I have written a course for health and safety which is comprehensive and easy to understand. Health and safety is the most important part of any industry. If, you want to equip your self for the post of safety officer, safety manager, Permit to work coordinator(PTW), Person IN-charge of Working Site(PICWS) and Originator specially in Oil and Gas Sector then you must read these modules holistically.

1. Module No.1: Introduction &
Significance of Health & Safety

2. Module No.1: Introduction & Significance of Health & Safety
Contents`
1. The Basic Concept of Health and Safety..............................................................................................2
Health:.......................................................................................................................................................2
Safety: .......................................................................................................................................................2
2. Significance of Health and Safety ........................................................................................................2
The Moral Reason for Managing Health and Safety.................................................................................2
Financial Reason .......................................................................................................................................3
What are Direct and Indirect Costs?.........................................................................................................3
Direct Costs...............................................................................................................................................3
How Direct Costs affect: ...........................................................................................................................3
Indirect Costs: ...........................................................................................................................................4
How Indirect Costs affect:.........................................................................................................................4
3. Accident/Incident.................................................................................................................................5
4. Hazard...................................................................................................................................................5
5. Unsafe Act.............................................................................................................................................6
6. Near Miss..............................................................................................................................................7
7. Heinrich Law (Behavior Based Safety).................................................................................................7
8. References............................................................................................................................................8

3. Module No.1: Introduction & Significance of Health & Safety
1. The Basic Concept of Health and Safety
Health:
The non-existence or absence of disease is termed as health. It is a condition in which there is
no symptom of illness or sickness. It includes physical as well as mental health. For example,
asbestos creates a health risk because if you inhale asbestos dust you may contract lung cancer
at some stage later in life (perhaps 20 or 30 years after you inhaled the dust). Health relates not
only to physical ill health but also to psychological ill health (e.g. exposure to extreme stress can
lead to acute mental collapse or a ‘nervous breakdown’).
Safety:
It means no risk of serious personal harm or injury.
It is a risk-free condition of human life. If you stay out of the danger area, you are in safety and
protection. For example, walking under a load suspended from a crane during a lifting
operation is not safe because if the load falls, serious personal injury or death could result.
Staying out of the danger area results in safety.
2. Significance of Health and Safety
The Moral Reason for Managing Health and Safety
According to the International Labor Organization (ILO), in 2012, about 340 million incidents in
occupational health and safety and a total of 6000 deaths recorded every day.
• According to society, the
practice is not acceptable if a
worker makes any money to
feed his family but gets killed
or injured by the job or work
he/she is doing.
• A worker will have to suffer a
lot of pain, psychological
stress, lifelong injury,
permanent disability, with
possible job losses due to an
accident.
• A worker may be a single
person of his family who is
on the job. Because of the
accident, not only the

4. Module No.1: Introduction & Significance of Health & Safety
worker but also his family
have to suffer financial crisis.
So it is the employer's moral duty to protect its workers and provide them with a safe and
healthy working environment.
Similarly, the following global statistics have been published by the International Labor
Organization (ILO) as part of their Safe Work program (you do not need to remember the actual
figures; we give them to highlight the scale of the problem):
• There are over 350,000 work-related fatal accidents reported each year.
Half of these occur in agriculture.
• Over 2.75 million people die every year from occupational accidents and occupational
diseases. Around 2.4 million of these deaths are attributable to occupational diseases.
• There are over 270 million occupational accidents and 160 million occupational diseases
recorded each year.
• 4% of the world’s gross domestic product is lost each year through the
cost of injury, death, absence, etc.
Financial Reason
There is a commercial aspect of health and safety because unintended accidents and events can
cost money. Different governments find that inadequate occupational health and safety
management raises additional costs for the economy, such as disabled workers' compensation
and the expense of their medical treatment. Due to these sudden accidents, there are direct
and indirect costs which organizations may face. Some of these costs insured, but others are
not. Insurance means you save something as compensation. It also include direct and indirect
costs.
What are Direct and Indirect Costs?
Direct Costs
Direct costs arise directly from accidents and can easily be calculated. Direct costs could be
insured or uninsured, that depends on the reason for the loss. As well, many small costs may
not be covered by insurance of the company due to their policies, because the insurance
company wants the employer to meet some of the costs of losses.
How Direct Costs affect:
• Legal fees, for example, when defending a claim form the injured person for
compensation or prosecution in court are typically insured.
• Worker sick pays continual to the injured worker or his/her family.
• Cost of the accident and ill health due to lost production.

5. Module No.1: Introduction & Significance of Health & Safety
Repairs to, or replacement of, damaged tools, vehicle, equipment and building.
These are subject to the type of accident and insurance company policy; for
example, fire case may be covered by insurance, and maybe machinery like
vehicles are not included.
• Compensation is payable to the victim (employee or others) of accident or ill-
health, which could be covered by employer liability insurance.
• Overtime to meet the production target.
• Costs associated with the recovery of the injured worker. Like medical
treatment, first aid, hospital admission, doctor and medicine charges.
• The insurance premium will be increased due to the accident.
Indirect Costs:
These costs are indirectly arising out of the event. Indirect costs cannot be measured
frequently. They can hardly be identified.
How Indirect Costs affect:
• Workers will not be able to perform their regular job while investigating an
accident, e.g. manager, supervisors.
• The morale of the workers will be affected, and they will not feel safe at the
workplace, and it will ultimately lead to a reduction in production.
• Cost of remedial action following an investigation.
The cost associated with
corrective actions
suggested after
investigation.
• Lots of time while
preparing reports,
attending enforcing
agency meetings or
during the hearing of
courts
• The cost associated with
the hiring of new staff
and their training etc.
• Loss of organizational

6. Module No.1: Introduction & Significance of Health & Safety
goodwill of customers
due to delays in
production meeting on-
time orders.
• Fine form court during
the legal proceeding.
• Industrial relations will
be compromised, and it
could lead to removal
from a trade
association.
3. Accident/Incident
An incident, in the context of occupational health and safety, is an unintended event that
disturbs normal operations.
OSHA defines an incident as "an unplanned, undesired event that adversely affects
completion of a task."
Incidents range in severity from near misses to fatal accidents.
Safety and health incidents are not always serious in their effects, as is the case with near
misses (events that could have resulted in a serious accident but all serious damage or
harm was avoided). However, companies typically respond to even minor incidents, either
by recording them to analyze and track safety metrics or by taking proactive steps such as
holding a quick safety meeting to discuss the event or conducting a review of the events
that led to the incident.
While it is often used interchangeably with "accident," it is a different concept. Accidents
are a subset of incidents, but some events that don't qualify as accidents are counted as
incidents.
4. Hazard
A hazard is any source of potential damage, harm or adverse health effects on something
or someone. Basically, a hazard is the potential for harm or an adverse effect (for example,
to people as health effects, to organizations as property or equipment losses, or to the
environment).

7. Module No.1: Introduction & Significance of Health & Safety
Sometimes the resulting harm is referred to as the hazard instead of the actual source of
the hazard. For example, the disease tuberculosis (TB) might be called a "hazard" by some
but, in general, the TB-causing bacteria (Mycobacterium tuberculosis) would be considered
the "hazard" or "hazardous biological agent".
5. Unsafe Act
Unsafe act and unsafe work conditions can be defined in several ways keeping in view of
nature of industries and working places. One can find several such definitions on the
internet and books.
Students of occupational health and safety and also those intend to make career out of
workplace safety may find information on workplace safety from trusted sources useful,
reliable and educative.

8. Module No.1: Introduction & Significance of Health & Safety
6. Near Miss
A near miss, near hit or close call is an unplanned event that has the potential to cause, but
does not actually result in human injury, environmental or equipment damage, or an
interruption to normal operations.
OSHA defines a near miss as an incident in which no property was damaged and no personal
injury was sustained, but where, given a slight shift in time or position, damage or injury
easily could have occurred. Near misses also may be referred to as near accidents, accident
precursors, and injury-free events. In the case of moving objects, near collisions. A near miss
is often an error, with harm prevented by other considerations and circumstances.
7. Heinrich Law (Behavior Based Safety)
In his 1931 book "Industrial Accident Prevention, A Scientific Approach", Herbert W Heinrich
put forward the following concept that became known as Heinrich's Law:
In a workplace, for every accident that causes a major injury, there are 29 accidents that
cause minor injuries and 300 accidents that cause no injuries.
This is commonly depicted as a pyramid (in this case with the number of minor incidents
shown as 30 for simplicity)
Heinrich's law is based on probability and assumes that the number of accidents is inversely
proportional to the severity of those accidents. It leads to the conclusion that minimizing the

9. Module No.1: Introduction & Significance of Health & Safety
number of minor incidents will lead to a reduction in major accidents, which is not
necessarily the case.
Heinrich’s work is claimed as the basis for the theory of behavior-based safety by some
experts of this field, which holds that as many as 95% of all workplace accidents are caused
by unsafe acts. Heinrich came to this conclusion after reviewing thousands of accident
reports completed by supervisors, who generally blamed workers for causing accidents
without conducting detailed investigations into the root causes.
While Heinrich’s figure that 88% of all workplace accidents and injuries/illnesses are caused
by man-failure is perhaps his most oft-cited conclusion, his book actually encouraged
employers to control hazards, not merely focus on worker behaviors.
8. References
https://www.safeopedia.com/definition/384/incident-occupational-health-and-
safety#:~:text=An%20incident%2C%20in%20the%20context,near%20misses%20to%20fatal%20
accidents.
https://www.ccohs.ca/oshanswers/hsprograms/hazard_risk.html#:~:text=A%20hazard%20is%2
0any%20source,%2C%20or%20to%20the%20environment).
https://greenwgroup.co.in/unsafe-acts-
conditions/#:~:text=Unsafe%20Act%20can%20be%20defined,reputations%20and%20revenue%
20to%20employer.
https://thinkinsights.net/strategy/heinrich-law/
https://skybrary.aero/articles/heinrich-pyramid
https://skybrary.aero/articles/heinrich-
pyramid#:~:text=In%20his%201931%20book%20%22Industrial,accidents%20that%20cause%20
no%20injuries.