NZOHS Meeting

The first meeting for 2012 is to be held on 1 March at the Department of Labour offices, 280 Queen Street, Auckland.

NZOHS December 2011 Newsletter

Find out about the AIOH Conference 2011, and forthcoming news and events related to occupational hygiene in New Zealand here

NZOHS Submission - Occupational Health Action Plan

The members of NZOHS have done a group submission on the Department of Labour 'Workplace Health and Safety Strategy for NZ - Occupational Health Action Plan 2011-13'. The full submission can be viewed here

Members' meeting minutes and key points - October 2011

A members' meeting of the NZOHS was held at the OHSIG Conference in Wellington on 27 October 2011. The minutes of the meeting can be downloaded here.

Two documents of interest to members will be:

1. Workplace Health and Safety Strategy for NZ – Occupational Health Action Plan 2011-13
This plan was drafted in response to the 2009 review of the Workplace Health and Safety Strategy for New Zealand to 2015 which identified the need for a stronger focus on occupational health as a priority issue. The department is seeking feedback until 5pm on Friday 18 November 2011 on the plan.

Two keys things of note are:

3.5 Professionalising the occupational hygiene sector; and
3.8 The 2012-13 Harm Reduction project on exposures to occupational health hazards.

Please see the website to review the plan.

2. The Workplace Health and Safety Strategy for New Zealand to 2015 lists 'developing capability’ as one of its action areas. This includes ‘strengthening the competency framework for health and safety professionals, and developing a code of ethics for health and safety professionals’. The NZOHS is looking at the IOHA ethics guidelines to consider applying them to our society, and the work we are doing around training, mentoring and affiliations works in with the strategy.

New Zealand Department of Labour Workplace Exposure Standards & Biological Exposure Indices - new edition

The 6th Edition of the WES and BEI has been published by the Department of Labour and is effective from July 2011. Click here for further information.