H & S Training - Health & Safety in the Workplace
So what does Health and Safety mean?
In this context ‘health’ is something that happens over time i.e. breathing problems and ‘safety’ is an immediate risk for example tripping over a loose wire.
Health and Safety is really all about working in a safe manner, ensuring your workplace is a safe place in which to carry out all tasks and that colleagues are not at risk.
It is unrealistic to think that you can make anywhere completely safe and there will always be potential hazards that cannot be eliminated, if this is the case that you should ensure that the appropriate assessment takes place and that steps are taken to minimise the likelihood of an accident occurring.
Sometimes in order to eliminate a hazard the cost outweighs the benefit and other solutions may be more ‘reasonably practicable’. An example of this would be uneven flooring, rather than having to completely replace the floor, precautions such as ample lighting, clear and visible signage should have the same effect.
So before we continue it might be useful to go through some statistics from the Health & Safety Executive 2008/2009:
Key annual figures 2008/09 (Source HSE)
- 1.2 million people who worked during the last year were suffering from an illness (long standing as well as new cases) they believed was caused or made worse by their current or past work. 551 000 of these were new cases.
- 180 workers were killed at work, a rate of 0.6 per 100 00 workers.
- 131 895 other injuries to employees were reported under RIDDOR, a rate of 502.2 per 100 000 employees.
- 246 000 reportable injuries occurred, according to the Labour Force Survey, a rate of 870 per 100 000 workers.
- 29.3 million days were lost overall (1.24 days per worker), 24.6 million due to work-related ill health and 4.7 million due to workplace injury.
As you can see from the figures above especially the cost of poor health and safety and the related sick days can be huge.
There are a number of reasons accidents and ill health occur in workplace, the main one is slips, trips and falls however here are some more:
- Poor housekeeping
- Inappropriate use of Chemicals
- Poorly maintained equipment
- Insufficient training
- Poor ventilation
- Unsafe equipment (no guard)
- Unsafe behaviour
- No signage
This list gives only an example of the causes of accidents and there are many more but by promoting a positive safe and healthy environment we can reduce the likelihood of these hazards occurring.
Actual causes of accidents can be categorised into three factors:
Environmental factors
Human factors
Occupational factors
Environmental factors are areas such as poor lighting and ventilation to slippery and even flooring.
Human factors are things that you as a human can cause of influence such as unsafe behaviour in the workplace, no training or lack of concentration.
Occupational factors are anything linked to the actual task, for example lifting an object or using a piece of equipment i.e. using a knife
So why is it important to promote a safe and healthy workplace?
- The law
- Reduce the number of accidents, injuries and even deaths
- Positive image and good reputation
- Increased productivity and in turn profit
In turn poor Health & Safety can lead to:
- Increased number of accidents
- Compensation claims
- Increased insurance premiums
- High turnover of staff
- Inefficient productivity
Finished? Try some sample test questions here. (Answers can be found in the download section)