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Risk Analysis and Risk reduction

Thu, 24 July 2008, 10:10 am
Don Allen42 posts in thread
How many risks are you aware of when working in a theatre or even being in a theatre onstage or backstage. Electrocution Cuts Broken Bones Eye damage Hearing damage Community theatres have a responsability under the WA Occupational Safety and Health Act 1984 and WA OSH Regulations 1996 to provide a safe working environment. There may also be additional responsabilities imposed by local councils. As an individual you have the same responsabilities. These following links will provide usefull and productive information: Why productive ? if you maintain your venue and its equipment to a safe standard, you greatly reduce the setup times for shows and remove a lot of the glitches that may affect a performance. I did not use the work "accident" as I do not beleieve there is such a thing as an accident, anything that goes wrong is as a direct result of someone being incompetent or using unsafe work practices.! WA Occupational Safety and Health Act 1984 http://www.slp.wa.gov.au/pco/prod/FileStore.nsf/Documents/MRDocument:7379P/$FILE/OccupSftyAndHealthAct1984_05-g0-00.pdf?OpenElement WA OSH Regulations 1996 http://www.slp.wa.gov.au/pco/prod/FileStore.nsf/Documents/MRDocument:7552P/$FILE/OccupSftyAndHealthRegs1996_06-b0-00.pdf?OpenElement Risk Assessment (UK) http://www.hse.gov.uk/risk/fivesteps.htm The backsateg Information Guide - Bath University http://people.bath.ac.uk/su2bc/infoguides/index.shtml ABTT Theatre Essentials http://www.abtt.org.uk/PDFs/Theatre_Essentials.pdf Guidelines on the Application of the Health (Public Buildings) Regulations 1992 http://www.population.health.wa.gov.au/environmental/resources/Public%20Buildings%20Guidelines%20Final.pdf Safety Guidelines For The Entertainment Industry (Australian) http://www.entservices.com.au/pdfs/theatrereqs/AustnEntertainmentIndustrySafetyGuidelines.pdf In the absence of any formal training for amateur theatre technicians, then self education is the way to go. I suggest you download any of these documents that allow you to, as it is an excellent start to a library and sometimes web resources tend to dissappear. I always notify actors who walk under ladders when someone is working above them, that it would be a pity to waste all of their rehearsal time, only to miss out on performing because they have been injured during a tech rehearsal, so keep clear and be aware of their surroundings.

Dear old Aunty ITA

Fri, 1 Aug 2008, 04:29 pm

    Pardon me for raining on various parades, but "Dear Old Aunty ITA" is very limited as far as her committee goes and definitely has very limited spare resources at her disposal (if any). Whilst I can fully appreciate the need for various log books, manuals, text references and other DHS manuscripts, I am also very aware that the ITA do not have the funds to cover the expenditure of purchasing these and supplying them to the our member clubs. Obviously, the outlay would be horrendous, especially with the rules changing all the time and the reference manuals constantly needing to be upgraded.

    This is why it has always been left to the individual clubs to monitor their own Safety Awareness Systems and basically control their own destinies.

   Perhaps we could approach either DOHSWA or the Arts wing of the State Government and request that they provide X amount of copies of (for instance) the AS-3000 Electricians"rule book" gratis to be supplied to the TAP group and the various liscenced Elec-Tech's around the traps as part of the Governments so called "Art's Initiative"?

    Mind you... I don't fancy our chances....

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