Workplace Safety & Health Essentials: Prevention to Ergonomics
Understanding Risk Prevention & Cycles
Risk prevention is a profession and set of activities aimed at preventing and avoiding accidents and occupational diseases. It primarily involves two major disciplines: industrial hygiene and industrial safety.
Defining Industrial Hygiene
Industrial hygiene focuses on identifying, evaluating, and controlling environmental factors or stresses arising in or from the workplace that may cause sickness, impaired health and well-being, or significant discomfort among workers or citizens of the community. It addresses illnesses workers may face as a direct cause of their job performance or occupational diseases.
Immediate Causes of Workplace Accidents
Immediate causes of accidents are the direct actions or conditions that lead to an incident. These often stem from:
- Lack of Knowledge: The worker does not know (e.g., not being taught proper procedures).
- Lack of Motivation: The worker does not want to follow safety protocols (e.g., no motivation).
- Inability: The worker cannot perform safely (e.g., due to physical or mental disability).
- Missing Tools: Workers proceeding without necessary work tools or personal protective equipment.
Understanding the GEM Concept in Safety
The GEM concept (often G.E.M. for Geography, Equipment, Man) helps analyze the factors influencing safety. It refers to the state of an individual within their environment, considering posture, forces, and overall well-being. Any imbalance can lead to failures.
- G: Geography (Environment)
- E: Equipment (Material)
- M: Man (People/Team)
The interaction between the Person, Environment, and Material determines the possibility of failures that may occur during a process, including industrial accidents.
The Accident Proportionality Pyramid
This concept illustrates the relationship between minor incidents, near misses, and serious accidents. While a drawing is typically used to explain this, the principle highlights that for every major accident, there are many minor injuries and even more near misses. Addressing the base of the pyramid (near misses) can prevent more severe outcomes.
Accident Costs: The Iceberg Effect
The ‘Iceberg of Accident Costs’ illustrates that insured costs are only the visible tip, while uninsured costs are far greater and hidden.
Uninsured Costs (Hidden):
- Interruption in production and delays
- Damage to equipment and tools
- Loss of materials
- Poor quality of products
- Personnel replacements and training
- Loss of morale and productivity
- Administrative time spent on investigations
- Loss of business reputation
- And much more!
Insured Costs (Visible):
- Property damage
- Occupational accident and disease claims
- Damage to property under the deductible
- Damage to specific equipment, tools, materials, and raw goods covered by insurance.
Understanding Occupational Diseases
An occupational disease is a condition caused by various agents present in the work environment. It has a direct relationship between the work performed and the illness.
- Common Disease: No direct relationship between work and disease; acquired in everyday life (e.g., common cold).
- Occupational Disease: Direct relationship between work and disease. Examples include:
- Silicosis: Caused by inhaling silica dust, affecting the respiratory system.
- Noise-induced hearing loss: Due to prolonged exposure to high noise levels.
- Other conditions affecting the respiratory system, skin, etc., due to specific workplace exposures.
Physical Agents Causing Occupational Diseases
Physical agents are environmental factors that can directly affect the physical parts of the human body, leading to occupational diseases. Key examples include:
- Noise: Can cause hearing loss.
- Vibration: Can lead to musculoskeletal disorders or vascular issues.
- Radiation: (e.g., ionizing or non-ionizing)
- Extreme Temperatures: (Heat or cold stress)
- Pressure: (e.g., abnormal atmospheric pressure)
Defining Ergonomics in the Workplace
Ergonomics is a multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary science focused on adapting work, the physical environment, and labor processes to the individual. Its goal is to optimize resources and create a work environment that prioritizes:
- Comfort
- Efficiency
- Safety
- Human Dimensions
These factors are indispensable for a productive and healthy workplace.
Understanding Risk: Inherent & Incorporated
Understanding different types of risks is crucial for effective safety management:
- Risk: The probability of harm or losses occurring within a specific period.
- Inherent Risk: Risks that, by their very nature, cannot be entirely avoided in a given situation or task. They are intrinsic to the activity itself.
- Incorporated Risk (or Induced Risk): A risk that arises from the incorporation of human errors or failures to follow safety protocols. For example, if a worker is over 2 meters in height and does not use required safety equipment (like a harness), any fall would be a result of this incorporated risk, making the outcome attributable to their actions or lack thereof.
Danger, Health, and Occupational Health Defined
Distinguishing between danger, general health, and occupational health is fundamental:
- Danger: An uncontrolled potential for harm; a source or situation with the potential for harm in terms of human injury or ill health, damage to property, damage to the environment, or a combination of these. It can be expected with reasonable certainty to produce damage.
- Health: According to the World Health Organization (WHO), health is a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.
- Occupational Health: Focuses on how a worker’s health impacts their ability to perform their job, and conversely, how the job affects their physical, mental, and social well-being. It ensures workers are complete and well-adjusted psychologically and socially in their work environment.