Risk-based, Management-led, Audit-driven, Safety Management Systems

Ron C. McKinnon

• Publisher: CRC Press
• Year: 2016
• ISBN:
  9781315394206
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Technology & Engineering
• Subtopic: Industrial Health & Safety
• Index: Technology & Engineering

Risk-based, Management-led, Audit-driven, Safety Management Systems, explains what a safety management system (SMS) is, and how it reduces risk in order to prevent accidental losses in an organization. It advocates the integration of safety and health into the day-to-day management of the enterprise as a value, rather than an add-on, and emphasizes that the safety movement must be initiated, led and maintained by management at all levels.

The concepts of safety authority, responsibility and accountability are described as the key ingredients to safety system success. Safety system audits are expounded in simple terms, and leading safety performance indicators are suggested as the most important measurements, in preference to lagging indicators. McKinnon highlights the importance of the identification and control of risk as a key basis for a SMS, with examples of a simple risk matrix and daily task risk assessment, as well as a simplified method of assessing, analyzing, and controlling risks.

The book refers to international Guidelines on SMS, as well as the proposed International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 45001, which could soon become the international safety benchmark for organizations worldwide. Using clear, approachable examples, the chapters give a complete overview of an SMS and its components. Confirming to most of the safety management system Guidelines published by leading world authorities, this volume will allow organizations to structure their own world-class SMS.

1	Introduction

EXTENT OF THE PROBLEM

According to the International Labor Organization (ILO), statistics published in 2015, approximately 2.3 million people died as a result of work-related accidents or diseases (ill health) in 2013. Also, according to the ILO, some 600,000 lives would be saved every year if available safety practices and appropriate information were used.

They quote:

• Every year, 250 million accidents occur causing absence from work, the equivalent of 685,000 accidents every day, 475 every minute, 8 every second.

• Working children suffer 12 million occupational accidents and an estimated 12,000 of them are fatal.

• 3000 people are killed by work every day, 2 every minute.

• Asbestos alone kills more than 100,000 workers every year (ILO website, 2016a).

The National Safety Council’s (USA) publication, Injury Facts (2013), lists unintentional-injury-related deaths for the year 2011 at 3,905, and medically consulted work injuries at 5,000,000. The total cost of unintentional injuries is given as $753 billion and the comprehensive loss to the U.S. economy is given as $4,364.5 billion for 2011. Work injuries alone cost $188 billion for the same year (NSC, Injury Facts, 2013, p. 8).

These are shocking statistics and a heavy burden for society and the economy. Implementing a strong occupational health and safety management system (SMS) helps organizations reduce accidents and ill health, avoid costly prosecutions, perhaps even reduce insurance costs, and create a positive culture in the organization when its people see that their needs are being taken into account.

SAFETY

Safety is the control of all forms of accidental loss by identifying, analyzing, and reducing risks. The main areas of loss which are prevented or reduced by a safety management system (SMS) are as follows:

• Injuries and fatalities to persons

• Occupational diseases and illnesses

• Damage to equipment and property

• Harm to the environment

• Hidden losses such as poor quality, company reputation, etc.

DEFINITIONS

Work Injury

A work injury is any injury suffered by a person, and which arises out of, and during the course of, his or her normal employment. The definition of work injury includes work related disability, occupational disease, and occupational illness.

Occupational Disease

An occupational disease is a disease caused by environmental factors, the exposure to which is peculiar to a particular process, trade, or occupation, and to which an employee is not normally subjected, or exposed to, outside of, or away from, his or her normal place of employment.

Property Damage

Property damage is accidental or unintentional damage or spoilage to equipment, structures, material, or products, caused by an accident or undesired event.

While these type of accidents may seem insignificant, modern safety thinking is that business errors that cause injury and disease have the same symptoms as events that cause damage. The exchange of energy which caused the property or equipment damage could have, under slightly different circumstances, caused injury to persons.

Property Damage Is an Accident

Property damage accidents, therefore, should receive the same attention as injuryproducing accidents to identify and rectify the failure in the system. Some of the international safety management system Guidelines discussed in this publication do not include property damage in their recommendations, as they state it does not form part of the safety, health, and welfare protection of employees. So what happens if a cargo container falls and lands near a group of workers? There is no injury, fatality, or illness as a consequence, so according to some Guidelines this is not a concern for the safety management system. Yet, if the container happened to have fallen a few feet to the left or right, there would have been serious injury to one or more of the employees who were under the container. The difference between the outcomes of the same accidental event is fortuitous, the event is what should be investigated irrespective of the consequent.

A safety management system should consider that property damage accidents are accidents which should have been prevented and which, under slightly different circumstances, could have caused injury, fatality, or illness. Because no fatality, injury, or illness took place, is only fortuitous. The root cause of the system failure (the accident) is what needs to be investigated and treated, to prevent a recurrence, irrespective of the outcome.

Areas of Loss

The main areas of loss are to people in the form of death, injury, permanent disability, or disfigurement along with the loss of earning power and, in some cases, quality of life. Another area of accidental loss is damage to equipment, machinery, and product caused by accidents. These losses are merely the tip of the iceberg. The hidden layer is the indirect costs of these losses which are not compensated or covered by insurance, but which still cost the organization time and resources. The totally hidden costs of accidents are difficult to quantify financially. They include losses such as employee morale, company reputation, legal litigation, fines, etc.

OCCUPATIONAL HYGIENE

DEFINITION

Most sources, including IPM Safety, define occupational hygiene as the science and art devoted to the anticipation, recognition, identification, evaluation, and control of environmental stresses arising out of a workplace, which may cause illness, impaired well-being, discomfort and inefficiency of employees or members of the surrounding community (IPM Safety website). Occupational hygiene is also described as the science dealing with the influence of the work environment on the health of employees.

OBJECTIVES OF OCCUPATIONAL HYGIENE

The objective of occupational hygiene is to recognize occupational health hazards, evaluate the severity of these hazards, and to eliminate them by instituting control measures. Some stresses include chemical hazards, exposure to noise, to airborne contaminates, ergonomic stresses, etc. As with any exposure, excessive exposure to any one, or combination of the above agencies could result in occupational disease, injury, or other adverse symptoms. Where the occupational health hazard cannot be eliminated entirely, occupational hygiene control methods must aim to reduce the exposure to the hazard and institute measures to reduce the hazard.

ENGINEERING REVISION

The easiest form of safety and health control is engineering revision, where the equipment is modified and the process is completely contained, suppressed, ventilated, or reduced. This does not always work and may prove to be too costly.

Limiting the exposure of workers to the hazard is also an acceptable control measure, but this may reduce the production and may also prove too expensive. Providing personal protective equipment such as respirators, earmuffs, etc., is a method of control, but is perhaps the least effective and should be viewed as a last resort.

ACCIDENT CAUSATION

Accidents and their consequences can be prevented and the resultant losses spared if enough effort is applied to control workplace risks. Research has shown that less than 2% of undesired events are beyond local control, and these include happenings such as floods, earthquakes, tsunamis, etc. The vast majority of accidents can be prevented by implementing controls, checks, and balances in the form of a structured safety and health management system. Falls of employees to a lower level is a leading cause of work fatalities. Can these be prevented? The answer is yes, they can. Modern technology and fall restraint and fall arrest systems are available and, if applied and enforced by management and worker organizations, can prevent workers from falling to their deaths. The cost of fall protection outweighs the cost of a work fatality and should make good business sense.

SAFETY MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS (SMSs)

Safety and health management systems identify and treat accident causes and not symptoms. To guide management in controlling areas of potential loss, and to set standards, there are existing safety and health management systems that provide excellent system frameworks. These are sometimes referred to as structured safety programs, but the preferable term is safety management systems, as they do follow a systems approach and methodology to prevent loss. These systems prescribe certain elements under certain headings and give details of what aspects of a safety management system should be instituted as a foundation for the prevention of accidental loss.

A FORMALIZED APPROACH

A safety and health management system is a formalized approach to health and safety management through use of a framework that aids the identification and control of safety and health risks. Through routine monitoring, an organization checks compliance against its own documented safety and health management system (safety management system), as well as against legislative and regulatory compliances. A well-designed and operated safety management system reduces accident potential and improves the overall management processes of an organization.

RISK-BASED SYSTEM

The safety management system must be a risk-based system. That means it must be aligned to the risks arising out of the workplace. Emphasis on certain safety management system elements will be different according to the hazards associated with the work and the processes used. There is unfortunately no one size fits all safety management system that will be ideal for all mines, industries, and other workplaces; therefore they should be seen as a framework on which to build a risk-specific system for the industry. The main aim of any safety system is to reduce risk, therefore the system must be aligned to those risks.

MANAGEMENT-LED SYSTEM

The key factor in safety is management leadership. The safety management system must be initiated, led, and supported by senior management as well as line and front line...