Occupational health and safety- basic concepts

OCCUPATIONAL
HEALTH AND SAFETY -
BASIC CONCEPTS
Authors: Ph.D.Stefan Gabriel Kovacs
M.D.Alina Trifu
INCDPM ”Alexandru Darabont”,
Bucharest, Romania, Bv.Ghencea 35 A,sect. VI, code: 061692
e-mail:safetyinknowledge@gmail.com

About
 From the ancient times, work was
including also unexpected things and
events- incidents and accidents at work
were recorded at the building of pyramids
or of ancient temples. Occupational
accidents, loss and the distrubance have
accompanied work till now. This
presentation shows some significant
aspects regarding the main concepts of
OHS- that were developed to protect the
worker.

What is the image of an occupational
accident ?
 Warning- the next pictures are
sometimes gory- and also had a sure
emotional impact. They are pictures
of occupational accidents.Certainly
they are not looking good. Nor at
least normal. Accident is an
unexpected and traumatic event.

Occupational Accidents
 Piper Alfa- 1981-81 deaths

 Bhopal-1984- 20.000 ! deaths

Mihăile ti, Romania- 2004. 18ș
deaths.

 Deepwater Horizon- Louisiana 2010-19 deaths

 Colectiv club- Romania 2015- 64 deaths

 No, we are very sorry but the
accident victim is not feeling well. Nor
are feeling well his/hers work
colleagues, his family, not even his
managers. Occupational accidents are
trauma bound events that could
affect a lot more things.

GENERAL ASPECTS
REGARDING SAFETY

Why Occupational Safety and Health ? Why train the young ?
As anyone knows- in order to make money- you must work. Even
if you are a banker or a lathe worker- every workplace has
specific risks.
In order to live 100 years in health and safety
you must know about your work, be trained in
order to avoid risks, wear Personal Protective
Equipment (only when needed) and know
How to use safety devices.
If you are a pirate it would also help to drink a lot of rum.
This is all about Occupational Safety
and Health folks, ask for your money back. Or not all ?

As everyone that is performing safety training knows- things
must be somehow connected, if you are not trained you will
not know what PPE to wear, how to manage safety devices,
etc.
so that the trainee (if strong enough and not running to save
his/hers life after the first class) should have a global image
regarding the safety domain.
This image is plotted in our experience by the following structure:
Hazard->Risk->Incident/Accident-
>Accident Analysis
Training->Organization (of the Work In
safety)->
Personal Protective Devices->Safety
Devices
As everyone that is performing safety training knows- things
must be somehow connected, if you are not trained you will
not know what PPE to wear, how to manage safety devices,
etc.
so that the trainee (if strong enough and not running to save
his/hers life after the first class) should have a global image
regarding the safety domain.
This image is plotted in our experience by the following structure:
Hazard->Risk->Incident/Accident-
>Accident Analysis
Training->Organization (of the Work In
safety)->
Personal Protective Devices->Safety
Devices

Starting up OHS
 When ?
 Why ?
 Where ?- Incident/Accident Data
 How ? -- Root Cause Analysis- 5
Why Method
 ----------------------------------------
--------------
 Whose blame is it ?

Starting up OHS
 Documents to have and to read
 National Law of OHS (Law 319/2006 in
Romania);
 ALARP document (HSE law 1973);
 OHSAS 18001 (British Standard concerning OHS
management);
 ISO 31000 (RISK management and implications
for OHS- new 2010);
 ISO 31010 (RISK assessment methods);
 ISO 9001 (Connection with quality)

We should add here:
-Safety Culture Safety ManagementAny
Other Thing (Ergonomics, Designing in Safety, etc.)

VULNERABILITY,RISK,
INCIDENT,ACCIDENT

RISK
RIS
K
INCIDENT/ACCIDENT
TRAINING
ORGANIZATION
PERSONAL PROTECTIVE DEVICES
SAFETY DEVICES
Causes
and
effects
Ways to mitigate/
eliminate the
causes

RISK
Vulnerability is a „pre-state” for risks. When an enterprise is vulnerable- it
could lead to the development of a lot of ugly things....

RISK
EMPLOYER
RESPONSIBILITY
Nation
al
Safety
Policy
Health and Safety Specific
Enterprise Mechanisms
Worker Comitees
Enterprise Safety Specialists
Former
Experien
ce
RISK ?

RISK ?
 Risk is associated with the presence of a
situation or, the eventuality that is produced at
the workplace, during the work process, an
unwanted or negative outcome (loss, incidents,
accidents).
 Risk produce damage. Damage could be
defined as a negative consequence of an
individual or collective life of people as the
result of risk.
 Risk is defined in Romanian law as the
combination of frequency or probability and
consequences (severity) that could be derived
from danger

HazardRiskAccidents
 Theory states that for different
workplaces there are distinct
hazards- that could be removed only by
the total changement of technology or
by total automation, excluding the
worker from the workplace. Hazards
are manifesting themselves through
specificity, exposure,frequency and
severity. Risk is an intermediary notion.

RISK
RISK Identification Assessment Management
Hazard
(actually)

RISK
 In accordance with the previous definitions, the
following groups will classify worker risk factors:
 1. Safety and Health: factors or conditions of
safety, where conditions that influence the
probability of injuries are included. factors of
environment conditions, whether it be physical,
chemical, or biologic in origin.
 2. Ergonomics and Psychosociall: factors
derived from the characteristics of work, including
the demands that the task imposes to the individual
that carries them out; factors derived from the
organization of work, considering the characteristics
of the organization and those depending on the
work task. In our way of work 2 is included in 1.
We are speaking about Safety and health at Work,
including also Ergonomics and Psychosocial factors.

EVALUATING RISKS
Risk
Assessment
Method
Statements

EVALUATING RISKS
Particularisation
for a pollutant

Evaluating RISK
 The process for evaluating risks
includes:
 1. The identification of the hazard and
analysis of the risk.
 2. The assessment of the risk and/or
the conjoined action of risks, which
will permit one to say if the risks
detected turns out to be tolerable.

Evaluating RISK
Risks before
accident
Risks after
accident
Aprioric stRISK
ASSESSMENTudy
Workplace
analysis
Workplace
analysis
Models and
scenarios
Models and
scenarios
Post-mortem
study
Post-mortem
study

THE OCCUPATIONAL
(WORK) ACCIDENT

WORK ACCIDENT
 -Violent injury of the body;
 -Happening during the work process
or fulfilling work tasks;
 -More than 3 days of work incapacity,
invalidity or death
 (Romanian Law)

WORK ACCIDENT
 In the Accident Investigation Manual
of the National Safety Council (2001),
an accident is “an act not planned,
nor wanted that resulted in a
personal injury or property
damage.” Introduction of loss or
property damage into the definition of
accident is going to improve it.

WORK ACCIDENT MODELS
 Swiss Cheese
 Butterfly
 Other (industry specific)

TRAINING
 Training is a very complex problem.
Good training
is just simply
training
Bad
training
could be a
killer !

TRAINING
No one is recognizing my
activity
I am not been paid properly
Students are not
understanding what I am
saying

TRAINING
Safety is boring.
Safety is not required if you
learn the technology.
Safety is more about
abstract aspects.
Safety is boring…….
Safety is boring.
Safety is not required if you
learn the technology.
Safety is more about
abstract aspects.
Safety is boring…….

TRAINING
Safety Training could be
rewarding if:
-You are a real teacher and
love to teach and to improve
your teaching;
-You are really interested in
Safety and not just
performing a job for money;
-You want to improve
something and do it right;

TRAINING
Safety Training is a
merchandise;
Safety Training could
be sold for good
money;

TRAINING
In order to sell it safety
training should be
performed and performed
well

TRAINING
Need to be:
-aware;
-social conscious;
-involved in the
community;
-smart;
Don t when:
-tired;
-not interested;
-not
understanding;
-not ready;

TRAINING
Need to learn ?
If asked, perhaps we
cope
If explained, perhaps
we do it

TRAINING
If this is smart and cool and
we feel it and we feel that
we are empowered by it-
perhaps we learn

TRAINING
If we could turn it into a play and
could be (at least for ten
minutes) the main players-
perhaps we learn

TRAINING
“GIVE THEM CONTENT ! ” says the
Safety creator
-content should be goal oriented;
-content should be focused;
-content should be richly illustrated;
-content should be full-proof;
-content should be easy anchored
with real cases;
-content should be live;

TRAINING
 „Give them schedule” says the Safety
creator
 Schedule should take care of:
 The work schedule of those who are
trained;
 The possibilities to participate to the
training;
 The degree of tiredness of the trainees;

TRAINING
 „Give them ways to disseminate
content” says the Safety creator
 And he invented eduknowledge
(educational tailored knowledge) and
blended learning...

TRAINING
CONTENT
NecessaryNecessary
Understan
dable
Understan
dable
LikableLikable
Retaina
ble

TRAINING
 The second grade learners:
 Should became aware of the problem-
accidents as a moral impact;
 Should became aware of the fact that
they would enter into some kind of work
in order to gain their living- and so they
would be exposed to risks;
 Should became aware that the wrong
approaches could affect not just them-
but also their colleagues, the community
and the environment

TRAINING
Initial
training
On the work
training
Retirement
training
General
safety rules
Specific safety
rules
Lessons
learned

TRAINING
 Who (is doing it)
• Objectives (informal, immediate
protection, obtaining a specific degree)-Key
Performance Indexes
• Ways (to perform)
• Results (connected with KPI would show
the efficiency of training)
 Targets
 Level of understanding

TRAINING
 Fundamentals Programs: These
programs involve instruction in prevention of
work related injury and illness through proper
use and maintenance of tools, equipment,
materials; knowledge of emergency
procedures; personal hygiene measures; needs
for medical monitoring; and use of personal
protective equipment for non-routine
operations or as an interim safeguard until
engineering controls can be implemented.

TRAINING
 Recognition Programs: These
programs include instruction emphasizing
awareness of workplace hazards; knowledge of
methods of hazard elimination or control;
understanding right-to-know laws and ways for
collecting information on workplace hazards;
recognizing symptoms of toxic exposures; and
observing and reporting hazards or potential
hazards to appropriate bodies.

TRAINING
 Problem-Solving Programs: Instruction is aimed at
giving workers the information and skills enabling
them to participate in hazard recognition and control
activities; to help identify/solve problems through
teamwork, to use union and management means, and
to exercise rights to have outside agencies investigate
workplace hazards when warranted. Inviting worker
input in company planning or in design of new
operations or processes is recognized as a viable
means for improving productivity, quality of products,
and worker motivation. Extending this approach to
hazard control seems reasonable especially since
workers, owing to their everyday job work
experience, possess an intimate knowledge of the
hazards connected with their jobs and could be a rich
source for corrective ideas

TRAINING
 Empowerment Programs: These programs
provide instruction to build and broaden worker
skills in hazard recognition and problem-solving
skills much like that noted above. Emphasis,
however, is on worker activism with the goal of
ensuring their rights to an illness-and injury-free
workplace Hence, the program aims at enabling
workers to effect necessary control measures
through educating co-workers and supervisors, and
through use of committee processes or in
health/safety contract negotiations. This approach
is in accord with the current “Total Quality
Management” philosophy — having rank-and-file
workers along with their supervisors share greater
roles in and be more accountable for addressing
workplace hazard control needs.

TRAINING
* http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/docs/98-
145/pdfs/98-145.pdf

TRAINING(General vs. Safety
Training)
 In general, training refers to instruction and
practice for acquiring skills and knowledge of
rules, concepts, or attitudes necessary to
function effectively in specified task situations.
With regard to OS&H, training can consist of
instruction in hazard recognition and
control measures, learning safe work
practices and proper use of personal
protective equipment, and acquiring
knowledge of emergency procedures and
preventive actions

TRAINING
 Performance represents observable actions or behaviours
reflecting the knowledge or skill acquired from training to
meet a task demand. With regard to OS&H, performance
can mean signs of complying with safe work practices, using
protective equipment as prescribed, demonstrating
increased awareness of hazards by reporting unsafe
conditions to prompt corrective efforts, and executing
emergency procedures should such events occur.
 Motivation refers to processes or conditions that can
energize and direct a person’s behaviours in ways intended
to gain rewards or satisfy needs. Setting goals for
performance coincident with learning objectives and use of
feed-back to note progress have motivational value. With
regard to OS&H, motivation can mean one’s readiness to
adopt or exhibit safe behaviours, take precautions, or carry
out self-protective actions as instructed. Bonuses, prizes, or
special recognition can act as motivational incentives or
rewards in eliciting as well as reinforcing these behaviours
when they are displayed.

TRAINING-Critical
Needs Assessment Training goals presuppose:
1) consistency with organizational goals,
2) the presence of jobs designed to yield performance
outputs that meet the organization’s goals,
3) performance levels dependent on knowledge of the
job tasks, skill, attentiveness to the work or factors
where training can make a difference. On the last point,
expecting training to solve problems related to internal
organizational conflicts or to overcome deficiencies in
equipment or work methods is unrealistic. Job analyses
determine which of the relevant performance factors
comprise the highest priority training needs either now or
in the future. The process includes defining the tasks
involved, their order of importance (in terms of
frequency, criticality, complexity), and details of the
steps necessary to accomplish them.

TRAINING-Critical
1.Establishing Training Objectives
The needs assessment provides the information to
establish the objectives of the training program.
These are stated as observable behaviours
expected of the trainee after the instruction, and
they may acknowledge the conditions under which
they should be performed and the required level
of proficiency.

TRAINING-Critical
 2.Specifying Training Content and Media
Content represents the knowledge or skill that
the trainee must master to be able to meet the
behavioural objectives. The judgement of those
who know the job demands is the most common
approach to specifying training contents. Other
approaches may be the products of problem-
solving exercises, or be based on mistakes
people make in using a skill such as to design
corrective learning measures. Much depends on
the specific training needs, makeup of trainee
group and other factors. Why or how a particular
method facilitates learning and how it can be
made more effective are issues requiring further
study.

TRAINING-Critical
 3. Accounting for Individual
Differences
 Effective training should take account of the
characteristics or attributes of the trainees.
Aside from differences in aptitude, literacy, or
pre-training skill levels, how trainees view the
training program in terms of improving their
job performance or self-efficacy may dictate
variable approaches. The kind and level of
training for new job applicants versus long-
term or older workers reassigned to the same
tasks also has to be addressed.

TRAINING-Critical
 4. Specifying Learning Conditions
 In general, instructional events comprising the
training method should not inhibit, conflict with, or be
unrelated to the processes that lead to mastery.
Training methods should require the trainee to use
the training content in active or productive ways, e.g.,
restating or applying principles rather than just
recalling them, or adapting the information to new
situations rather than mere repetition in the same
one. Using learning events that require productive
behaviour or that provide appropriate feedback
(positive/accurate/credible) and opportunities for
practice under conditions that promote transfer to the
actual job are ideal.

TRAINING-STEPS
 Establish a general objective
 Establish specific objectives
 Collect data
 Transform data into knowledge
(production rules if possbleBest
Practice Procedures)
 Save the body of knowledge for reuse

TRAINING-STEPS
 Define targets
 Establish target level of
understanding
 Establish target availability
 Establish immediate rewards
(certificates, promotions, job
opennings, etc.)
 Considering the target analysis
establish what to show from the body
of knowledge)

TRAINING-STEPS
 Considering target analysis establish
how to do the training (at class,
 on-line, hands-on approach)
 Develop a curricula
 Process your training chunks (so as to
remain something after)
 Develop testing methods
 Develop specific tests (more likely
individual projects to do)

TRAINING-STEPS
 Implement on a protoype/pilot
 Test
 Re-test
 Ask for user feedback;
 Ask for any other person (in the
domain) feedback;
 Implement

ORGANIZATION
 Organizational culture emerged
from organizational
studies and management to describe the
attitudes, perceptions, beliefs and
values of an organization. The key
issue in the organisational context is the
way the process of management of safety
risk handles changes to the existing
infrastructure, processes, technology or
other elements and how communications
regarding potential accident scenarios are
handled and are seen in an integrated
way. These changes might have unseen or
adverse safety critical impacts. There are
several concepts available to guide
understanding in the area of safety.

ORGANIZATION
 Safety culture can be defined as the
product of individual and group
attitudes, perceptions, and values about
workplace behaviours and processes
that collectively result safety work units
and reliable organizational products ().
In essence, safety culture describes the
organizational attributes that reflect safe
work environments .This concept is
deeply rooted in social systems where
comprehensive analysis of errors
exposed organizational, system process
and human failures responsible for most
preventable adverse outcomes.A proper
safety culture could give the safety
organization of the work place.

ORGANIZATION
 Organizational safety is a contemporary discipline
of study and research developed from the works of
James Reason, creator of the Swiss Cheese Model,
and Charles Perrow author of Normal Accidents.
These scholars demonstrated the complexity and
system coupling inherent in organizations, created
by multiple process and various people working
simultaneously to achieve organizational objectives,
is responsible for errors ranging from small to
catastrophic system failures. The discipline crosses
professions, spans industries, and involves multiple
academic domains. As such, the literature is
disjointed and the associated research outcomes
vary by study setting. Organizational activities could
also boost safety, by:
 -planning for safety;
 -allocating safely the resources;
 -optimise the work towards a safe ending;
 -performing controls for safety;
 -recompensing safety behaviours;

PPE(PERSONAL
PROTECTIVE EQUIPMENT)

PERSONAL PROTECTIVE
EQUIPMENT
 Personal protective equipment (PPE) refers to
protective clothing, helmets, goggles, or other
garments or equipment designed to protect the
wearer's body from injury or infection. The hazards
addressed by protective equipment include physical,
electrical, heat, chemicals, biohazards, and airborne
particulate matter. Protective equipment may be worn
for job-related occupational safety and
health purposes, as well as for sports and
other recreational activities. "Protective clothing" is
applied to traditional categories of clothing, and
"protective gear" applies to items such as pads,
guards, shields, or masks, and others.
 The purpose of personal protective equipment is to
reduce employee exposure to hazards when
engineering and administrative controls are not
feasible or effective to reduce these risks to
acceptable levels. PPE is needed when there are
hazards present. PPE has the serious limitation that it
does not eliminate the hazard at source and may
result in employees being exposed to the hazard if
the equipment fails

PERSONAL PROTECTIVE
EQUIPMENT
A way to
give the
needed
information
about PPE

SAFETY DEVICES
Safety devices are the best that could be expected in
technical safety assurance.A wide world of specific devices that
are keeping the worker well and healthy- if functioning.
From this very wide game of devices we have selected
some more interesting for us.

SAFETY DEVICES
Machine
Process
Whole line of
manufacturing
Areprotecting
Technical protection,
not
centered
on
hum
an

SAFETY DEVICES
A dead-man's vigilance device is a railroad safety device that
operates in the case of incapacitation of the engineer.
It is a hybrid between a dead-man's switch and a vigilance
control.
The main safety failing with the basic dead-man's control system
is the possibility of the operating device being permanently
held in position, either deliberately or accidentally.

SAFETY DEVICES
A Safe Load Indicator (SLI) or an Automatic Safe Load Indicator
(ASLI) is a device which is installed on mobile or portal cranes
to alert the operator if the lift is exceeding the safe operating
range of the machinery.
In some cases, the device will physically lock the machinery in
circumstances it determines to be unsafe. SLI systems are
usually composed of a microprocessor connected to various
sensors on the crane itself.
A safe load indicator has the capability of detecting the angle,
weight of load lifted, and ground radius of any lifting device.
It controls the lifting equipment to the level that it tries to
keep the machinery functioning as per the manufacturer's
suggested safety charts..

SAFETY DEVICES
A flashback arrestor or flash arrestor is a special gas safety device most
commonly used in oxy-fuel welding and cutting to stop the flame or
reverse flow of gas back up into the equipment or supply line and it
prevents the user and equipment from damage or explosions.
These devices are mainly used in different industrial processes where
oxy-fuel gas mixtures are handled and used. Flashback arrestors as safety
products are essential to secure the workplaces and working environment.
In former times there were also wet flashback arrestors used.
Today the industry standard is to use dry flashback arrestors with at least
two safety elements.
Flashback arrestors
from XIX Century

SAFETY DEVICES
Heat detectors are a very important category of safety devices-
as the recent accident at club Colectiv had shown us.
A 'heat detector is a fire alarm device designed to respond when the
converted thermal energy of a fire increases the temperature of a heat
sensitive element. The thermal mass and conductivity of the element
regulate the rate flow of heat into the element. Heat detectors have two
main classifications of operation, "rate-of-rise" and "fixed temperature.„.
In the case in question, a heat detector should have activated a network of
sprinklers (that were not in place).Some flame detectors mounted like
video camers are shown below.

SAFETY CRITICAL SYSTEM
There are plenty of definitions of the term safety-critical system
but the intuitive notion actually works quite well.
The concern both intuitively and formally is with the consequences
of failure. If the failure of a system could lead to consequences
that are determined to be unacceptable, then the
system is safety-critical. In essence, a system is safety-critical
when we depend on it for our well being.

LIFE CRITICAL SYSTEM
A life-critical system or safety-critical system is a system
whose failure or malfunction may result in one (or more) of the
following outcomes:
-death or serious injury to people
-loss or severe damage to equipment/property
-environmental harm
Risks of this sort are usually managed with the methods and tools
of safety engineering. A life-critical system is
designed to lose less than one life per billion (109
) hours of
operation.

OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH AND
SAFETY MANAGEMENT

SAFETY MANAGEMENT
Диалог
Щелкните кнопку Диалог для редактирования этого диалога

OCCUPATIONAL HEALH AND
SAFETY MANAGEMENT

SAFETY MANAGEMENT
 Safety Management- the lords part of
safety and health.
 1.Re-vise the existing safety and health structure
inside the enterprise;
 2.Write up specific document templates for the main
thing;
 3. Name a safety manager !
 4. Enjoy !
 5.Implement safety management into total quality
management (here the safety manager dies)

SAFETY MANAGEMENT
Identify where you are. Identify the
existing work done on OHS and its results
till now. Are there any
significant/reported
loss/incidents/accidents ?

SAFETY MANAGEMENT
Identify the actual safety needs. Are they satisfied ?
(If so, do nothing and call it a functional safety
system).Retain the good parts of jobe done till now
in best practice procedures.

SAFETY MANAGEMENT
Develop a model ! Your safety inside the
enterprise is probably specific. Build a
general safety model and add the specific
parts. Test the model. Is it similar to
reality > Could some aspects be omitted
by the model ?Could expenses be
exagerated ?If the model is OK validate it
and share it with your management body.
Be sure that the General Manager will
receive a copy (even if he is not reading
it)

SAFETY MANAGEMENT
Share your model (together with your
expriences) widely. Sharing in safety
is goooood ! Your enemies will die
from envy and eventually, till they die-
will improve the safety in their
enterprises.

SAFETY MANAGEMENT
Implement a good set of safety rules- IN
WRITING ! Name them after you – or
better- after the content (Rules for smoking
in safety when looking to a gorgeous
blonde and nearby is a deposit full of
kerosene). Distribute the rules and verify
that every supervisor shall get one copy.

SAFETY MANAGEMENT
Read and understand ISO 31.000. It
will change your life. Forever

SAFETY MANAGEMENT
Identify the victims of
incidents/accidents (even there is a
simple bruise). Be compasionate. Ask
them for every detail the could give.
Develop lessons learned from every
story. Update and upgrade your
rules(Rule not to smoke near a kerosene
deposit if you want to live).

SAFETY MANAGEMENT
Be angry not on the producers of the
accident (if they are not acting with
intention) but on not respecting the rules.
Use the case to develop an use case (Don t
do that !) keeping out real names.

SAFETY MANAGEMENT
Give rewards for good safety behaviours.
Popularise the example (here you could give
names).

SAFETY MANAGEMENT
Write everything significant down and
organise your notices (preferably into an
IT document that uses keywords and is
indexable). People are forgetting-
writing remains.

SAFETY MANAGEMENT
Punish repeated bad
(dangerous) behaviours.There
are employees that would never
learn. Better fire them than
involve them in a situation that
could become a catastrophe.

SAFETY MANAGEMENT
Ask continously for resources. Safety
is an expensive thing. If your
bossess would a safe enterprise they
should pay.

SAFETY MANAGEMENT
„Trust is good, control is better” V.I.Lenin
Be in doubt on the reported informations-
when needed. Never ever let significant
things to happen without controlling them
personally.

Occupational health and safety- basic concepts

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