Introduction

Getting hurt at work or at research is not a pleasant subject to think about.  The reality is that many people a year lose their lives at work or on the road in Egypt, and many more get injured.  Estimated millions suffer from ill health caused or made worse by work conditions.  The mistake is to believe that these accidents happen in exceptional or unavoidable circumstances that may never occur to you.  Some basic thinking and acting beforehand could usually have prevented these accidents or injuries from happening.

Governments have established defined minimum standards of health and safety for practically all occupation.  Legal requirements are generally enforced on personnel and corporate by two methods, in that they are important considerations in the design of buildings, work processes, selection of equipment or any other industrial/non industrial plans:

• Granting of permits for establishing projects

• Inspection of infrastructure or verification of work processes when establishments physically exist

Implementing safety and health measures does not eliminate accidents but reduce them considerably to the unavoidable percentage.  This does not have to be expensive, time consuming or complicated.  In fact, safer work and more efficient work practices can often save money, and more importantly, can help to save lives.

This part shows the kind of things which cause the more common accidents and harm to people’s health for the purpose of considering these hazards when designing or running any activity.

1.1 What Is Safety All About?

Safety aims at preventing people from getting harmed or becoming ill at work or at home by taking the right precautions and providing a satisfactory working environment.  Because health and safety at work is so important, there are rules which require all of us not to put ourselves or others in danger.  The law is also there to protect the public from dangers at the work place.

Hazard means any thing that can cause harm (chemicals, electricity, ...).

Risk is the chance, high or low, that someone will be harmed by a hazard.  Some countries impose that business having five or more persons has safety policy statement.  The following is an example of statement

Controlling danger at work is not different from tracking any other task: training personnel, being proactive (premising), recognizing the problem, knowing enough about it, deciding what to do, and putting the solution into place is a guarantees for minimizing risks.

Risk Examples

• Slipping or tripping at work

• Getting into contact with hazardous material (asbestos, fumes, bacteria, for example)

• Performing work at height

• Handling, transporting or supporting loads while suffering from sprains, strains, or pains

• Having long exposure to computers or other display screen equipment

• Working at a noisy place: causes hearing loss or deafness.

• Being exposed to vibration: Using hand powered hand tools, equipment or processes causing hand-arm vibration syndrome that impair blood circulation, damage to the nerves and muscles, and of ability to grip things properly.

• Getting hurt by electricity.  Caused by underground or overhead cables, shocks from faulty equipment, poor electrical insulation and faulty electric appliances, ... etc.

• Improper selection of work equipment results from poor training or lack of knowledge about equipment specifications or work requirements.

• Neglecting maintenance or doing unsafe maintenance work

• Risks resulting from transport, road traffic, road conditions

• Risk associated with pressure systems

• Predictable or unpredictable, controlled or uncontrolled risk associated with natural or climate phenomena

• Risks resulting from fire or explosions or use or storage of explosive materials or chemicals

• Risks due to radioactive materials: Non-ionizing radiation (ultraviolet radiations from the sun) can damage skin, laser (can cause burns and damage eyes); Ionizing radiations naturally occurring radiations from radon gas or radiations from radiography or thickness measuring gauges

•  Feeling stressed by work (adverse reaction people have to excessive pressure or other types of demand placed on them).  Stress is identified by defining the hazard behind it.  Treatment passes through assessing who is at risk, and defining the level of stress, and reducing it.

1.2 What to Do If There Is an Accident?

If someone has been ill at work, it is important to take care of them straight away and make any dangerous condition safe:

• Provide first-aid by providing treatment for minor injuries at work and providing immediate attention until medical help is available.

• Report accidents at work are a legal requirement. The information provided in the report helps prevent recurrence of similar accidents.

• Start investigation on how to prevent recurrence of the type of accident.

Risk Assessment

Risk Assessment is a careful evaluation of what could cause harm to people.  The aim is to make sure that no one gets hurt or becomes ill.  The important thing is that no one gets hurt.

Procedure

• Work around your workplace and look for significant hazards

• Ask your employees or peers what they think; get feedback about hazardous situations or things

• Look at manufacturers’ instructions, accidents and ill-health records

• Consider whether any of the hazards covered above exists in your work place.

• Think about groups of people doing similar work

• Pay special attention to vulnerable groups, e.g. young inexperienced persons, disabled people, lone workers

• Do not forget those who may not be in your workplace all the time, e.g. cleaners, contractors, people you share your workplace with, or members of the public who may be harmed by your activities.

• Aim to make the risk small: meet standards, have good practice.

• Record your findings

• Mitigate hazards and reduce risks

• Review your assessment and revise it if necessary

Incident Management Plan

Any professional business should have an incident management plan which will

• Identify major risks and their potential impact on business and the community

• Describe the response strategies and incident management organization

• Set out roles and responsibilities and the key personnel involved

• Contain internal and external notification procedure, community resources, response organization chart, personnel, ...

• Describe the business establish communication with the community in case of accidents

• Describe how the local media will be addressed and by whom

• Link with national support resources and organizations.

Safety and health management comprises the procedures of saving the workplace environment against hazards of indoor pollution.   A sufficient and efficient safety system helps compete to protect its employees, and the other companies in the same economic sector.

This part is divided into the following topics:

1.      Total safety management (TMS) definition.

2.      Sustainable competitive advantage.

3.      Peak performance.

4.      Continual improvement forever.

5.      Translation TSM into action.

6.      Implementing TSM: The model.

7.      Executive commitment: A must.

8.      Achieving executive commitment.

9.      Total safety system implement action case study.

10. Evaluation of executive commitment.

11. Four–step for gaining executive commitment.

12. The safety management functions.

13. Safety and plant size.

14. Safety management propositions.

Analysis of the propositions.