This safety alert by Worksafe highlights the serious health and safety risks of exposure to high levels of respirable crystalline silica (RCS) in the stone benchtop manufacturing industry.

Follow this link to WORKSAFE's Safety Alert: Accelerated silicosis

From Worksafe's Media Release dated 1 May 2019:

"A scaffolding company has been fined $150,000 after a poorly designed scaffold collapsed while seven people were working on it.

Affordable Scaffolding (2010) Limited was sentenced at the Auckland District Court last month following the February 2017 incident involving a scaffold erected under the Panmure Bridge in Auckland. The scaffold collapsed while seven workers were completing maintenance work on the bridge. Six workers fell into the water and another was trapped on the scaffolding. No-one was seriously injured.

A WorkSafe investigation found the collapse occurred due to overloading. It found Affordable Scaffolding (2010) Limited failed to ensure scaffolding was designed safely and load calculations and design drawings were not reviewed by an engineer prior to the scaffold being built."

Se the full media release here:  https://worksafe.govt.nz/about-us/news-and-media/scaffold-collapse-highlights-the-importance-of-safe-design/

Breaking free. The Royal New Zealand Navy's largest ever vessel Aotearoa was formally ‘launched’ last week. Overseen by the Chief of Navy, Rear Admiral David Proctor, the ship lifted off the blocks as the dry dock opened and the sea flooded in.

See the video here: Aotearoa Launched

I am happy to announce that Stuart Wright, Principal Engineer, Health and Technical Services at WORKSAFE has been appointed as ex-officio committee member to the NZSSE.

We welcome Stuart to our ranks and we hope that we can work together to achieve great results in the Safety Engineering field.

Stuart takes over from Geoff Connor who has taken up a role at the New Zealand Space Agency. We wish Geoff the very best in his new role and thank him for his service to the NZSSE and the greater cause.

Since the Lion Air crash last year, and the Ethiopian Airlines crash on 10 March this year, the importance of the Safety by Design has been highlighted yet again.

The Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS) installed on the Boeing 737 8(MAX) is blamed for both crashes. The MCAS is an automated safety feature on the 737 Max 8 designed to prevent the plane from entering into a stall. With the new larger engines, mounted further forward from the wing and slightly higher (to provide ground clearance), the thrust vector at a  high power setting tends to raise the aircraft's nose.

Read the reports here:

Aircraft Accident Investigation Preliminary Report Ethiopian Airlines Group B737-8 (MAX) Registered ET-AVJ

Aircraft Accident Investigation Report PT. Lion Mentari Airlines Boeing 737-8 (MAX); PK-LQP

Congratulations to Annette Sweeney, one of our members, who became a Fellow of Engineering New Zealand.

Engineering New Zealand has created 3 new Distinguished Fellows and 23 new Fellows, as well as presenting some special awards to outstanding engineers at the Fellows’ Dinner on Friday, 29 March in Wellington.

From Engineering New Zealand official article we copied the following:

"Annette Sweeney specialises in the delivery of water resources infrastructure. She is a very experienced engineer, manager and director who is highly acclaimed by the industry, staff, peers and clients. A former “ACENZ Future Leader of the Year” recipient, Ann serves on the board of Good Earth Matters and its associated companies. She has also served on the ACENZ Board and been Chair of the Manawatu Branch of Engineering New Zealand."

From an interesting article from Element Materials Technology's website:

"With the implementation of the EN ISO 80079 standard series in 2016, manufacturers now have access to a truly global set of requirements for mechanical ATEX equipment. 

The release of EN ISO 80079 is significant because it addresses basic requirements and protection concepts for mechanical explosion protected equipment on an international level. Previous standards, in the EN 13463 series, had addressed mechanical explosion protection but were limited to use within Europe under the ATEX Directive. In contrast, the EN ISO 80079 series has global application and can be used within the extended scope of the IECEx scheme which now includes mechanical equipment.

The EN ISO 80079 series will replace the EN 13463 series under the ATEX directive after 31 October 2019."

Here is a link to the article by Simon Barrowcliff:

A Guide to the EN ISO 80079 Standard Series

Hamish Baker wrote in an email: While it is Australia there is likely to be some relevance here...  I read the article in the The Conversation, and I agree.