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    Heat stress research

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Workplace Health and Safety Leadership

The School of Medical and Health Sciences provides an opportunity for Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) professionals to collaborate on research projects in a wide variety of topics which aim to improve government, industry and organisational OHS performance.  Our research aims to:

  • Respond to State and National priorities
  • Develop innovative processes to assist organisations of all sizes and types to evaluate and manage safety and health risk to an acceptable level
  • Develop our understanding of the impact of occupational hazards which leads to improvements in their management
  • Assist industry and organisations continuously improve their safety and health performance
  • Collaborate with stakeholders to innovate and develop new approaches to complex occupational health and safety issues.

Our research is conducted in association with and in collaboration with several ECU Schools (I.e., Engineering, Centre for Work & Wellbeing, Science), industry and government agencies.

For more information contact Dr Marcus Cattani

Recent projects

  • The role of the WHS Regulator in suicides
  • Using Professor Michael Quinlan 10 Pathways to Death and Disaster to benchmark organisational fatality risk [Safety Science paper]
  • Develop a novel incident investigation process to improve the development of sustainable remedial actions  [Safety Science paper]
  • Provide advice concerning the development of OHS performance in the Australian Commercial Fishing Industry [Frontiers paper]
  • Provide the Water Corporation risk management training and develop a new risk management approach. [Risk management course]
  • Minimisation of adverse incidents through the development of optimal operational leadership risk management skills and competency.
  • Forecasting of injury risk through the analysis of existing safety data and information.
  • Heat related fatalities in active populations, coronial enquiry.

Postgraduate student project opportunities

  • Agriculture and fishing industry safety performance improvement
  • Psychosocial wellbeing
  • Incident investigation techniques
  • Risk Management and Safety Management Systems
  • Organisational culture
  • Analysis of safety datasets

For information about postgraduate student project opportunities, visit the SMHS HDR Students webpage.

Research Team

Adjunct Researchers
  • Adjunct Associate Professor Sue Reed
  • Adjunct Senior Lecturer Martyn Cross
  • Associate Professor Stephanie Mayman (Retired Chair Ministerial Advisory Panel)
  • Associate Professor Simon Ridge (Retired Executive Director of DMIRS)
  • Mr Nathan Winter (Nathan Winter & Associates)
  • Ms Karin Lee (WorkCover WA)
  • Mr David Jenkin (Global Risk Consulting)
  • Mr Sam Whitton (Seyfarth Shaw Australia)

HDR students
  • Anton Fouche, PhD
  • Ben Walsh, PhD
  • Bernie Cameron, PhD
  • Garry Dine, PhD
  • Kim McClean, PhD
  • Kym Bills, PhD
  • Sally-Anne Doherty, PhD
  • Tanya Jenke, PhD
  • Lisa Stevens. PhD

Key publications

Selected publications
  1. Jenke, T., Boylan, J., Beatty, S., Ralph, M., Chaplyn, A., Penney, G., Cattani, M. (2021). Fatality risk management: Applying Quinlan's Ten Pathways in Western Australia’s mining industry. Safety Science, 146(Feb 2022), Article number 105494. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2021.105494
  2. Dine, G., Reed, S. & Oosthuizen, J.(2020). Occupational Health and Safety Issues faced by Environmental Health Officers: A Western Australian perspective. Journal of Environmental Health (under review)
  3. Jenke, T., & Cattani, M. (2020). An investigation of the influence of economic cycles on safety performance in Western Australia. Safety Science (under review).
  4. Penney, G., Habibi, D., & Cattani, M. (2020). The Handbook of Wildfire Engineering. Bushfire & Natural Hazards CRC.
  5. Penney, G., Habibi, D., & Cattani, M. (2020). RUIM – A fire safety engineering model for rural urban interface firefighter taskforce deployment. Fire Safety Journal, 113 doi: 10.1016/j.firesaf.2020.102986
  6. Penney, G., Habibi, D., & Cattani, M. (2020) Analysis of vehicle protection systems and firefighter tenability during entrapment and burnover. Fire Safety Journal, (in press).
  7. Ralph, M., Hinckley, S., & Cattani, M. (2020). Reassessment of radiation exposures of underground non-uranium mine workers in Western Australia. Journal of Radiological Protection (under review).
  8. Ralph, M., Chaplyn, A., & Cattani, M. (2020). A Review of Radiation Doses and Associated Parameters in Western Australia Mining Operations Encountering Naturally Occurring Radioactive Materials (NORM) for 2018-19. Journal of Radiological Protection (under review).
  9. Ralph, M., Tsurikov, N., Cattani, M. (2020). Impacts of Revised Dose Coefficients for the Inhalation of NORM-containing Dusts Encountered in the Western Australian Mining Industry. Journal of Radiological Protection, doi: 10.1088/1361-6498/abb039
  10. McClean, K., Cross, M. & Reed, S. Estimated Financial Impacts of Inaccurate Obese Patient Data recorded by the Western Australian Country Health Service International Journal of Health Economics and Management, (under review).
  11. Maisey, G., Cattani, M., Devine, A., Lo, J. & Dunican, I. Sleep of shiftworkers in a remote mining operation: Methodology for a randomized control trial to determine prevalence and evidence-based interventions. JOURNAL NAME, (under review)
  12. McClean, K., Cross, M. & Reed, S. (2019). Accuracy of Obese Patient Admission Data recorded by the Western Australian Country Health Service: A Pilot Study. Journal of Health Safety and Environment, 35(1), 101-117.
  13. Penney, G., Habibi, D., & Cattani, M. (2019). Firefighter tenability and its influence on wildfire suppression. Fire Safety Journal, 106. DOI:10.1016/j.firesaf.2019.03.012
  14. Penney, G., Habibi, D., Cattani, M., & Carter, M. (2019). Calculation of Critical Water Flow Rates for Wildfire Suppression, Fire, (2). DOI: 10.3390/fire2010003
  15. Ho, G., Reed, S., & Cross, M. (2018). The ‘ups and downs’ of modern mining: Describing the sedentary behaviour of workers in a centralised mining control-room – A pilot study. The Journal of Health, Safety and Environment. 34(2): 159-179
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