Posts from APOSHO

Don’t blame technology (or its lack thereof)

The main theme of the conference is ‘Safety, Health & Environment – a Safer and Healthier World through Innovations and Collaborations’. But something that has kept resurfacing here is this: many of the incidents we see aren’t caused by a lack of technology but by an absence of the right systems, right conditions, and the right competence.

Construction

Several practitioners raised the need to restrict mobile phone use during high-risk work. Distraction remains one of the most preventable causes of incidents.

A major challenge across Asia (and many regions globally) is contracting out work at extremely low margins – safety is often the first casualty.

Drones are reshaping inspections and investigations. When fitted with AI-enabled cameras, they can provide real-time alerts of unsafe acts and conditions.

Skilled and experienced workers should be recruited for high-risk tasks, while training must be delivered in local languages to be meaningful and inclusive.

Better welfare facilities must be provided (accommodation, rest areas, toilets, drinking water, medical aid and so on).

Mobile Elevated Working Platforms (MEWPs)

There’s a perception MEWPs are hazardous. Actually, they are one of the safest ways to work at height, but operators must be trained to operate the platform from within the basket, not from the ground.

Technologies like electronic guarding systems can be mounted on helmets to alert workers when they are within 1.5 metres of an entrapment point – but operators still need to understand how to use them.

These are more than ISO changes

I had the privilege today of speaking on behalf of IOSH about the upcoming updates to ISO 45001. But instead of giving a technical recap of clause changes that many in the room had already read, I framed the entire revision as a shopping list, a shopping list of the skills, capabilities and structures we must all start building now.

This is because these ISO 45001 developments are not ‘future clauses’; they are flare signals highlighting the shifts the occupational safety and health (OSH) profession must make if we truly believe in workplaces that are healthy and safe for all.

These aren’t ‘ISO changes’ but real-world realities that are already shaping the safety and health of millions of workers – from formal factories to the vast informal economies of Asia and Africa.

For OSH professionals, this means the next few years are not just about preparing for an updated standard in 2027. They’re about upskilling, re-thinking and future-proofing the profession today. 

This is why I’m here to represent IOSH at APOSHO.

Menopause – the forgotten major workplace health issue

One powerful insight from the APOSHO-39 AGM really stayed with me, courtesy of the retiring APOSHO Secretary General (and future Chair) Bernie Doyle. If we are serious about ‘inclusive workplaces’ then we must start talking openly about menopause and andropause – two transitions that profoundly shape how millions of people experience work every day. 

Menopause directly affects half of the global population (women) and indirectly affects the other 50 per cent (men). Common symptoms include:

• hot flushes, night sweats
• sleep disturbances and fatigue
• difficulty concentrating (‘brain fog’)
• mood swings, anxiety and irritability
• headaches and palpitations.

These aren’t minor. They influence performance, confidence, cognitive load, incident risk and general wellbeing – especially in high-risk or heat intensive work.

Men are often indirectly affected by this – through increased domestic pressures and supporting partners through emotional or physical changes. This can show up at work in the form of fatigue, distraction and higher stress levels.

Men also experience their own transition – andropause. They won’t experience all the same physical symptoms but, as testosterone gradually declines, many men will live with similar lifestyle challenges, all of them highly relevant to how safely and effectively someone performs at work.

Ignoring these transitions will mean missing key reasons for:

• higher levels of absenteeism and presenteeism
• declining performance
• reduced retention
• lower wellbeing.

This is not HR work but core occupational health and safety and we need to normalise these conversations to focus on providing:

• guidance and supportive policies
• manager awareness and training
• reasonable adjustments for fatigue, heat sensitivity and concentration issues
• safe spaces for open conversations.