health

Workplace

Identifying hazards in the workplace

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Identifying hazards in the workplace is a part of risk assessment. It is a procedure that should be carried out regularly. In general, the workers should also report any issues that they feel might be a safety hazard. It is for their health and safety and also for their coworkers that they should act with responsibility and should report any existing or potential hazards. A hazard can be, a process, a system, a machinery, a chemical agent or any substance that might be a potential source for injury or harm to the workers and people around. Finding a potential hazard in time reduces risk of accidents, injury and harm to the workers. Assessing and evaluating workplace hazards: There are different methods for identifying workplace hazards as part of risk assessment and reporting. The inspectors first formulate a procedure and step by step plan of action for identifying hazards. Find below few steps to follow and identify workplace hazards. Conduct a thorough inspection of the workplace starting from each process. Understand the work system by: Reading the official work /task manual. Talking to the workers personally. Many times the workers tend to complete the work, but the process is different than the working manual. Talk to the workers, supervisors and listen to what they feel about safety hazards. Try to understand what they think, can be improved with respective to safety? When identifying hazards, try to look for the source for such problems and correct the problem at the source itself. Check out company’s history related to accidents and inspect those process to identify potential safety hazards that may exists. Check for health related problems, complaints or symptoms with workers. Identify what area of workplace these complaints regularly occur. Try to find the causes for such issues. Health Hazards and risks in the workplace: There are mainly 4 types of health hazards found at the workplace. Chemical, Biological, Physical and Psychological. Hazards and its effects depends of the amount of exposure the workers had gone through while working. The toxicity or the harmfulness of the chemical agent and the exposed duration. A common example is asbestos. There are certain side-effects that are caused very quickly and there are some that take some time to show symptoms even might take years. Special care should be taken and proper notices should be circulated to prevent pregnant woman against such hazards.

FAQ

What do Health and Safety Consultants do?

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Quite regularly we come across this question What do Health and Safety consultants do? Mostly from individuals looking for a health and safety consultant jobs or people who want to start their own consulting firm or even from personal who recently completed training in health & safety. For what ever reason prospects of a career as a health and safety consultant are very good if you have the skill and experience. Below are some of the duties and ideal features of a safety consultant: Keeping health and safety first: A consultants job is to look out overall health and safety in the organization and making sure that it complies with health and safety laws and regulations of the country. To implement this they may initially do a thorough risk assessment. Based on assessment report, they draft safety policies and operational procedures. They need to find potential situations and areas of concerns that are hazardous and recommend solutions to overcome them. They need to listen to the workers, gather feedback and complaints from them. Conduct regular periodic inspections. Check out protective equipment, proper warning signs, instructions, clear path ways, electrical tags etc. Latest Legal knowledge: A safety consultant needs to be aware of all the regulations concerning safety including new laws as and when they are formulated. It is this information that is most valuable asset for a consultant. They are supposed to be updated with new health and safety legislation. They are required to use their expertise in dealing and negotiating with different Governmental organizations like OSHA and law enforcement agencies. Training in health and safety: A key area for a safety consultant is to train the staff on health and safety measures. They need to come up with training programs for different departments based on the risk assessment report. Create schedules and conduct regular health and safety training. External health and safety consultants work on per job basis where they have a specific objective to complete. It can be any thing from assessment to training staff on health and safety issues. Some consultants work on contract basis for certain period like a week, month, a year etc. Most of the time the organization decides on the contract based on its requirements.

Health and safety at work act.
1974 Act

Health and safety at work act 1974

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To answer the question: What is Hasawa? HASAWA 1974 or Health And Safety At Work Act 1974 was enacted in England to protect employees or workers health and safety at workplace. It aims to minimize the risk involved at a workplace and looks after the welfare of the people working. It clearly lays down guidelines and duties for employers, contractors, managers, people in control at work, employees and general persons. The European union laws of workplace health and safety also takes into account the HASAWA 1974 act.   Hasawa Summary:- A simple and downright definition for Health and safety at work act can be summarized as below. This summary gives you a straight forward meaning in simple terms. It is advised that  you keep reading if you need more detailed and specific information. Broadly stating the health and safety for an organisation can be summarized as: An organisation conducting proper risk assessment of its workplace for its employees and others involved. Taking steps to identify and list out practical measures to control identified risks and steps to follow in dangerous situations. Keeping the workplace safe by continuing to update these practical measures. Risk assessment can be divided into 3 categories: Organisational: This mainly involves assessing the risk as an organisational level due to the nature of the business. Organisational level changes effecting workers, behavioural safety, culture of the workplace, communications and leadership etc. Workers: At the workers level risk assessment involves informing, training and supervising your work force. It is not just a legal duty for you but an important factor for the development of your business that your workers are properly instructed and informed and skilled about the work they are involved in. Workplace: Except domestic places, a workplace can be any place that you utilize to undertake your work. There are two aspects that should be addressed with workplace assessment. First a proper environment that is safe and healthy for your workers and second taking care of the basic needs of your workers like, toilets, proper ventilation, washing needs, etc. Duties and Responsibilities of an Employee : There are certain duties and responsibilities of all the employees at workplace. First to care about your own health and safety and then making sure that your actions do not pose a risk to other employees or visiting guests. To continue to work and deliver your duties as agreed by your employer or concerned person and co-operate with them. To take proper training that is being provided and making sure that you understand the work process and company’s health and safety policies. You are not supposed to act irresponsibly with the things provided by your employer placing own-self and others safety at risk intentionally or with misuse. Do not hide information from the employer about your health like injuries, illness, medications, recent changes in your health that might have an impact on the work you do. When you work with machinery take special care with your clothing, jewelry that you wear, if you have long hair properly tuck them or wear headscarf.  

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