Introduction to Occupational Safety II

Introduction to Introduction to

Occupational Safety IIOccupational Safety II

Rona Tan (Grad IOSH)

The Nature and Scope of health and Safety

• The Multi-Disciplinary Nature of Health and Safety,Chemistry and physicBiological sciencesEngineering PsychologySociologyThe Law

Obstacles to Good Standards of Health & Safety

• Complexity- The cause of a problem- Process & Technology- Requirements & Regulations

• Competing & Conflicting Demands- Productivity & Cost- External Customer Oriented- Competing

• Behavioural Issues- Unsafe Act- Ignorance, Carelessness or Incompetence- Work Culture

Health and Safety Foundations

Why ?

Humane – harm to peopleEconomical Impact- expensiveLegal – compliance to legal requirementReputation – societal expectation

Meanings and Distinctions

• Health , Safety , Welfare and Environmental Protection►Health relates to the physical condition of both body

and mind of all people at the workplace,►Safety relates to the conditions at the workplace and

applies to the pursuit of a state where the risk of harm has been eliminated or reduced to an acceptable level

►Welfare relates to the general well-being of workers at the workplaces,

►Environmental protection can be seen as comprising two types

Health & Safety Foundation

– Types :-• The workplace environment, which relates to the

general conditions in the immediate area of the workplace itself-

• The external environment, which relates to pollution of , damage to, the air , land , water and living creatures outside of the workplace, insofar as they may be affected by workplace activities,

Accidents and other Events

Definitions in relations to health and safety.☻Incident: an event –include accident and near miss.☻Accident: undesired event☻Near-miss: could have resulted injury but did not☻Occupational accident ☻Occupational diseases

Basically accidents are caused by two factors:

• 1) Unsafe Behavior/Act• 2) Unsafe Condition

90% Behavior

30,000 Hazards At Risk Acts/Conditions

10% Conditions

Reactive Safety Management

Proactive BBS Accident Prevention Approach

1 Fatality

30 Majors

300 Recordable

3000 Near Miss

Statistics based on 200 companies

Definitions

• Hazards

A Hazard is an article, substance or situation that has the potential to cause harm or damage.

Definitions

• Risk:

A risk is the likelihood of harm occurring. The degree of risk is based both on the likelihood and severity of outcome (type of injury, number involved..)

Example

Hazard Position of CableMagnitude of Risk

(Likelihood x Severity)

Tripping over cableAnd falling

Fastened to wall Zero

Trailing around edge of room

Low

Trailing across the floor Medium

Trailing across head of stairway High

Identification of hazards and the assessment of associated risks has become the cornerstone of modern health and safety law

HAZARDS

HAZARDHAZARD

HAZARDHAZARD

HAZARD

HAZARDS AND RISKS

HAZARDHAZARD

HAZARDHAZARD

HAZARD

Risk emerges when

TARGET is introduce or expose to the

HAZARD

HAZARDHAZARD

HAZARDHAZARD

HAZARD

Risk level is dependent upon the

number of hazards and time/length of exposure

Types of Hazards

physical

Biological

Chemical

Psychosocial

Ergonomic

General Hierarchy of Hazard Control

• Elimination• Substitution• Isolation• Engineering• Administration• PPE

The Moral, Legal and Economic Reasons For Health and Safety

• Legislation Requirement-Minimum

• Vicarious Liability-defense Negligence

• Moral Obligations- Take cares of neighbours

• Fines for non-compliance

• Economical impact- accidents and ill health very expensive-direct and indirect costs,

Size of the problem

ILO statistics shows the scale of the problem:-There are 270 million occupational accident and 160

million occupational diseases each year,2 million people die every year from occupational

accidents and occupational diseases,4% of the world’s GDP (gross domestic product) is lost

each year through the cost of injury, death, absence , etc

Around 355,000 on-the job fatalities each year-half from agriculture – others construction and fishing industries

Costs of Accidents and Ill-Health

• Direct costs

• Indirect costs

• Iceberg Theory

• Insurance , Costs and Liabilities

Safe Systems of Work

• It is not sufficient to stop at the provision of safe premises and plant and equipment. Employer must provide safe procedures in the used of equipment:-

• The system of work should be reasonably safe in all circumstances, procedures must cover all foreseeable possibilities

• Workers must be fully aware of and competent in carrying out the safe system of work (properly trained, instructed, and given information necessary is made available)

• There is a need to review , planning and control in ensuring that working methods are safe,

Training and Supervision and Competency of Staff

• It is also become the duty of employer to ensure , that staff are equipped with the knowledge, experience, skills and training necessary to carry out their work in a safe manner,– This starts with recruitment, appointment and selection of

personnel has all the necessary abilities to do the job safely (Competent)

– All staff need to be provided with the specific knowledge required to operate safely in the particular workplace, machinery ,plant according to recognized safe system of work , through training, instruction, information is a major responsibility of employer.

• Employers should take reasonable practical steps to ensure that:-– Staff follows all the correct procedures– And are actually operating safely,– Around 60% of workplace accidents are the

result of human actions and are preventable,– Adequate supervision , can reinforce

adherence to procedures.

Training and Supervision and Competency of Staff

To provide and maintain workplaces, machinery and equipment, and use work methods, which are as safe and without risk to health as is reasonably practicable;

To give necessary instructions and training, taking account to the functions and capacities of different categories of workers;

The Employer’s Basic responsibilities

General Duties of Employee/Workers

To take care of his own safety and the safety of others,Comply with established safe systems of work

and rules, To use protective equipment provided while

carrying out the work requiring them, To report to supervisors, unsafe condition, tools,

that equipment are in good repair To report all accidents, for lesson learnt

Consequences of Non-Compliance

• Breach of health and safety legislation – criminal offence

• Civil liability may also arise – compensation resulted from negligence,

• Negligence – is probably the most important in terms of the number of cases and the amount of damages which may be awarded for serious injury

Negligence

• Breach of the legal duty to exercise reasonable care towards others-resulting causing harm to someone to whom you owed a duty of care as result of something you did OR failed to do. (foreseeable harm)

• In health and safety terms, the same applies to employers, who are under a duty of care towards their workers and others

Role of Enforcing Authorities and other External Agencies

• Government makes laws and courts decides on guilt and pass sentence on those who are guilty – in between the two various agencies who can enforce laws, investigate, provide advice and so on. Typical Agencies might includes:-Enforcement AgenciesFire AuthoritiesInsurance Companies

The Role of International Standards and Conventions

• Countries has their own specific laws, developed over the years to tackle their own specific issues . E,g OSHA 514 for Malaysia (1981 draft – 1994 Feb 24.implemented with out grace period.)

• The prime mover in the area of International Standards in Health and Safety is the United Nations (UN) specifically- ILO – a large number of countries are members of ILO.

Sources Of Information (Internal and External)

• External data sources includes:-

• Internal data source includes:-

Exercise ( List down source of information available to consult on Health and Safety )

ACTION FOR IMPROVEMENTACTION FOR

IMPROVEMENT

POLICYPOLICY

ORGANISINGORGANISING

PLANNING ANDIMPLEMENTATIONPLANNING AND

IMPLEMENTATION

EVALUATIONEVALUATION

AUDITAUDIT

FE

ED

BA

CK

CO

NT

INU

AL

IM

PR

OV

EM

EN

T

Health and Safety Management Model

HEALTH & SAFETY MANAGEMENT MODEL

Discussion

• Choose a hazard and apply it on this schedule.

Hazard Condition of Hazard Magnitude of Risk

(Likelihood x Severity)

Zero

Low

Medium

High

DISCUSSION

• Discuss the ways in which employers might motivate their employees to comply with health and safety procedures