The Legislations Governing Health and Safety within a Workplace Based on the United Kingdom - Report Example

Faculty: Engineering and Construction Course Title: Level 4 Instructions for the use of this cover sheet (1) A cover sheet is required for every activity including presentations (2) Please complete all sections below (3) Attach the cover sheet to your activity. Student name: Unit Name: Health, Safety and Risk Assessment in Engineering Unit No: 6 Assessment No: 2 Title: Accident prevention and analysis Hand out date: 12-04-2015 Hand in date: 24-05-2016 LO Learning outcome (LO) AC In this assessment you will have the opportunity to present evidence that shows you are able to: Task no. Evidence (Page no) 2 LO2 Understand the nature and use of current health and safety legislation 2.1 Identify industrial work areas where current regulations would apply and describe the role of the HSE inspectorate 1 2.2 Implement a schedule for the setting up of a safety audit system 2 2.3 Select the relevant codes of practice to enhance safety 3 3 LO3 Be able to analyse engineering activities for the assessment of risk 3.1 Identify a hazard and produce a risk rating 4 3.2 Evaluate the frequency and severity of an identified hazard 5 3.3 Produce a hazard proforma for a given application 6 3.4 Analyse a recording system that tracks and highlights potential hazards 7 Learner declaration I certify that the work submitted for this assignment is my own and research sources are fully acknowledged. Student signature: Date: 24-05-2016 Activity designed by Assessed by Name: Barry Howells Name: Date: 08-04-16 Date: Internally Moderated by Internally Verified by Name: Kevin Wheeler Name: Date: 27-04-16 Date: In addition to the above PASS criteria, this assignment gives you the opportunity to submit evidence in order to achieve the following MERIT and DISTINCTION grades Grade Descriptor Indicative characteristic/s Contextualisation M1 Identify and apply strategies to find appropriate solutions Effective judgements have been made. An effective approach to study and research has been applied. M2 Select/design and apply appropriate methods/techniques Complex information/data has been synthesised and processed. Appropriate learning methods/techniques have been applied. Investigate and design an appropriate computer based method, to track workers who have been exposed to respiratory illnesses, through exposure to welding fumes in the workplace M3 Present and communicate appropriate findings The appropriate structure and approach has been used. The communication is appropriate for unfamiliar audiences and appropriate media have been used. On completion of your investigation in task 7a, using a suitable software package present your findings to an audience of your peers D1 Use critical reflection to evaluate own work and justify valid conclusions Conclusions have been arrived at through synthesis of ideas and have been justified. The validity of results have been evaluated using defined criteria. On completion of task 5a and 5b, critically reflect on the evidence you have produced, evaluate your independent investigation, and justify valid conclusions which you have drawn. D2 Take responsibility for managing and organising activities Activities have been planned. Autonomy has been demonstrated. D3 Demonstrate convergent/lateral/creative thinking Ideas have been generated and decisions taken. Problems have been solved. Creative thought has been applied. Assignment brief Unit number and title Unit 6 Health, Safety and Risk Assessment in Engineering Qualification Pearson BTEC Level 4/5 HND in Marine Engineering Start date 12th April 2016 Deadline/hand-in 25th May 2016 Assessor Barry Howells Assignment title Accident prevention and analysis (2 of 3) Purpose of this assignment: This assignment will give you the opportunity to demonstrate your knowledge of Health and Safety legislation in an engineering working environment. Keeping an employee safe when they are at work, where the work conditions and the work environment can change, is a difficult problem to manage. A good understanding and the implementation of a health and safety culture, and its implementation and enforcement, has undoubtedly saved many lives over the years. This is assignment 2 of 3 for this unit. Scenario Introduction You are employed as trainee Health and Safety Compliance Officer, in a commercial shipyard, with responsibility for ensuring that all shop floor operatives comply with all elements of the company’s health and safety policy. You are also a member of the companies Health and Safety team, which monitors the safe working practices of the workshop operatives. You have been asked to review the current working practices, and culture of the engineering team, in line with UK health and safety legislation. The shipyard which employs you, has successfully won a contract to undertake a refit of a small coastal tanker, which transport diesel fuels from refinery and distribution installations. The vessel has arrived at the dry dock, and the welding team has to undertake numerous welding repairs to various locations on the vessel. Task 1: (LO2: 2.1) Identify industrial work areas where current regulations would apply and describe the role of the HSE inspectorate. You are monitoring for health and safety purposes a team of welders who have to undertake welding repairs to a coastal tanker. There are specific pieces of health and safety legislation which are applicable to all employees, undertaking welding on board a costal tanker. a) Investigate and describe the manual handling regulations legislation, where welding operatives may as part of their everyday work routine, need to physically handle sections of steel plate. b) Investigate and describe the role of the HSE inspectorate. What powers do the HSE inspectorate have, when they are undertaking an inspection of the engineering workplace? Task 2: (LO2: 2.2) Implement a schedule for the setting up of a safety audit. As part of your job role you are involved in the enforcement and compliance activities of health and safety with the engineering department workforce. a) You have been instructed by your manager to investigate and prepare a schedule describing a timeline for the setting up and implementation of a safety audit. Task 3: (LO2: 2.3) Select the relevant codes of practice to enhance safety. Identify appropriate codes of practice which enhance safety in the workplace. a) Investigate and describe Occupational Exposure Standards, with reference to welding fumes which are produced when electric arc welding using the manual metal arc welding process. b) Investigate the management of health and safety at work legislation, and describe how this legislation impacts on the senior management team, of an engineering company. Task 4: (LO3: 3.1) Identify a hazard and produce a risk rating a) Investigate an electric arc welding procedure in an integrated diesel fuel storage tank, undertake a risk assessment and produce a risk rating for the welding activity. Task 5: (LO3: 3.2, M2, D1) Evaluate frequency and severity of an identified hazard a) The health and safety at work act and its requirements has reduced accidents significantly in the workplace. This has resulted in a decrease of shop floor workers becoming ill will respiratory disease. Investigate the frequency and severity of workers who have become ill with respiratory illnesses. In particular, the ongoing exposure to welding fume, and the effect on their health and wellbeing. M2: select/design and apply appropriate methods/techniques b) Investigate and design an appropriate computer based method, to track workers who have been exposed to respiratory illnesses, through exposure to welding fumes in the workplace D1: Use critical reflection to evaluate your own work and justify valid conclusions On completion of task 5a and 5b, critically reflect on the evidence you have produced, evaluate your independent investigation, and justify valid conclusions which you have drawn. Task 6: (LO3: 3.3,) Produce a hazard pro-forma for a given application a) Design and produce a generic hazard pro-forma, for recording accidents, or near misses in an engineering workshop. Task 7: (LO3: 3.4, M3) Analyse a recording system that tracks and highlights potential hazards a) In large companies the ability to track accidents or near miss incidents, is an important tool in the ongoing process of keeping the workforce safe. Investigate and analyse a typical recording system for the tracking of potential hazards in the workplace. M3: Present and communicate appropriate findings b) On completion of your investigation in task 7a, using a suitable software package present your findings to an audience of your peers. Abstract This report looks into the legislations governing the Health and safety within a work place based on the United Kingdom legislation. The legislation analysis is targeted to a team of welders working on repair services on a coastal tanker. Details on the roles of and a Health and Safety Executive Inspectorate (HSE) is also discussed herein. A schedule for setting up a safety audit. The setup includes an in-depth investigation into the safety legislation in place as well as design of a schedule with a clear description of the timeline for setup as well as implementation of the safety audit. Selection of an appropriate code of practice for use in the workplace is also done. This selection is meant to foster enhanced safety in the workplace. The selection is based on welding operations in an engineering workshop or workplace set up. Effects of the selected codes of practiced is analyzed with regards to managements in the engineering setup under consideration. A hazard for the workplace under consideration is also identified and a risk rating produced based on the analysis of the hazard. The hazards identification and risk rating was based on the use of electric arc welding procedures in an integrated diesel fuel storage tank within the coastal tanker. The frequency as well as severity of the identified hazard was also evaluated and a pro-forma produced based on the evaluation findings. An in-depth analysis of hazard potential recording system is also included here in. The report uses pictures and other visual aids to foster the understanding of the reader. Introduction All people involved in any nature of work should be ensured of their safety and health in their respective workplaces. Several countries have developed and implemented legislations that ensures that employee’s safety is taken into consideration in any workplace. Such legislation are always incorporated into the constitutions governing such countries although in some cases, they exist as policies within the various companies and institutions. With this regards, United Kingdom is one of the countries that takes employee safety and health in the workplace with a lot of concern. One of the fields from which employees’ safety is of great concern is engineering. Engineering as a discipline is a blue collar job where most operations are handy and involves use of various machines. Such fields include welding, metal works such as milling, cutting, forging among others. Of great concern in this particular report is safety and health in a welding environment. Welding environment involves use of welding machines that are either electrical powered such as arc welding machines as well as gaseous based welding assemblies such as Oxyacetylene welding machines. Such welding environments are full of health hazards some of which are instantly felt while others are long term and only show up after a long period of time of welding operations. Instant health effects and hazards include electric shocks from the welding equipment’s while the long term effects includes lung malfunctions as a result of prolonged inhalation of fumes from welding operations. All types of welding considered in this document have equal measure of effects in terms of hazards that it subjects to the users. Therefore, for any welding operations, precautions such as adequate training of welders on safety and appropriate use of welding comes into play. Task One Manual Handling Legislation In the year 1992, United Kingdom developed a Manual Handling Operations legislation and was later implemented on January 1993. The legislation was developed with an intention of ensuring of health and safety of workers in any workplace. The scope and limits with which safety of the employees is bound well explained in the document. With respect to the context under consideration, the legislation covers the health and safety of employees adequately. The Legislation clearly stipulates the duties of employees as well as the employers with regards to safety in the welding workshop or rather work place. The duties are as stated below. Duties of the employer The employer in this case may or may not be limited to the person in charge of the facility under consideration or the actual owner of the workshop. Therefore, the employer with this regards has the following responsibilities in ensuring safety in the workplace: The employer is entitled with the sole responsibility of ensuring that he or she does not subject his employees to operations and duties within the workplace that subjects such employees to a great risk with regards to their health and safety. The employer should critically analyse and asses any manual handling operations and determine its level of risk it possess to the employees before allowing the employees to carry out the task. Such analyses for manual operations include weight limits in cases where lifting is involved. Employer is also responsible of ensuring that the risk of a manual handling operation is minimized to the lowest level possible before the employees embark on the operation. Such risk minimizing techniques includes operation such as reducing the weight of loads an employee can handle at a time among others. Reviews on any assessments on manual handling operations is the sole responsibility of an employer. The reviews should be done when deemed necessary and should be regular due to the dynamics in the manual handling operations. Duties of employee The legislation regulation also stipulates clearly the responsibility of the employee in ensuring safety in a manual handling operations. The responsibilities of an employee as stipulated by the regulation is as listed below: An employee in a workplace is charged with the sole responsibility of dispensing the duties within the prescribed instructions from the employer. The instructions from the employer are based on the assessments done above and are designed to ensure minimized risk to the employee. Therefore the employee should fully comply with employer’s instructions and directions. The health and safety executive (HSE) enforces the law in most of the workplaces under consideration. Therefore, for a welding operation a health and safety inspectorate ensures full enforcement of this regulation. Scope of the regulation The regulations under consideration only covers Great Britain and not the entire United Kingdom. Several other parts of UK such as Scotland have their own health and safety regulations such as HSENI. The regulations only covers some types of workplace hazards and thus other health hazards are covered by other legislations apart from HSE. Therefore, such hazards as consumer and food safety, aviation safety among others are not within the area of jurisdiction of this legislation. Regulations, Codes and practice guidance These regulations are developed solely by the designated ministries although the developments are based on proposals from the health and safety executives. The regulations are thus passed through a parliamentary session before approval. The approvals are effected by health and safety executives but with consent from designated secretary of states. The Role of HSE Inspectorate An health and safety executive inspectorate commonly reffered to as HSE has the responsibility of analysing all the risk mitigation strategies within the workplace with an aim of eliminating or minimizing risks in such workplaces. The subjects of work environment safety is always the workers and thus, the HSE inspectorate deals with putting measures into place that will ensure workers safety while dispensing their duties. The suitability and efficiency of the strategies put in place to ensure workers safety is determined through a risk assessment procedure for the workplace under consideration. The inspectorate also conducts inspections regularly in order to ensure that the management adheres to the set down regulations that ensures workers safety. Such inspections involve assessment of the management as well as finding the workers view on their working environment. In situations where the institution, company or work environment under consideration does meet the safety standards, the HSE inspectorate can halt the operations of such a work environment and recommend on ways of improving the working conditions. The HSE inspectorate can declare resumption of normal working operation when his assessment ascertains that the work place safety standards are within the required limits. Thus, the work environment safety regulations implementations is ensured by the health and safety executive inspectorate through his various mandates constituted within the act. Task Two Safety Audit Schedule An audit can be described as an independent evaluation of activities in a particular setup in order to determine their level of conformation to set standards. In manual handling operation, audits are important in determining wither the work place under consideration conforms to the requirements stipulated in the health and safety regulations. In order to accomplish these audits, a safety audit schedule must be designed or prepared by the personnel in charge. The health and safety audit under consideration determined the level of conformation of the welding operations to the health and safety regulations as stipulated in the United Kingdom based regulation document. Health and safety audits objectives The health and safety audits under consideration are designed to achieve the following objectives; Determine the performance of the workplace under consideration with regards to health and safety. To determine wither the management as well as other stake holders meets the standards set out in the health and safety regulation. Whether the workplace under consideration meets the standard set by the managements with regards to health and safety at the workplace. Determine any existing flaws that may jeopardise the work environment safety within the institution under consideration. Give recommendations on any improvements required in order to boost the work environment safety. Check if the recommendations on work environment safety have been effectively implemented within the work environment under consideration. The timeline and scheduling of safety audits within a given workplace depends on various factors. The number of auditing personnel present is a given workshop or work environment can determine the frequency of auditing operations. In big companies with several auditors, safety auditing can be done regularly unlike when such personnel are limited. The type of operation done within the work environment also determines how safety audits can be scheduled. In workshops where operations involve a lot of risks such as in engineering workshops dealing with explosives needs more frequent safety audits as compared to work environments that does not involve many risky operations. Welding workshop health and safety audit schedule The schedule for audits in a welding workplace varies depending on the nature of audits under consideration. The table contains a schedule for a welding workshop for the coastal tanker repairs considered in this report. Table 1: Welding workshop health and safety audit schedule Item Schedule Timeline Auditor comments Workplace Before & after work Health and safety compliance officer. Comments on levels of cleanliness. P.P.E Conditions Weekly (Every Friday) Health and safety compliance officer. Comments on the condition of the equipment. Fire safety Weekly (Every Friday) Health and safety compliance officer. Comments on the condition of fire safety equipment. Electrical Weekly (Fridays) Health and safety compliance officer. Comment on electrical safety conditions. First Aid Monthly Health and safety compliance officer. State and condition of first aid equipment. Hazardous materials Monthly Health and safety compliance officer. Comments on presence and handling of hazardous materials. Environment Weekly Health and safety compliance officer. Comments on safety state of the working environment. The inspection of the various items stated in the scheduled in are effected by use of various inspection forms prepared to collect as much information as possible on the item. Such forms include the ones shown below. General Audit form An example of a template used in the general will be as shown in the figure below. COASTAL REPAIR WORKS AUDIT FORM DATE: TIME: Inspected By: Signature: Item Safety State Recommendations Workplace P.P.E Fire safety Electrical First Aid Hazardous mat. Environment Figure 1: A general Audit Form Task Three Welders Occupational Exposure standards Any welding process has a subsequent production of fumes when the hot metal vapor condenses to form the weld. The vapor cooling results in formation of very small particles that are normally suspended and forms the fumes. Inhalation of such fumes within a welding environment causes a serious health hazard. The effects of the various fumes vary depending on the poisonous levels of the gases under consideration. Such effects normally include difficulties in breathing among others. The fumes associated with arc welding include aluminum, Beryllium, cadmium Oxides, iron oxides lead among others. As discussed earlier, the individual effects of the fumes on the users health varies. Some of the effects associated with such fumes include irritation to the respiratory systems, sometimes damage to the respiratory tract especially when beryllium is under consideration. Some of the fumes that are chromium based have been known to be carcinogenic and can cause cancer of the respiratory system with time. Lead based fumes have a chronic effect on the nervous system, kidneys as well as digestive system. Under conditions of prolonged exposure, they can cause lead poisoning. The systems of harmful exposure to these fumes can be easily known from sore eyes, nose as well as coughing, chest pains, headaches, vomiting, fatigue among others. Occupational exposure limits (OELs) The occupational exposure limits refers to the maximum allowable levels of hazardous fumes that workers in a workplace can be exposed to without causing harmful health effects. These limits are only applicable or limited to healthy individuals and the risk of exposure is at an elevated level for smokers or any other individual whose heath is already compromised. OELs Value assigning Typically, occupational exposure limits are assigned three values. One value represents the normal working condition of eight hours per day. This is considered as an average lifetime exposure per day for an individual in a welding environment. In cases where the exposure is more than eight hours, this value must be adjusted accordingly. The second value is used to provide a limit for a short term exposure. Thus, this value represents the value of exposure to which a worker may be exposed to fumes for a period of fifteen minutes for a maximum of four times per shift. The third value is often referred to as the ceiling limit. This limit is often best kept un-exceeded at all times and in all conditions. This value is always lower than those standards set for exposure when individual contaminants is under consideration. Generally, occupational exposure limits only permit workers in a workplace to be exposed to very small quantities of substances and such amounts are measurable in parts-per-million (ppm). In some other cases, metric systems make such measurements in milligrams per cubic meter (mg/m3) Exposure limits Welding fumes In United Kingdom, there no set limits for welding fumes exposure. However, in other nations like Netherlands, welding fumes exposure limits have been set to 1mg/m3 (8 hr. TWA). Therefore, exposure limits in UK are not based on quantifiable amounts but rather the types of exposure. For instance, in UK, the closets allowed exposure to welding fumes is Iron Oxide related fumes and chromium based fumes is considered as the worst case scenario. Welding Fumes Components The exposure limits for welding fumes components are summarized in the table below. Table 2: Occupational exposure limits Component Limits Iron Oxide Fume 5 mg/m3 (8 hr. TWA) 10 mg/m3 (15 min TWA) Chromium (VI) 0.05 mg/m3 (8 hr. TWA) Nitrogen Dioxide 0.5 mg/m3 (8 hr. TWA) 1.0 mg/m3 (15 min TWA) Nitrogen Monoxide 0.2 mg/m3 (8 hr. TWA) Manganese 0.2 mg/m3 (8 hr. TWA) Copper fume (as Cu) 0.2 mg/m3 (8 hr. TWA) Rosin-based solder flux fume 0.05 mg/m3 (8 hr. TWA) Management of health and safety at work legislation The management of health and safety at work legislation basically dictates or outlines the responsibilities of the employer as well as the employee with regards with ensuring safety in a workplace. The regulation ensures that the employer carries out an in-depth assessment of all the risk potentials that may be subjected to their employees in a work place. The employee in some cases may be required to keep a record of their employees especially in instances where the employees are many in number. Preventive measures of the various risks must also be designed by the employer as a safety measure for the employees in the workplace (Vascusi 1979). In instances where the risk under consideration are too much, abstinence from the risky activity will be necessary. These may include off duties or vocational leaves for the employees while the risky situation is critically assessed and its risk reduced. The assessment of the risks considered to take into account the effect of risk with regards to the experience of the employees in the workplace. It is common for unexperienced employees to have a higher potential to risk exposure as compared to experienced employees. Therefore, the assessment of the risk must put into consideration. The reviews of health and risks with regards to compliance to the regulations in place should be regularly performed by the management of any engineering based workplace. Effective compliance of any workplace to the health and safety regulations highly depends on the experience of the personnel or workforce within the workplace. However, for effective performance, the personal must be provided with effective training with regards to the regulations whose compliance is mandatory. Anticipated dangerous situations must be accorded maximum consideration by putting into pace personnel to deal with the respective knowledge on how to deal with such emergency occurrence. Such personnel should offer services such as evacuation procedures in cases of eminent hazards as well as first aid services. Area prone to eminent hazards should also be restricted to personnel with efficient training to handle such environments. In some instances where more than one employers share a single workplace with other employees, a hospitable and unison cooperation is expected amongst the employees with an intention of fostering health and safety within their employees’ work place. The management should also ensure that employees are provided with efficient and effective training of their employees on their health and safety. The risks involved in the workplace must be made known to the employee as well as well documented procedure on preventive mechanisms for the same. The employees on the other hand also have some responsibilities to effect as a means of ensuring health and safety within the workplace. The employees as the primary subjects to health and safety in a workplace should report on any shortcomings within such regulations in place. Any dangerous situations should be identified by the employees and reported effectively to the management for immediate action. The equipment through which the employees use to affect their workface should be utilized in accordance to the safety instructions provided by the management. This is a primary way of ensuring safety on a workplace. The safety in workplace is also by larger percentage ensured by employees taking sole responsibility of taking care of their personal health and safety as well as those of the other personnel within the workplace. Effect of legislation on senior management team With the need for most workplace such as the engineering based workplace under consideration to ensure compliance to the legislation, several impacts are experienced by the management team. Such effects or impacts range from management strategies to the entire need to reconstitute the management structure of such organizations under consideration. With regards to this, the management should include executive directors, senior managers as well as supervisors. The manner and channels through which these responsibilities are expected and implemented should be made easily understandable by an organizational chart within the workplace. The senior management level managers in such cases would be required to prepare health and safety policies. Such polices would be made by consulting both the employees as well as the safety committee in cases where their existence is eminent. Such management personnel would also be charged with developing health strategies for important and high risk operations within a workplace. The senior management would also be required to set targets for various employees with regards to ensuring health and safety within the workplace. Such targets are meant to ensure that the health and safety objectives are met within the workplace. The senior management would also have to develop a job description that should put into consideration health as well as safety responsibilities within the workplace under consideration. Task Four Electric Arc Welding Procedure Arc welding is a welding procedure that puts into use electric power to develop an electric arc between an electrode and a base material. The two materials melt at the weld points and form a weld that joins two materials. The power supply used in arc welding can either be direct current or alternating current in nature. The electrodes used in such procedures can either be consumable or non-consumable in nature. With consumable electrodes, they reduces or are eaten away due to melting with time while non-consumable do not melt away as melting continues. Figure 2: Arc Welding Setup Arc welding is considered as a severe fusion process for joining two metals. Joining mechanism is basically enhanced by intense heating that results in melting of metal parts joining the two parts of the metal pieces. The welding region in arc welding is protected from oxidation form the external environment by the shielding gas developed within the welding region. Welding can be a dangerous process if not carried in a manner that foster safety and health among the users. Proper safety and precautionary procedures must be observed while performing welding operations in any workplace. Figure 3: Electric arc welding protective gear (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:GMAW.welding.af.ncs.jpg). Arc welding procedure in an integrated diesel fuel storage tank Safety Protection of the welders is the first step in the arc welding process. The welder must wear appropriate protective gear. This will protect the welder from unhealthy inhalation of fumes as well as exposure of bright sparks to the welder’s eyes that may damage their proper vision. Electrical connection Proper electrical connection of the arc welding machine to the power supply as well as earthen material to be welded appropriately. This ensures that there is a complete connection of the welding material to the arc welding unit. Arc starting The arc is then started by momentarily bringing the electrode close to the work piece and momentarily touching it to compete the circuit then raising it to a small height from the surface and maintaining this arc distance all along the welding process. Starting of the arc by touching can either be started by tapping or scratching and preference of the starting method is largely dependent on the users’ choice. Figure 4: Arc welding staring spark (http://www.mig-welding.co.uk/arc-tutorial.htm) Rod position and arc movement For most welding operation involving flat welds, the rod should be angled at an angle of approximately 20 degrees with regards to the work piece from the vertical. This angle ensures that there is no slag overtaking the rod. Figure 5: Lead angle during arc welding (http://www.mig-welding.co.uk/arc-tutorial.htm) Risk Assessment Welding in an integrated diesel fuel tank is susceptible to a lot of health risks some that are fully anticipated and protectable while others are hard to protect from. Such risks may include fires resulting due to ignition of the diesel by the high temperature involved in welding. Explosions is also a common risk associated with welding. Explosions occurs in places where explosive materials exist. Risk of burns from the high temperatures involved in welding or contact with hot welded surfaces are common. Such risks requires users’ vigilance with regards to protecting themselves to burning. Welding process is also associated with fumes. Fumes is a health hazard to the welders as they may cause respiratory system damage. Protection of the welders from the fumes is important. Loose connection or bare wires involved with the interconnection of welding equipment may subject the welders and other personnel within the welding facility to risks of electric shock. Improper earthing during connection will also result in higher risk of electric shock. Improper ventilation of the welding environment may subject the welders to high risk of suffocation as well as heat stress. Radiation especially with the bright sparks associated with welding subject the welder’s to risk of losing their sight. Thus proper protection by use of shields is important. Risk mitigation strategies In order to reduce the effect of risk involved with welding, some risk mitigation strategies needs to be put in place. Such strategies includes provision of proper welding protection gear to the welders and ensuring proper use of such equipment at all times. Ensuring that the electrical connections are done properly and no live and bare wires so as to eliminate or minimize the risk of electric shocks. The welding space should also be well ventilated and if need, provision for improvise ventilation should be provided for enclosed welding points. This is to reduce the risk of suffocation and heat stress to the welders. Risk rating The risk identified above associated with electrical arc welding can be assessed based on the arc welding context under consideration. Thus, for a welding process in a coastal tanker ship, the risk rating for the above identified risk are as shown in the table below. Table 3: Welding Activity Risk Rating Rating Risk 9 Fires 8 Explosions 7 Fumes 6 Burns 5 Radiations 4 Electric Shocks 3 Heat Stress 2 Hazardous Substances 1 Suffocation Task 5 Frequency and severity of identified hazards Severity Severity in risk assessment refers to level of effects a hazard has on its subjects. The severity of the hazards can only be determining after an effective severity classification has been performed. For the hazards identified above, the following table summarizes the severity classification. Severity Definition Catastrophic Results in serious fatalities such as death. Hazardous Causes great compromise on health and safety of workers in workplace. Major Compromises the safety of the workplace. Minor Has a minor effect on the safety and health of the workers in the workplace. No safety effect Has no effect on health and safety of workers in workplace. Severity of identified hazards The table below summarizes the severity of the identified hazards. Table 4: Severity of identified hazards. Hazard severity Fires Catastrophic Explosions Catastrophic Fumes Hazardous Burns Minor Radiations Major Electric Shocks Minor Heat Stress Major Hazardous Substances Major Suffocation Major Frequency Frequency of occurrence refers to the frequency to which an identified hazards is likely to reoccur again within the same work place. Frequency is normally recorded based on actual occurrence of such hazards. In order to analyze the occurrence of hazards in a workplace, a frequency classification must be carried out. For the hazards under consideration, the frequency classification is as summarized in the table below. Table 5: Frequency Classification table. Frequency Description Very High Occurs very often High Occurs often Moderate Occurs moderately often Low Its frequency of occurrence is low Very Low Frequency of occurrence is very low. Therefore, based on the frequency classification above, the frequency of occurrence for the hazards identified for the workplace under consideration are as summarized in the table below. Table 6: Frequency of occurrence table. Hazard Frequency of occurrence Fires Very High Explosions Very High Fumes Very High Burns High Radiations High Electric Shocks Low Heat Stress Very low Hazardous Substances High Suffocation Low Task 6 Hazard Pro-forma Recording of accident within work place is a very important step towards ensuring health and safety within that particular work place. In order to effectively record such accidents, a hazard pro-forma is used. A hazards pro-forma is a document that enhances data recording for the occurrence of accident, place of occurrence as well as its preventive action taken. It is normally used in tracking of health and safety performance for a given workplace as well as an aiding tool during health and safety compliance audit. Therefore, for the health and safety in the workplace under consideration, the following hazard pro-forma was developed to aid in recording of accidents with the workplace. Figure 6: Hazard Pro-forma for the welding workplace. Task 7 Recording system for tracking potential hazards in workplace Ability to record and keep track of all the potential hazards within a work place is an important tool in predicting the future occurrence of such hazards. Moreover, newer potential hazards can be identified by observing patterns of the hazards already recorded. Thus the system is specifically aimed at provision of important data and information necessary for management for risks from the work place operations. Such data if availed enhances the decision making process on the risk mitigation strategies associated with hazards identified. Most of the systems used in high risk workplace are computerized. The recording of the hazards occurrence is made as an entry into a computer based database after each occurrence. The entries are populated at any time and may be exported to a simulation software that will analyze the trends and predict any possible occurrences. Such recording systems have an integral capability to track specific occurrences as well as giving the management a great deal of help in decision making process by giving recommendations on the need to put more emphasis on some hazards than others. Although manual hazard recording and tracking systems have been is use for several years, computerized system shave taken over due to their efficiency, ease of use as well as their elevated capabilities in accomplishing the task. Conclusion Health and safety in workplace is an important concept that requires great emphasis. The productivity of the workers in a particular workplace highly depends on their level of confidence with the safety of their work environment. Thus it is important for the management to ensure compliance of their workplaces with the regulations put in place by various regulations or acts. Engineering field is one area that is associated with a lot of hazards and thus health and safety in an engineering work environment is equally important. Both the employer as well as employees have an equal role in ensuring that the work place health and safety is in compliance with the standards existing. References 1. Costella, M.F., Saurin, T.A. and de Macedo Guimarães, L.B., 2009. A method for assessing health and safety management systems from the resilience engineering perspective. Safety Science, 47(8), pp.1056-1067. 2. Bohle, P. and Quinlan, M., 2000. Managing occupational health and safety: A multidisciplinary approach. Macmillan Education AU. 3. Baxendale, T. and Jones, O., 2000. Construction design and management safety regulations in practice—progress on implementation. International Journal of Project Management, 18(1), pp.33-40. 4. Marwaha, M. and Khanna, P., 2011. Health and safety at workplace. Asian Journal of Research in Social Sciences and Humanities, 1(2), pp.143-152. 5. Gunningham, N. and Johnstone, R., 1999. Regulating workplace safety: systems and sanctions. Oxford University Press. 6. Viscusi, W.K., 1983. Risk by choice: Regulating health and safety in the workplace. Harvard University Press. 7. Viscusi, W.K., 1979. The impact of occupational safety and health regulation. The Bell Journal of Economics, pp.117-140. 8. Baggs, J., Silverstein, B. and Foley, M., 2003. Workplace health and safety regulations: Impact of enforcement and consultation on workers' compensation claims rates in Washington State. American journal of industrial medicine, 43(5), pp.483-494. 9. Walls, J., Pidgeon, N., Weyman, A. and Horlick-Jones, T., 2004. Critical trust: understanding lay perceptions of health and safety risk regulation.Health, risk & society, 6(2), pp.133-150. 10. Williams, P.L. and Burson, J.L., 1985. Industrial toxicology. Safety and health applications in the workplace. Achievement Summary Qualification HND in Marine Engineering Assessor name Barry Howells Unit Number and title Unit 6 Health, Safety and Risk Assessment in Engineering Student name Criteria Reference To achieve the criteria the evidence must show that the student is able to: Achieved? (tick) LO 2.1 Identify industrial work areas where current regulations would apply and describe the role of the HSE inspectorate LO 2.2 Implement a schedule for the setting up of a safety audit system LO 2.3 Select the relevant codes of practice to enhance safety LO 3.1 Identify a hazard and produce a risk rating LO 3.2 Evaluate the frequency and severity of an identified hazard LO 3.3 Produce a hazard proforma for a given application LO 3.4 Analyse a recording system that tracks and highlights potential hazards Higher Grade achievements (where applicable) Grade descriptor Achieved? (tick) Grade descriptor Achieved? (tick) M1: Identify and apply strategies to find appropriate solutions D1: Use critical reflection to evaluate own work and justify valid conclusions M2: Select / design and apply appropriate methods / techniques D2: Take responsibility for managing and organising activities M3: Present and communicate appropriate findings D3: Demonstrate convergent/lateral/creative thinking Assignment Feedback Read More

With respect to the context under consideration, the legislation covers the health and safety of employees adequately. The Legislation clearly stipulates the duties of employees as well as the employers with regards to safety in the welding workshop or rather work place. The duties are as stated below. Duties of the employer The employer in this case may or may not be limited to the person in charge of the facility under consideration or the actual owner of the workshop. Therefore, the employer with this regards has the following responsibilities in ensuring safety in the workplace: The employer is entitled with the sole responsibility of ensuring that he or she does not subject his employees to operations and duties within the workplace that subjects such employees to a great risk with regards to their health and safety.

The employer should critically analyse and asses any manual handling operations and determine its level of risk it possess to the employees before allowing the employees to carry out the task. Such analyses for manual operations include weight limits in cases where lifting is involved. Employer is also responsible of ensuring that the risk of a manual handling operation is minimized to the lowest level possible before the employees embark on the operation. Such risk minimizing techniques includes operation such as reducing the weight of loads an employee can handle at a time among others.

Reviews on any assessments on manual handling operations is the sole responsibility of an employer. The reviews should be done when deemed necessary and should be regular due to the dynamics in the manual handling operations. Duties of employee The legislation regulation also stipulates clearly the responsibility of the employee in ensuring safety in a manual handling operations. The responsibilities of an employee as stipulated by the regulation is as listed below: An employee in a workplace is charged with the sole responsibility of dispensing the duties within the prescribed instructions from the employer.

The instructions from the employer are based on the assessments done above and are designed to ensure minimized risk to the employee. Therefore the employee should fully comply with employer’s instructions and directions. The health and safety executive (HSE) enforces the law in most of the workplaces under consideration. Therefore, for a welding operation a health and safety inspectorate ensures full enforcement of this regulation. Scope of the regulation The regulations under consideration only covers Great Britain and not the entire United Kingdom.

Several other parts of UK such as Scotland have their own health and safety regulations such as HSENI. The regulations only covers some types of workplace hazards and thus other health hazards are covered by other legislations apart from HSE. Therefore, such hazards as consumer and food safety, aviation safety among others are not within the area of jurisdiction of this legislation. Regulations, Codes and practice guidance These regulations are developed solely by the designated ministries although the developments are based on proposals from the health and safety executives.

The regulations are thus passed through a parliamentary session before approval. The approvals are effected by health and safety executives but with consent from designated secretary of states. The Role of HSE Inspectorate An health and safety executive inspectorate commonly reffered to as HSE has the responsibility of analysing all the risk mitigation strategies within the workplace with an aim of eliminating or minimizing risks in such workplaces. The subjects of work environment safety is always the workers and thus, the HSE inspectorate deals with putting measures into place that will ensure workers safety while dispensing their duties.

The suitability and efficiency of the strategies put in place to ensure workers safety is determined through a risk assessment procedure for the workplace under consideration.

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