Controlling Health & Safety Risks

GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF PREVENTION

In order to control the risks identified by risk assessments, the employer and the self-employed need to introduce a risk control strategy of prevention. This is based on the following principles; 

1. Avoid the hazard/risk altogether - e.g. do not work at height, clean the windows from the ground level, so avoiding the risk of falling. 

2. Evaluating unavoidable risks - carry out a suitable and sufficient risk assessment and evaluate the risks. This will allow for prioritisation. 

3. Control the hazard at source - e.g. if steps are slippery, replace or treat them rather than just putting up a warning sign. Repair a hole in the floor rather than demarcating the area. 

4. Adapt work to the individual - consider ergonomics by improving design, organisation and working and production methods. Also when choosing work equipment or designing work areas. Eliminate monotonous work, where possible, by job redesign or worker rotation.

5. Adapt to technical progress - keep up to date and informed on new developments in ways of working that reduce or eliminate hazard/risk. Replace old noisy equipment with modern much quieter equipment. 

6. Replacing the dangerous by the less dangerous - for example substituting mains powered electrical hand tools with battery powered hand tools or substituting a solvent based chemical for a water based alternative. 

7. Developing a coherent policy - Developing a coherent overall prevention policy, which covers production, organisation, working conditions and social dialogue. 

8. Give priority to collective protective measures - isolate workers from the hazard/risk by enclosing the process rather than giving out protective equipment. Protect from falls by the use of nets rather than a harness and line. 

9. Providing appropriate information, instruction and training - workers need to understand what they need to do to protect themselves. 

10. Issue Personal Protective equipment only as a last resort - when all other methods of risk reduction fail to reduce the risk sufficiently. 

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Likelihood of Harm

When seeking to establish likelihood of harm the adequacy of control measures already implemented and complied with needs to be considered. Here national legal requirements and codes of practice are good guides covering controls of specific hazards. The following issues should then typically be considered in addition to the work activity information:

• Number of personnel exposed; 
• Frequency and duration of exposure to the hazard; 
• Failure of services e.g. electricity and water; 
• Failure of plant and machinery components and safety devices; 
• Exposure to the elements; 
• Protection afforded by personal protective equipment and usage rate of personal protective equipment; 
• Unsafe acts (unintended errors or intentional violations of procedures) by persons, for example, who: 

1. May not know what the hazards are; 
2. May not have the knowledge, physical capacity, or skills to do the work; 
3. Underestimate risks to which they are exposed; 
4. Under estimate the practicality and utility of safe working methods. 

It is important to take into account the consequences of unplanned events.

These subjective risk estimations should normally take into account all the people exposed to a hazard. Thus any given hazard is more serious if it affects a greater number of people. But some of the larger risks may be associated with an occasional task carried out just by one person, for example maintenance of inaccessible parts of lifting equipment.

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DIFFERENT TYPES OF INCIDENT

In order to rate the severity aspect of risk assessment many organisations make a distinction between various types of incident.

Ill-health — hazard with the potential to cause ill-health. Typical examples of ill-health conditions include occupational asthma, asbestosis, hand arm vibration syndrome. 

Injury accident — may be subdivided into fatals, major injuries, over three day injuries and minor injuries. These are safety related events and include cuts, bruises, fractures, amputations etc.

Dangerous occurrence - the precise definition of a dangerous occurrence will vary from country to country and their national accident reporting requirements It is used to cover an undesirable event (as specified by the national government), such as a scaffold collapse which does not result in a reportable injury but could have done so, in slightly different circumstance, 

for example: 

• Collapse, overturning or failure of lifting machinery. 
• Collapse of a building or structure, explosion or fire, escape of flammable substances and escape of substances 

A Near Miss (or incident) is an unplanned, uncontrolled event that has not led to injury, damage or some other loss this time, but could have in slightly different circumstances. Examples include: articles falling near to people, short-circuits on electrical equipment. It is critical to record and analyse near misses as they are warnings of more serious accidents to come unless corrective action is taken - see Accident Ratios 

Damage only accidents are accidents which only cause damage to plant, materials, and premises. Workplace fires are a good example of such an event, where no one is injured but there is considerable property, materials and equipment damage.

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OUTCOMES OF INCIDENTS IN TERMS OF HUMAN HARM, ECONOMIC AND LEGAL IMPLICATIONS FOR THE OGANISATION

The reasons why we prevent accidents can be summarised as follows

1. HUMAN HARM 

Any health and safety accident which leads to human harm will involve a degree of pain and suffering for the individual, possibly their family and friends. All cultures have rules against doing unnecessary harm to other people. This moral code may be written or unwritten. 

2. LEGAL 

Failure to comply with health and safety laws within a country, which then cause an incident can then lead to a criminal and/or civil legal action. If found guilty this could involve considerable fines and/or compensation awards. 

3. ECONOMIC 

Accidents cost money both direct and indirectly. In the UK there are an estimated 1.6 million accidents resulting in injury each year and 2.2 million workers suffer ill-health caused or made worse by their work. 30 million working days are lost each year with a cost to industry of some £700 million. Estimates of the overall cost to employers vary from between £4,000 - £9,000 million a year, some 5-10% of gross trading profit. On a national basis it is estimated that the total cost to society is some £10-£15 billion per year.

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Insured and Uninsured Costs

Uninsured costs vary between businesses and types of accident. They are, however, several times more than the insured costs. They can be likened to an iceberg. The costs recoverable through insurance are visible. But hidden beneath the surface are the uninsured costs. Like an iceberg, most of the costs are not immediately visible. 

In the UK studies have given different ratios for these insured to uninsured costs. 

• A study in a cheque-clearing department of a financial institution (a lower risk environment) found the insured: uninsured ratio to be 1:3.3. That means for every £1 recoverable from their insurance, the company had to meet a further £3.30 themselves.
• HSE studies found that the insurance premium paid: uninsured losses ranged from 1:8 to 1:36. That meant for every £1 they paid in insurance premiums, the companies had to meet a further £8 to £36 themselves for losses arising from accidents. 

Insured costs; 

• Injury 
• Ill-health 
• Damage to buildings 

Uninsured costs may include; 

• Lost time;
• Sick pay;
• Damage or loss of product and raw materials;
• Repairs to plant and equipment;
• Extra wages, overtime working and temporary labour; 
• Production delays; 
• Investigation time; 
• Fines; 
• Loss of contracts; 
• Increased insurance premiums 
• Loss of experience; 
• Legal costs; and 
• Loss of business reputation.

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Business Case for Health and Safety - Direct, Indirect Costs

Any accident or incidence of ill-health will cause both direct and indirect costs and possibly lead to an insured as well as uninsured cost. Direct costs are those that are directly associated with the accident. They may be insured (claims on employers and public liability insurance) or uninsured (fines, sick pay).

Direct Costs

• Fines
• Compensation payouts
• Medical costs
• Sick Pay

Indirect Costs

Indirect costs again may be insured (business loss, product or process liability) or uninsured (loss of goodwill, loss of reputation, extra overtime payments, accident investigation costs, production delays).

• Delays to production following the accident
• Personnel allocated to investigating and writing up the accident report
• Recruitment and training costs for replacement workers
• Damage to equipment and materials
• Reduction in product quality following the accident
• Reduced productivity of injured workers on light duty
• Overhead cost of spare capacity maintained in order to absorb the cost of accidents
• Lower motivation to work and workforce morale, increased absenteeism
• Loss of reputation
• Loss of goodwill
• Damage to the environment (e.g. from chemical incidents)

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Sources of Health & Safety Information

Written, verbal and observational information both internal and external to the organisation i.e. legal and other guidance, health and safety policy, risk assessments, health and safety posters, inspection and audit reports, incident data and reports, material safety data sheets, manufacturers information.

SOURCES OF INFORMATION

There are various sources of information both internal and external to the organisation. These sources of information are important since they can be useful when making health and safety decisions. Sources of information might be people or paperwork.

Internal Sources

People would include the employees themselves, their worker representatives, supervisors and health and safety officers.

Paperwork would include proactive documentation such as risk assessments, inspection and maintenance records, training records, audit reports, attitude surveys, near miss reports, health surveillance and environmental monitoring data. Reactive documentation would include accident investigation reports, accident/ill-health and absence data, actions taken by the enforcing authorities, civil and/or insurance claims.

External Sources

People would include enforcement agencies, experts such as health and safety consultants, lawyers and professional bodies such as IOSH, equipment manufacturers, and trade associations.

Paperwork would include national laws, international standards such as ILO, Approved Codes of Practice and Guidance documents, material safety data sheets, Trade Union documentation. Additionally there are national sources of information that can be accessed such as OSHA in America, the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work, the Health and Safety Executive in the UK and Worksafe in Western Australia;

Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA):The Occupational Safety and Health Administration aims to ensure employee safety and health in the United States by working with employers and employees to create better working environments. OSHA offers an extensive Web site at www.osha.gov that includes a special section devoted to small businesses as well as interactive e-Tools to help employers and employees address specific hazards and prevent injuries.

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Meanings of Common Terms

An accident is defined as an unplanned, controlled event which has, or could have in slightly different circumstances, led to injury, damage or some other loss. 

• Examples include: a fall resulting in a fracture, incorrect operation of machinery leading to breakdown, or an event where there is no actual loss this time (near miss) such as someone dropping a tool whist working up a ladder and narrowly missing someone below.

A dangerous occurrence is an unplanned and undesired occurrence which has the potential to cause injury and which may or may not cause damage to property, equipment or the environment and is reportable to the national enforcing authority. Many national laws require the reporting of such events to external agencies e.g. the Health and Safety Authority in Ireland. Typical examples would include the failure of pressure vessels, collapse of a scaffold and a serious fire.

A near miss (or incident) is an accident that results in no apparent loss. So it is an unplanned, uncontrolled event that has not led to injury, damage or some other loss this time, but could have in slightly different circumstances.

• Examples include: articles falling near to people, short-circuits on electrical equipment.

Work-related ill-health (physiological and psychological) concerns people who are made ill by theirwork - a recent HSE survey in the UK suggests that over two million people are suffering from illness they thought was caused by work. This ill-health could be physiological

• Examples: WRULDs, noise induced hearing loss or psychological e.g. stress.

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Meanings of and Distinctions Between Common Terms

Health concerns a state of well-being so involves aspects of the work activity that have direct effects upon employees, and concerns the absence of illness or disease.

• Examples of health hazards would be hazardous substances, excessive noise, high temperatures, excessive humidity and poor lighting. 

Safety concerns the absence of danger from physical harm, so involves aspects of the work activity concerned with preventing accidental injury or death. 

• Examples include hazards such as working at height, fire, electricity, plant and machinery. 

Welfare concerns facilities for workplace comfort and involves issues that impact upon the basic well-being of the employee.

• Examples would include the provisions of eating, toilets and washing facilities, first aid provision and provision of disabled or pregnant employees. 

Environmental Protection concerns measures designed to prevent harm to the environment around us, and is aimed at reducing pollution and protecting the environment from work activities. 

• Examples would be protection of animals, plant life, water, land and air quality through noise restrictions, bunded diesel tanks, spillage control procedures and waste disposal procedures.

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