Workplace Hazards: Identifying and Mitigating Risks
Workplace Hazards
1. Defining Occupational Hazards
An occupational hazard is the possibility of a worker suffering an injury due to conditions inherent in their job.
A hazard is considered serious and imminent when it is reasonably likely to occur in the immediate future and poses a significant threat to worker health.
2. Working Conditions and Safety
Safe working conditions encompass:
- General characteristics of premises and facilities.
- Work equipment: machinery, tools, products, and workplace tools.
- Environmental conditions.
- Physical, chemical, and biological agents.
- Procedures for using and handling these agents.
- Organization and management of labor.
- Workload, including physical and mental demands.
- Any other work characteristic that creates risks.
The definition of occupational hazard is broad, allowing the inclusion of any job characteristic that presents a risk.
3. Environmental Risk Factors
3.1 Physical Agents
- Noise: Unwanted and annoying sound that can damage health, hinder work, and cause hearing impairment and psychological disorders like lack of concentration, fatigue, and aggression.
- Vibration: Oscillatory movements of a particle around a fixed point. Frequency is measured in Hertz (Hz).
- Ionizing and Non-ionizing Radiation: Energy moving from one point to another without material support. Can be dangerous depending on the type and duration of exposure.
- Lighting: A fundamental factor for safe and productive work. Inadequate lighting increases occupational accidents, eyestrain, itchy eyes, and headaches.
3.2 Hazardous Chemical Agents
Chemical agents that pose a risk to worker safety and health due to their properties, use, or presence in the workplace. Risks depend on the concentration level and the duration of exposure.
3.3 Biological Agents
Infectious and parasitic agents capable of causing infectious and parasitic diseases, some classified as occupational diseases. Transmission can occur through water, air, soil, animals, raw materials, blood, urine, and saliva. Main pathways into the human body include:
- Respiratory: Through the airway.
- Digestive: Through the mouth.
- Skin: Through the skin.
- Parenteral: Through contaminated needles or surgical equipment.
4. Psychosocial Risk Factors
Workload can be physical and mental.
- Physical strain: Results from performing numerous tasks involving muscular effort at a pace that doesn’t allow the body to recover.
- Mental load: The level of mental activity required to perform a job. Excessive mental effort can lead to mental fatigue.
Negative Effects on Workers:
- Psychological: Anxiety, stress, depression, burnout.
- Psychosomatic: Mental fatigue, insomnia, disturbed sleep cycle.
- Psychosocial: Absenteeism, accidents, isolation, and conflict.
5. Electrical Hazards
The passage of electrical current through the human body can cause:
- Burns
- Difficulty breathing
- Choking
- Unconsciousness
- Increased blood pressure
- Ventricular fibrillation (irregular heartbeat)
- Tetanization (uncontrolled muscle movement preventing release of electrical contact)
- Cardiac arrest