Occupational illness
Like any responsible employer, we take steps to minimise any occurrences of illnesses that develop as a result of conditions in our workplaces. However, because of the nature of our business, we are also especially vigilant towards diseases caused by exposure to excessive dust and noise, and also to radiation.
The nature of occupational illnesses is changing. Illnesses such as stress, fatigue, musculo-skeletal and the normal results of ageing such as heart disease and reduced physical capacity present different challenges to the traditional mining health issues which we are managing through wellbeing programmes.
How we manage occupational illness
We treat an illness as 'occupational' if workplace conditions are thought to worsen it. We do not require the workplace to be the only cause.
Some workers are much more sensitive than others to contracting workplace-related diseases and to manage this we emphasise, when relevant, prevention by personal health monitoring and monitoring the workplace. Good examples of this are the programmes to manage occupational asthma risk in our aluminium smelters.
In 2004, our Occupational Health Standards were established to improve the flow of information on health issues to managers, so that they could take a more active role in prevention. It has also enabled us to collect more accurate data on workplace conditions and institute minimum conditions to contractors.
We also have active programmes to:
- Improve wellbeing
- Spread best practice on active fatigue management
- Ensure effective malaria control
- Survey the effects of dust on health in the Pilbara region of Western Australia.
In addition, our managers benefit from an intranet portal where they share best practice advice and information.
One example of how well our programmes are working can be seen in the decreasing rate of illnesses that are related to dust. Dust control at our mines has eliminated any new cases of miner's lung.
Our results
In 2004, we set a stretch target to reduce the rate (per 10,000 employees) of new cases of occupational illness by 40 per cent between the period 2003-20081. We met this ambitious target by achieving a reduction in the rate of new cases of illness in 2006 of 69 per cent and 81 per cent in 2007 compared to 2003.
1 Target baseline year was mistated in 2007 Annual report
Setting aggressive targets for noise exposure have resulted in improved data and better knowledge of workers' noise exposures. Reducing employee exposure to noise in the workplace will continue to be an area of focus in 2008 and beyond.
Although we remain behind trajectory to achieve our target of a 20 per cent reduction in exposures to 85 decibel noise, we saw a 1.3 per cent improvement in 2006 from the 2004 baseline expanding to a 5.8 per cent improvement in 2007.
We have begun to integrate the Rio Tinto and Alcan approaches to occupational health. At the strategic level, the two companies had similar programmes: active reduction of health risks, promotion of wellness and HIV/AIDS management. At the detailed level more work is needed to align our reporting definitions. The inclusion of Alcan changes our health risk profile with an increased proportion of smelters.