Multi Disciplinary Nature of H&S

 started off during industrial revolution 200 to 250 yrs ago

 roots lie in the development of largescale

manufacturing operations

 H&S issues build up over time & not instantly

Range of Different Disciplines

 chemistry & physics

biological siences

engineering

psychology

sociology

the law

Barriers to Good H&S Standards

1. Cost of production & HSE
2. Difficulty in indentifying causes & effect
3. Extent of problems
4. Work process - technical dev - stress - complex work methods

Behavioural issues like :

• lack of competence
• peer pressure
• working hours (night shift more risky coz less supervision and people take slack)
• work culture

Complexity of the problem x 3

1. Cause & Effect Relationship where identification of cause is difficult and what cannot be identified then causes harm

Example WRULD - Work Related Upper Limb Disorders or RSI - Repetitive Strain Injury where only some computer operators are affected and not all

2.   Work Processes and Activities in last 30 yrs has seen a revolution

• stress has grown
• pace of change is massive hence difficult to keep updating
• more tech. dev.
• reliance of computerisation increased
• reliance of IT increased

3.   Extent of Problem

• hazards & risks to health have become better understood
• hence range of issues to be taken into account have made this more complex
• legislations have increased in number & complexity
• H&SP have a task to keep update with new info
• implementing it in already complex work env.

Health Hazards

• results into diseases
• generally long term
• takes time to manifest in the body
• generally irreversible
• identification difficult
• Example : Asbestos causes cancer

Safety Hazards

• results into injury
• immediate
• body generally recovers unless one dies of it
• results into absence from work
• identifying cause and effect straightforward
• Example : Forklit

UK Stats 2004

• Safety deaths - 234
• Health deaths - 30,000 (not all get reported)

Welfare

• Toilettes can affect work coz one stops thinking about work if not available
• rest rooms and canteens are necessary
• Clean water, showers, changing rooms
• First Aid
• Food & Facility to eat food
• ventilation and shade

Reports to Gov.

• Death
• Major Illnesses - Limb & Rib Fractures, Spine & neck injuries
• Diseases
• Dangerous Occurences
• Over 3 day Injury

Competing & Conflicting Demands

• Orgs exist to produce good & services demanded of them by the customers
• If they do not do this & do it profitably they will go out of business
• If public then political or management changes
• Primary Obj of Mngmnt in a competitive & cost-conscious env. therefore, is to achieve those goals

Competing & Conflicting Demands

• HSE is seen as a non-prod. cost
• hence not given due priority of management
• Instead seen as conflicting with need to increase production or pursue high sales or cut costs
• Results in serious workplace accidents, injuries or diseases at workplace

Behavioural Issues

First thing to note is that for Occ. H&S practice to work successfully, employers & employees have to work in collaboration & participate in all H&S matters

• Carelessness mostly linked to mngmnt
• Incompetent employees also can be barriers if they dont know how to make safety measures work

What is competency ?

Major source of weakness

       SKETL

• Skills
• Knowledge
• Experience
• Training
• Knowing your Limits

Health, Safety, Welfare & Environmental Protection at work is a general term to cover a wide range of effects which may be created by activities and events which occur at the workplace

Health

Physical condition of both body and mind, of all people at the workplace (employees, contractors and visitors) and their protection from harm in the form of injury or disease

Safety

Conditions at the workplace and applies to the pursuit of a state where the risk of harm has been eliminated or reduced to an acceptable level

Welfare

General wellbeing of employees at the workplace and the promotion of conditions which help to provde for their needs in respoect of health, comfort, social and personal well-being.

Not a specific concern but effective H&S contribute to the conditions which promote it

Environmental Protection

1. Work Place Environment

2.  External Environment

Workplace Env.

General conditions in the immediate area of the workplace itself eg. levels of lighting, noise, heat, etc

External Env.

Pollution or damage to air, land, water and living creatures outside the workplace but affected by workplace acitivies

Incident

An event that gave rise to an accident or had the potential to lead to an accident

Unplanned, unwanted event which had a potential to cause loss of some kind (injury, disease, death, property / equipment damage, REPUTATION...)

Accident

Undesired event, giving rise to death, ill-health, injury, damage or other loss

Unplanned, unwanted event which causes loss of some kind.

An incident can become an accident (Brick Falling..)

Some Results of Accidents

LTI   Lost Time Injury

MTC   Medical Treatment Cases

Both are reported and affect statistics depending on the way an organisation defines it

Near Miss

Any form of event which could have resulted in injury or loss but did not in fact do so

Same events withh the same causes as the accidents but with a different outcome

It is imp that lessons be learnt from NMs to prevent reoccurence & probable harm next time around

Occupational Accident

An occurence arising out of or in the course of work which results in fatal or non-fatal injury

Commuting Accident

An acident resulting in death or personal injury occurring on the direct way between place of work & :

• employees principal or secondary residence
• place where employee usually takes a meal
• place where the employee usually receives his or her remuneration

Dangerous Occurence

A readily identifiable event as defined under national laws & regulations, with potential to cause an injury or disease to persons at work or to the public.

These events usually involve some form of loss or damage to equipment

Work Related Ill-Health

• Easy to equate personal injury with accidents
• Work related ill health may also be the outcome of a type of accident
• Nobody sets out deliberately to create conditions whcih cause asbestosis or WRULDs

Main difference between Health & Safety issues are timescale and the nature of the harm

Work-related ill-health may be either physiological or psychological

Physiological

Diseases or injuries suffered as a result of long-term exposure to dangerous substances in the workplace (dusts, fumes) or to damaging practices (repetitive movements or excessive noise)

Psychological

Usually related to stress and include such illnesses as depression.  Stress may be created by short-term or even instant events where the emotional shock of a particular incident or series of incidents

Hazard

Article, substance or situation, that has the potential to cause harm or damage

Working at Heights, noise, electricity, machinery, chemicals, poor lighting, manual handling, cluttered walkways, fire, slippery surfaces, uneven surfaces

May be caused due to UNSAFE ACTS or UNSAFE CONDITIONS

Risk

Likelihood or probability or harm occurring

Degree of risk depends upon the likelihood of harm happening & the severity of outcome

ALARP

Impossible to eliminate all hazards but can be reduced to an acceptable level of risk turning into an accident

AS LOW AS REASONABLY PRACTICABLE

It is a BALANCE

between time, money and effort  against reduction of he risk

Reasons for HSE

1. Moral Reasons - Responsibility to do what is right
2. Legal - Reflection of what you should do morally
3. Economic / Financial - Uncomfortable on short term but beneficial over long term

Responsibility for H&S at work rests primarily on the shoulders of the employer

 Management to ensure that appropriate measures and practices are in place to create safe working conditions

 Legislations demand this most of the time

Compelling Reasons for Employers to worry

 Moral

 Legal

 Economic / Financial

Moral

Employers provide premises, equipment, R&Rs for employees to produce goods to earn profits

In return they provide an income to employees

They therefore have a moral responsibility to provide appropriate working conditions

Legal

Unsafe working conditions have impact on production - thru loss of output & low employee morale & motivation and on sales

If an employer has poor H&S records he is affected by adverse negative image

Economic / Financial

Apart from financial cost of loss of output, employers may be liable for fines and / or payment of damages in respect of accidents at work

Downtime and lawyers would also cost a lot

Introduction of legislation has brought about a consistent reduction in the number of both fatal and non-fatal accidents at work.

Biggest and most dangerous fatalities occur in agriculture in addition to construction and fishing

Employers Legal Responsibilities

Safe Place of Work (SPOW)

Safe Plant & Equipment (CLIT)

Safe System of Work (SSOW)

Training, Supervision & Competent Employees (ITIS)

Safe Place of Work

reasonably safe place of work, safe access to and from, signs, barriers, floors, walkways, traffic routes, ventilation, lights....

Safe Plant & Equipment

CLIT

All machinery, tools, plant, equipment and appliances to be used by employees must at all times be kept in a well-maintained and safe condition.

Greater the risk involved, greater should be the care

Safe System of Work (SSOW)

Safe place and safe plant are not enough.

Safe proc. for use of equipment are necessary too.

Should be rigourously maintained.

If employer will not, then employees will and thats where risk arises

SSOW procs. must cover all foreseeable possibilities

SSOWs should be reasonably safe at all times

Consider all weathers for drilling for example

The fact that SSOW has been in ops without incident for a long time does not mean it is safe !!!

Training, Supervision & Competency of Staff

ITIS

Employees should be recruited & trained properly

Supervised to ensure instructions are followed

In absence of supervision, safe working procedures will be ignored

Direct & Indirect Costs

Costs of H&S failures at work are enormous

Direct Costs

Indirect Costs

Direct Costs

Measurable costs arising from an accident, liability claims under civil or criminal courts

Includes sick pay, equipment repairs / replacement, product or production loss or damage, fines, legal fees, increased insurance premiums

Indirect Costs

Arise as result of event but not monetary

Largely unknown but maybe high

Business interruption, loss of orders, cost of time on investigations, loss of reputation and corporate image, loss of customers and shareholders

Barriers to Good H&S Standards

1. Cost of production & HSE
2. Difficulty in indentifying causes & effect
3. Extent of problems
4. Work process - technical dev - stress - complex work methods

Behavioural issues like :

• lack of competence
• peer pressure
• working hours (night shift more risky coz less supervision and people take slack)
• work culture

Complexity of the problem x 3

1. Cause & Effect Relationship where identification of cause is difficult and what cannot be identified then causes harm

Example WRULD - Work Related Upper Limb Disorders or RSI - Repetitive Strain Injury where only some computer operators are affected and not all

2.   Work Processes and Activities in last 30 yrs has seen a revolution

• stress has grown
• pace of change is massive hence difficult to keep updating
• more tech. dev.
• reliance of computerisation increased
• reliance of IT increased

3.   Extent of Problem

• hazards & risks to health have become better understood
• hence range of issues to be taken into account have made this more complex
• legislations have increased in number & complexity
• H&SP have a task to keep update with new info
• implementing it in already complex work env.

Health Hazards

• results into diseases
• generally long term
• takes time to manifest in the body
• generally irreversible
• identification difficult
• Example : Asbestos causes cancer

Safety Hazards

• results into injury
• immediate
• body generally recovers unless one dies of it
• results into absence from work
• identifying cause and effect straightforward
• Example : Forklit

UK Stats 2004

• Safety deaths - 234
• Health deaths - 30,000 (not all get reported)

Welfare

• Toilettes can affect work coz one stops thinking about work if not available
• rest rooms and canteens are necessary
• Clean water, showers, changing rooms
• First Aid
• Food & Facility to eat food
• ventilation and shade

Reports to Gov.

• Death
• Major Illnesses - Limb & Rib Fractures, Spine & neck injuries
• Diseases
• Dangerous Occurences
• Over 3 day Injury

Competing & Conflicting Demands

• Orgs exist to produce good & services demanded of them by the customers
• If they do not do this & do it profitably they will go out of business
• If public then political or management changes
• Primary Obj of Mngmnt in a competitive & cost-conscious env. therefore, is to achieve those goals

Competing & Conflicting Demands

• HSE is seen as a non-prod. cost
• hence not given due priority of management
• Instead seen as conflicting with need to increase production or pursue high sales or cut costs
• Results in serious workplace accidents, injuries or diseases at workplace

Behavioural Issues

First thing to note is that for Occ. H&S practice to work successfully, employers & employees have to work in collaboration & participate in all H&S matters

• Carelessness mostly linked to mngmnt
• Incompetent employees also can be barriers if they dont know how to make safety measures work

What is competency ?

Major source of weakness

       SKETL

• Skills
• Knowledge
• Experience
• Training
• Knowing your Limits

Health, Safety, Welfare & Environmental Protection at work is a general term to cover a wide range of effects which may be created by activities and events which occur at the workplace

Health

Physical condition of both body and mind, of all people at the workplace (employees, contractors and visitors) and their protection from harm in the form of injury or disease

Safety

Conditions at the workplace and applies to the pursuit of a state where the risk of harm has been eliminated or reduced to an acceptable level

Welfare

General wellbeing of employees at the workplace and the promotion of conditions which help to provde for their needs in respoect of health, comfort, social and personal well-being.

Not a specific concern but effective H&S contribute to the conditions which promote it

Environmental Protection

1. Work Place Environment

2.  External Environment

Workplace Env.

General conditions in the immediate area of the workplace itself eg. levels of lighting, noise, heat, etc

External Env.

Pollution or damage to air, land, water and living creatures outside the workplace but affected by workplace acitivies

Incident

An event that gave rise to an accident or had the potential to lead to an accident

Unplanned, unwanted event which had a potential to cause loss of some kind (injury, disease, death, property / equipment damage, REPUTATION...)

Accident

Undesired event, giving rise to death, ill-health, injury, damage or other loss

Unplanned, unwanted event which causes loss of some kind.

An incident can become an accident (Brick Falling..)

Some Results of Accidents

LTI   Lost Time Injury

MTC   Medical Treatment Cases

Both are reported and affect statistics depending on the way an organisation defines it

Near Miss

Any form of event which could have resulted in injury or loss but did not in fact do so

Same events withh the same causes as the accidents but with a different outcome

It is imp that lessons be learnt from NMs to prevent reoccurence & probable harm next time around

Occupational Accident

An occurence arising out of or in the course of work which results in fatal or non-fatal injury

Commuting Accident

An acident resulting in death or personal injury occurring on the direct way between place of work & :

• employees principal or secondary residence
• place where employee usually takes a meal
• place where the employee usually receives his or her remuneration

Dangerous Occurence

A readily identifiable event as defined under national laws & regulations, with potential to cause an injury or disease to persons at work or to the public.

These events usually involve some form of loss or damage to equipment

Work Related Ill-Health

• Easy to equate personal injury with accidents
• Work related ill health may also be the outcome of a type of accident
• Nobody sets out deliberately to create conditions whcih cause asbestosis or WRULDs

Main difference between Health & Safety issues are timescale and the nature of the harm

Work-related ill-health may be either physiological or psychological

Physiological

Diseases or injuries suffered as a result of long-term exposure to dangerous substances in the workplace (dusts, fumes) or to damaging practices (repetitive movements or excessive noise)

Psychological

Usually related to stress and include such illnesses as depression.  Stress may be created by short-term or even instant events where the emotional shock of a particular incident or series of incidents

Hazard

Article, substance or situation, that has the potential to cause harm or damage

Working at Heights, noise, electricity, machinery, chemicals, poor lighting, manual handling, cluttered walkways, fire, slippery surfaces, uneven surfaces

May be caused due to UNSAFE ACTS or UNSAFE CONDITIONS

Risk

Likelihood or probability or harm occurring

Degree of risk depends upon the likelihood of harm happening & the severity of outcome

ALARP

Impossible to eliminate all hazards but can be reduced to an acceptable level of risk turning into an accident

AS LOW AS REASONABLY PRACTICABLE

It is a BALANCE

between time, money and effort  against reduction of he risk

Reasons for HSE

1. Moral Reasons - Responsibility to do what is right
2. Legal - Reflection of what you should do morally
3. Economic / Financial - Uncomfortable on short term but beneficial over long term