OSHE 111

Lecture # 3Historical perspective and milestones in OSHE (Continued)

Presented by Dr. Ephraim Massawe

The role of organized labor in the S&HE movement and management Practices

• Labor Unions: fought for safer working conditions; appropriate compensation for injured employees. Challenges: demands for safer working conditions seen as demand for better wages; management resisted genuine demands on these grounds

• The role of organized labor in the S&HE movement and management practices (1) Fellow servant rule: – This law held that employers were not responsible or liable for injuries inflicted on an employee by a fellow worker e.g. employee X spills oil on the floor; employee Y slips, falls and injures his back. If the actions of the employees contributed to injuries employers were not liable - a doctrine hitherto known as “contributory negligence”

• Some labor laws challenged by the labor unions: – (1) Fellow servant rule: – The fellow servant rule, based on the concepts of assumption of risks – Prospective employees accepted the job on their own risk or with the risks that go along with that job! – Labor union raised awareness amongst the general public and eventually these types of laws were overhauled. The only state where this law still applies is NH.

Development of S&H Programs (Accident Prevention Programs)

• Our modern workplaces have different types of accident prevention programs; ranging from simple to complex systems or programs • • Accident prevention techniques widely used include: failure minimization; fail-safe designs;

isolation; lockout & tagout; personal protective equipment (PPE) and many others • Why this development of safety and health programs by industry today? •

• Employers could afford to lose employees during the 1940’s and cannot do so today!• Deployment of people to war had a consequences on the supply and demand for workers.

Short supply of labor.

• Industries have realized and they do know that accidents can be prevent by: • Improved engineering designs; – Employees training and awareness • Establishing and enforcing safety effective rules to reduce accidents; • Promote safety and health in general to reap from the savings paid in the form of

compensation or medical bills or insurance claims• To realize these objectives is an incentive for employers to support safety, health and

environmental (SHE) programs or accident prevention programs. Top management are now supporting SHE projects and programs based on the 3-Es of safety – pp31 : • Engineering – making design improvements to products and processes • • Education – training and re-training workers in SHE aspects of operations• Enforcement - ensuring workplace policies, standards regulations and practices

and procedures are followed

Development of S&H Programs (Accident Prevention Programs)

Safety and Health Movement Today The importance of OSHE to Engineers

• Each year: • At least 100,000 accidents are recorded in the U.S. • There are more than 10 million injuries, some of which are severe and disabling • At least 600 billion dollars are lost in terms of personal treatment, compensation and other liability costs!• Accidents are 5th leading cause of death!! Motor vehicles accidents

(45 - 50,000 deaths) and fall accidents (in construction industry). Look at this order #1: heart attack; #2 Cancer; #3:stroke; and #4: respiratory diseases; & #5 accidents (motor vehicle/construction etc): This is part of the price we have to for our high-tech lifestyles

• Society has had to deal with the increasing occupational injuries, illnesses and deaths in several ways: • Reactive approach: controlling – by laws, regulations and litigation » OSH Act

(1970) and other related legislations » Workers Compensation Act » And more than 15000 laws and regulations are passed @year to address OSHE (can you identify them – see lecture #2?). • At least 10% of all the laws and regulations passed each by congress are

related to safety and health • Between 60,000 -100,000 litigations are filed yearly with respect to product

liability • Most of these litigations place a burden of proof on the manufacturers and vendors

Safety and Health Movement Today The importance of OSHE to Engineers

• What is the most proactive approach? Prevention through design or other means!• An “ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure” • A little prevention mechanism

will provide you with a peace of mind. • • Prevention methods especially for chemicals’ safety – governed by laws such as –

Federal Law “Pollution Prevention Act 1990” or – State Law “Massachusetts Toxics Use Reduction Act (MA-TURA- 1989) & other proactive approaches such as ISO 14000 – EMS series and ISO 9000 QMS series [see lecture 2]

Safety and Health Movement Today The importance of OSHE to Engineers

• Safety and health movement today: Some shocking data and statistics Based on National Safety Council (NSC): • 4500 Work related deaths per year (that is about 3 per 100,000 workers in all standard industrial classifications - SIC) • 3.5 million injuries @year involving: » At least 1-2 days lost in productivity » 150 billion dollars in lost wages, insurance claims, medical expenses etc. excluding business interruption costs » 100 million lost workdays @year!!• Safety and health movement today: Some shocking data and statistics Each year,

workers loses approximately 2 days because of job-related illnesses and injuries • Record keeping began in the early 1930s – Highest recorded work related deaths occurred in 1937 (19,500 deaths) – Despite the higher # of workers today, the figures and statistics above - have been declining, however – However, death, pains and suffering cannot be quantified in terms of $$ – Is there any problem with record keeping?? Discuss…

Safety and Health Movement Today The importance of OSHE to Engineers

• Safety and health movement today: Some shocking data and statistics Today chemical industry produces over 70,000 -100,000 chemical products @ annually – Most are not direct consumer products but rather consumed by other industries • Essential contributor to increased living standards • But some consumer products may cause accidents at home too• Safety and health movement today: Some shocking data and statistics As reported by

the National Safety Council (NSC), consumption or the use of different products have resulted into: • At least 12,000 deaths annually** – Death rates are 1.5 per 100,000 persons** • 2.9 million disabling injuries** consumer products therefore have had consequences, including the costs associated with the illnesses, injuries and deaths associated with the use of products ($113 billion/YR) excluding indirect costs…. • **(30,000 deaths; 20 million injuries and 100000 disabling injuries as estimated by the National Commission on Product Safety estimates)

Safety and Health Movement Today The importance of OSHE to Engineers

• Safety and health movement today: Some shocking data and statistics Air transportation – Perhaps after 9/11 events, air travel has been so scary to all of us • Records show 16/100,000 deaths for general aviation and 0.5 per 100,000 for commercial aviation – 3.3 deaths for every 100,000 hrs of flight vs. 5.1 per 100000 hrs for commercial flights

• Safety and health movement today: Some shocking data and statistics On the other hand, car driving which is 1.5 cars/family in the U.S. is approaching (45,000 traffic deaths/2 million injuries/year)

• Safety and health movement today: Some shocking data and statistics Marine transportation – Boat and ship – incidents have been reported (one incident claiming more than 1000 lives)

• Safety and health movement today: Some shocking data and statistics Rail transportation – not many people rely on rail transportation for long travels but at least within city limits the subways have claimed lives!! Research and document some cases where this may have occurred!!

Safety and Health Movement Today The importance of OSHE to Engineers

Based on lectures 1-2 and now Lecture 3: why is safety, health and environment important?

• The preceding discussion shows that safety, health and most recently, environmental issues have come a long way (at least historically) • Today, everyone knows that SH&E are important at workplace!! • It has spillover to the general environment and many repercussions to clean up costs and health and illnesses so caused – EPA estimates at least 30,000 – 50,000 superfund sites in the U.S. – Billions are used for clean up costs at least 1.6 billion $ initially (1980)• These milestones are achieved by different players – – Engineers, safety managers,

industrial hygienists, occupational health physicians and nurses, and many more professionals – Is OSHE so significant to OUR Engineering profession? See page 8 of the text book and the need for certification and licensing to ensure professionals meet the minimum requirements

• It is important to integrate all professions into the SHE movement. Why? we need to achieve the following objectives – Learn by sharing knowledge about safety, health and environment (SHE), in particular incidents caused by toxic chemicals, machinery and workplace violence; we need to provide a greater level of expertise to evaluate SHE problems; we need to provide a greater and broader database for comparing SHE practices in different companies & regions; and finally we need to encourage accident prevention at all levels and make SHE programs a priority in the workplace!

Based on lectures 1-2 and now Lecture 3: why is safety, health and environment important?