be recorded for employees and contractors regardless of contractor category.

A single event or continuous/repetitive series of events that results in, or could have resulted in, one or more of the following impacts:

• An occupational injury or illness
• Damage to physical assets (eg plant and equipment), the environment, process, product, or reputation
• Disruption to a community
• Exposure to legal liability
• Security threat
  

An injury or occupational illness that results in one or more days/shifts away from work, excluding the day of the incident.

The sum of fatal, lost day and restricted work day injuries or illnesses.

An injury or occupational illness which is not classified as lost time, but which results in loss of consciousness or medical treatment other than first aid.

Medical treatment includes, but is not limited to:

• Administration of prescription medication
• Use of wound closing devices such as sutures, staples, or wound adhesives (glue)
• Use of devices with rigid stays or other systems designed to immobilise parts of the body
• Use of eye patches (except for use as a precautionary measure, and not extending into the next shift)

Medical treatment does not include:

• Visits to a physician or other licensed health care professional solely for observation or counselling, or
• Conduct of diagnostic procedures, such as x-rays, blood tests, and the administration of prescription medications used solely for diagnostic purposes (eg eye drops to dilate pupils) or as a single dose administered on first visit for a minor injury or discomfort.
  

A case is reportable where a medical practitioner diagnoses musculo-skeletal disease that meets defined diagnostic criteria, and it is due to repeated workplace exposure (other than due to vibration) and it results in medical treatment, restricted work days, lost days or permanent damage. Includes recurring musculo-skeletal conditions. Recurring musculo-skeletal conditions are counted as a new case and reported only if the medical practitioner considers that the worker had fully recovered from the previous condition. Can include repetitive strain injuries, also known as occupational overuse syndrome.

Purely subjective symptoms without limitation of movement or physical or laboratory signs are not reportable. Contractors of category 2 or 3 are not included. Occupational injury cases are excluded - defined as arising from a work related event of less than one shift in duration.

An injury or illness is considered as a new case if the employee has not previously experienced an injury or illness of the same type, or the employee has completely recovered from the previous case and a new incident has caused the condition to reappear. If not then additional time lost is linked back to the original injury or illness and is considered a recurrence of the original injury or illness.

To be diagnosed as being related to noise exposure requires evidence of a hearing loss on a technically satisfactory audiogram at 4 or 6kHz, preferably with recovery of hearing at 6 or 8kHz. A loss without recovery plus a history of noise exposure is also regarded as NIHL. For cases meeting these criteria the following steps are required to determine whether or not a case of NIHL meets Rio Tinto's reporting criteria:

1. Occupationally exposed to noise >85dBA time weighted average; and
2. Has sustained a standard threshold shift; and
3. Average hearing loss over 1, 2 and 3KHz after age adjustment of the audiogram of >25dBA as compared to audiometric zero.

Hearing loss due to age, disease or a one time exposure is excluded. The latter is considered an injury. Contractors of category 2 or 3 are not included.

A case is reportable if a medical practitioner following the International Council on Mining & Metals (ICMM) / International Aluminium Institute (IAI) occupational asthma definition diagnoses the patient as an asthmatic due to the occupational exposures such as those in aluminium smelting, resulting in medical treatment, restricted work days, lost days or permanent damage. Contractors of category 2 or 3 are not included.

Exposure to chemical, physical, biological or ergonomic hazards under controlled conditions, in the course of and intrinsic to the nature of their work, of a population consisting of adults who are trained or informed to be aware of potential risks and to take appropriate precautions. The duration of occupational exposure is limited to the duration of the working day or duty shift per 24 hours and the duration of the working lifetime.

The level of an agent in workplace air, which it is believed is low enough to protect nearly all workers from adverse health effects over a series of eight-hour shifts for a working lifetime.  Rio Tinto has defined a number of OELs that apply across all of its operations.

An illness or disease is distinct from an injury. One event cannot be both. An occupational illness or disease results from a workplace related exposure of more than one shift; ie noise induced hearing loss (NIHL), carpal tunnel syndrome, etc. A person is only diagnosed once with the same occupational illness or disease unless there has been a complete recovery from the original case. All occupational illnesses are reported as health incidents with health impact.

All diagnosed occupational illnesses must be recorded for employees and Category 1 contractors, regardless of whether they are labour, executive, hourly, salary, part-time, seasonal or migrant workers. Diagnosed occupational illnesses affecting Category 2 and Category 3 contractors do not need to be recorded (unless required by local legislative or regulatory requirements), and are not reportable to Rio Tinto.

Is a measure of the severity of an injury or occupational illness from which:

1. there has not been, or is not expected to be, full recovery after two years; and/or
2. there has been substantial negative consequences for the individual, that is prolonged hospitalisation, prolonged inability to work, loss of ability to continue normal social and home life, major damage to body or body function (eg paraplegia, lung disease, blindness or amputations of limbs above tip of toes/fingers); and/or
3. the person is unable to work and has been retired.

Lost or restricted shifts and calendar days are counted until either of the following occur:

1. the person returns in a full time unrestricted capacity to their pre-injury role; or
2. the person is permanently redeployed into another role; or
3. two years have passed from the date of the injury; or
4. the person leaves the service of the company.
   

Occupational injury or illness where, as a result the employee:

• Was assigned to another job on a temporary basis, or
• Worked at a permanent job less than full time, or
• Worked at his or her permanently assigned job but could not perform all the duties normally connected with it.

A restricted work activity occurs when the employee, because of the job-related injury/illness, is physically or mentally unable to perform all or any part of his or her normal assignment during all or any part of the normal workday or shift, after which the injury/illness occurs.

Employee/contractor groups who have similar responsibilities, common hazards and similar exposure profiles that are identified by similar substance and exposure factors.  Rio Tinto uses SEGs as the basis for assessing workplace exposure to hazardous agents with chronic effect.

Joint United Nations programme on HIV/AIDS

With regard to HIV/AIDS programmes, voluntary counselling and testing (VCT) is the process by which an individual undergoes confidential counselling to enable the individual to make an informed choice about learning his or her HIV status and to take appropriate action. If the individual decides to take the HIV test, VCT enables confidential HIV testing. Counselling for VCT consists of pre-test, post-test and follow up counselling.