Occupational Health and Safety Management - Assignment Example

Occupational Health and Safety Management: Reflective Report Student’s Name Institution Introduction Having not fully achieved the required standards for the assignment, I have re-worked on the areas pinpointed as not satisfactorily tackled by carrying out in depth study to support my argument. Notably, my initial work was faced with the problem of originality and this has been solved by conducting thorough paraphrasing of materials used. In addition, I have ensured that every material used to compile the current assignment has been listed in the references section and properly in texted as provided by APA system of referencing. Typing and spelling errors were also some of the problems identified in my previous work. This has been addressed in the current work comprehensively by proofreading my work keenly with a view of ensuring the intended meaning is not distracted. The following sections offer a detailed discussion of areas identified not have met the minimum threshold. PART A Question 1 The factors to be considered when designing controls and displays on equipment and machinery In recent years, the total number of work-related accidents as well as ailments has increased significantly. This has been attributed to the human factors. Human factors play a crucial role in aiding to reduce accident occurrence in the workplace. However, human factors can contribute to accidents in the workplace. These work-related accidents cause loss of time and hence low productivity (Moraes, Arezes & Vasconcelos, 2012, pp. 552). The main industries that are affected by work-related disorders include construction, transportation and warehousing. Research demonstrates that disorders in the workplace can be prevented by putting into consideration the ergonomics criteria, that is, fitting a job to a worker (Angerer, 1985, pp. 45-52). Ergonometric work enables designers to detect potential hazards in the workplace. In addition, ergonomics analysis determines the malfunctioning and variability in work places. The Bhopal explosion, which occurred in India, is a clear example of how human errors can cause deaths and work-related disorders. Other examples include the Seveso accident in 1976 and Ohio in 1984 (Ball, 2011, pp. 317-322). During the process of chemical reaction, raw materials are combined and reacts together to produce the desired chemical product. However, such chemical reaction process generates heat and this process is known as exothermic reaction. In this vein, there are hazards arising from handling such flammable and toxic chemicals. According to (Cafazzo, et al., 2009, pp. 73), exothermic reactions can lead to thermal runaway that occurs when heat generated by chemical reaction exceeds heat put under control. The additional heat heightens temperatures causing reaction rate to increase and accelerate the rate of heat production. Accidents rarely happen at the work place, but in the event they occur, the outcome can be disastrous and tragic. With runaway exothermic reactions emanating from increased temperatures and high pressures, the possibility of explosion occurrence are high. However, to reduce chances of occurrence of any kind of accident, the following factor must be put into consideration when designing controls and displays on equipment and machinery: Potential for thermal runaway: In cases where occurrence of thermal runaway is more common, safety valves requires to be installed more closely to control the high pressures in the event the heating process generates more heat with the capacity to break the existing few safety valves (Cassano-Piché et al., 2010, pp. 52). In addition, machinery and equipments used in such high risk process should be installed with display meters to help in monitoring of heat and pressure levels in order to avoid cases of bursting. Materials reaction rate: Where the industrial process uses high risky raw materials to manufacture chemical such process may be high risky and to avoid the occurrence of accidents, the machinery and equipments used in this process should be installed in bunkers or open places such that do significant damage happens to the entire property in the event of fire breakage (Frankel et al., 2006, pp 1701). Nature of materials used: The nature of materials used to generate chemicals determines the design of equipments and machinery used, and therefore, the kind of displays to be used on such machinery (Cafazzo, et al., 2009, pp.71). Ideally, some materials occupy large surface area and due to their large quantities they have a capacity of generating high quantities of heat which may cause an explosion. In this regard, measures should be put in place to guard against any form of explosion. Stage of the reaction process: According to Bureau of Labor Statistics (2007, pp. 7), when deciding on equipments and machinery display, the engineers should take into consideration the stage at which the reaction process is in. This is critical in estimating the potential dangers that exist, and also in putting the appropriate displays to monitor the state of the reaction process. Operators’ safety: The safety of an operator is a critical factor to put into consideration when designing safety controls and display on machinery and equipment (Beuscart-Zéphir, Aarts & Elkin, 2010, pp. 222). The safety of an operator should at no time be compromised through negligence or not following instruction on display. Discrete or continuous controls: These include on/off buttons, rotary selector switches, toggle switches, rotary knobs, wheels and cranks push. All these switches are used to operate the machines and equipments and to guarantee safety; they must be fixed in a place within easy reach of the machine operator. Speed and accuracy : The control for machines that move with speed after being turned on require to be designed far from the hazardous areas of the machinery in order to avoid cases of injuries. Space available and force to be applied in operating a machinery or equipment: Some machines require a lot of force to operate them, and as such, more space should be created to enable the operator handle the machinery safely. Operational sequence: Before tuning on the machinery, the displays should be set in such a way to notify the operator the status of the machine before it starts operating (Fields and Horstman, 1979, pp. 455). PART B Question 3 Occupational skin diseases are among the most frequent occupational diseases in many countries according to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) At the work place, the skin is one of the common routes through which chemicals and other contaminants get into the body system. According to the UK Bureau of Labor Statistics, occupational skin diseases which most appear in the form of irritant and allergic dermatitis is the most common form of occupational ailments. Similar view was echoed by De Koning et al. (2006, pp. 7), who observed that irritant and allergic dermatitis accounted for 15% to 20% of all occupational ailments reported. Between 2003 and 2004, the rate of occupational diseases is reportedly to have risen from 60 to 85 cases per a group of 100,000 industrial workers. In the year 2004, there were approximately 70,000 occupational ailments cases that had been reported. However, it is widely believed that many cases of occupational ailments remain unreported. Data from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) indicates that the national goal of reducing cases of occupational skin diseases to 55 cases per 100,000 workers by the year 2012 is fair from being achieved. According to NIOSH (2008, pp. 5), irritant contact dermatitis that normally results from toxic chemical reactions is the most common type of occupational skin disease. According to NIOSH (2008, pp. 8), 6.8 million occupational illness including minor injuries were reported in the private sector work places, in the year 2010. This translated to a rate of 8.4 cases in every group of 100 full time employees. Disappointingly, approximately 3 million of the 6.8 million ends up not attended work for a number of days leading to lost work days or minimal work activity. The available options to assess skin exposure to hazardous substances There are numerous options in place to assess skin exposure to hazardous substances. These include identification of skin damaging agents, health surveillance, clinical investigations and diagnosis and individual sampling. Ideally, an employer must assess risks faced by every employee to hazardous substances. In this vein, the hazardous substances which are suspected to cause skin damage must be identified. The ways through which they can be identified includes: use of suppliers literature and labels popularly known as toxological data that provide information as to whether the substance is hazardous or not, experienced gathered within the industry may provide information about the nature of a given substance, certain occupations such as those requiring submerging of hand in certain liquids could also pose a threat and lastly handling newly introduced substances which are suspected to cause skin damages (Brown, 2004, pp. 455). The primary purpose of assessing risks is to devise measures to contain ill health. This includes use of protective clothing and safer methods to avoid toxic substances in order to avoid cases of dermatitis. Further, as part of assessment, an employer must weigh if health surveillance is necessary. This activity helps in protecting individuals by identifying early enough any signs of a disease or adverse effect that could be attributed to chemical substance. Additionally, surveillance can also provide early warning where control put in place may have lapsed (Dickel et al., 2011, pp. 455). Nevertheless, dermatological health surveillance should never be substituted with controls of exposure since all predictive tests cannot be relied upon and the results from such test cannot stop use of certain toxic substances. In some countries, health surveillance is mandatory, and the employer should therefore, arrange for identification of skin diseases cases at the workplace. In this vein, a health record with details set out regarding the condition must be well maintained. Surveillance practices within a workplace are aimed at identifying cases of skin diseases as a result of chemical exposure. If such procedure is effectively carried out, then the identified cases should be referred to a medical practitioner for further investigations and management. At this point, the medical practitioner should conduct further tests to establish if the ailment is actually related to exposure to toxic chemicals at the workplace (Davies & Rycroft, 2000, pp. 13). Some of the common test carried out to distinguish between medical cases, and those resulting from toxic chemical exposure includes patch testing, which is aimed at distinguishing between irritant contact dermatitis and allergic contact dermatitis. The last option to assess skin exposure to toxic substances is personal sampling where identified cases of occupational dermatitis are advised by a medical practitioner about continual with employment in the previous process and hygiene and precaution measures to employ to prevent future recurrence. This will require regular examination of work practices and the workplace in general to ensure that the precautionary measures are fully employed. At this point, the employers’ cooperation will be critical in reviewing control measures and any further exposure to such toxic substances (Dickel et al., 2011, pp. 461). The doctor should be satisfied that the employer has put in place the required control measures before recommending an employee to switch job. Evaluation of difficulties in assessing the risk of skin disease within the workplace Ideally, it is quite challenging to assess the risk of skin disease within the workplace. This is due to factors such as unreported cases of skin diseases, lack of management interest in the welfare of workers, fear of victimization, lack of prior warning on harmful products, lack of clear policies at the work place, unavailability of harmonized toxological data, inaccuracy in assessing exposure conditions, resources to undertake the assessment among others (Angerer, 1985, pp. 50). Apparently, not all cases of occupational illnesses are reported with most workers proceeding to seek medical attention either without knowing the cause of the ailment or due to fear of reprisal from the management in the event of reporting to have been affected by industrial chemicals. It is also evident that many organizations lack proper policies on hygiene making it difficult to evaluate risks posed by chemical used in the production process for precautionary measures. Indeed, the management understands the lethal effects of industrial chemicals, but due to their negligence on the welfare of workers only provides them with inadequate protective devices which in most cases do not offer protection from harmful substances. According to Dickel et al. (2011, pp. 457), some chemical manufactures do not indicate warning about hazardous effect of some chemicals. As such, some workers proceed to use such chemical without putting on protective clothing hence suffering skin irritability from such chemicals. Question 4 The advantages and disadvantages of biological monitoring as a way of providing information on the uptake of hazardous substances In the current world, many industrial jobs entail the use of chemicals. These chemicals can cause work-related disorders if they are not handled appropriately. Biological monitoring is a tool used by organizational leaders to determine the amount of chemical substance to which employees are exposed. The following are the advantages and disadvantages of biological monitoring as a way of providing information on the uptake of hazardous substances. Advantages Besides application of environmental measurements in assessment of sources of exposure, biological monitoring has the following advantages: It is more certain in providing information relating to risk posed to health since it measures the entire dose absorbed from the substances. In addition, it takes into consideration absorption of substances through the skin and other channels. According to Davies and Rycroft (2000, pp. 34), it helps in accounting that factors that facilitate substance uptake, as well as exposures that are not related to the occupation such as dietary habits and smoking. More importantly, it is useful in integration of all forms of exposure from different sources as it has the capacity to gauge the effectiveness of the controls instilled at the work place including the effectiveness of personal protection devices issued to workers. Disadvantages However one of the pitfalls associated with biological monitoring is that, it can only capture intake of hazardous substances after the exposure has taken place. In addition, it has minimal preventive value and cannot be relied upon to monitor worker from exposure to substances at their first sites of work (Reason, 1995, pp. 84). A research, which was done by Ho and Dillon (1987, pp.13),stated that biological monitoring is not widely used since it has little precautionary value, that is, it cannot detect exposure of hazardous chemicals before it occurs. Question 6 Acoustic absorption Acoustic absorption is a structure, material or an object for absorbing sound energy as waves hit it as opposed to energy reflection. Some of the absorbed energy is changed to heat whereas the other is transmitted (Bosk et al., 2009, pp. 445). That part of energy that is changed to heat is said to have been lost when sound emanating from loud speakers hits the walls. Acoustic attenuation Acoustic attenuation refers to a way of measuring energy lost by sound propagation in media. When sound propagates, thermal consumption occurs as energy is caused by viscosity. Acoustic attenuation is therefore, a lousy medium that is critical in scientific research areas such as vibration, noise reduction and medical ultrasound (Bosk et al., 2009, pp. 444). Ideally, when sound moves through a given medium, its intensity will continue diminishing as distance increases. Sound pressure is reduced as the wave spreads. Further, sound weakening takes place due to the effect of absorption and scattering. Combination of acoustic absorption and attenuation to provide suitable noise control With a view of reducing excessive noise impact on educational and medical facilities and place of residences from road traffic, Todd Busch developed earth berms - noise barriers that work on the basis of both acoustic and attenuation absorption (Classen et al., 2011, pp. 583). The sound waves hit the berm inclined front side, and some are reflected, scattered or absorbed and converted to heat. Some of the sound is transformed into surface waves and then propagated along the face of the berm into sound zone behind the berm. Berms with gentle surfaces are effective in scattering and reflecting sound waves. They therefore, reduce noise significantly through reflection and scattering while part of that noise is absorbed by berm walls and converted to heat. Berms with high absorptive surfaces perform incredibly well as opposed to those with normal surfaces. This improvement causes total suppression of scattered and reflected sound waves and leads to absorption of other waves, which are then converted to energy. Conclusion The present study explains how the deficiencies of my initial work have been rectified. In doing so, this paper provides a detailed discussion on the sections that were identified to not have met the minimum threshold. For instance, it provides an in depth discussion on factors that are considered when designing controls and displays on machinery and equipments which was identified as not satisfactorily answered in question one. In question three, the paper has comprehensively discussed available options for assessing skin exposure to hazards and also tried to evaluate some difficulties faced in assessing the risk of skin disease within the workplace. Advantages and disadvantages of biological monitoring have also been adequately discussed. Lastly, the present study also offer a detailed discussion on both acoustic absorption and acoustic attenuation while at the same time offering one more circumstance under which both methods can be combined to provide suitable noise control. References Angerer, J. (1985). Biological monitoring of workers exposed to organic solvents - past and present. Scand J Work Environ Health. 1(11), 45-52. Ball, R. (2011). Process safety and environment protection. 317-322. Beuscart-Zéphir, M.C., Aarts, J., and Elkin, P. (2010, April). Human Factors Engineering for Healthcare IT Clinical Applications. International Journal of Medical Informatics, 79 (4), 223–224. Bosk, C.L., et al. (2009, August). Reality Check for Checklists. The Lancet, 374 (9688), 444–445. Brown, T. (2004). Strategies for prevention: occupational contact dermatitis. Contact Dermatitis, 54(9), 450-457. Bureau of Labour Statistics (2007). Nonfatal occupational illnesses by category of illness, private industry. London: Department of Labor Cafazzo, J.A., et al. (2009). Human Factors Perspectives on a Systemic Approach to Ensuring a Safer Medication Delivery Process. Healthcare Quarterly, 12(5), 70–74. Cassano-Piché, A., et al. (2010). Choosing Safer Medical Technologies: How Human Factors Methods Can Help in the Procurement Process. Biomedical Instrumentation and Technology: Human Factors, 44(1), 49–56. Classen, D.C., et al. (2011, April). Global Trigger Tool' Shows That Adverse Events in Hospitals May Be Ten Times Greater Than Previously Measured. Health Affairs, 30(4), 581– 589. Davies, N.F., and Rycroft, R. (2000). Dermatology in Fitness for Work: The medical aspects Oxford: Oxford University Press. De Koning, H., et al. (2006, March/ April). Lean Six Sigma in Healthcare. Journal for Healthcare Quality, 28(2), 4–11. Dickel, H., et al. (2011, February). Occupational skin diseases in Northern Bavaria between 2000 and 2008: a population-based study. British Journal of Dermatology, 145 (8), 453- 462. Frankel, A., Leonard, M and Denham, C. (2006, August). Fair and Just Culture, Team Behavior, and Leadership Engagement: The Tools to Achieve High Reliability. Health Services Research, 41(4 & 2), 1690–1709. Moraes, A, Arezes, P and Vasconcelos, R. (2012). Form eronomics to design specifications: Contributions to the design of a processing machine in a tire company. Amsterdam: IOS Press. 552-559. NIOSH (National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health) (2008). Proposed national strategy for the prevention of leading work-related diseases and injuries – dermatological conditions. Cincinnati: US Department of Health and Human Services. Reason, J. (1995, June). Understanding Adverse Events. Quality in Health Care, 4(2), 80–89. Fields, R.L., and Horstman, S.W. (1979). Biomonitoring of industrial styrene exposures. Am Ind Hyg Assoc J, 40(6), pp. 451-459. Ho, M.H., and Dillon, H.K. (1987). Biological Monitoring of Exposure to Chemicals: Organic Compounds. New York: Wiley. Read More