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ELEMENT 1

The scope and nature of occupational health and safety


The study of health and safety involves the study of many subjects including
sciences (chemistry, physics and biology) engineering, psychology, sociology and
the law.
Define health, safety, welfare, hazard. . . . . . . . . . .
Definitions are:
1. Health The absence of disease, for example asbestos creates a health risk
because if you inhale asbestos dust you may contract lung cancer.
2. Safety The absence of risk of serious personal injury for example walking
under a load suspended from a crane during a lifting operation is not safe
because if load falls serious personnel injuries or death could result. Staying
out of danger area results safety.
3. Welfare Access to basic facilities, Such as toilet facility, hand wash
station, changing rooms, rest places and where food can be prepared and
eaten in hygienic conditions, drinking water and first aid provision.
4. Accident An unplanned, unwanted event which leads to injury or loss, for
example a worker on the ground is struck on head and killed by a brick
dropped by another worker 5 meter high from scaffold or a lorry driver
misjudge and hit his lorry with road side barriers. In both examples the act
are not carried out deliberately. Any deliberately attempt to cause injury
or loss will not call accident.
5. Near miss an unplanned, unwanted event that had the potential to lead to
injury(but did not in fact do so) for example a worker drops a brick form 5
meter high scaffold and it narrowly misses another worker standing on the
ground. No injury result and brick not even broken. The only thing that
separates accident and near misses is OUTCOME of the event. Accident
causes loss and near miss does not.
6. Hazard Something with the potential to cause harm. For example a lorry
moving around a site road is a hazard because it might run over a worker.
Hazard can be classified as:
1. Physical Things which cause harm because of their physical
characteristics e.g. electricity, work at height, radiation, vibration, noise,
heat, trip hazards.

2. Chemical Things which can cause harm because of their chemical


characteristics e.g. lead mercury, sulphuric acid, cement dust etc.
3. Biological Living microorganism that cause disease and ill health e.g.
hepatitis B virus, legionella bacteria.
4. Ergonomic Stress and strain put on the body through posture and
movement e.g. frequent repetitive handling of small boxes.
5. Psychological things that have the potential to cause injury to the mind
rather than the body e.g. exposure to highly traumatic event.
7. Risk The likelihood that hazards will cause harm in combination with the
severity of Injury, damage or loss that might occur for example an electrical
flex trailing across a busy corridor in a hospital creates a risk. The degree
of risk can be described as high or medium depending on how likely person
might trip over that trailing flex and how badly they might be injured.
8. Dangerous occurrence- A specified event that has to be reported to
relevant authority by statute law, even if the event did not lead to fatality
or major injury of a worker. For example the failure of the load bearing
parts of a crane is a dangerous occurrence even no person hat be injured.
This is reportable event.
9. Environmental Protection: The prevention for damage to the air, land and
water.
10. Work related ill health Diseases or medical conditions caused by a persons work.
For example dermatitis is a disease of the skin often caused by work activities
especially when the handling of solvents detergents involved.
11. Commuting accident an accident to a worker that occurs when they are
travelling to or from:
1. Their work place
2. The place where they take a meal during working hours
3. Place where they collect their pay.
In order to understand health and safety issue you need to familiar with
following things,

The technical background to the issue and have relevant knowledge.

The standards that may apply to the workplace

The possible strengths and weaknesses of the various options that is


available to solve the problem.

Why might the management of an organization not consider health and safety
to be a priority?
The barriers to good standards of health and safety in work place are:
1. Complexity
2. Conflicting demands
3. Behavioral issues
Complexity: Workplace can be complicated. Many people involve in many different
work activities need coordination.
Conflicting demands: a common conflict of interest is that between the need to
supply a product or a service at an appropriate speed so as to make a profit, and
need to do so safely and without risk of people.
Behavioral issues:
Good health and safety practice often relies on the perfect behavior of peoples
but sometime they do not behave in ideal way. For example a worker on
construction site should wear hard hats to protect form falling object but people
sometime deliberately do not wear hard hats.
Moral Social and Economic Reason for Health and Safety
Outline the Reasons why an organization should manage health and safety?
There are following main 3 reasons why an organization has to manage health and
safety
Moral, Social & Economic
1. Moral This about moral duty that one person has to another. Many people
killed, injured by other people work which is morally unacceptable.
2. Social (legal) Reason related to framework of law that governs the conduct
of business and organization. The legal responsibility for health and safety
at work rests on primarily on the employer. The employer has duty to provide
the following.

Safe Place of Work.


Safe Plant and Equipment.

Safe System of Work.

Training, Supervision and Competency of Staff.

3. Economic Accident and ill health cost money. When an accident occurs there will
be direct and indirect costs associated the event. Some of these losses can be
Insured against many of them will be uninsured. When an accident occurs there are
two types of losses that the organization may face Direct Costs &Indirect Costs
Outline the direct & indirect costs that might arise from a workplace
accident?
The business case for health and safety
The business case of health and safety is simply that accident and ill health cost
money. When an accident occurs there will be direct and indirect cost associated
with event.
Direct Costs: The measureable costs arising directly from the accident, for
example first aid treatment, worker sick pay, repairs to or replacement of
damaged equipment, fines in the criminal courts
Indirect Costs: Those costs which are indirectly as a consequences, for
example loss of staff from productive duties in order to investigate the
incident, prepare reports, deal with relatives attend court proceeding, loss
of staff morale, loss of goodwill of customers and damage to public and
industrial image.

Uninsured Costs:
It has been estimated that uninsured losses are between eight and 36 times
greater than insured losses. Some examples of uninsured losses
Loss of raw materials due to accident.
Sick pay for injured workers.
Overtime to make up for lost production
Repair to damaged equipment.
The roles of national governments and international bodies:
The international labor organization (ILO) has set out convention C155 and
Recommendation R164which apply to workplace health and safety standards.
Most countries and regions have established legal standards that meet or
exceed the minimum standards set out in C155 and R164.

The international framework: In 1981 the ILO adopted the occupational safety and
health convention C155. This describes basic policy for health and safety at
national and individual undertaking level. The occupational safety and health
recommendation 1981 R-164 supplements C155 and provided more details that how
to comply with policies of C155.
Outline the legal duties that an employer has to comply with?
Employers Responsibilities
1. To ensure that the workplace, machinery, equipment and processes under
their control are safe and without risk to health.
2. To ensure that the chemical, physical and biological substances and agents
under their control are without risk to health.
3. To provide adequate protective clothing and protective equipment to prevent
risk of accident or adverse effects on health.
4. to provide appropriate instruction and training
5. to provide necessary supervision
6. to ensure that the hours of work doo not adversely affect employees health
7. to remove any physical and mental fatigue
Outline the legal duties that a worker has to comply with?
Workers Responsibilities and rights
Article 19 of c155 states that all worker and their representatives have to
cooperate with their employers so that he can fulfill his safety obligations
R164 says that worker should:
1. Take reasonable care of their own safety and that of other people who
might be affected by the things that they do and the things that they fail
to do.
2. Comply with safety instructions and procedures.
3. Use all safety equipment properly and not tamper with it.
4. Report any situation which they believe could be hazard and which they
cannot themselves correct
5. Report any work related accident of ill health.
In addition to the basic right to safe workplace article 19 of c155 gives
workers the following rights.

1. The right to be provided with adequate information on actions the employer


has to taken to ensure occupational safety and health.
2. The right to the necessary training in occupational safety and health
3. The right to be consulted by the employer on all matters of occupational safety
and health relating to their work.
4. The right to leave a workplace which he has reason to think presents an
imminent and serious danger to his life of health and not be compelled to
return until it is safe.
Outline the consequences for an employer of noncompliance with health and safety
responsibilities?
The consequences of Non Compliance:
A breach of health and safety legislation is usually a criminal offence. Failure to
meet legal standards might lead employer to
1. Formal enforcement action
2. Prosecution of the organization in the criminal court
3. Prosecution of individuals such as director, managers and workers.
Formal enforcement action:
An enforcement agency might force an employer either to make improvement
within the workplace or stop carrying out high risk activities. Failure to comply
considered to be an offence in itself.
Prosecution of the organization in the criminal court
Successful prosecution might result in punishment in the form of a fine
Prosecution of individuals such as director, managers and workers
Successful prosecution might result in punishment in the form of a fine or
imprisonment
As well as the criminal law consequences there is also the matter of compensation for
workers and other injured by a workplace accident.
1. Taking legal action against their employer through the civil legal system and
have proven that employer had been negligent.
2. Claiming compensation from national or regional compensation schemes with
no requirement to prove negligence or blame through the use of the legal
system.
What are the organizational requirements for effective health and safety management?
Health and safety management system:
ILO OSH 2001 safety and health system we can summaries the key elements of
this system
1. Policy 2.Organizing 3. Planning and implementing 4. Evaluation
5. Action for improvement 6. Audit 7. Continual improvement

Policy: A clear statement has to be made to establish health and safety as a prime
commitment at all level of organization particularly at the top
Organizing: A framework of roles and responsibilities for health and safety
must be created within the organization from top management to down to the
floor.
Planning and Implementing: Detail arrangement must be made for the management
of health and safety. Central to this idea is the concept of risk assessment and the
identification and implementation of safe systems of work and protective
measures.
Evaluation: Methods must be developing to monitor and review the effectiveness
of the arrangements put into place. This might be done reactively e.g. by reviewing
accident and ill health statistics reports.
Action for Improvement: Any identified by the review process must be corrected
as soon as possible by making any require action
Audit: To ensure that all parts are working acceptably well by systematic and
critical examination of the safety management system
Continual Improvement: The intention is safety management system will develop
over the time to become increasingly appropriate and useful for company.
Identify the internal and external sources of information about health and safety?
Internal & External Information Sources:
(1) Internal information sources:
1. Accident records
2. Medical records
3. Risk assessments
4. Maintenance reports
5. Safety representative inspections
6. Audit reports
7. Safety committee meeting minutes
(2) External information sources:
1. National legislation (e.g. regulations)
2. Material safety data sheet from manufacturers
3. National codes of practice and guidance notes
4. Manufacturer operating instructions
5. Trade associations
6. Safety journals and magazines

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