OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH AND SAFETY MANAGEMENT- Basic Concepts Lecture 1

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Today we'll be talking about occupational health and safety management and the first topic to deal with is basic concepts in health and safety management.

Again, I am Dr. David King Boison.

What is occupational health and safety?

Occupational health and safety according to WHO is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being of a worker and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.

Physical, mental and social well-being of the worker. So focus on these three variables, a complete physical, that the worker should be physically fit, okay, mental, that the worker should be mentally sound and social well-being, that the environment within which the worker works should be that environment that is welcoming, that creates the conditions for the worker to be able to work very well.

And we're saying that it's also involved the promotion and maintenance of the highest degree of physical, mental and social well-being of workers in all occupations. So, it's some form of maintenance means that it's a regular activity that the organization seeks to do to make sure that workers are physically fit, they are mentally sound and that the environment within which they work is that conducive for them to work and be able to produce more for the organization to achieve its objective.

We are saying that it's also the protection of workers in their environment from risks resulting from factors adverse to their health.

So, occupational health and safety management, that aspect, now we dealt with what is health and safety. Now, the management of employees' health, the employees' health, its management is not only the responsibility of the employer. But it is a dual responsibility, the employee has a responsibility to also play, he has a role to play in this, I mean, management. The employer will provide all the tools, the employees will also have to comply. For instance, if the employer provides the PPEs, the employee must put these PPEs on.

Objectives of OSH.

The first one is to maintain and promote workers' health and working capacity at work.

The second one is to improve the working environment and make work conducive to workers, to develop work organizations and working cultures in a direction which supports health and safety at work.

Cultures are the norms and the way organization does its things and it's very important that the organization creates a culture that supports health and safety at work and also to promote a positive social climate that will enhance the smooth operation of the organization to achieve its production what level, to achieve productivity.

So, positive social climate is very, very important.

Now, let's look at some definitions of concepts and then terms.

The first one is hazard.

A hazard is a potential source of harm or adverse health effect on a person or persons, or any substance or material that can cause harm to a person or group of persons.

Remember, the word potential here is underlined, a hazard is a potential source of harm, it means that the harm hasn't happened. And we are also saying that occupational hazard therefore refers to those aspects of the work and work environment that have the tendency, that has the potential, that has the propensity of causing harm to to to to the worker. Okay, and in ensuring employee health and safety at work, employers should put in measures, they should put in strategies to prevent or reduce the availability of those hazards from the workplace.

So, let's look at the definition of concepts.

What is risk? We are saying that risk refers to the likelihood or chance (high or low) that a person or group of persons may be harmed or suffer adverse effects if exposed to a hazard.

And an example is that if if there was a spill of water on a floor then that water would present a slipping hazard to persons passing through it. However, if access to that area was prevented by a physical barrier then the hazard would remain though the risk would have been minimized.

Safety and health hazards.

Safety hazards are those aspects of the work environment that have the potential to cause immediate and very violent harm to the individual. It could be death, it could be lost of, I mean, some part of your body or anything.

And we are saying that anything that can cause death or cause an individual to lose part of his body is a safety hazard.

An example is somebody being exposed to a machine that can harm the person, that can, um, um, lead to the person's death or something. Acid or highly flammable substances that can cause problems for workers.

We call that safety hazard. We have health hazard that we're saying that they are those work, those aspects of work environment that have the potential to cause harm to the individual slowly and cumulatively.

That is very, very important.

So, example will be poisonous gases, long hours of work, noise, high temperatures, heavy workloads, etc.

That can cause problems for workers.

But it doesn't happen overnight. It keeps, uh, I mean, uh, accumulating until it gets to a stage where the worker may not be able to do anything. We also have the biological hazard where these are associated with work, uh, working with animals, people, or infectious plant materials. Work in schools, day care facilities, colleges and universities, hospitals, laboratories, nursing homes, etc. may expose you to biological hazards.

So an example of of of of biological hazard include blood and other body fluids, bacteria and viruses. Corona virus probably is one of the, um, biological hazards that we've we've experienced, uh, as humans, uh, for a very long time.

Then we have fungi, insect bites and animal and bird droppings, which are biological hazard if the worker get himself associated with that environment. It could cause, um, harm to the worker. Then we have the physical hazard which refers to factors within the environment that can harm the body without necessarily touching it. So an example is electromagnetic waves, like radio waves, high exposure to sunlight, ultraviolet rays, extreme temperatures, hot and cold. Can also cause that and constant loud noise can also cause physical hazard.

Then we, there's something called ergonomics, uh, in in in, uh, health and safety.

Now, it is, it refers to the human, uh, being and his work environment.

So when we talk about ergonomic, uh, ergonomic hazards, we are referring to situation where, uh, when the type of work that one does, the body positions and where the person is sitting.

That condition puts some sort of strain on your body and they are, they are the hardest to spot since you don't always immediately notice the strain on your body or the harm that these hazards pose. For instance, sitting behind a computer for a very long hours can cause problems to your eyesight.

And so that, uh, strain that you go through unnoticed is what we call the ergonomic hazards.

Then we have also short-term exposures that may result in "sore muscles" the next day or in the days ahead, but long-term exposures can result in serious long-term illnesses.

So an example of it, uh, of of ergonomic hazards are improper, uh, adjusted workstations and chair, frequent lifting, poor posture, awkward movement, especially if they are repetitive.

And then finally, we talk about the work organizational hazards and we're saying that these are activities at the workplace that could cause stress (short-term effects) and strain (long-term effects).

Examples of work hazards include workload demands, workplace violence, workplace bullying, lack of respect, lack of flexibility, lack of social interactions and relations, and sexual harassment.

So, we come to the end of the first lecture where we dealt with the basic concepts in health and safety. In the next lecture, we'll be dealing with issues regarding health and safety responsibility and risk assessment. Thank you very much for your time and then see you in the next lecture. Please don't forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel, Dr. Boison, uh, reality check and then don't also forget to click on the notification so that we can send you videos at any point in time when these videos are loaded. Thank you for your time and see you in the next lecture.