Human & Equipment Safety: MEC232 Overview

Course Overview: MEC232

• This course is titled Human & Equipment Safety
• Mohamed Mahmoud, PhD, is the Associate Professor of Environmental Sciences in the Faculty of Engineering

Course Aims

• Define human factor analysis
• Recognize equipment safety and occupational safety
• Define ergonomics
• Report on physiological effects on people, components, lifting, and equipment
• Describe materials handling and safety culture
• Recall Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) permissible limits
• Analyze risk assessment, hazard identification, and risk estimation
• Diagnose accident prevention and risk control

Instructional & Learning Strategies

• Interactive lectures
• Group discussion
• Seminars & demonstrations
• Small group activities
• Audio-visual equipment and material

Course Grading

• In-class participation makes up 5% of the final grade
• Course activities (assignments, quizzes, presentations, portfolio, journals, etc.) account for 25%
• The midterm exam is worth 30%
• The final exam comprises 40% of the grade

Course Modules

• Module 1 is about the safety and health manager & development of the safety and health function
• Module 2 covers concepts of hazard avoidance and the impact of federal regulation
• Module 3 discusses process safety and disaster preparedness, and buildings and facilities
• Module 4 entails Ergonomics, Health, and Toxic Substances
• Module 5 concerns Environmental Control and Noise, Flammable and Explosive Materials
• Module 6 involves Personal Protection and First Aid, Fire Protection
• Module 7 contains Materials Handling and Storage, and Machine Guarding
• Module 8 includes Free topics and Final Assessment

Responsibility for Health and Safety

• Everyone is entitled to work in an environment where risks to their health and safety are properly controlled

The Safety and Health Manager

• Every individual wants a safe workplace, but their actions to achieve it differ
• Management determines the level of safety and health effort
• Worker behavior is crucial for safety, but behavior alone isn't adequate
• A safety director or industrial hygienist sets the safety tone in a firm
• 1970 changed worker safety and the safety manager's role
• The Occupational Safety and Health Act established OSHA
• Occupational health benefited more from OSHA than occupational safety
• OSHA created the title "safety & health manager."
• This role involves hazard analysis, compliance, and capital investment
• Safety and health standards can be accessed online via OSHA
• Managers should understand standards to persuade management/employees

A Reasonable Objective

• Eliminating all workplace hazards is not a realistic goal
• Managers must deal with hazards that are physically infeasible, economically infeasible, or both
• Examples of physically infeasible hazard corrections includes hazards associated with air travel and radiation exposure during x-ray procedures
• Hazards at university crosswalks are examples that are physically possible but economically infeasible to correct
• Hazards in the auto industry that have been corrected include airbags and antilock brakes and are both physically and economically feasible eliminating all hazards isn't realistic

Case Study Considerations

• Naive to take action based only on manager rationale for correcting problems listed in the case study
• More data is needed to decide what to do
• Plant maintenance shouldn't distract from other serious, unnoticed hazards
• Managers risk losing credibility by overreacting

Course Goal

• The aim of the course is to help safety and health managers in detecting hazards and deciding which are worth action

Safety Versus Health

• Safety and health managers require focus on both safety and health hazards
• Safety often deals with acute effects of hazards.
• Health concerns often deal with chronic effects of hazards
• Acute effects include immediate reactions to severe conditions
• Chronic effects include long-term deterioration from milder conditions
• Industrial hygienists are known for expertise and instrumentation
• Safety specialists have practical knowledge
• More occupational health fatalities than safety, but health fatalities are often delayed and not diagnosed
• Signs of occupational illness are similar to common symptoms
• Industrial hygienists identify occupational hazards

Role in the Corporate Structure

• Safety and health officer acts as liaison with government agencies like OSHA
• The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) mirrors OSHA
• CPSC concerns product manufacturers; OSHA concerns employers

A Case Study: Bhopal, India (1984)

• Over 2,500 people died in a methyl isocyanate gas release
• The incident impacted US policy
• The EPA compliance is often a safety and health manager's duty

Current Trends

• Increased awareness of global warming
• Legislation promoting "green engineering"
• Competence in environmental protection as a competitive advantage

Resources

• Board of Certified Safety Professionals of America: www.bcsp.org
• American Board of Industrial Hygiene: www.abih.org
• CSP for Certified Safety Professional and CIH for Certified Industrial Hygienist

Professional Societies

• American Society of Safety Engineers (ASSE): www.asse.org
• American Industrial Hygiene Association (AIHA): www.aiha.org

Systems Safety

• In mid-1950s the aerospace industry promoted safety as a system in the process
• System safety is vital in sectors prone to catastrophic accidents
• System Safety Society: www.system-safety.org

Standards Institutes

• Organizations include:
  • American National Standards Institute (ANSI): www.ansi.org
  • National Fire Protection Association (NFPA): www.ngpa.org
  • American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME): www.asme.org
  • American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM): www.astm.org

Government Agencies

• National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH): www.niosh.gov
• OSHA