Features | Health and Safety

Health and Safety

Water Affairs' focus to fall on sanitation

5th May 2004 Newly-appointed Water Affairs and Forestry Minister Buyelwa Sonjica looks set to focus on the same targets her predecessor was aiming at before President Thabo Mbeki's new Cabinet was announced last week. →

Iris-recognition security solution finding local acceptance

By: Helene Le Roux 30th April 2004 Technology that can tell one apart from all the other people on the planet with one glance is becoming readily available locally. ?In what is believed to be the largest installation of its kind in the country, local secure business →

CSI implemented at Durban port

By: elizabeth rebelo 30th April 2004 The Port of Durban is the first African port to have implemented the Container Security Initiative (CSI) – a US antiterrorism initiative designed to secure cargo containers. →

Workers call for workplace safety

28th April 2004 Today is World Day for Safety & Health at Work and International Commemoration Day for Dead and Injured Workers, which are intended to focus international attention on promoting and creating a safety and health culture at work and to help reduce the number of occupational-related fatalities,... →

The economics of cleaner production proved in fish industry

By: Jill Stanford 23rd April 2004 Participants in the Cleaner Production in the South African Fishing Industry project have reduced their environmental impact by notching up significant savings in water and energy consumption and effluent outflow. →

Jasco confident of return to profitability

By: Martin Czernowalow 21st April 2004 Diversified South African group Jasco Electronics Holdings yesterday reported ‘disappointing’ financial results for the year ended February 29, but said it has implemented a number of key strategies that will provide an improved financial and operational base to take the business... →

S Africans challenged to design safer paraffin stove

20th April 2004 The Paraffin Safety Association and Proudly South African have joined forces to challenge South Africans to design a safer paraffin stove. →

How rural growth is being bolstered

By: Martin Creamer 16th April 2004 A three-pronged five-year European Union (EU)-funded developmental project is under way in Kwazulu-Natal (KZN), Engineering News can today report. →

Company’s Aids-awareness drive

16th April 2004 Kwazulu-Natal-based Rohm and Haas South Africa has embarked on an Aids-awareness campaign, helping to deal with the pandemic through active education programmes, Rohm and Haas MD Forbes Merrigan reports. →

Cape Town’s killer fires: it’s time for more govt action

By: katharine mckenzie 9th April 2004 Parts of Cape Town are reeling as the annual fire season takes its toll on the City’s poorest residents. →

Spoornet to address noise levels in locomotives

8th April 2004 South African rail utility Spoornet has noted concerns raised by the United Transport and Allied Trade Union (Utatu), regarding the noise levels in train locomotives. →

US invests R19m in SA's health education channel

5th April 2004 The US government announced on Friday that it is investing R19-million ($3-million) towards expanding South Africa's public health education channel. →

Mauritius: the island of (electricity) dreams

By: Terry Mackenzie-hoy 2nd April 2004 The other day at the supermarket and there was an appeal notice and trolley for food for the people who had been rendered homeless by a fire in an informal settlement. So I thought I would find out why fires start in informal settlements to begin with. →

Health and safety demands may lead to outsourcing

26th March 2004 Occupational health, safety and environment outsourced solutions provider WorkMed has a rigorous research and development programme. →

Resin manufacturer to implement maintenance and Sheq solution

26th March 2004 French-based multinational resins manufacturing giant and member of the Atofina group, Cray Valley, is to implement the Aurora plant-maintenance solution from ApplyIT at its South African operation in Durban, Kwazulu-Natal, to complement the enterprise resource planning (ERP) system through which... →

Joint venture in mine support

By: ongezwa manyathi 26th March 2004 The black economically empowered DCD-Dorbyl is a significant supplier of mine support products as a result of its joint venture (JV) with steel tube manufacturing company Robor, the Barloworld subsidiary. →

Tyre sensor improves driver safety

By: Karel Smrcka 26th March 2004 You break on a wet highway or, even worse, on black ice – friction is almost zero and your car goes into a skid. And this is a scenario, which will be avoided in future. →

World Bank focuses on infrastructure to alleviate poverty in Africa

By: Martin Zhuwakinyu 26th March 2004 Good governance, economic competitiveness and investing in people have become the main issues determining where the World Bank directs its development assistance. →

R200m security revamp for SA’s seven ports

By: Irma Venter 26th March 2004 The National Ports Authority (NPA) is currently in the midst of a R200-million drive to upgrade security at South Africa’s seven ports. →

Encoder is suitable for mining industry

By: elizabeth rebelo 19th March 2004 A new generation of Hengstler absolute encoders offers industry a viable, future-oriented solution for industrial-control engineering and integrated motor feedback applications. →

Athens sports 250m Olympic security plan

By: Laura Franz 19th March 2004 The prime concern with hosting the first Olympics, the world’s biggest sporting event, post September 11, is to ensure a safe environment for athletes, spectators and journalists, reported Athens 2004 MD Ionannis Spanudakis last month at a Siemens global opinion leader conference held in... →

African skies remain perilous

By: Keith Campbell 12th March 2004 AFRICA remains a cause for concern in the sphere of civil aviation safety.The region remains the most unsafe continent for the sector. →

Biometric security fence at school

12th March 2004 Africa’s schools have begun adopting high-security biometric protection against criminals.?Nursery and pre-schools are seen as soft targets by criminals and to protect them a Johannesburg team of information technology (IT) experts has developed a special biometric access and management... →

Boiler explosion leads to prosecution of two senior State officials

By: Irma Venter 5th March 2004 The directors-general of the Departments of Correctional Services and Public Works and Mashangu Maselesele, a former Mpumalanga provincial district manager with the Department of Public Works, are being prosecuted for the Barberton boiler explosion incident. →

Safer paraffin solution available

By: Zonika Botha 20th February 2004 Unsafe paraffin stoves reportedly account for close to 4 000 deaths in South Africa each year. →

SAPS awards R500m radio-network contract

20th February 2004 The South African Police Service has awarded Altech subsidiary, Alcom Systems, a contract for the supply, delivery, installation, commissioning and testing of a complete digital terrestrial trunked radio (Tetra) communications network system for Gauteng. →

SA to call for tenders for Aids drugs

10th February 2004 South Africa will invite tenders on Friday from pharmaceutical companies providing antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) to combat HIV/Aids, as criticism grows over delays in the rollout of the programme. →

Business confidence hits plateau due to inflation drop

By: laurian clemence 6th February 2004 The South African Chamber of Business (Sacob) reported yesterday that its January business confidence index (BCI) decreased slightly from 122,4, in December 2003, to 122,3. →

Aids begins to take toll on manufacturing sector

4th February 2004 A survey of manufacturers in Kwazulu-Natal and Gauteng shows that these companies are already being confronted by the dire consequences of HIV/Aids. →

Biometrics at the crossroads

By: Karel Smrcka 23rd January 2004 When you think of biometrics – using a person’s unique, physical or behavioral characteristics for identification – it is hard not to conjure images from spy thrillers and science fiction. →

Microelectronics miracle: a prosthesis that restores vision

By: Karel Smrcka 16th January 2004 Millions of people have suffered a loss of eyesight due to degenerative retinal diseases. Researchers are developing an electronic sight prosthesis that provides some hope that people suffering from these diseases may one day regain partial sight. →

Sappi’s Enstra mill receives safety award

15th January 2004 South African coated fine paper producer Sappi’s Enstra mill, in Springs, has this week won the group’s 2003 Southern Africa Award for Safety Achievement, as a result of its strong focus on an all-inclusive safety planning and management strategy. →

First Word

By: Jill Stanford 12th December 2003 WORKING as a journalist I meet an array of colourful characters; most are friendly, some flamboyant, others just so; some are humble, others arrogant; some could talk the hind leg off a donkey and others make extracting a limpet off a rock seem like a walk in the park. →

Durban officials help extend US security zone

By: tom robbins 12th December 2003 Locally-based US customs officials are checking US-bound containers in Durban’s port for weapons of mass destruction, avoiding the need for officials in the US to screen them. →

Aids already affecting SA business – survey

By: Martin Czernowalow 11th December 2003 A survey conducted by the Bureau of Economic Research found that South African businesses are already being confronted by the effects of HIV/Aids, highlighting a need to speed up the sector’s response to the pandemic. →

Two ARV makers allow generic production in SA

11th December 2003 South Africa moved a step closer to bringing desperately needed Aids treatment to millions of its poor yesterday, after two drug giants said they would allow more cheap generic versions of patented drugs to be made. →

Tracking down food bugs by their fingerprints

By: Karel Smrcka 5th December 2003 In the future, microbes that contaminate food will be ‘fingerprinted’ as part of a novel way of curbing their antisocial behaviour. →