LONE WORKER - Safety for Isolated Workers

A major concern for all industries is the health and safety of their most valuable asset, people, and for staff working in isolated environments the risk is greater than most. Convair Engineering were looking for a solution to monitor the safety of workers that were isolated and in an extremely noisy environment. The answer was to utilise the Lone Worker function in the Icom IC-F60V portable radio together with ear-bone microphones to counter the high level of noise of the work location.

The Lone Worker function is basically a reminder facility, if the radio is not operated for a preset period (1 to 255 min), then an audible beep is heard which requires the isolated worker to push a nominated button. If this button is not pressed during a preset time, an emergency signal automatically transmits to inform others nearby that something may have happened to the individual worker.

The industrial use ear-bone microphones have no external microphone, which means there are fewer loose items to present a safety hazard and transmission of background noise is minimized from the voice audio being sensed via vibrations through the ear canal rather than through the normal environment with its other noise sources.

Ken Blythe from Convair Engineering said that the implementation of two way radios and Lone Worker has not only made their workplace much safer, it has also increased productivity due to the co-workers not having to physically check in or be on stand by for the isolated worker, thus freeing up their time to undertake other tasks.

Ian Miller – AA Radio