Paper Example on Occupational Safety & Health: Ensuring Workplace Wellbeing

Introduction

Occupational safety and health or workplace health and safety is a vital section of the workplace as it deals with the health, safety, and welfare of the individuals working in a particular working space. The primary purpose of this section is ensuring that the working environment is safe and conducive for working in a manner that ensures that those in the workplace environment are guaranteed occupational health and safety. In most cases, safety activities are also included outside work. In most countries and jurisdictions, respective governments have universal laws that apply to all employers that ensure that they take reasonable care of all the employees within a particular working environment.

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Nevertheless, the journey towards achieving complete occupational safety and health has been characterized by several challenges in different professional sectors. One such section is the basic machine safety section. In this section, there are several incidences and injury trends that are related to machine safety. In the recent past, there have been incidences where workers have been subjected to various occupational safety and health issues because of the lack of basic machine safety guidelines. This has either resulted in terrible accidents or incidences that may have been avoided in one way or another.

In the construction industry, machine-related incidences are often more than likely to occur given the nature of this job. In the recent past, there have been incidences where for example a forklift operator puts everyone around him/her at the risk of severe fatality or injury after accidentally dropping a heavy object in their workplace as in the case of a warehouse. One way such incidences are resolved is by encouraging adequate training for such workers. Some machine operators have been identified as under-skilled or poorly trained in matters safety and machinery safety.

Group Questions

How can companies ensure that their workers are Basic Machine Safety - competent?

How can government legislation help improve basic machine safety?

Question 2

The pre-start health and safety reviews are needed in a factory when a new operating machine is to be used. Also, when an already existing machine that has been modified, the pre-start health and safety reviews would be required. Therefore, there should be measures to ensure the safety and conducive working environment for the workers. It is the right of the workers to assured of safety at their places of work. The employers may be in a lot of trouble if they do not ensure the health protection and safety for their employees. Also, the reviews are conducted by a professional engineer or any other profession who is an expert in the appropriate field.

An employer or the owner of a company has to ensure that the machines or operations are not handled until the review takes place. The pre-start health and safety review involves a report that contains measures for compliance, and measures of health and safety protection for the workers if testing of the tools is to be done. The reviews are not necessary if the tools or machines are installed and tested according to the applicable standards or the manufacturer's instructions. In case of changes made to the elements of the company, the modifications should be according to the relevant standards; hence, the pre-start health and safety review is not necessary.

Question 3

Every piece of equipment or machinery has the potential to cause harm or injury to its user or even those around it. This is mainly for locomotive forms of equipment and machinery. These equipment possess their own mechanical and non-mechanical hazards that need to be controlled at all time as part of occupational health and safety. There are various forms of injuries that include burns and cuts, minor abrasions, severe injuries like amputations, crushing injuries as well as fractures. To avoid such incidences, it is essential to have machine guards that act as the first line of defense against such injuries that occur during machine operation. Each machinery or equipment requires adequate safeguards to ensure that the operator and the people in the immediate working area are protected from different hazards. In most cases, rotating parts, ingoing nip points, flying debris, as well as sparks, have been reported as some of the leading cause of accidents in working stations.

In recent past, programs such as the Machine Guarding Safety Program have been established to ensure that there are clear guidelines that help in the identification and correction of sections of a machine that guard the user against hazards. Apart from proper training, there is a need to ensure that guards are present to reduce the chances of injury. There are several requirements that need to be applied to ensure the safety of all workers. These include; prevent contact, be secured in place, create no new hazards, and not interfering with machine operations. Also, guards provide a physical barrier that ensures minimal contact between the machine and the user. They are the most viable and can be in the form of self-adjusting, adjustable, interlocked, and fixed guards.

Question 4

Pre-Start Health and Safety Review (PSR) are, in most cases, applied in the form of legislation whereby all employees are required to perform a PSR on modified or new equipment. Before an employee can perform any function on a piece of modified or new equipment, the worker is expected to prepare a report that indicates that equipment is safe for use before being introduced in a hazardous environment. The report is supposed to confirm that the equipment is safe for use. From there, the PSR report is reviewed by all the necessary regulators guided by rules and regulations that are responsible for ensuring a particular type of equipment is safe for use.

PSR's apply when there is new equipment is added or installed as well as during a new process. They can also apply a protective element has been modified as a way of complying with the applicable provisions. It is conducted during the design stage to establish the level of compliance, when construction is on-going when equipment is being tested and commissioned, and finally before it can be placed into the production business.

Nevertheless, there is another type of guard that does not require a PSR. This is the case if repair or replacing of a particular component does not affect or modify the stacking or the rack structure, if the repaired or replaced component has the necessary capacity, and it has been designed and tested for use by the relevant authorities using the necessary standards, and finally if the manufacturer of the repaired component has adequately restored the capacity of a particular component.

Question 5

In the event that the protective equipment is installed during the time of manufacturing, then the PSR is not required. Also, if the protective element is manufacture in accordance with and meets the required standards, then the PSR is not required. If the modification is up to the required standards, the PSR is not needed. PSR is not required is the protective element is installed as indicated in the manufacturer's instructions or the most recent applicable standards.

The same goes for protective elements that were manufactured in accordance with the necessary standards. If there are any modifications done, they must meet the current applicable standards. If the protective element is installed as highlighted the manufacturer's instructions, there is little need for a PSR. Exemptions from doing a PSR only occur is the necessary standards are met. Support compliance ensures that the guarding provisions and standards are applied when particular equipment is being manufactured. If a machine or equipment is manufactured under the A, B and C standards, then the machinery can be exempted from being run through a PSR, but in case the machine is generic, a risk assessment is required.

Question 6

Principles and management system practices that apply to quality management equally apply to the management of occupational health and safety. This is because overall performance is dependent on how well the management of these two aspects can be established. Implementation of both quality management and occupational health and safety management in an organization can improve performance and therefore, the need for leadership, information, and analysis. All these forms of management fall under the context of safety management.

Question 7

Edward Deming's 14 Obligations of Management provides a backbone for the establishment of principles that help improve the management of occupational health and safety. The management needs to focus on coming up with long term health and safety measures that ensure the safety of both its workers and clients. At the same time, the company needs to be innovative in the way it comes up and implements these policies by ensuring that it put lives first before profit. All defective, outdated and low-standard equipment need to be discarded as they may be a source of hazard. Prevention in occupational health and safety is better than a cure. Thus the management needs to check on their equipment regularly. With the help of statistics, companies need to source their equipment from well-established suppliers whose equipment is up to standard. Modern technology and statistics help the management establish local faults which helps reduce the chances of an accident and save on the cost of large-scale repair.

All personnel need to be adequately trained before operating the machines. Close supervision when handling certain equipment is required to detect faulty machines. Workers also need to give their opinions on areas where health and safety need to be improved. Problems that occur during production need to be followed up, and the source should be established and dealt with. Working standards should be reviewed every once in a while to establish areas of improvement and to keep up with emerging trends. Continuous training should also be encouraged to ensure that the workers are up to date, especially when new equipment is brought in. (Obligations not used; 14).