Workplace Safety and Risk Management

General Introduction

• Engineers create products and processes to meet basic needs and enhance daily life.
• Innovation involves applying better solutions through improved products, processes, and technologies.
• Human factors and safety engineering are important disciplines.
• Danger refers to the possible harm that can be experienced.
• Hazard is the source of danger (e.g., water can cause drowning).
• Risk is the probability of experiencing harm.
• Severity is a measure of the harm (e.g., number of deaths or cost).
• An accident is an unplanned, unanticipated, and uncontrollable event sequence.
• Accidents can result in immediate or delayed negative effects.
• Direct costs of accidents include medical expenses.
• Indirect costs of accidents include reduced productivity and administrative costs.
• An incident is an unplanned event that affects a task but does not result in damage.

Safety, Definitions

• Danger is the negative outcome or injury that can be experienced
• A hazard is a source or cause of danger
• Risk is the probability of encountering harm at a specific level of severity
• Severity is a measure of the harm or negative consequences, including the number of lives lost or the amount of money spent on insurance

Major Injury Accident

• Accident analysis reports should address the "who, what, where, when and why" of an accident
• Minor injury accidents, such as a forklift that hits a stack of products, are documented using accident reports.
• Reports concerning any injuries, must include the "who, what, where, and when"
• No injury incidents (near misses) are documented to focus on improvement and prevent injuries

How to control safety

• Identify hazards.
• Maintain an acceptable level of safety through hazard elimination and reduction.
• Evaluate and assess the safety program

Why "Safety"

• Social obligations
• Moral and ethical reasons
• Worker morale
• Fiscal obligations (direct and indirect costs)
• Outlays
• Legal obligations
• Government agencies and authorities
• Legislation and regulations

Chapter 1&2

• Dealing with applicable safety standards is important.
• Safety and health managers should focus on the 10% of standards that are most critical to safety.
• Hazards can be physically infeasible to correct, physically feasible but not economically feasible, or both physically and economically feasible to correct.

SHM responsibilities

• Legal compliance: Ensure compliance with relevant laws and standards.
• Inspection and reporting: Record and investigate accidents and near misses.
• Risk assessments: Conduct risk assessments and review them regularly to develop safe systems of work.
• Staff training and awareness: Ensure staff are trained on safe systems of work and safety information.
• Inspections and reporting: Ensure reporting of any serious workplace accidents, occupational illnesses, and dangerous occurrences.
• Promoting safety culture: Lead by example and address any unsafe behavior.
• Improvement proposals: Propose opportunities for improvement to the board and provide the ethical, legal, and financial arguments to support decisions.

Safety: Fundamental Concepts and Standards

• OSHA aims to reduce workplace fatalities
• Accidents have direct costs (e.g., medical expenses) and indirect costs (e.g., lost productivity).

A Typical Safety Management Program

• Management Commitment (TMC) involves the employer's dedication to safety.
• Effective Accountability emphasizes company standards to achieve safety via consequences.
• Employee Involvement includes individual motivation, skills, and communication.
• Hazards minimization requires effective hazard recognition, preventive action assignment, and comprehensive action evaluation.
• Four Ms Model (Man, Machine, Method, and Material) outlines the potential factors in industrial accidents.
• Human errors (omissions and commissions) can lead to accidents.
• Age and time on the job can influence accident rates

Machine Job Factors

• Methods, including manual, mechanized, or automated methods, influence accident rates.
• Machines may cause injuries due to their electrical, mechanical, and temperature hazards.
• Materials with qualities such as corrosiveness, toxicity, and flammability pose risks.
• Media encompasses the factors like noise, temperature, and presence of radiation.
• Social aspects involve workplace policies, norms, and training.
• Management ensures that safety is important with authority, accountability and responsible implementation.

Domino Theory

• The theory compares the causes of accidents to cascading dominoes.

Fishbone Diagram

• The 6Ms (Factors) of cause and effect.

Swiss Cheese Diagram

• Layers of defense against potential hazards.

Accident Analysis/Investigation

• Proactive approach is doing everything to anticipate and prevent accidents.
• Reactive approach focuses on limiting losses after an accident occurs.

Education and Training

• Importance of safety training for employees to prevent hazards.
• Incidence Rate: frequency and severity data to assess the incidence rate of injuries and accidents

Program Evaluation

• Plan, do, study, and act approach for evaluating safety programs to improve and reduce risks.

Electrical Hazards

• Insufficient insulation
• Wetting of workplace and machinery
• Electrocution, shock, and burns
• Current flow (greatest danger)
• Detection methods are needed to identify electrical hazards.
• Steps to reduce risks, including utilizing double insulation, fuses, and circuit breakers.

Mechanical Hazards and Machine Safeguarding

• Mechanical hazards are associated with power-driven machinery:
• Point of operation, power transmission, in-running nip points, rotating/reciprocating parts, and flying components.
• The use of guards and safety measures help to prevent injuries.

Safeguarding

• Any machine part or process capable of causing injury must be guarded to prevent injuries in the workplace.
• Methods of safeguarding include presence sensing devices, electricity protections, and radio frequency devices.

Types of Guards

• Fixed, interlocked, and adjustable guards

Zero Mechanical State

• Importance of proper safeguarding and use of locks and tags during maintenance or repair.
• Energy sources need to be isolated and maintained in a safe state for maintenance or inspections

Extreme Temperatures (Heat and Cold Stress)

• High/low temperatures are hazards as high temperatures and humidity pose risks to personnel; conversely, low temperatures also pose a hazard.
• Conduction, convection, and metabolic heat are related to temperature and heat stress.
• Recognizing heat stress involves assessing heart rate, core body temperature, and fatigue level
• PPEs and other preventive measures can mitigate heat/cold stress.

Manual Material Handling Issues

• Materials handling is important for every job and is a common cause of workplace back injuries
• Materials handling activities involve lifting, lowering, pushing, pulling, twisting, holding, and carrying.
• Work factors contributing to back injuries during material handling include weight, range of lift, and location of load.
• Ergonomics seeks to match the design of machines to the capabilities of humans.
• NIOSH equation for the design and evaluation of manual lifting tasks is used to determine if a task is safe for humans.

Workplace Noise

• Noise exposure can cause hearing loss; use appropriate hearing protection measures

Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)

• PPE protects employees from hazards and must be assessed and selected accordingly.
• Types of PPE cover eyes, face, head, ears, feet, and hands, and are important for different tasks, like working with heavy equipment or hazardous materials.

Hazardous Materials Transportation

• DOT and UN standards regulate the transport of hazardous materials.
• Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS) provide information on hazardous materials.

Special Signs, Tags and Labels

• These are essential for safety (Danger, Warning, Caution etc).
• Information displayed on tags should be clear and concise.

Fire Hazards

• Fire prevention plans (FPPs) are important for protecting workers and facilities from fires.
• Includes identification of potential hazards, procedures, and training of personnel.
• Fire safety procedures for flammables and combustibles are crucial for preventing fires.

Emergency Action Plan (EAP)

• The EAP outlines steps to take in case of an emergency.
• The plan should include clear paths for worker safety in different emergencies including fire evacuation.