Occupational Health and Safety (OSH)

KARWAN MAHMOOD Khudhir

MS. OHS (UPM)

OHS coordinator at Preventive Health department

KOYA TECHNICAL INSTITUTE (KTI) 1

Occupational Health and Safety

• Introduction and historical back ground of occupational health

and Safety

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• Bernardino Ramazzini (1633 – 1714)

• Considered to be the father of occupational and industrial medicine

• Diseases of Workers (De Morbis Artificum Diatriba)

First edition - 1700 Second edition – 1713

• published the first systematic study connecting the environmental hazards of specific professions to disease

Example: lead exposure in potters and painters

• His book on occupational diseases outlined the health hazards and other disease-causative agents encountered by workers in

52 occupations.

History of Occupational Health and safety

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o What is Occupational health and safety all about?

• Health and safety is about preventing people from being harmed at work, by taking the right precautions and by providing a satisfactory working environment .

• Why is occupational health and safety such an important topic?

1. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (2007), a worker is injured every five seconds and every ten seconds a worker is temporarily or permanently disabled.

2. According to HSE (2008) every year about 2.2 million people are estimated to suffer from ill health caused or made worse by work condition.

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INTRODUCTION

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3. Each year over 1,000 of workers are death and 260,000 of them are injury

4. Every one should be able to go to work, feeling confident that they will end each working day without being harmed.

5. Currently, many organizations only seek to increase their productivity without considering the health condition of their workers.

6. working in unsafe working environment will lead to adverse effect (decrease productivity,quality of life) and increase (absenteeism, medical cost).

Why is health and safety such an important topic?

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What is Hazard?

is anything that can cause harm. For example things like electricity, chemicals, working from ladders and so on are hazards.

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Hazards, risk assessment and control

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• What is Risk?

• Risk is the chance, high, medium or low that somebody will be harmed by the hazard.

For instance, properly maintained computer equipment presents a low risk of electric shock, but if you are using naked flames where there are highly flammable liquids, like petrol, there will be a high risk of injury from an explosion or flash fire.

Hazards, risk assessment and control

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The HSE (Health and safety Executive) has suggested a simple five step approach to risk assessment which

involves:

• Step 1: identifying hazards:

Walk around your workplace and look at what could reasonably be

expected to cause a health and safety problem. Ignore the trivia and

concentrate on real hazards which could result in serious harm or

affect several people. Ask peoples ’ opinions – they may have

noticed things that are not immediately obvious.

Manufacturers ’ instructions or data sheets can also help you to spot

hazards and put risks into perspective. Also look at accident, and

ill-health records. 8

Type of hazards

(a) Mechanical hazards: (Repetitive movements, Poorly designed equipment, Heavy lifting).

◆ moving machinery, for example a circular saw, where people could be trapped in drive belts, cut in contact with the rotating blades or struck by a piece of wood that is ejected out of the saw; ◆ mobile equipment, for example a tractor, where people could be crushed when run over, entangled in moving parts of the engine or drive shaft or the driver could be crushed if the vehicle turnedover . ◆ a sewing machine where fingers can be injured in the stabbing and puncture movement of the needle.

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Mechanical hazards:

Circular saw Mobile equipment (rector)

Sewing machine 10

(b) Physical hazards: (Noise, Lightning, Radiation, Vibration, Temperature, Electricity).

e.g:

◆ slipping on a wet floor or tripping on uneven flooring or trailing cables; and

◆ burns from a fire or cooking equipment or scalding from a hot cup of coffee

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Type of hazards

Physical hazards

Noise hazard Burns from a fire or cooking equipment

slipping on a wet floor 12

(c) Chemical hazards: (Solvents, Acids / caustics, Metals, Dusts, Pesticides).

◆ spillage of corrosive acid which can severely damage skin and eyes through contact;

◆ toxic chemicals which can damage through being swallowed (ingestion) or breathed in (inhalation) or solvents that can also be absorbed through the skin (absorption) and

◆ very fine dusts that can be breathed in, for example asbestos

Type of hazards

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Chemical hazards

Sulphuric Acid (battery acid)

chemist shop

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Chemicals either in gas, vapour or liquid forms, have different effects on

people. Some chemicals work very quickly and may cause asphyxiation.

For example, carbon dioxide asphyxiates (chokes) people because they

are starved of oxygen whereas cyanide poisons people very fast, if

swallowed. Solvent vapours when breathed in overcome people so that

they initially appear drunk and may die if exposure is prolonged and

severe.

Other substances, such as fi ne asbestos dust have more of a mechanical

effect on the body. It can damage the lungs by causing scar tissue to

form inside them (fibrosis of the lung known as Asbestosis) and/or cause

cancer. Both usually, but not always occur after many years of exposure

to asbestos dust.

Chemical hazards

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(d) Environmental hazards:

◆ in the global environment water can be polluted by chemicals and/ or by toxic waste. Something as simple as pouring old engine oil down the drain will have this effect;

◆ air can be polluted from burning rubbish or emissions from chimneys;

◆ the environment can be polluted by waste and rubbish left lying about to rot or contaminate;

◆ inside buildings there may be poor ventilation so that people become drowsy and unable to operate machines safely. In extreme conditions they may be overcome by lack of oxygen or build up, for example of carbon dioxide

◆ excessively hot working conditions can cause heat exhaustion and hyperthermia;

◆ cold conditions may cause hypothermia and in extreme cold there is a danger of frost bite

Type of hazards

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Water pollution (industrial waste) Air pollution (emissions from chimneys)

Environmental hazards

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(e) Biological hazards:

◆ this includes bacteria and micro organisms of the type encountered when working with animals or infected people; handling waste materials (particularly in hospitals) or working in contaminated

Environments.

Type of hazards

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Biological hazards

working with animals Handling waste materials

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(f) Organisational hazards include (psychosocial hazard):

Such as working working with

Low control (e.g: opportunity to develop hisl her

special abilities)

Social support (e.g : supervisor and co-workers support)

Job demand (e.g: require to work very fast, very hard).

Job satisfaction (satisfied with the kind of work that he/she do, or satisfied with his/her income )

Type of hazards

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Step 2: Deciding who might be harmed and how this could happen

This includes employees, cleaners, visitors, contractors, maintenance workers, employees away travelling or at another workplace.

Members of the public and other people who may share a workplace should also be considered.

Young workers, trainees, new and expectant mothers may be particularly at risk.

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Step 3: Evaluating the risks and deciding whether the existing controls are sufficient

Draw up an action list of work that has to be done giving priority to high risks and/or risks which could affect most people. Consider:

◆ Can the hazard be removed altogether ?

◆ If not, how can the risks be controlled so that harm is unlikely?

◆ How severe is the harm likely to be?

◆ How likely is it to happen? 22

These are the questions you will need to ask yourself. Then you will be able to decide how much you will need to do to reduce the risk.

Even when you have taken all the precautions some risk usually remains.

At that point you will have to decide whether the remaining risk is high, medium or low. This is sometimes called the residual risk.

Step 3: Evaluating the risks and deciding whether the existing controls are sufficient

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If you really feel that you cannot completely eliminate a hazard, the next step is to control the risks so that any harm to the people involved with it is less likely. The following list has been put together to help you to achieve this. The points have been made in order of preference

1. Elimination

2. Substitution

3. Engineering control

4. Administrative control

5. Personal protective equipment

Step 4: Hierarchy of risk control measures

Hierarchy control diagram 24

1. Elimination

• Remove the hazard from the workplace .

*Hazard can be a substance, materials or process

2. Substitution

Replace the toxic material with a less toxic or alternative substitute. E.g.

How do you make a risk assessment?

Instead Of: Consider:

pesticides (causes various effects on body)

"natural" pesticides such as pyrethrins

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3. Engineering control

– Isolation, barrier

Interrupt the pathway between hazard and worker

Either enclosure to isolate source or isolate worker from contaminated environment.

– Ventilation

Dilution ventilation

Local exhaust ventilation

How do you make a risk assessment?

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How do you make a risk assessment?

Local exhaust ventilation

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How do you make a risk assessment?

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Dilution ventilation

4. Administrative control

These are all about identifying and implementing the procedures you need to work safely e.g.

a. reducing the time workers are exposed to hazards (eg by job rotation).

b. increasing safety signage c. prohibiting use of mobile phones in hazardous areas. d. Supervision /support

e. Education and training

How do you make a risk assessment?

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How do you make a risk assessment?

5. Personal protective equipment

– Less desirable…..? Last in the hierarchy!

– eg eye, hand, head and other forms of body protection.

– Respirators - Attention must be given to selection, fitting, maintenance.

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Personal protective equipment • What is personal protective equipment?

Personal protective equipment, or PPE, is designed to protect employees from serious workplace injuries or illnesses resulting from contact with chemical, radiological, physical, electrical, mechanical, or other workplace hazards.

e.g of PPE: face shields, safety glasses, hard hats, and safety shoes, PPE includes a variety of devices and garments such as goggles, coveralls, gloves, vests, earplugs, and respirators

The use of personal protective equipment is the least preferred method of protection from hazardous exposures.

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When appropriate protective clothing or equipment needs to be provided the following precautions

should be taken: Ensure that equipment/clothing is suitable and

appropriate for the hazard that is being protected against.

Ensure that it prevents or properly controls the risk.

Ensure the equipment/clothing is of good quality made to a recognised standard.

Ensure the equipment/clothing suits the wearer in size, weight and fit.

Consider the compatibility of different PPE for example goggles and the fi t of a face mask 32

Head Protection

Types of Head PPE • Class A Hard Hats

– Protect you from falling objects – Protect you from electrical

shocks up to 2,200 volts

• Class B Hard Hats – Protect you from falling objects – Protect you from electrical

shocks up to 20,000 volts

• Class C Hard Hats – Protect you from falling objects

• Bump Caps – Bump caps are made from

lightweight plastic and are designed to protect you from bumping your head on protruding objects

Personal protective equipment

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Hand Protection Types of Hand PPE

• Gloves – Padded cloth gloves

• protect your hands from sharp edges, slivers, dirt, and vibration

– Heat resistant gloves • protect your hands from heat and flames

– Latex disposable gloves • used to protect your hands from germs

and bacteria

– Lead-lined gloves • used to protect your hands from

radiation sources

Personal protective equipment

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Hand Protection Types of Hand PPE

• Forearm Cuffs – used to protect your forearm

• Thumb Guards and Finger Cots – protect only your thumb or

fingers

• Mittens – protect your hands while

working around very cold or hot materials

• Hand Pads – Hand pads protect your

hands while working around very hot materials

Personal protective equipment

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Foot Protection Types of Foot PPE

• Safety Shoes and Boots – Steel toe footwear

• protects your toes from falling objects and from being crushed

– Metatarsal footwear • special guards that run from your ankle to

your toes and protect your entire foot

– Reinforced sole footwear • metal reinforcement that protects your foot

from punctures

– Latex/Rubber footwear • resists chemicals and provides extra

traction on slippery surfaces

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Foot Protection

Type of Foot PPE • Safety Shoes and Boots

– PVC footwear • protects your feet against moisture and

improves traction

– Butyl footwear • protects against most ketones,

aldehydes, alcohols, acids, salts, and alkalies

– Vinyl footwear • resists solvents, acids, alkalies, salts,

water, grease, and blood

– Nitrile footwear • resists animal fats, oils, and chemicals

Personal protective equipment

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Foot Protection

Types of Foot PPE

• Safety Shoes and Boots

– Electrostatic dissipating footwear

• conducts static electricity to floors that are grounded

– Electrical hazard footwear • insulated with tough rubber to prevent

shocks and burns from electricity

– Disposable footwear

• includes shower slippers, clear polyethylene and non-woven booties used in dust free work areas

Personal protective equipment

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