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Occupational and Community Health

Refer to the following sections for details on our key sustainability challenge of occupational and community health:

• Our Challenge
• Our Drivers
• Our Approach
• Our 2006 Priorities
• Our 2006 Performance
• Our Goals

Our Challenge

To ensure that our health programs are supporting our endeavours towards our goal of Zero Harm by recognising and influencing those factors that impact our employees, their families and our host communities.

Our Drivers

The effective management of the health of our employees, contractors and communities is integral to:

• maintaining operational performance and efficiency by having a workforce that is able to work productively
• continuing to attract and retain a workforce by establishing a reputation for a healthy workplace where the broader health needs of employees are also considered
• continuing to gain access to resources through improved capacity to work in areas where there are health risks, and demonstrating that this capacity contributes more broadly to the improved health of the communities where we operate.

Our Approach

The Company seeks to address the challenge of occupational and community health by applying a holistic approach to the management of health, targeting health impacts at work, at home and in the broader community.

Our health program is based on:

• continuing to develop, and refine standardised procedures for managing and reducing occupational exposure levels, and for measuring and reporting exposures
• Promoting an environment that contributes to our employees being both fit for work and fit for life, in recognition that many health issues overlap with the community and impact our ability to contribute to sustainable development
• Focusing our community health endeavours towards the prevention and treatment of three major communicable diseases that may impact many of our operations; namely HIV/AIDs, tuberculosis and malaria
• Supporting activities that extend health benefits beyond the communities in which we operate, including funding various medical research programs.

Read more: Health>Our Approach.

Our 2006 Priorities

In 2006, the scope of this sustainability challenge was broadened to place greater emphasis on fatigue management. Other key areas of focus were:

• consolidating health significant incident data into the Company-wide Significant Incident Reporting System to improve the analysis of, and learnings from, significant incidents
• appointing a Global Practice Leader for the Fit for Work/Fit for Life Program, supported by an active Community of Practice and associated regional and site-based workshops
• initating a Medical Assessment Project to facilitate the development of a set of Company-wide guidelines
• rolling out the Diesel Particulate initiative to all current underground mining operations, and initating projects to reduce acid mist and nickel exposure
• establishing a Noise Community of Practice
• developing documentation (by our Pandemic Working Group) to assist our businesses in crisis and emergency response procedures
• taking a lead role in the development of a new HIV / AIDs immune therapy to be trialled in South Africa.

Our 2006 Performance

Targets	2005/06 Performance Against Target
Legal Compliance Zero fines and prosecutions1		Seven fines greater than US$1,000. Total fines paid US$479,809 (FY05: US$20,836)2
Risk Management All sites to undertake annual self-assessments against the BHP Billiton HSEC Management Standards3 and have plans to achieve conformance with the Standards by 30 June 2008		94 per cent of required self-assessments were completed at operating sites (FY05: 100 per cent)
		An overall conformance of 3.9 out of 5 has been achieved, compared to our conformance target of greater than 4 (FY05: 3.9 out of 5)
Risk registers to be in place and maintained at all sites4 and within BHP Billiton businesses and Corporate offices		Risk registers are in place at 99 per cent of required sites, businesses and Corporate offices (FY05: 100%)
Health All sites4 to implement a baseline survey on occupational exposure hazards and establish occupational hygiene monitoring and health surveillance programs		100 per cent of required sites have implemented baseline surveys (FY05: 100%)
Annual reduction in exposures above occupational exposure limits, expressed as a percentage of people of the workforce		Potential occupational exposure to Noise, if not for the use of personal protective equipment (PPE), reduced by 6 per cent from 2004/05, and reduced by 4 per cent compared to the baseline year of 2002/03 (FY05: 2% increase)
		During the year Other exposures, if not for the use of PPE, reduced by 10 per cent, and reduced by 5 per cent compared to the baseline year 2003/04 (FY05: 5% increase)
20 per cent reduction in incidence of occupational disease by 30 June 2007		During the year the incidence of occupational illness reduced by 10 per cent, resulting in an overall reduction of 46 per cent against the baseline 2002/03 (FY05: 36% reduction)

Performance change since last reporting period:		Overall performance against target:
	Target exceeded or ahead of schedule		Performance tracking steadily
	Target achieved (≥ 95%) or on track		Performance has improved
	Target behind schedule		Performance has declined
	Target not achieved

1. Fines reported may relate to incidents that occurred in previous years.
2. Prosecutions included are those that have been determined during the year and resulted in fines. They may relate to incidents that occurred in previous years. The only exception is a safety fine, which was received in the 2005 reporting period but was not reported last year as it was being held in trust pending appeal. The fine became payable in the 2006 reporting period.
3. Issue 3 of the BHP Billiton HSEC Management Standards was introduced in
   September 2005.
4. Includes 59 sites in total, excludes exploration and development projects,
   sites being divested, closed sites, and offices. Also excludes recent acquisitions e.g. WMC, which have two years to achieve compliance with target.

Read more:

• Health>Our Performance for a full description of health performance in 2005/06
• Targets Scorecard for a review of performance against Company-wide targets.

Our Goals

• Continue to implement our stringent Exposure Standards,
• Increase our focus on fatigue management, use of personal protective equipment and monitoring occupational illness,
• Work with other organisations to conduct a HIV/AIDS immunotherapy trial
• Further develop our preparedness to respond in the event that avian flu affects our communities.