Risk-Reduction Methods for Occupational Safety and Health

Roger C. Jensen

• Publisher: Wiley
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9781119493976
• Edition: 2
• Topic: Technologie et ingénierie
• Subtopic: Santé et sécurité au travail

Provides a thorough overview of systematic methods for reducing risks encountered in diverse work places

Filled with more theory, numerous case examples, and references to new material than the original text, this latest edition of a highly acclaimed book on occupational safety and health includes substantial updates and expanded material on management systems, risk assessment methods, and OSH-relevant concepts, principles, and models.

Risk-Reduction Methods for Occupational Safety and Health is organized into five parts: background; analysis methods; programmatic methods for managing risk; risk reduction for energy sources; and risk reduction for other than energy sources. It comprehensively covers both system safety methods and OSH management methods applicable to occupational health and safety. Suitable for worldwide applications, the author's approach avoids reliance on the thousands of rules, codes, and standards by focusing on understanding hazards and reducing risks using strategies and tactics.

• Includes more content on methods for reducing risks, citations of recent research, and deeper coverage of OSH-relevant concepts, theories, and models
• Merges methods and principles traditionally associated with occupational hygiene, ergonomics, and safety
• Provides substantial updates on management systems and theories of occupational incidents, and includes new case studies in many chapters to help demonstrate the "real world" need for identifying and implementing risk-reduction strategies
• Addresses occupational risks that go beyond current regulations and standards, taking an international approach by stressing risk-reduction strategies
• Supports adoption of the book for university courses by providing chapter-specific learning exercises and support materials for professors

Risk-Reduction Methods for Occupational Safety and Health is ideal for safety professionals, system safety engineers, safety engineers, industrial hygienists, ergonomists, and anyone with OSH responsibilities. It is also an excellent resource for students preparing for a career in OSH.

Part I
Background

Part I lays the foundation for the entire book. Chapter 1 describes how the present field of occupational safety and health (OSH) gradually reached its current status as a profession. It provides the author’s perspective on major contributions to the OSH profession from: law makers, specialists in system safety, the public health field, private organizations, and applied sciences. Chapter 2 delves into definitions of three terms used extensively in this book – hazard, risk, and risk reduction. Chapter 3 explains how the cognitive skills for effectively practicing OSH have changed from the days when having knowledge of regulations and standards was enough to the current need to have strong cognitive skills for analyzing, evaluating, and creating. The chapter also provides examples of common types of conceptual models and charting methods used in the book and the safety and health professions.

These background topics provide fundamental building blocks for the four subsequent parts of the book that provide the content applicable to the practice of OSH. Part II explains several practical methods from system safety for anticipating hazards, assessing risks, and analyzing systems encountered in occupational settings. Part III discusses programmatic and managerial methods for reducing risks. Part IV gets into the technical aspects of reducing risks associated with various forms of hazardous energy. Part V addresses risk reduction for occupational hazards not generally identified with a particular source of energy.

Chapter 1
Contributions to Occupational Safety and Health

Throughout this book, the field of occupational safety and health (OSH) is viewed broadly to include traditional occupational safety, industrial hygiene, occupational ergonomics, and, to a lesser extent, environmental pollution. To make the book internationally applicable, governmental regulations of the United States and other countries are infrequently mentioned. In this and other chapters, italic font is used for titles of books and journals, and for the first use of technical terms defined at the end of the chapter.

Much of Part I is based on information covered in traditional OSH books and journal articles. Part I begins by summarizing how the field of OSH grew out of contributions from governmental and private sector groups over an extended time span. Important contributions have come from: (i) the law‐making bodies of many countries, (ii) specialists in system safety, (iii) the public health community, (iv) private organizations, and (v) the sciences and engineering. The contributions of each are summarized in the five sections of this chapter.

1.1 CONTRIBUTIONS BY LAW MAKERS

The state of OSH today is the result of over 150 years of governmental attempts to address occupational injuries, illnesses, and fatalities. Some historical periods of major legislation ramped up the attention paid by the public and employers to OSH. Several book authors have provided excellent summaries [1, 2]. Some of the most noteworthy developments in legislation are summarized in the following two sections on OSH‐related laws and compensation laws, respectively.

1.1.1 OSH‐Related Laws

The industrial revolution started a transition in European and North American economies from primarily agriculture and small cottage industries to larger factories. During the period from 1840 to 1900, England pioneered some early legislative attempts to address concerns about working conditions. Among these concerns were long hours of work for women (often over 14 hours per day 7 days a week), working conditions of apprentices (many of whom were under 10 years of age), and lack of compensation for employees who lost limbs, developed diseases, and died at work. The lack of guarding hazardous machinery led to the “Great Factory Act” of 1844 followed with extensions in 1864 and 1867 due to increased concern for exposures to gases, dusts, and fumes found in workplaces [1].

In the United States, the military pushed development of rifles made with interchangeable parts. As that became successful, entrepreneurs opened factories to make other products using interchangeable parts. In the ensuing years, Federal and state legislation, as well as the common law, strongly supported manufacturing, mining, railroads, and other large businesses. The laws essentially disregarded employee safety and health until the early 1900s when workers' compensation (WC) laws were enacted. Several more decades passed before significant federal legislation created an infrastructure to support workplace safety and health.

Within a country, province, state, or other governed area, the enactment of legislation does not, by itself, lead to safer workplaces. To achieve the legislative intent, a support system is needed. One may say it involves four major components as depicted in Figure 1.1. First, legislation for supporting OSH is needed. It must provide means for adoption of regulations, codes, standards, and/or processes. This task is assigned by the legislation to governmental agencies. Second, the applicable governmental agencies must be established, funded, and provided with the tools to develop and update requirements, codes, and standards. Third, some means of enforcement is required – not so much for the top‐tier employers, but for business owners and managers who regard employee safety and health as an afterthought. The fourth major component of an effective OSH system is technology and qualified people to help employers to know how to comply with applicable requirements.

Figure 1.1 Components for an effective national OSH program.

Generally, the advanced countries have the most advanced national support system for OSH. Some countries have strong legislation, but limited commitment to implementation. A very different approach for motivating employers to support an effective OSH program derives from WC laws.

1.1.2 Workers' Compensation Laws

Concerns about lack of compensation for employees who suffered work‐related injuries, illnesses, and fatalities led to governmental‐driven compensation schemes for workers [1, 3]. In 1884, Germany pioneered what we today call WC systems [3]. The underlying motivation for these laws was a recognition that when an industry creates hazards that injure workers, it is simple justice to expect the industry to take responsibility. That concept of employer responsibility was apparently shared by law makers in many other ...