Occupational Health and Safety | Health and Safety



Occupational health and safety | Health and Safety

Occupational Health and Safety


Our discussion today we'll focus on the introduction to Occupation Health and Safety including important terminologies, the importance of Safety and Health, types of hazards in the workplace and cause of accidents and disease.

At the end of this lesson, you should be able to achieve the following objectives.
  1. Recognize the type of Hazards and its examples.
  2. Identify the direct and indirect cost of neglecting safety, and
  3. Appreciate the importance of Health and Safety in daily life.

Important Terminologies of Occupational Health and Safety-

Safety is the protection from physical injury and mental the well-being of the individual.

Health refers to the protection of the body and mind of people from illness, resulting from the materials, processes or procedures used in the workplace.

Welfare is the provision of facilities to maintain the health and well-being of the individuals in the workplace.
Hazard is the way in which an object or a situation may cause harm the hazard exists where an object or substance or situation has a built-in ability to cause an adverse effect.

Exposure refers to the extent to which the likely recipient of the ham is exposed to or can be influenced by behavior.

Risk is the chance, that such effects will occur the risk can be high or negligible.

Occupational Health and Safety is a discipline with a broad scope involving many specialized firms in its broadest sense. It should aim at the promotion and maintenance of the highest degree of physical mental and social well-being of workers in all occupations. 
Prevention among workers of adverse effects on health caused by the working conditions. 
Protection of workers in employment from risks resulting from factors adverse to health. 
Placing in the maintenance of workers in an occupational environment adapted to physical and mental needs and adaptation of work to humans.

A successful occupational Health and Safety in an organization are depending on commitment and participation among employers and employees. It is one of the responsibilities of the employees under the Occupational Health and Safety Act1994 to care about the Health and Safety of workers when employed in any organization. This act regulated by the Department of Occupational Health and Safety under the Ministry of Human Resources.

Type of Hazards in the Workplace-

  • Physical hazard-which is associated with energy such as noise, electricity, extreme temperature, radiation, and vibration.
  • Chemical hazard-substance or chemical mixture that may be explosive, flammable, toxic and corrosive.
  • Biological hazard-hazards due to an organism such as viruses, bacteria and protozoa.
  • Psychological hazard-hazards related to psychosocial and social factors, for example, overwork, shift work and job stress.
  • Ergonomic hazard- which refers to physical factors within the environment that harms the musculoskeletal system such as awkward posture, manual handling and repetitive movement. 
Unhealthy or unsafe working conditions due to those hazardous exposures can be found anywhere, whether the workplace is indoors or outdoors. poor working conditions can affect the environment where workers live in. this means workers and their families are the people in the society and the physical environment around the workplace can all of them be at risk from exposure to the workplace hazards.

How can that be let us have a look at this example, the use of pesticides in agricultural work workers can be exposed to toxic chemicals in a number of ways? When spraying pesticides they can inhale the chemicals during, and after spraying. Chemicals can be absorbed through the skin and the workers can ingest chemicals while they eat, drink or smoke if they are not washing their hands, or drinking water can become contaminated with the chemicals. The workers' families can also be exposed in a number of ways, they can inhale the pesticides which may remain in the air. They can drain contaminated water or they can be exposed to residues which may be on the worker's clothes.

Other people in the community can also be exposed in the same ways as well, when the chemicals get absorbed into the soil, or absorbed into the groundwater supplies.
The adverse effects on the natural environment can be permanent, these will result in occupational diseases.

Work-related incidents, accidents or diseases are very common and costly, and can have many serious direct and indirect effects on the lives of workers and their families, for the workers, some of the direct costs of an injury or illness are-
  • The pain and suffering of the injury or illness.
  • The loss of income
  • The possible loss of a job and
  • Health care costs
Meanwhile for indirect costs, it has been estimated ten times greater than the direct costs or even more. An industrial or occupational illness or accident can have many indirect costs, that it is always difficult to measure them. One of the most obvious in this cause is the human suffering cost to workers' families, which cannot be compensated with money. A single accident or illness can bring unanimous financial loss for both, workers or buyers.

For the above reasons, it is essential that employer’s workers and unions are committed to Health and Safety so that workplace hazards can be controlled and risks minimized. 

The effective workplace Health and Safety programs can help in a way to save the lives of workers by minimizing hazards. There are consequences. Health and Safety programs also have a positive effect on both, workers morale and productivity. 

As a conclusion for this lesson, let us recap the important points, first Occupational Health and Safety encompasses the social mental and physical well-being of workers in all occupations second poor working conditions can affect word press their families are the people in the community and a physical environment around the workplace all can be at the risk from exposure to workplace hazards.

Comments

Post a Comment

Populaar Posts

Office Ergonomics-Contact Stress: This Is What Professionals Do

Image
  Contact Stress- Contact stress results from occasional repeated or continuous contact between sensitive body tissue and a hard or sharp object contact stress commonly affects the soft tissue on the fingers, palms, forearms, thighs, calves and feet. Prolonged contact stress can inhibit blood flow, tendon and muscle movement and nerve function. One common example is resting wrists or elbows on the sharp edge of a desk or workstation, while performing tasks this can take place, while typing with the keyboard either too close or too far away using the mouse for a prolonged period of time can also lead to contact stress. The stress can be prevented by repositioning commonly used workstation items floating hands above the keyboard and reducing tension in the shoulders eliminates potential contact stress using a keyboard tray eliminates contact with a work surface edge and keeps your arms in a neutral position. Optimal neutral arm position has the arms relaxed at the side of the body with a
Read more

Machinery Safety | Health and Safety

Image
Machinery Hazards “Safety of Machinery-Basic concepts, general principles for design” describes many hazards related to both the basic operation of machinery and unexpected eventualities arising from failures. The intention is to provide designers with guidance for determining relevant, significant hazards that may be generated by a given machine in the environment that it is intended to be used. The hazards outlined can be sub categorized as mechanical and non-mechanical. Mechanical Hazards Mechanical hazard associated with machinery, parts, tools, work pieces, loads, and materials include the following: Entanglement. Drawing in or trapping. Crushing. Shearing. Impact. Friction or abrasion. Stabbing or severing and Ejection of materials, including high-pressure fluid injection. Entanglement- Injuries can be caused by entanglement of limbs, hair, jewelry or clothing in rotating parts of machinery e.g. drill chucks, flywheels, spindles
Read more

The Respiratory System of Human Body

Image
  We are going to discuss about the respiratory system in this article. One of the most vital organ systems of our body is the respiratory system. We breathe about 16,000 to 24,000 times per day, which exchanges about 11,000 liters of air with the atmosphere in this process. The oxygen of the atmospheric air is delivered to the human body, which is then utilized by all the tissues, and the carbon dioxide which is produced by the human body is exported to the lungs and then exchanged with the atmospheric air, In this article we will first talk about the brief anatomy and physiology of the human respiratory system and then we will discuss how the gas transport to the alveoli occurs, we will talk about how the human respiratory system works together with the circulatory system and then we will talk about how the gas exchange happens in the alveoli.   So, first coming to the anatomy and physiology of the human respiratory system, the vocal cords present in the larynx divide the respira
Read more

Personal Protective Equipment | Health and Safety

Image
It is estimated that 90% of workplace injuries could be prevented, if personnel had worn the right personal protective equipment, and used it properly. Unfortunately, the utilization of private protective equipment or PPE is usually not understood. Resulting in accidents, PPE is a vital part of minimizing the risks of accidents. The risk of injury is often minimized if you understand the principles of PPE safety. This article covers types of PPE including head, foot, hand and arm, face, hearing, body, respiratory and fall protection. We will also look at PPE risk control and maintenance and storage of personal protective equipment or PPE comprises of a range of clothing and equipment that is worn by personnel, contractors or visitors to reduce their exposure to workplace hazards. Let’s have a look at the range of PPE that is available to protect your health and Safety. Head Protection and Personal Protective Equipment- Head injuries are classified as either closed o
Read more