Turnall is committed to one of its core values which states, “We will find time to genuinely care, opening our doors to support, encourage and develop our people”.

We aim to totally eliminate injuries by developing and implementing safety systems that are risk based.

Occupational Safety and Health is the science of work related injury and illness prevention, inclusive of such disciplines as, occupational Hygiene, Safety, and medicine by use of such skills as hazard identification risk assessment and risk control

The aim of Industrial hygiene is to eliminate or reduce occupational stressors to levels of insignificance. The main occupational stress factors under monitoring and control at Turnall are;

• fibre dust
• cement dust
• heat and climatic factors
• illumination
• chemicals
• biological hazards like HIV virus
• ergonomic hazards presented by hand moulding

Employees exposed to these stress factors are trained and aware of the potential harm that may arise as a result of excessive exposure to such stressors. They are skilled enough to identify any hazards and suggest preventive or control measures to management starting with engineering controls aimed at eliminating the stressor, isolating the source followed by administrative controls such as reducing the exposure period and the number of people exposed.

Personal Protective Equipment is only used as a last resort or a specific legal or international standard requirement such as requirements resulting from ILO Convention 162 in as far as use of respirators is concerned. There is a provision that chrysotile can be used as long as there is a safe approach and Turnall is putting emphasis on the safe approach to chrysotile.

Hazard identification, risk assessment and risk control

Turnall has established and maintains procedures for the ongoing identification of hazards, the assessment of risks, and the implementation of control measures which include routine and non-routine activities. Consideration has been made for all personnel having access to the workplace including sub contractors and visitors.

The identified hazards and risks have been classified and a number of them have been minimized to insignificant levels such as fibre dust whose average concentrations are around 0.08 fibres/ml compared to the legal limit of 1fibre/ml.
In ranking of the hazards the criteria includes;

• risk posed
• severity
• probability of harm
• magnitude of hazard
• number of people/property exposed and duration of exposure
• consequences

Provision has been made for the monitoring of required actions in terms of their effectiveness and timeliness of implementation. One such program is on medical surveillance.

Medical Surveillance Program

Turnall has developed a comprehensive medical surveillance program which seeks to ensure that the potential impact of occupational health stress factors on employee health are detected at an early stage and managed effectively and immediately.

All employees undergo pre-employment medical examinations at recruitment stage, and periodical medical examinations which include pre- placement medical examinations. Although most organizations would end with periodic medical examinations, Turnall has gone a step further to include exit medical examinations as well as once in two years post employment medical examinations mainly on retired employees although employees who leave through other reasons are also eligible for these free medical examinations.

The aim is to monitor any potential effects of asbestos with time in the post-exposure period due to the long latency period attributed to asbestos.
It is important to note that in the past 91 years since the mines were established, irregardless of lax of controls in the pre-independence time no disease caused by asbestos has been detected in the asbestos industry.

Industrial Hygiene Surveys

The Industrial hygiene surveys also include other stressors like NOx, Sox, and cement dust, but these are monitored once a year by an approved inspection authority to enable Turnall to institute a program for mitigating them.

The fibre treatment area shown below is the only area in the whole manufacturing process where an employee may be able to access raw fibre when he/she cuts the bag open to introduce the fibre into an enclosed treatment plant after which the whole process becomes a wet process. This is one area where both personal and static samples are taken and the result is shown on the graph above.

The fibre treatment plant is equipped with a dust extraction system which prevents the fibre dust from being discharged into the atmosphere as part of the effective engineering controls in place. The dust extraction systems have been installed at all areas where dry cutting of asbestos cement products are involved as shown below;


Other control measures include the wetting of floors in the fibre warehouse to ensure that accidentally spilled fibre from damaged bags rests on a wet floor and does not become airborne.

A procedure to prevent such incidents is however in place as well as to facilitate immediate mending of accidentally damaged bags. See picture below;

Legal and Other Requirements

Turnall has established a procedure for the identification and accessing of all the relevant legal and other requirements such as conventions and best possible industry practices which enables the organization to keep abreast with changing technological and other interventions.

Such requirements are communicated and shared between management and employees to ensure that all parties adhere to them at all times.

Employee involvement and consultation

The OHSAS 18001: 1999 Occupational Health and Safety standard to which Turnall subscribes, stipulates that the organization shall have an OH&S Policy authorized by the organization’s top management.

The company formulated its coherent policy on Occupational Safety, Health and Environmental Health through social dialogue based on the involvement of both management and workers.

Every work station has a Safety and Health representative who coordinates all activities and behaviors meant to uphold a safety culture among his/her peers.
On a monthly basis these representatives meet with top management to review OH&S performance and agree on corrective actions to observed unsafe behaviors.

Rewards

Management and workers have established an incentive scheme based on a reward system that recognizes the achievements made each time the company completes a month without losing a single man shift due to an accident and occupational illness.

This year five months were successfully completed without even a minor accident.

Structure and responsibility

Although the ultimate responsibility for OH & Safety rests with top management, Turnall has implemented the requirements of National legislation as the minimum standard.

Statutory Instrument 68 of 1990 clearly defines the role of the worker, the employer and the worker (Health and Safety) representative in line with ILO guidelines as well.

The Managing Director is responsible for ensuring that the OH&S management system is effectively implemented and performing to requirements in all workstations within Turnall.

He ensures that adequate resources essential to the implementation; control and improvement of the OH&S management system are provided.

All employees are responsible for identifying and reporting on hazards inherent in their workstations and ensuring that these are mitigated against before they can start work.

The employees are empowered by national and company policies to refuse to work under hazardous conditions. This makes hazard identification and mitigation easier to manage as it is within the interest of both management and employees.

Training, awareness and competence

Turnall has developed and is implementing comprehensive operational procedures that take into account differing levels of responsibility, ability, literacy and risk in training their workforce.

Competence is defined in terms of appropriate education, training and or experience.
All employees are expected to be aware of;

• the importance of strict adherence to the OH&S procedures
• the OH&S consequences , actual or potential of their work activities and the OH&S benefits of improved personal performance.
• potential consequences of departure from specified operational procedures

The company has a system of providing up to date information on Occupational Safety and Health through conspicuous posting at all the strategic work areas.

Emergency preparedness and response planning

All potential emergency situations have been identified through the risk assessment process and risks procedure and the ranking criteria.

Fibre spillage during transportation and conveyance on and off site from the factory is one of the emergency situations that were identified.

A competent and fully equipped reaction team has been trained and is always on stand by to handle such situations with a view to minimize exposure of the general public to asbestos fibre.

An emergency directory is displayed on all notice boards in the plant and is also available to our transporters for quick reaction in the event of an accident.

The asbestos mines also have established similar teams including proto emergency response teams for the same purpose.

Waste Disposal

Asbestos cement waste is disposed of at designated hazardous waste dumps under the control and management of Turnall and Local authority personnel.

It is transported in a moist state to suppress any airborne emission by a clearly marked and purpose designed tractor owned by Turnall.

The refuse removal tractor is covered with a tent to avoid spillages along the way as well as direct exposure to the atmosphere.
Audit

Turnall conducts quarterly audits as a way of verifying compliance of the documented system to the requirements of the standard.

Internal audits are carried out in the first and third quarters while external audits by the South African Bureau of Standards (SABS certification) are conducted during the second and fourth quarters.

The result is a very thorough checking and corrective mechanism which results in a world class Occupational Health and Safety Management System.

Management Reviews

The Turnall Directors have established a system for the frequent review of the adequacy, continued suitability and effectiveness of the OHS management system as well as the Quality and Environmental management systems at least twice a year and recommend the positive way forward.