EMET-2001 Health Safety & Environment Module 1 PDF

1 Module 1 Foundations in health and safety Why should we manage workplace health and safety?  Module 1: Foundations in Health & Safety 2 Learning Outcomes On completion of this module, student should be able to: 1. Outline the key concepts, requirements and ben...

1 Module 1 Foundations in health and safety Why should we manage workplace health and safety?  Module 1: Foundations in Health & Safety 2 Learning Outcomes On completion of this module, student should be able to: 1. Outline the key concepts, requirements and benefits of OH&SMS ISO 45001 standard. 2. Explain the moral, social and economic (financial) reasons for maintaining and promoting good standards health and safety in the workplace 3. Outline the legal and organisational health and safety roles and responsibilities of employers and the responsibilities of employees and their rights 4. Identify the key sources of health and safety information  Module 1: Foundations in Health & Safety 3  Module 1: Foundations in Health & Safety 4 Introduction  The study of health and safety involves the study of many different subjects including the sciences (chemistry, physics and biology), engineering, psychology, sociology and the law.  Occupational health and safety is relevant to all branches of industry, business and commerce including traditional industries, information technology companies, the National Health Service, care homes, schools, universities, leisure facilities and offices  Occupational Health and Safety (OH&S) standard is important to be implemented by all organizations  Module 1: Foundations in Health & Safety 5 What is OH&SMS? An Occupational Health and Safety Management System (OH&SMS), is a collaborative and systematic approach to effectively managing occupational health and safety risks.  Module 1: Foundations in Health & Safety 6 OH&SMS systems primarily direct organizations in the following ways: 1. Identify occupational health and safety hazards. 2. Examine the risks associated with the identified hazards. 3. Establish controls to minimize the risks. 4. Define goals for health and safety performance. 5. Create a plan to achieve the goals. 6. Monitor performance against the targets and goals. 7. Report performance results. 8. Review OHSMS results and continuously improve  Module 1: Foundations in Health & Safety 7 Who’s who in OH& SMS? International Organizations:  BS OHSAS 18001, Occupational Health and Safety Assessment Series  ILO-OSH 2001 Safety and Health Management System (International labour office-Geneve)  ISO Standard 45001: 2018 OH&SMS National Organizations:  The National Emergency, Crisis and Disaster Management Authority (“NCEMA”) - The National Standard for Occupational Safety and Health Management System (OSHMS)  OSHAD -Abu Dhabi Occupational Safety and Health Center  Module 1: Foundations in Health & Safety 8 What is ISO 45001: 2018? ISO 45001:2018 is the world’s first standard to provide a comprehensive framework for management systems addressing occupational health and safety issues. The standard defines methods for organizations to improve their Occupational Health and Safety (OH&S) performance by taking proactive steps to prevent worker injuries and poor health and provide a safe and healthy workplace. ISO (the International ISO 45001 was Organization for initially created Standardization) on 25th October 2013  Module 1: Foundations in Health & Safety 9 Why Implement ISO 45001? Implementation of an ISO 45001 compliant OH&S management system can enable an organization to systematically improve their occupational health and safety performance. ISO 45001 methodologies promote:  Increased awareness of health and safety risk associated with their business  Development of OH&S policies and processes including setting OH&S objectives  Workers playing an active role in identifying OH&S risk and driving improvement  Instituting controls to manage OH&S risk including any regulatory or legal requirements  Evaluation of OH&S performance and taking a proactive approach towards improvement  Module 1: Foundations in Health & Safety 10 Benefits of implement ISO 45001 of H&S management system  Reduction of workplace incidents  Reduced absenteeism and staff turnover, leading to increased productivity  Reduced cost of insurance premiums  Creation of a health and safety culture, whereby employees are encouraged to take an active role in their own OH&S  Reinforced leadership commitment to proactively improve OH&S performance ability to meet legal and regulatory requirements  Enhancing reputation  Improving staff morale  Increasing engagement of all workers  Module 1: Foundations in Health & Safety 11 What is a leadership role and how is it mandated in the ISO 45001:2018 standard? Top management must ensure leadership roles and exhibit commitment towards the OH&SMS by: a) Owning responsibility and accountability for avoiding work-based injuries and illness; provide a safe and healthy work environment and processes. b) Making sure that the OH&S policy objectives are identified and relate to the strategy of the company. c) Making sure the OH&SMS integrates into the business processes of the organization. d) Ensuring the availability of the resources required to develop, apply, sustain and enhance the OH&SMS. e) Communicating the significance of the implementation of the OH&SMS and compliance to the standard.  Module 1: Foundations in Health & Safety 12 Meanings and Definitions The topic of occupational health and safety makes use of key words and phrases. Some important definitions are:  Health: Absence of disease or ill health, the protection of the bodies and minds of people from illness resulting from the materials, processes or procedures used in the workplace.  Safety: Absence of risk of serious injury, the protection of people from physical injury. The borderline health & safety is ill-defined and the two words are normally used together to indicate concern for the physical and mental well being of the individual at the place of work  Module 1: Foundations in Health & Safety 13  Welfare: The provision of basic facilities to maintain the health and well- being of the individuals at the workplace. The responsibility of every organization is to provide basic facilities to his workers and staffs, such as washing and sanitation arrangements, the provision of drinking water, heating, lighting, accommodation for clothing, seating (when required by the work activity) eating and rest rooms. First aid arrangements are also considered as welfare facilities Welfare facilities – hand-wash stations  Module 1: Foundations in Health & Safety 14  Environmental Protection: Arrangements to cover those activities in the work place which affect the environment ( in the form of flora, fauna, water, air and soil) and possibly, the health and safety of the employees and others. Such activities include waste and effluent disposal and atmospheric pollution.  Module 1: Foundations in Health & Safety 15  Hazard : Is anything that has the potential to cause harm, ill- health and injury, damage to property, products or the environment; for examples: electricity, chemicals.  Risk : The likelihood that a hazard will cause harm in combination with the severity of injury, damage, or loss that might occur.  Incident: An event that gave rise to an accident or had the potential to lead to an accident (the term incident includes accidents and near misses).  Module 1: Foundations in Health & Safety 16  Accident : An unplanned, unwanted event which leads to injury, damage or loss of property, plant, materials or the environment. An accident is unplanned. Any deliberate attempt to cause injury or loss is therefore not an accident  Near miss : Is defined as an incident in which there was no injury or property damage but where the potential for serious consequences existed, example: a worker drops a spanner from a scaffold narrowly missing a pedestrian, but no injury or harm was caused.  Module 1: Foundations in Health & Safety 17  Dangerous occurrence : This is a specified event that has to be reported to the relevant authority by law, for examples; major gas leaks, equipment coming into contact with overhead power lines, collapse of a scaffold.  Work-related ill-health –Illness or physical and mental disorders that are either caused or triggered by workplace activities. For example, dermatitis from exposure to oils and greases.  Module 1: Foundations in Health & Safety 18 Group activity Have you ever had a workplace accident, or witnessed a serious accident?  Module 1: Foundations in Health & Safety 19 The three main reasons why an organisation has to manage health and safety:  The moral reason relates to the moral duty that one person has to another. Many people are killed, injured or made sick by their work. This is morally unacceptable and society expects good standards of health and safety.  The social (legal) reason relates to the framework of laws that govern the conduct of businesses and organisations.  The financial reason relates to the fact that accidents and ill-health cost money. When an accident occurs there will be direct and indirect costs associated with that event.  Module 1: Foundations in Health & Safety 20 Duty of care each employer owes to their employees Commonly this duty is divided into five specific areas. Employers must: 1. Provide a safe place of work, including access and egress. 2. Provide safe plant and equipment. 3. Provide a safe system of work. 4. Provide safe and competent fellow employees. 5. Provide adequate levels of information, training, instruction and supervision.  Module 1: Foundations in Health & Safety 21 The International Labour Organization (ILO): ILO-OSH 2001 Roles and responsibilities of EMPLOYER: The prime responsibility for health and safety at work lies with the Employer. 1. Provision and maintenance of safe plant and equipment. 2. Provision of safe system of work. 3. Provide safe and competent fellow employees. 4. Provide adequate levels of information, training, instruction and supervision. 5. Provision of welfare facilities (drinking water, sanitation..) 6. Provision of adequate supervision of work practices 7. To Provide, without cost to workers, adequate personal protective equipment (PPE) 8. To remove any extreme physical and mental fatigue  Module 1: Foundations in Health & Safety 22 Employees / workers have the following responsibilities: 1. Take reasonable care of their own health and safety and that of others who may be affected by their acts or omissions at work 2. Comply with instructions given for their own health and safety and that of others and with safety procedures (meaning to follow safe systems of work) 3. Use safety devices and protective equipment correctly and not to render them inoperative 4. Report immediately to their supervisor any situation which they have reason to believe could present a hazard and which they cannot themselves correct 5. Report any accident or injury to health which arises in the course of or in connection with their work  Module 1: Foundations in Health & Safety 23 The Business Case for Health and Safety, When an accident occurs there are two types of losses that the organisation may face:  DIRECT COSTS - the measurable costs arising directly from the accident.  INDIRECT COSTS – those which arise indirectly as consequences of the event / accident  Module 1: Foundations in Health & Safety 24 Example of DIRECT COSTS:  Fines in the criminal courts  First aid treatment  Sick pay for injured worker  Repairs to, or replacement of, damaged equipment and buildings  Lost or damaged product / Lost production  Lost production time whilst dealing with the injury  Compensation payable to the victim, which is likely to be met by insurance cover and will therefore result in an increase in insurance premiums  Overtime to make up for lost time  Module 1: Foundations in Health & Safety 25 Example of INDIRECT COSTS:  Loss of staff from productive duties in order to investigate the incident, prepare reports, undertake hospital visits, deal with relatives, attend court proceedings.  Loss of staff moral (which impacts on productivity and efficiency).  Cost of remedial action following an investigation, e.g. change of process or materials and/or the introduction of further control measures.  Module 1: Foundations in Health & Safety 26 Example of INDIRECT COSTS:  Cost of recruiting and training temporary or replacement labour.  Loss of goodwill of customers following delays in production and fulfilling orders.  Damage to public image and business reputation.  Damage to industrial relations, perhaps leading to industrial action (e.g. strikes).  Module 1: Foundations in Health & Safety 27 The Sources of health & safety information Internal sources:  Health and safety policy  Accident and ill-health records and investigation reports  Absenteeism records  Inspection and audit reports undertaken by the organization, enforcement body or other competent third party  Maintenance records, risk assessments and training records  Safety committees meeting minutes  Equipment testing, inspection and examination reports.  Health and safety advisors / representatives  Module 1: Foundations in Health & Safety 28 External sources:  National health and safety legislation  Government enforcing authority, publications such as codes of practice, guidance notes  International Organization for Standardization (ISO), ILO conventions, recommendations  Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) or NEBOSH  Material safety data sheet (MSDS) from manufacturers  Manufacturers’ operating instructions  Trade associations / union  Health and safety magazines and journals  Module 1: Foundations in Health & Safety 29 1 What are the definitions of the following terms and common workplace examples of each: aHazard bRisk 2. Identify possible costs to an organisation following an accident in the work place 3. In three words sum up the reasons why an organisation should manage health and safety. 4. Outline the main health and safety responsibilities of an employer.