Fire Safety and Risk Management

for the NEBOSH National Certificate in Fire Safety and Risk Management

Fire Protection Association

• Editorial: Routledge
• Año: 2014
• ISBN:
  9781317937524
• Edición: 1
• Categoría: Tecnología e ingeniería
• Categoría: Seguridad y salud industriales

This textbook is directly aligned to the NEBOSH National Certificate in Fire Safety and Risk Management, with each element of the syllabus explained in detail. Each chapter guides the student through the syllabus with references to legal frameworks and guidelines. Images, tables, case studies and key information are highlighted within the text to make learning more productive. Covering fire behaviour, safety, management, risk assessment, prevention and the changes to HSG65, the book can also be used as a daily reference by professionals.

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• Written by experts in the field of fire safety

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• Complete coverage that goes beyond the syllabus content making it a useful resource after study

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• Illustrated throughout to enhance understanding

CHAPTER	1

Foundations in health and safety

This chapter contains the following sections:

1.1 The scope and nature of occupational health and safety

Definitions

Barriers

1.2 Moral and economic reasons for having and promoting good standards of health and safety in the workplace

Moral reasons

Economic reasons

1.3 The role of national governments and international bodies in creating and monitoring a framework for the regulation of health and safety

1.4 UK health and safety law: its sources and regulatory framework

The Health and Safety at Work (etc.) Act and the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations

Sources and types of UK law

Divisions of law, and the courts system

Common law, statute law, and health and safety law

Enforcement of health and safety law

1.5 Required duties of employers, managers, workers and visitors under the Health and Safety at Work (etc.) Act (HASAWA) 1974

Duties and responsibilities of employers

Duties and responsibilities of the management

Duties and responsibilities of workers and others

1.6 Required duties of employers and workers under the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations

1.7 The legal and organisational roles and responsibilities of clients and their contractors for health and safety

The legal responsibilities of the client (the primary employer)

The legal responsibilities of a contractor

1.1 The scope and nature of occupational health and safety

Occupational health and safety affects all aspects of work in all branches of industry, business and commerce. Every registered company must have at least one person who is responsible for the establishment and monitoring of health and safety measures. Small organisations may rely on a single person, but large and complex organisations may have one senior health and safety practitioner to whom a number of different specialists (including perhaps doctors, lawyers, work planners, engineers and/or floor managers) report. This is partly for moral reasons – it is good for a company to be seen to care for and protect its staff and anybody who may visit its premises – but mainly because there are multiple responsibilities in law for companies to take all sensible precautions against dangers and risks (and penalties for not doing so or not doing enough), and because those companies who are found to have defaulted on these responsibilities may literally pay a very heavy price. In short, then, the three basic drivers for good health and safety management are:

moral;

legal; and

economic.

According to the UK’s Health and Safety Executive (HSE), there are further potential benefits of a company’s taking corporate responsibility for the management of the health and safety of its staff:

It promotes employee well-being.

By assisting in the generation and operation of high-performance teams, it enhances a company’s reputation both for its products and/or services and as an ‘employer of choice’.

In this way it also adds value to the company in terms of overall profit and on the stock market.

Moreover, the successful management of health and safety has been described as a top priority throughout the world, and has correspondingly received considerable attention from international agencies, including especially the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the United Nations (UN).

Before we go on to consider the moral and legal drivers of good health and safety management at work in close detail, it is sensible to look at some definitions of what in context are technical terms (although they may seem pretty ordinary expressions at first sight), and thereafter at the power of the various barriers to health and safety management systems.

Definitions:

Health Continued well-being, involving the enjoyment of a good quality of life and general freedom from diseases and disorders. This is the aim of health and safety management measures targeted at protecting the bodies and minds of people on work premises at risk of illness caused by material, processes or procedures present there. To some extent this definition overlaps with that of safety (which is why the two terms are ordinarily used in conjunction with each other).

Safety Continued wholeness and security of being. This is the aim of health and safety management measures targeted at protecting the bodies and minds of people on work premises at risk of injury caused by material, processes or procedures present there. To some extent this definition overlaps with that of health (which is why the two terms are ordinarily used in conjunction with each other).

Welfare Enjoying health and safety, or measures intended to ensure that enjoyment. Welfare facilities include arrangements for the provision of pure water for drinking and washing, for sanitation and waste disposal, for heating and lighting and other normal comforts of the work situation, for aid in medical emergencies, and (commonly) for a suitable environment in which to eat and drink (and, if necessary, sleep).

Occupational or work-related ill health Physical and, less often, psychological disorders caused or triggered by workplace activities, whether arising in the short term (acute) or in the long term, and whether contracted independently by an individual or caused by association with fellow workers. When it occurs, it is most often the result of poor workplace controls.

Environmental protection Measures of various kinds taken by various authorities specifically to safeguard the environment, and in a work situation to protect company employees from agents and elements within the work environment known to be harmful to them, and thus to preserve their welfare. Such measures include efficient waste and effluent disposal and the elimination of atmospheric pollution.

Accident Formally defined by the UK’s HSE as ‘any unplanned [i.e. unanticipated] event that results in [the] injury or ill-health of people, or [in] damage or loss to property, plant, materials, or the environment’. Despite being unplanned, an accident is defined in law as having a cause (which may or may not be the focus of later litigation). Note that work-related accidents do not always occur at the place of work.

Hazard Anything that is dangerous and has the potential to cause harm to people, whether visible or (for one reason or another) invisible. Where a hazard is known or suspected, precautionary measures should – in most countries by law – be taken to prevent the danger from being realised. A measurement or evaluation of the danger constituted by a hazard is more properly defined as risk.

Risk An assessment of how much danger a hazard presents, and how likely the potential harm inherent in the hazard is to be realised. The ranking of hazards in this way is known as risk assessment, and in most countries is a feature of health and safety law applied to all work premises.

Dangerous occurrence An accident that could have resulted in serious (or even fatal) personal injury or illness, or in serious damage to property – but didn’t. Certain specifically defined dangerous occurrences must, in most countries by law, be reported to the enforcement authorities if there is a continued risk of their recurring with more grievous consequences.

A slightly less dangerous occurrence that came close to causing or constituting an accident but which did not actually do so, is properly defined as a near miss. The recurrence of near misses at any one location on work premises suggests that sooner or later an accident will actually take place there, and that precautions should be taken accordingly.

Barriers to establishing and/or maintaining a good occupational health and safety system

Finance and budgeting

There is almost always an element of compromise between what the management of a company would like to have as its occ...