In the stope
Cas Badenhorst and Charles Mbekeni: moving health to zero harm
The concept of zero harm should apply not only to safety, but health issues as well, Cas Badenhorst and Charles Mbekeni tell Leon Louw.
Anglo American has adopted the concept of‘ Total Health’— what exactly does that mean? Has there been significant changes over the years in the way Anglo American approaches the issue of health in the workplace?
Cas Badenhorst( CB): Every day, we strive to prevent harm and to influence the health and well-being of our employees positively. Our approach is an integrated one: to manage workplace and personal health risks in a way that is globally consistent, yet locally relevant. Our primary goal is to prevent new cases of occupational diseases due to exposure to health hazards at Anglo American. We ensure that every employee’ s health is recorded when joining the company and we monitor and detect risk factors throughout the duration of their employment. For us, every single employee matters.
In the past, the focus has primarily been on occupational health. However, health in the workplace cannot be separated from the broader health issues within our communities and non-occupational factors that could also contribute to occupational harm. These factors include smoking, environmental air pollution, high cholesterol levels, HIV status, and TB, just to mention a few. Causes of occupational disease are often multifactorial and these causes will combine multiplicatively. Companies such as Anglo American need to have a holistic approach to health(‘ Total Health’), which considers not only workers’ health in the physical workplace environment, but also non-occupational factors.
Our health strategy is based on four pillars: the occupational hygiene pillar
( that looks at workplace exposure and controls); the occupational medicine pillar( which is concerned with the maintenance of health in the workplace); the health and wellness pillar, and the community health pillar( that looks at how we can contribute to healthy communities).
Effective management of occupational health risks not only protects our people, but it also enhances productivity and helps maintain our license to operate and our global reputation. Our occupational hygiene pillar has an unrelenting focus on zero harm by reducing employees’ exposure to inhalable hazards, carcinogens, and noise. Our approach to occupational hygiene is focused on implementing and managing controls to manage risks, specifically keeping dust and noise levels as low as possible, while programmes of personal exposure assessment, real-time workplace environment monitoring, and medical surveillance support the focus on control management.
Anglo American has several wellness programmes to influence non-occupational factors positively. These include exercise programmes to promote physical activity, weight reduction and healthy nutrition programmes, as well as employee assistance programmes to help individuals to cope with social, mental, financial, and legal situations.
Charles Mbekeni( CM): In the South African context, the scope of workplace health programmes has to take into cognisance the quadruple burden of disease. The interplay between occupational and non-occupational risk factors necessitates a comprehensive approach to health risk management. By implementing cornerstone health programmes that cover occupational health( hygiene and medicine), health promotion, wellness screening, functional assessment, mental health, and trauma and emergency care, the company seeks to integrate fitness assessment, surveillance, and public health interventions. The spectrum of health programmes covers prevention, care, and rehabilitation.
As an example, the reduction or elimination of exposure to airborne pollutants is implemented in conjunction with anti-smoking campaigns; screening for TB, HIV, diabetes, and other chronic conditions; roll-out of isoniazid prophylaxis; and seamless referral to care programmes.
To achieve a step change in health performance, the company has adopted the 90:90:90 targets for HIV, and the first two 90s form part of the key performance indicators at a site, business unit, and group level. For 2017, we achieved 83 % know your status and 84 % of known HIV-positive employees on antiretroviral therapy. Some of the business units have achieved over 70 % roll-out of isoniazid prophylaxis. We continue to witness a consistent reduction in TB incidence.
Healthy employees working in a safe and enabling environment are generally motivated and productive. For such an environment to occur, requires collaboration with line management, union structures, and other support functions, such as safety, environment, and human resources. The work on predictive safety risk analysis shows that absenteeism, staff turnover, human factors, and other parameters can be used as early indicators or warning
[ 26 ] MINING MIRROR AUGUST 2018