Health and Safety
Occupational health and safety is a cross-disciplinary area concerned with protecting the safety, health and welfare of people engaged in work or employment. The goal of all occupational health and safety programs is to foster a safe work environment. As a secondary effect, it may also protect co-workers, family members, employers, customers, suppliers, nearby communities, and other members of the public who are impacted by the workplace environment. It may involve interactions among many subject areas, including occupational medicine, occupational (or industrial) hygiene, public health, safety engineering, chemistry, health physics.
Since 1950, the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the World Health Organization (WHO) have shared a common definition of occupational health. It was adopted by the Joint ILO/WHO Committee on Occupational Health at its first session in 1950 and revised at its twelfth session in 1995. The definition reads: “Occupational health should aim at: the promotion and maintenance of the highest degree of physical, mental and social well-being of workers in all occupations; the prevention amongst workers of departures from health caused by their working conditions; the protection of workers in their employment from risks resulting from factors adverse to health; the placing and maintenance of the worker in an occupational environment adapted to his physiological and psychological capabilities; and, to summarize, the adaptation of work to man and of each man to his job”. This standard is based on the methodology known as Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA)
In Norway, the main required tasks of an Occupational Health and Safety Practitioner include:
• Systematic evaluations of the working environment
• Endorsing preventative measures which eliminate reasons for illnesses in the work place
• Giving information in the subject of employees’ health
• Giving information on occupational hygiene, ergonomics and also environmental and safety risks in the work place (Hale A, Ytehus I, 2004, ‘Changing requirements for the safety profession: roles and tasks’, Journal of Occupational Health & Safety – Australia and New Zealand)
In the Netherlands, required tasks for health and safety staff are only summarily defined, and include:
• Voluntary medical examinations
• A consulting room on the work environment for the workers
• Health check assessments (if needed for the job concerned) (Hale, A et alia. 2004)
‘The main influence on the Dutch law on the job of the safety professional is through the requirement on each employer to use the services of a certified working conditions service to advise them on health and safety’ (Hale, A et alia. 2004). A ‘certified service’ must employ sufficient numbers of four types of certified experts to cover the risks in the organisations which use the service:
• A safety professional
• An occupational hygienist
• An occupational physician
• A work and organisation specialist. (Hale, A et alia. 2004)
It shows in Table 1 (based on the European Network of Safety and Health Practitioner Organisations [ENHSPO] survey to) that in Norway, 37 % of Health and Safety practitioners had a MSc education level, and 14% in the Netherlands; 44% were BSc graduates and 63% in the Netherlands; and 19% were of a Technician level and 23% in the Netherlands (Hale, A et alia. 2004).
The main tasks undertaken by the OHS practitioner in the USA include:
• Develop processes, procedures, criteria, requirements, and methods to attain the best possible management of the hazards and exposures that can cause injury to people, and damage property, or the environment;
• Apply good business practices and economic principles for efficient use of resources to add to the importance of the safety processes;
• Promote other members of the company to contribute by exchanging ideas and other different approaches to make sure that every one in the corporation possess OHS knowledge and have functional roles in the development and execution of safety procedures;
• Assess services, outcomes, methods, equipment, workstations, and procedures by using qualitative and quantitative methods to recognise the hazards and measure the related risks;
• Examine all possibilities, effectiveness, reliability, and expenditure to attain the best results for the company concerned
(Board of Certified Safety Professionals, 2006, “Examination Guide” accessed 20 April at http://www.bcsp.org/bcsp/media/exam_guide.pdf)
Knowledge required by the OHS professional in USA include:
• Constitutional and case law controlling safety, health, and the environment
• Operational procedures to plan/ develop safe work practices
• Safety, health and environmental sciences
• Design of hazard control systems (i.e. fall protection, scaffoldings)
• Design of recordkeeping systems that take collection into account, as well as storage, interpretation, and dissemination
• Mathematics and statistics
• Processes and systems for attaining safety through design
(Board of Certified Safety Professionals, 2006)
Some skills required by the OHS professional in the USA include (but are not limited to):
• Understanding and relating to systems, policies and rules
• Holding checks and having control methods for possible hazardous exposures
• Mathematical and statistical analysis
• Examining manufacturing hazards
• Planning safe work practices for systems, facilities, and equipment
• Understanding and using safety, health, and environmental science information for the improvement of procedures
• Interpersonal communication skills
(Board of Certified Safety Professionals, 2006)
Similar to the findings of the ENHSPO survey conducted in Australia, the Institute of Occupational Medicine found that in the UK, there is a need to put a greater emphasis on work-related illness (Anonymous. 2008. ‘Occupational Health’, Health and Safety News: In Brief, Vol 60, Iss. 3; UK. pg. 6). Its been shown that in Australia and the USA that a major responsibility of the OHS professional is to keep company directors and managers aware of the issues that they face in regards to Occupational Health and Safety principles and legislation. However, in Europe, it has been shown that this is where they are lacking. “Nearly half of senior managers and company directors do not have an up-to-date understanding of their health and safety-related duties and responsibilities.” (Paton, Nic. 2008. ‘Senior Managers Fail to Show Competence in Health and Safety’ Occupational Health, Vol. 60, Iss. 3; pg. 6)