Tuesday 16 August

Helen Sadgrove, CFIOSH, Managing Director NZ, HSE Global

This case study will explore the history of managing asbestos risks and highlight findings from a recent research report

Mike Cosman, Partner, Cosman Parkes

This session reviews the latest health-related prosecutions under the Health and Safety at Work Act.

Joseph Lill, Senior Associate, Chapman Tripp

Ara Poutama Aotearoa / Department of Corrections introduced a Critical Risk Observation model to keep their Executive leaders engaged with the realities of ‘work as done’ and critical risk management. In this session, Chief Safety & Wellbeing Officer Chris Jones will walk us through the model and lessons learnt – discussing the why, the how, the impact on organisational culture and how it can be applied to both health risks and safety risks.

Chris Jones, Chief Safety & Wellbeing Officer, Ara Poutama Aotearoa

A session on using the transferrable skills of safety-focused professionals in the health risk space.

Mick Bates, Head of Health, Safety & Wellbeing, St John

For many workplaces 24-hour operation is non-negotiable, yet the evidence is growing that shift work is not good for us. Prof Joanne Crawford joins us to discuss the short-term and long-term risks, outline the latest research and suggest ways to mitigate the risks and reduce the harm.

Prof Joanne Crawford, WorkSafe Chair in Health & Safety, Victoria University of Wellington

Strains and sprains are preventable injuries yet the costs are high – whether it be physical, financial, lost productivity. CHASANZ, in partnership with ACC, have introduced the Work should not hurt aimed at reducing these injuries. Chris Polaczuk joins us to tell us more about the programme and the research and data behind it.

Chris Polaczuk, Ergonomics Programme Manager, CHASNZ

Dispensing toxic, carcinogenic, mutagenic, or reproductive toxicants is all part of the pharmaceutical manufacturing process. To make the process safer, to reduce occupational chemical exposure and protect the health of their employees, the team at Douglas Pharmaceuticals undertook the Isolator Project. After much consultation and trials with multiple stakeholders, a custom designed, large leak-proof enclosure namely an isolator was procured. Miriska Gerber will outline the background to the project, the purpose, the process, and the evidence the initiative has been successful.

Miriska Gerber, Head of Safety, Health, Hygiene & Environment, Douglas Pharmaceuticals Ltd

Faced with the challenge of distilling the 2017 hazardous substances’ regulations to the people most likely to suffer injury, Silver Fern Farms undertook a cross-functional project to address challenges that included low levels of literacy, ease of access to the information and simplifying key aspects to hazardous substances storage. Andrew Mitchell will outline the project and the indicators of its success to date.

Andrew Mitchell, Group Health & Safety Manager, Silver Fern Farms

Helen Sadgrove, CFIOSH, Managing Director NZ, HSE Global

Managing work-related health often receives less focus and resources than managing workplace safety, but the harm is real with over 600 to 900 deaths a year from ill health caused by work exposure. Keeping workers healthy is as important as keeping them safe.

Safeguard’s HealthRISK Conference is designed for people who feel comfortable dealing with safety but who are more apprehensive about tackling health.

The conference aims to provide attendees with the tools they need to manage health like safety and to provide a better understanding of some of the key health risks that affect New Zealand workplaces.

Please use the Q&A function on the right to send through your questions to the MC.

We hope you enjoy the conference.

The Thomson Reuters Events Team

Helen Sadgrove
Managing Director NZ, HSE Global (CHAIR)
Helen is a dynamic and focused professional, experienced working in both the public and private sectors at senior levels. She is analytical, with the ability to comprehend and provide key input into complex policy at both National and International levels. Helen is honest and reliable, with a high level of personal integrity and committed to professional standards. With excellent communication and interpersonal skills, Helen has the ability to influence and develop strong relationships with stakeholders at all levels of organisations. Helen has advised sector based, public and private organisations on their performance and practice across a range of requirements in risk, health and safety, food safety and hygiene, public health (infectious and communicable disease) environment and property. Helen has mentored emerging professionals in health and safety practice and principles, to move away from traditional approaches to safety in order to realise and maximise human potential and organisational adaptive capacity and resilience. Helen has advised organisations in the public, private and not-for-profit sectors on critical risk management, including: NZ Police on dealing with trauma, the search and rescue sector and emergency services on dealing with fatigue. Helen has successfully led a team of occupational health nurses, psychologists, engineers, safety generalists, rehabilitation specialists, occupational therapists and managers at St John to deliver health, safety, wellbeing, environment and sustainability services to over 20,000 people across over 378 sites.
Mike Cosman
Partner, Cosman Parkes
Mike is a highly experienced health and safety consultant who has also worked as a regulator and policy maker. His interest in occupational health risks goes back 43 years to the start of his career when he regularly dealt with issues such as lead poisoning, sand blasting, asbestos manufacturing, electroplating, dioxins, legionella and other ’nasties’. He holds a Post Graduate Diploma in Occupational Safety and Industrial Hygiene as well as a Degree in Management. He is a Chartered Fellow of IOSH, Certified Fellow of NZSISM, a Member of the Institute of Directors and HASANZ Registered. Mike also Chairs the Board of NZISM and is involved in a number of strategic projects trying to improve New Zealand’s poor health and safety record.
Joseph Lill
Senior Associate, Chapman Tripp
Joseph specialises in health and safety. He regularly acts for private clients and insurers defending regulatory and statutory matters, provides proactive advice around compliance as well as advising clients during health and safety investigations by WorkSafe and other regulators. With in depth knowledge of the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015, he also provides pro-active advice to clients on compliance with the requirements of the Act. Prior to joining Chapman Tripp, Joseph worked at a magic circle firm in London. Previously, he was employed by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) and at another New Zealand law firm. His work as a prosecutor with MBIE provides him with valuable insight into how to best manage investigations and prosecutions by different regulators.
Chris Jones
Chief Safety & Wellbeing Officer, Ara Poutama Aotearoa Department of Corrections
Ara Poutama Aotearoa’s stated organisational purpose is ‘the wellness and wellbeing of people’. As Chief Safety & Wellbeing Officer, Chris provides strategic direction and systems leadership, operational support and advice, and meaningful performance and assurance insights that enable ever-better health, safety and wellbeing outcomes across one of the most complex and risk-diverse organisations in New Zealand, spanning 160 sites, 10,000 staff, 40,000 offenders and 2,000 partner organisations. Prior to his current role, Chris held roles at WorkSafe NZ (where he led the Strategy; Guidance and Standards; and Work-Related Health teams) and, in the UK, at Network Rail (as Head of Occupational Health & Wellbeing Strategy) and Nuffield Health (as Professional Head of Physiology).
Mick Bates
Head of Health, Safety & Wellbeing, St John
Mick comes from an engineering background, starting life as an apprentice in a brewery in the north east of England. Nearly 30 years later and through a variety of engineering, project and safety roles, in everything from quarries to universities he is currently the Head of Health & Safety for St John. Still not convinced that he is a ‘safety person’ Mick is a great believer in looking outside the safety industry for ideas and concepts and is always trying to discover how things go right more than they go wrong and how we can learn from those experiences.
Chris Polaczuk
Ergonomics Programme Manager, CHASNZ
Chris is a trained Occupational Therapist becoming a self-employed Occupational Health Consultant working with employers and ACC on occupational health and safety including workplace analysis and worker assessment, workplace training and injury prevention and management. Chris has extensive experience in the prevention and management of workplace musculoskeletal conditions and has republished both the NZ OOS Management Guidelines, NZ Patient Handling Guidelines and the Manual Handling Code of Practice. This programme was the first of its kind and scale in New Zealand and is still being used by workplaces to this day. Chris joined CHASNZ to introduce a 'human factors' approach, developing evidenced-based initiatives for the construction industry. The aim is to develop ways to address the contributing factors causing these problems and not just the obvious physical ones. If you are interested in being part of this work, have some good ideas or are already doing work in this area to address strains and sprains in the industry, Chris would love to hear from you. Please contact Chris Polaczuk at chrisp@chasnz.org
Gerber Miriska
Head of Safety, Health, Hygiene & Environment, Douglas Pharmaceuticals Ltd
Miriska is an ambitious Registered Occupational Hygienist (ROH®) with close to 10 years’ experience in the Occupational Hygiene field. She spent her first few years as an Occupational Hygiene consultant in South Africa. Thereafter she took on the exciting role as an in-house Occupational Hygienist and later Occupational Hygiene Manager for the largest privately owned Pharmaceutical Company in New Zealand (Douglas Pharmaceuticals Ltd). She currently leads the SHHE team at Douglas which focusses on Health & Safety, Occupational Hygiene, Chemical Management and Environment. Miriska is passionate about learning and holds a Master’s degree in Occupational Hygiene. She serves on the Governance Group of the Health and Safety Association of NZ (HASANZ), is the Immediate Past President of the New Zealand Occupational Hygiene Society (NZOHS) and representing New Zealand as a board member of Workplace Health Without Borders (WHWB) Australia. Miriska is constantly working towards improving and maintaining good worker health and safety. She actively participates in providing training, education and awareness to anyone willing to listen. As the demand grew, she also commenced her mentoring aspiration and is currently mentoring a few young professionals. Believing to accomplish as much as possible in the time we have, she is also further involved in various projects to assist with increasing the Occupational Hygiene workforce capability in New Zealand.
Andrew Mitchell
Group Health & Safety Manager, Silver Fern Farms
Andrew Mitchell is the Group Health and Safety Manager at Silver Fern Farms, New Zealand’s largest meat processor and exporter. His background in health and safety includes the mining, construction and infrastructure industries. His interest in hazardous substance management was sparked when he completed his Post Graduate Diploma in Hazard Management at the University of Otago.
Professor Joanne Crawford
WorkSafe Chair in Health & Safety, Victoria University of Wellington
Joanne joined the University of Victoria in Wellington in January 2020 as the inaugural WorkSafe New Zealand Chair in Health and Safety. This role is funded to ensure that both capability and capacity are increased in New Zealand in the health and safety profession and this is being achieved through the Master of Health specialism in Workplace Health and Safety at Victoria University of Wellington. Professionally while a Chartered Ergonomist, Joanne has worked with the different specialisms in occupational health and safety in both research and practice. That has included being the Ergonomics and Human Factors lead at the Institute of Occupational Medicine in Edinburgh. Taking that systems approach into workplace and research problems to understand the drivers and barriers in implementing occupational health and safety and transferring knowledge to practice. Joanne has worked with a number of sectors including telecommunications and healthcare on topics including knowledge management in OHS, preventing musculoskeletal disorders, cancer and shift work, age and work and the OHS implications of return to work after cancer. This has been for clients including HSE, EU OSHA, Department of Health (UK), WorkSafe NZ and the European Parliament.

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