Occupational safety and health is the discipline concerned with protecting the safety, health and welfare of employees, organisations, and others affected by the work they undertake (such as customers, suppliers, and members of the public).

The primary, and arguably most prominent reason for occupational safety and health (OSH) standards are moral - an employee should not have to expect that by coming to work they are risking life or limb, and nor should others affected by their undertaking.

OSH standards are, generally speaking, further reinforced in both civil law and criminal law; it is accepted that without the extra "encouragement" of potential litigation, many organisations would not act upon their implied moral obligations.

More on [ Occupational safety and health ]

New Zealand Herald - Health

Measles outbreak in Christchurch
newsfeeds@nzherald.co.nz Sat, 04 Jul 2009 10:00:34 +1200
Health officials are working to contain a measles outbreak in Christchurch. Four teenagers at Christchurch Boys' High School have caught the potentially lethal infection, with a fifth case suspected. The boys are all in isolation...
Foreign-trained medics badly treated, says report
newsfeeds@nzherald.co.nz Sat, 04 Jul 2009 04:00:00 +1200
The Medical Council has been hit with high-level criticism of the "unreasonable" way it treats some foreign-trained doctors. The Health Ministry-appointed Senior Medical Officers Commission considers foreign-trained doctors to...
NZ limit 'is not needed' for drug
newsfeeds@nzherald.co.nz Sat, 04 Jul 2009 04:00:00 +1200
Restrictions on the use of the widely-used painkiller paracetamol are not necessary in New Zealand, says an industry association covering non-prescription healthcare products. Concerns in the United States about possible liver...
Bioactives become serious business
newsfeeds@nzherald.co.nz Sat, 04 Jul 2009 04:00:00 +1200
"Your joints are very dry," tut-tutted the osteopath. "You should be taking glucosamine and chondroitin." Until that day I had regarded health supplements as little better than expensive snake oil. But I had made an emergency dash...
Can daily sex help fertility? Conceivably
newsfeeds@nzherald.co.nz Sat, 04 Jul 2009 04:00:00 +1200
For men with fertility problems, some doctors are prescribing a very conventional way to have a baby: more sex. In a study of 118 Australian men with damaged sperm, doctors found that patients having sex every day for a week significantly...
Biotech company opens unit to breed pigs for human transplants
newsfeeds@nzherald.co.nz Fri, 03 Jul 2009 09:44:24 +1200
Biotech entrepreneur Living Cell Technologies (LCT) has opened its first dedicated quarantine pig farm to breed piglets to be slaughtered for tissue to be grafted into humans. The first $2.5 million unit will house 50 pigs - and...
Health alert on popular painkiller
newsfeeds@nzherald.co.nz Fri, 03 Jul 2009 04:00:00 +1200
Use of New Zealand's most widely taken painkiller, paracetamol, is being reviewed because of concerns in the United States about side-effects that include liver damage. Three advisory committees have advised the US Food and Drug...
Southern workers enticed north to staff new Auckland labs
newsfeeds@nzherald.co.nz Fri, 03 Jul 2009 04:00:00 +1200
Workers at sister laboratories of Auckland's new Labtests company have been asked to help out in its countdown to taking over the region's community pathology service. Labtests will progressively take over the taxpayer-funded community...
Labtests to operate 25 fewer blood collection centres
newsfeeds@nzherald.co.nz Fri, 03 Jul 2009 04:00:00 +1200
Labtests has revealed the locations of its 56 collection centres, where patients' blood samples will be taken and other specimens will be collected. The new network has 25 fewer than the 81 collection centres now run by Diagnostic...

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