Occupational Safety and Health Foundation

Course 101 Guide: Foundation in Occupational Safety and Health

• Many individuals are killed or severely injured at work each year, highlighting the critical importance of workplace safety. Various industries, such as construction, manufacturing, and transportation, are more prone to accidents due to hazardous environments, heavy machinery, and high-risk tasks. These tragic incidents not only result in loss of life but also lead to long-term emotional and psychological impacts on families and coworkers. Implementing strict safety protocols and training can significantly reduce these occurrences, creating a safer work environment for everyone involved.
• Many individuals are killed or severely injured at work, underscoring the need for continuous monitoring of workplace conditions and adherence to safety regulations. Regular inspections, employee training, and the use of personal protective equipment play vital roles in preventing accidents. With ongoing efforts to promote a culture of safety, organizations can work towards minimizing risk and ensuring that employees can perform their duties without fear of injury or fatality.
• Others suffer long-term health issues from their workplace conditions.
• There are procedures in place to protect workers, many face hazards, risking injury and ill health.
• Workplace health and safety problems can be avoided or minimized, and this is vital to the well-being of workers and those around them.

Key Terms

• Control measures are the precautions taken to lower risk.
• Safety is defined as lack of danger.
• Health is defined as physical, mental and social well-being, not merely absence of disease.
• Welfare includes hygiene, eating, and resting facilities that promote employee well-being.
• Environmental Protection prevents harm to the environment.
• Occupational health concerns a person's well-being due to work conditions.
• Risk assesses the likelihood that a hazard will cause harm.
• Hazard is something that poses potential harm or damage.
• Well-being encompasses good health, safety, comfort, and contentment.
• Work is defined as specific activities people do as part of their occupation.
• Workplace is any location employees or self-employed individuals work or must visit for their job.

Health and Safety Meanings and Definitions

• Health is defined as the soundness of the body, which includes ventilation, lighting, cleanliness as some of the aspects.
• Handling chemicals and exposure to dust are some everyday practices that should be considered.
• Safety means being free from danger, injury in the workplace should be considered.
• Safety is associated with construction, machinery, dangerous substances.
• "Environmental Protection” refers to measures focused on maintaining environment.

Further definitions

• Work encompasses activities people perform specifically for their occupation, whether as an employee or self-employed individual (per the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974).
• The act states that employees are at work during their hours of employment.
• Workplace is defined as the location employees are likely to work as found in legislation.
• Welfare is general comfort at work in terms of air quality, and personal hygiene.
• Well-being is general good health and contentment.
• Occupational health covers worker well-being at work.
• Risk is the likelihood a hazard will cause harm.

Risk Assessment

• Taking into account all the risk factors will allow you to determine whether a risk is low, medium or high.
• If risk is low, bad consequences are unlikely.
• If risk is medium, harm is more likely to arise despite precautions.
• If risk is high, evaluate if proceeding is sensible, and controls should be implemented to reduce the risk.
• Severity should be considered when assessing risk, this is the severity of the harm that could result from a hazard.
• Hazards can be low risk, there's no such thing as complete safety.
• Skill can lesson the likelihood of accident.
• Most people at risk can be identified, they can be employees, customers and even children.
• Preventing work related injury and involves assessment and control, acceptable risk is subjective.
• Control measures limit the risk, and precautions are to reduce the risk.
• Evaluate risk and reduce it as needed for human health and safety.
• Everyone has a right to a safe environment, that is paramount to safety legislation, and they have a duty to make it so.
• The government sets up rules for legislation, guidance, enforcement, and education.
• Employers and the self-employed have obligations to follow safety legislation with training.
• The company must not create health and safety problems for customers.

How Work Affects Health

• Occupational health describes how work can affect health.
• According to WHO and ILO, occupational health promotes maintaining the health of workers.
• It involves preventing illness and adapting work to people.

Key Words and Phrases for Health

• Acute health effects manifests as rapid illness after a short exposure to a harmful substance.
• Aerosol is defined as an airborne droplet.
• Bacteria is defined as microscopic organisms which can be beneficial or harmful to human health, they can cause diseases.
• Carcinogens and carcinogenic are substances that can cause cancer.
• Chronic health effects manifest over a long period, usually after prolonged or repeated low-level exposure.
• Ergonomics studies the interaction between people and their work.
• Fume includes microscopic airborne particles produced during industrial processes, and it may be toxic.
• Gas is defined as an air-like substance that expands irrespective of it's quantity.
• Musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) are conditions like nerve damage.
• Occupational health concerns a person's overall well-being due to work.
• Sensitisation describes as a process by which the body becomes sensitive to something.
• Vapour is a gaseous form of a liquid at room temperature.
• Virus are microscopic infectious particles that harm a host.

Illness and Injury

• Occupational health is associated with illnesses caused by work.
• Some illnesses associated with work take years to develop to a stage where they are recognized.
• The management and supervision of occupational health involves controlling hazards that affect the body over a long period and surveillance of things that can affect employees health.
• Affecting health in the short term, everyday we handle things we can affect or health.
• Respiratory illnesses can affect engineers.
• It is important to understand how substances enter the body so safe systems can be designed.
• Chemicals enter the body easily in various forms like aerosols, fumes, dust, etc
• For example, the size of a fiber is important.

Health effects

• Health effects can be acute or chronic, acute effects involve sudden and severe exposure and rapid absorption of a substance.
• Harmful elements enter the body by Inhalation, Absorption, Ingestion, Injection.
• Most commonly by breathing.
• The body reacts to substances and develops symptoms.
• Symptoms and effects include a reaction, or carcinogenic, or a toxic reaction.
• The respiratory system reacts in different ways, the skin can develop rashes.
• Some fungi can cause poisoning, toxic chemicals can too.
• Carcinogens can alter the way cells grow and can lead to cancer.

Health Hazards

• Health problems can be chemical, physical, ergonomic or biological.
• Main hazards are noise, radiations, substances, drugs and violence.
• Excessive noise leads to hearing loss.
• Radiation has dangerous particles that can lead to problems in living things.
• Many substances can be hazardous to human health leading to poisoning.
• Workers are exposed to biological things that can cause them harm.
• Misused substances cause accidents, harm and reduce productivity.
• Excessive drinking causes accidents and near misses.
• Verbal abuse and physical attacks leads to injury and lower staff morale.
• Activities at work cause damage musculoskeletal disorders.
• Repetitive work can lead to strain injury.
• Ailments can come from stress at work.
• Second hand smoke can cause problems even if you yourself don't smoke.

Potential Workplace Injuries

• Hundreds of people in the UK lose their lives because of their activities at work and thousands of more suffer injuries of some kind, and the aim is the law prevent them.
• The purpose of safety in the workplace is to reduce the number and outcomes of accidents.
• Key terms:
  • Accidents are resulting damages to property, health, safety or even loss of oppertunities.
  • Ergonomic principles are the degree in which a job is designed to fit a person.
  • Health and Safety Culture is the integration of control into day to day.
  • Incidence is an unplanned event that has potential to do harm.
  • Intervention program are a series of actions designed to imprive safety.
• Accidents can be controlled by planning and implementation.
• Accidents can result in death, injury, long term problems, damage to the property, and can be near misses.

Accident Analysis and Prevention Factors

• Accidents can be the result of failure that is difficult to predict, thus you have to control it.
• Accidents can be unpredictable and result of failures, and failure can happen due to a combination of occupational factors, environmental factors, human and organization.
• Effective communication reduces the risk.
• Safety standards and principles should be applied to working equipment.
• Poor lighting can be a an environmental factor contributing to accidents.
• Characteristics may influence a person such as general health and fatigue.
• Certain standards can be set in place to prevent and encourage safety which can reduce accident risk significantly.

Accident Causes and Prevention

• Occupational, environmental, human factors help explain failure to control.
• Typical causes can be divided into three groups unsafe: acts, conditions, of both.
• Examples of unsafe acts is working equipement incorrectly, or operating dangerous machinary.
• Unsafe conditions is inaqeduate maintenance, poor lighting.
• Reduce accidents risk by preventing unsafe acts like not wearing a guard, or doing unsafe practices with machinery.

Root causes of Accidents

• Contributing factors are poor management.
• Poor health and safety cultures where safety is a low priority.
• A scapegoat is rare, but bad management is usually to blame.

The Cost of Workplace Accidents and Ill Health

• Accidents and ill health at work have large effect.
• This includes loss of life, injury or sickness, wasted money, machinery damage, product loss etc
• More than 2 million a year suffer from ill health from work, and 1 million getting injured.
• High levels of lost work days lost from this.
• Basil Buttler noted that prevention of these issues is better than cure.
• Accidents may result in cost to employees, injuries or death.
• Emotional and financial loss also affect close relation with and to employees.
• Affect generaly because of all cases due to health issues, which creates national health services costs.

Employer Accident Mitigation

• Cost of the accident will be the cost of damage repairs to the facility or vehichles, legal, fines.
• Direct costs such as damage to buildings, can have indirect costs, businiess interuption.
• Accident and illness will spread far beyond the obvious cost.
• Nearly two thirds of the small businesses will have work related back issues.
• Overtime pay is necessary but investigation incurs extra cost.
• Costs that can be reduced includes rescheduling or replacing employees.
• Controls can reduce accidents.