Page 8 - Climate Control News Magazine July 2021

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ARBS 2022: Call for speakers
PROFESSIONALS IN THE air conditioning, re- frigeration and building services industry are in- vited to submit abstracts for seminars, panels, and workshops to be delivered at ARBS 2022.
The ARBS Seminar Series will run as part of Australia’s most comprehensive HVACR and building services exhibition to be held in Mel- bourne from 27-29 April, 2022.
The ARBS Seminar Series program will deliver industry wide updates and forums focusing on a broad range of topics including best practice, in- novation and emerging technologies.
Topic examples include:
Developments, research, emerging and global trends in HVAC&R including the latest industry innovations;
Net zero strategies, methodologies and tools, low energy HVAC approaches;
Regulatory, compliance, building code transi- tion, registration and industry standard and rat- ing tools;
Energy efficiency, energy security, renewable energy, disruptive technologies;
Refrigeration technology innovations, refrig- erant transition, non-vapour compression tech- nology, global technology and sector outlook;
Data driven transitions, BIM, technological innovations in HVACR;
An ARBS seminar held in Sydney in 2018.
IoT, data analytics, smart buildings, cloud ser- vices, automated fault detection;
Retrofits, emerging tech, user experience, managing occupant behaviour, use of data; privacy, ethics, social responsibility and data security.
The format can be a seminar, case study, panel session or workshop, between 30 and 45 minutes in duration.
Don’t miss the chance to share your expertise with the industry at one of Australia’s most re- spected seminar programs. Speaker submis- sions for the ARBS 2022 Speaker Series close Fri- day, 17 September 2021 at 5pm.
Guidelines and submission forms are availa- ble for download at www.arbs.com.au, or can be emailed by sending a request to seminars@arbs. com.au.
Research into dangers of welding fumes
TO CREATE A better understanding of work- ers’ exposure to welding fumes in Australia, the NSW Government’s Centre for Work Health and Safety is conducting new research.
Together with the University of Sydney and Curtin University, the Centre is focusing on broadening the knowledge of Australian welding industries and occupations, current controls be-
ing used and the effectiveness in risk mitigation. SafeWork director, research and evaluation, Skye Buatava, said it’s important to understand which intervention strategies are effective in re-
ducing exposure to harmful welding fumes. “The long-latency period for occupational can- cers and diseases, can cause a significant chal- lenge to establish a direct connection between welding fume exposure and lung cancer,” she
said.
Lead researcher, Pro-
fessor Tim Driscoll said welding is a cross-indus- try technology and there is limited knowledge about this high-risk ac- tivity and the risk pro- files among welders in Australia.
LEFT: Technician welding copper pipe.
“We want to know who is being exposed to these fumes, and what their levels of exposure are. This information is needed so appropri- ate control measures can be designed that minimise exposures as much as possible,” Driscoll said.
The research is being undertaken in a bid to learn how different workers or industries use personal protective equipment, the equipment’s effectiveness as well as a workers’ understanding of the long-term harm.
A specialised cancer agency of the World Health Organization, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), recently re-clas- sified welding fumes from ‘possibly carcinogenic to humans', to ‘carcinogenic to humans.’
It concluded that there is sufficient evidence in humans supporting that welding fumes cause cancer in the lungs (and a positive association has been observed with cancer of the kidneys).
“The recent reclassification of welding fumes’ carcinogenicity has highlighted the need to bet- ter understand exposure to the fumes in a practi- cal setting in order to protect NSW workers from long-term harm,” Buatava said.
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