LECTURE 9-OCCUPATIONAL

SAFETY AND HEALTH

AUGUST 2010

OVERVIEW

INTRODUCTION

OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY AND HEALTH ACT 1994

SAFETY MANAGEMENT

WORKPLACE HAZARDS, ACCIDENTS AND HEALTH

OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY AND HEALTH

INTRODUCTION

CONCEPTS & DEFINITIONS

IMPORTANCE OF SAFETY AND

HEALTH

HEALTH, SAFETY AND SECURITY

RESPONSIBILITIES

BENEFITS OF GOOD SAFETY AND HEALTH PRACTICES

OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY AND

HEALTH ACT 1994

INTRODUCTION

DUTIES OF EMPLOYERS

DUTIES OF EMPLOYEES

SAFETY MANAGEMENT

APPROACHES

MANAGING SAFETY

WORKPLACE HAZARDS,

ACCIDENTS AND HEALTH

WORKPLACE HEALTH HAZARDS

WORKPLACE ACCIDENTS

HEALTH

1. INTRODUCTION

1.1 CONCEPTS & DEFINITIONS

Safety

Safety is a condition in which physical well-being of people is protected

Health

General state of physical, mental and emotional well-being

Security

Protection of employer facilities and equipments from unauthorized access and protection of employees while on work premises

Hazard

Anything with the potential to cause harm or damage

1.2 IMPORTANCE OF SAFETY AND

HEALTH

The staggering number of work-related accidents

Injuries aren’t just a problem in traditionally ‘unsafe’

industries(construction, milling)

New health concerns due to an increasingly

technology-based economy

1.3 HEALTH, SAFETY AND SECURITY

RESPONSIBILITIES HR DEPT MANAGERS

Trains managers to recognize and handle difficult

employee simulations such fire fighting at the work place.

Monitor health and safety of employees daily at

workplace or at the scene that has a potential to cause

accident.

Develops safety reporting system by establishing an

OSHA officer to carry out the authority and responsibilities.

Coach employees to be safety conscious and self

awareness.

Provides accident investigation expertise in dealing with

the circumstances.

Investigate accidents by following the accident

investigation procedures.

Provides technical expertise on accident prevention that

will advise the organizational regarding to the health,

safety and security.

Continuously observing health and safety behaviour of

employees and their workplace condition.

Develops restricted-access procedures and employee

identification systems; for example providing the

employee ID card to access the restricted area.

Monitoring workplace for security problem and identify the

indicator that will lead to the hazardous and danger.

Coordinates health and safety program to create

awareness among employees.

Communicate with employee to identify potentially

difficult employees in following the OSHA act.

Cooperating with other agencies such NIOSH, DOSH,

Ministry of Human Resources, Fire Service & Rescue

department, e.t.c.

Follow security procedures and recommend changes as

needed to amend the current procedures.

1.4 BENEFITS OF GOOD SAFETY AND

HEALTH PRACTICES

It helps decrease staff turnover and maintain work harmony.

A safe and conducive working place.

Reduce costs of injuries and illness, medical and hospitalization costs.

Minimal property and equipment damage or loss.

Fewer stoppages or production delays, higher output, better quality of products and services.

Minimizes penalties through compliance with the laws and regulations.

Avoid or reduce fines, liability suits and penalty from the authorities.

Avoid tarnishing and damaging organizational image.

Avoid excessive investigations and waste of precious time.

Reduce risk premiums.

Secure investors confidence and investment.

2. OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY AND

HEALTH ACT 1994

2.1 INTRODUCTION

What is OSHA?

Law to assure assure as far as possible every working man

and women in the nation are in safe and healthful working

conditions and to preserve human resources.

Philosophy of OSHA is the responsibility to ensure safety

and health at the workplace lies with those who create the

risk and with those who work with the risk.

Every employer with 5 employees is required to prepare a

written statement of safety and health policy and to make

this policy known to his employees precisely

Purposes

To carry out safety inspections at workplace

To organize promotional activities to improve employers

and workers understanding of good safety practices

To assist other government departments with technical

expertise

To carry out activities aimed at improving safety and

health at the workplace

2.2 DUTIES OF EMPLOYERS

Employers are responsible for:

Meeting their duty to provide a workplace free from recognized hazards,

being familiar with mandatory OSHA standards,

and for examining workplace conditions to make sure they confirm to applicable standard.

Employers have the right to seek advice and off-site consultation from inspection, and to be advised by the compliance officer of the reason for an inspection.

To give appropriate training to employees so that they will know how to work in a safe manner

To appoint a safety and health officer who is registered with Director General of OSHA, and have an approved professional/qualification in safety and health, and a working experience for at least 10 years

The specific duties of employers includes:

Ensure proper arrangement for the use or operation, handling, storage and transport of plants and substances.

Provide information, training and supervision to ensure safety to employees.

Maintenance of the workplace and its entrances and exists.

Provision of adequate welfare facilities for employees.

2.3 DUTIES OF EMPLOYEES

• Employees are responsible, for example, for complying with all applicable OSHA standards, for following all employer safety and health rules and regulations, and for reporting hazardous conditions to supervisors.

• Employees have a right to demand safety and health on the job without fear or punishment. In other words, employees are equally responsible for safety and health at workplace.

• OSHA 1994 requires employees to wear at all times any protective equipment or clothing provided by employer and complies with any instructions relating to safety.

3. SAFETY MANAGEMENT

3.1 APPROACHES

Organizational approach.

Designing jobs duties and responsibilities,

developing and implementing safety policies that support OSHA act 1994,

using safety committees and coordinating accident investigations particularly to identify the weaknesses in order to promote improvement regarding to the safety and heath at the workplace and to compensate the victim.

Engineering approach.

Designing work settings and equipment properly to reduce the accident the workplace,

reviewing equipment used whether still relevant as compares to the new technology and procedures applied, and

applying ergonomic principles (ergonomic is the study and design of the work environment to address physiological and physical demands on individuals).

Individual approach.

Reinforcing safety motivation and attitudes through training program,

providing employee safety training, and

rewarding safety through incentive programs through providing employee a reward or other incentives to encourage them to be more concern to the safety and health.

3.2 MANAGING SAFETY

Safety committees

Composed of workers from a variety of levels and departments

Involve all employees at various times in safety training

Using resources such as the media to conduct safety training

Reinforcing safety training

Continuous communication- producing newsletter, changing safety posters etc

4. WORKPLACE HAZARDS, ACCIDENTS

AND HEALTH

4.1 WORKPLACE HEALTH HAZARDS

Chemicals and other hazardous materials.

Excessive noise.

Temperature extremes.

Biohazards including those that are normally occurring

(such as mold) and man made (such as anthrax).

Ergonomic hazards (such as poorly designed equipment

that forces workers to do their jobs while contorted in

unnatural positions).

Slippery floor and blocked passageways.

4.2 WORKPLACE ACCIDENTS

CAUSES OF ACCIDENTS

Chance occurrences. Chance occurrences such as walking past a plate glass window just as someone hits a ball through it, contribute to accidents but are more or less beyond management’s control.

Unsafe conditions. The mechanical and physical conditions that cause accidents and include improperly guarded equipment, defective equipment, hazardous procedures in, on or around equipment, unsafe storage, improper illumination and ventilation.

Unsafe acts of employees. Behavior tendencies and undesirable attitudes that cause accidents. The causes of unsafe acts include:

Personal characteristics. Personal characteristics serve as a basis for certain behaviour tendencies and undesirable attitudes, which in turn result in unsafe acts.

Accident prone people. Accident-prone implies the possession of those qualities or traits that lead to an undue number of accidents.

Vision. Vision is related to accident frequently for many jobs. For example, bus drivers and machine operators who have high visual skills will normally have fewer injuries.

Age and length of service. High rate of accidents occur among employees aged between 17 to 28 and become lower for those in the late 50s.

Preventing accidents

2 basic activities: reducing unsafe conditions & reducing unsafe acts

Elements:

Remove unsafe conditions. If hazard cannot be removed, guard against it or if necessary, use personal protective equipment such as eye goggles or safety shoes.

Through selection. Through screening, training, or incentive programs to the candidates who might be accident prone for the job in question.

Establish a safety policy. This method emphasizing that company will do everything practical to eliminate or reduce or prevent accidents.

Set specific loss control goals. Analyze the number of accidents and set specific safety goals to be achieved. For example: frequency of loss time injuries per number of employees.

Train employees to be safety conscious. Show to the employee that top management and managers are serious about safety, enforce safety rules, e.t.c.

Conduct safety and health inspections. Investigate all accidents and have a system in place to allow employees notify management about hazardous conditions.

Visual: specific loss control goals

4.3 HEALTH

Health promotion levels:

Level 1; Information awareness.

• Information awareness including brochures and materials, health risk screenings, health tests and measurements, and special events and classes.

Level 2; Lifestyles wellness.

• Lifestyle wellness including wellness education programs, regular health classes, employee assistance programs, support groups and health incentives.

Level 3; Organizational health.

• Organizational health including benefits integrated with programs, dedicated resources and facilities, health education curriculum.

Improving health for employees

Wellness program

• Objectives:

• Reduce absenteeism

• Reduce medical bills

• Maintain strength of older workers

• Components:

• Mini gymnasium, exercise classes

• Subsidies for fitness club memberships

• Stop smoking program

• Medical check up

• Stress management

Employee assistance program(EAP)

• Counselling, focuses on:

• Employees with personal problems

• Financial counselling

• Career counselling

Organizational health culture

• Culture with high emphasis on health

• Development of policies and procedures supporting health programs

Reducing drug and alcohol related

problems

• Information and education on risks associated with taking drugs

• Training supervisors so that they can identify subordinates with drugs or alcohol problems

• Employee rehabilitation

Issues in health

Work stress and burnout

Alcoholism and substance abuse

Emotional/mental health concerns

Workplace air quality

Smoking at work

Computer related health problems

AIDS and the workplace