Atlantic Alliance Conference

THE third Atlantic Alliance Conference on health and safety issues relating to the extractive industries took place at the Ballymascanlon Hotel, near Dundalk, Co. Louth, from 20–21 June. The ‘Atlantic Alliance’ was established in 2004 to share best practice in health and safety in the quarrying industry between the US, the UK and Germany; other countries represented this year included Ireland and Australia.

Hosted jointly by the Health and Safety Authority (HAS) of the Republic of Ireland and the Health & Safety Executive of Northern Ireland (HSENI), the 2006 programme included sessions on: the state of the industry, occupational health issues, safety and health innovation and support for SMEs.

A total of 27 contributions were given by speakers representing regulators, industry, trade associations and consultants. These included a presentation by Caterpillar on their new F-series rigid dumptrucks, which highlighted new safety features that have been designed into the vehicles to reduce accidents associated with access and egress from the cab.

This issue was discussed at The Institute of Quarrying’s annual conference in 2004 and has since been progressed by a special QNJAC working group. It can be concluded, therefore, that efforts on both sides of the Atlantic aimed at lobbying major manufacturers to design out safety problems, as far as is possible, have borne some fruit.