Occupational Safety and Health - Assignment Example

Occupational Safety and Health Final Exam Introduction This paper shall respond to questions 2, 3, 5, 6, 8, 11, 14, 15, and 17. Question 1 The rationale for OSH Act In 1970, OSHA came into existence due to legislation referred to as OSH (Occupational Safety and Health) Act. This legislation formed OSHA as an agency in the labor department. The act provides employees novel rights and responsibilities concerning workplace safety. The act encourages employee to employer collective efforts promoting safe and healthful workplaces (Bednarsh & Eklund 2000, p. 37). It promotes the consultation services towards employers through agencies. OSHA mission or purpose OSHA has mission or purpose. 1) Implement new health and safety programs. 2) Hearten employees and employers to decrease hazards at the workplace. 3) It heartens research that enhances modern ways of handling health and safety problems at the workplace. 4) Institute employers’ rights regarding workplace health and safety improvement. 5) Monitor illnesses and work related injuries via a system of record keeping and reporting. 6) Institute employees’ rights regarding workplace health and safety improvement. 7) Establish and enforce mandatory health and safety standards (Bednarsh & Eklund 2000, p. 39). 8) Establish educative programs to enhance professionalism in health and safety and improve the competence among those professionals. 9) Analyze and evaluate and monitor state level health and safety programs. 10) Initiate for approval and development of state level workplace health and safety agendas. Question 2 Components of OSHA’s enhanced enforcement policy 1) Follow up inspections: OSHA perform follow up on site scrutiny at organizations that are under a High Gravity Citation Case. The scrutiny assess if the employer has repeated violations, also whether the violations cited got abated. The Area Directors of OSHA may conduct follow up inspections after receiving a concurrence from the Regional Administrator. 2) Programmed inspections: inspections get scheduled depending on the neutral criteria of selection. The establishment gets selected according to the local or national scheduling plans for health and safety. For instance, the SST (Site Specific Targeting Program) or non SST. OSHA ensures that the corporate employer’s name is in the IMIS system. 3) Settlements: the agreements need the employer to pay a penalty and abate violation(s). Settlements involving egregious cases and some vital enforcement actions require employers to tackle systematic agreement problems, or offer information to OSHA that may enhance the follow-up action. 4) Enhance public awareness: OSHA sometimes issues national and local press releases on actions of enforcement. All establishments that are under High Gravity Citation Case get the copy of notification and citation of penalty. The National headquarters of employers finds the copy through a mail. Question 3 The employer responsibilities 1) Inspections: employers must check the workplace regularly for any hazards. They must correct or remove any form of hazards discovered. She or he have duties to ensure safety for the employees. The place of work needs to comply with industry regulations and standards and proper working conditions. 2) Equipment: employers should give employees the necessary equipment for work safety. This responsibility encompasses performing continuous maintenance on equipment and machinery to ensure that it is working safely and properly (Warren & Kibbe 1991, p. 208). This includes safety goggles, hard hats, facemasks, gloves, etc. 3) Training: employers should provide satisfactory training to employees regarding proper usage of equipment regarding safe performance of their duties. Employers need to communicate operating procedures or safety measures so that employees get updated about new equipment. The training and communication must be continuous. 4) Visual warnings: employers should post visual aids or signs warning employees about hazardous or dangerous materials, situations, or equipment. They can use color coded or posters that depict potential hazards levels. 5) Supervision and breaks: employers need to offer sufficient supervision over employees so as to monitor safety measures in practice. Supervisors should be the first people to answer questions regarding the equipment in use. They should offer guidance to employees who have no idea regarding potential situations of hazards. Question 5 Rationale of workers’ compensation as a concept The underlying rationale of workers’ compensation involves employers’ speedy actions in resolving accidents at the workplace. Fairness should be directed towards the employees who have had injuries. Especially this should be to employees who have no resources to take legal actions, which are normally expensive, long and drawn out. Costs such as image, legal, and morals that can be associated to employers should be reduced. There should be no fault process of resolving accidents at the workplace. Objectives of workers compensation 1) Income should be replaced. This involves two-third of the income without taxes. 2) Accidents can be prevented. The employer has to investigate programs involving accident prevention so as to experience fewer accidents, hold down costs of compensation and lower the insurance premiums. (Ballantyne 1998, p. 102). 3) Injured employee gets rehabilitated. Medical care should be provided at no cost towards the worker until he or she becomes robust to return to work. The employer should be retrained and motivated to return to work. 4) Cost gets allocated. The industries of high risk pay higher insurance premiums for compensating workers than the low risk industries. Question 6 Theories of handling permanent partial disability cases 1) Whole person theory: it is what an individual can do after convalescing from an accident. It gets determined and taken away from what she or he could have done before the injury. In this case, factors such as education, occupation, and age should be considered. 2) Wage loss theory: employee who has had an injury gets awarded a portion of the difference between his or her earnings and what he or she could have earned before the injury occurred. There is no consideration provided to the degree of disability. The claims are to remain open for prolonged periods so as to compensate for actual decrease in incomes realized in the future (Welch 1994, p. 29). Regular computations of the paybacks would be necessary in order to reflect the changes in earnings of the post injuries. 3) Loss of wage-earning capacity theory: the worker gets compensation for a percentage of the non economic loss linked with the injuries at the workplace. In this case, one considers factors like gender, age, advancement potential during the accident and past job performance. Capacity of future earning should be determined. Estimate can be done to extend of the impairment. The employee gets awarded the portion of the difference. Question 8 The role safety and health professional play in the conduct of an accident investigation 1) If accidents are minor, the supervisor of the employee who has got injuries can conduct the investigation. The health and safety professional should study the report of the accident and consult concerning recommendations for remedies. 2) If an accident is severe that it has broad, negative implications in the society and beyond, the role of investigation may be specified to the corporate executive or a high level manager. In such cases, health and safety professional, must conduct the investigation. 3) A company that prefers the team approach, health and safety professional, must be among the team members or even chair it. 4) Despite the method preferred by a certain company, the health and safety professional plays the role of leadership in analyzing and collecting facts and coming up with recommendations. Steps for conducting an accident investigation 1) Isolate the scene for the accident: this enables to maintain curious onlookers from disturbing, removing, or destroying fundamental evidence. Only the injured worker must be shifted or removed from the accident scene. 2) All the evidence should be put in records: since accident scene may be destroyed unknowingly or knowingly, the evidence should be recorded as fast as possible. Pressure may accumulate to obtain a crucial piece of machinery back to operation. 3) Videotape or photograph the scene: the video cameras should be in place, ready, and loaded to use during accident occurrence. Place a coin or a ruler near the object while making a lock up photograph. This enhances getting the right size of the object or proper perspective. 4) Witnesses should be identified: secondary, tertiary and primary witnesses should be identified and put in the list of witnesses. 5) Interview the witnesses: it is necessary to interview the witnesses starting with the primary one. Question 11 Steps in conducting an ergonomic job hazard analysis There are crucial steps involved in conducting ergonomic job hazard analysis 1) Analyzing the working station: any risk factors that may be associated with the workstation or job on study must be identified 2) Hazards should be lifted: it is necessary to lift the hazards for the purpose of handling manual materials. 3) Setting schemes or techniques of video tape: the videotape technique ensures the analysis of the job process. 4) Brake up ergonomic surveys: in case one has to identify the new deficiencies in place, then it is vital to enhance periodic ergonomic surveys. 5) Follow up and feedback: this identifies the risk factors involved and create measures to control the hazard (Kvalseth 1993, p. 48). 6) Analyzing the trend: data of several years in the workstations, processes, departments, or job titles can be used. This can be used to establish the positions that seem to be most hazardous. Question 14 Sources of workplace stress with an on-the-job example 1) Task complexity: many work demands may enhance inadequacy feelings and cause emotional stress. For instance, monotonous and repetitive work lacks complexity thus worker becomes stressed due to dissatisfaction and boredom. 2) Control: stress can be reduced if the worker takes part in determining work schedule, routine and selecting tasks. The electronic monitored workers experience greater problems of health than others who are not electronic workers. 3) Having responsibility feelings: these feelings may make workers think that risks regarding employment are few. These feelings for instance can be those of the general public or family. 4) Job security: for example, a worker who believes that his or her job stand a risk may experience anxiety. 5) Organizational culture: this involves feelings out of the loop, ill informed, and left out. Organizations should communicate with all employees on a frequent basis. Categories of human reaction to workplace stress 1) Emotional or subjective: stress gets expressed through aggression, anxiety and guilt. 2) Behavioral: one expresses stress through trembling and gets prone to injuries. 3) Physiological: this increases blood pressure and heart rate. 4) Cognitive: here, there is the inability to make decisions or concentrate. 5) Organizational: the worker becomes a regular absentee on the job, and his or her production rate becomes poor. Question 15 Characteristics of persons who plan to conduct safety training 1) The health and safety professionals provide a proper generic training. 2) Supervisors should offer task and job training. 3) The trainer should be competent at coordinating, conducting, and developing the training. 4) The person who plans to carry out the training must have thorough skills of the training topics; have a desire to teach, be cooperative, helpful, and positive attitude. Must also have a professional approach, strong leadership abilities, and exemplary character that can set the example in a positive manner. Objectives of supervisor safety training according to the national safety council 1) Engage supervisors in the prevention program of accidents in the company. 2) Ensure that supervisors recognize their responsibilities concerning safety. 3) Establish the supervisors as chief persons in accident prevention. 4) Help supervisors get knowledge in activities for preventing accidents and keep their own departments free from hazards. 5) Provide supervisors with equipped information about the causes of hazards within the occupation and prevention techniques. 6) Give opportunities to supervisors to consider the present problems of accident prevention and provide solutions founded on others or own experiences. Question 17 The concept of safeguarding Machines should be safeguarded to minimize the machine to operator risks of accidents (Warren & Kibbe 1991, p. 156). The contact may be due to inattention caused by distraction, fatigue, deliberately taking an option, or curiosity. Accidents can occur from machine through the flying chips, hot metal splashes, and chemicals and saw kickbacks. The machine might be in a malfunction state including electrical and mechanical failure. Requirements that safeguards should meet 1) Be durable and secure: workers need to render machines ineffective by disabling or tampering them. 2) Prevent contact: safeguards must prevent human contact by means of any potentially distrustful machine parts. 3) Protect against objects that are falling: safeguards should protect the machines’ moving parts from falling objects. 4) Create no interference: safeguards that can create interference should be disregarded or stopped by workers who may be feeling the difficulties of production deadline. 5) Make no new hazard: safeguards with unfinished surface, sharp age or protruding bolts, initiate new hazards while providing protection against the old. 6) Allocate safe maintenance: this involves lubricating with no removal of guards. Reference List Ballantyne, D S 1998, Dispute Prevention and Resolution in Workers Compensation: A National Inventory, 1997-1998, Workers’ Compensation Research Institute, Cambridge, MA. Bednarsh, H, & Eklund, K 2000, “OSHA Issues New Compliance Directive-Review of Issues”, Access Vol. 14, no. 2, pp. 35-40. Kvalseth, T Q 1993, Ergonomics of Workstation Design, Butterworths, London. Welch, E M 1994, Employer’s Guide to Worker’s Compensation, BNA Books, Washington, DC. Warren, W T, & Kibbe, R 1991, Machine Tool Practice, Prentice Hall, New York. Read More