Paper Example on Safety Engineering

Abstract

Safety engineering is a field that focusses on providing an acceptable engineered system and assures that the needed safety levels in the workplace. Different types of accidents will be analyzed to design the needed safety precaution and procedures for both companies and its workers.

In this project students are required to investigate and illustrate a real life safety and health topic within a facility in Kuwait. The following project will enable students to observe the safety conditions within the chosen facility like identifying hazards and risk then set a prevention plan and control procedures to control such risks. The chosen facility is Kuwait Flour Mills and Bakeries Co, known as ( KFMB ) . KFMB is a known bakery company in Kuwait that produces different products like macaroni, cakes and pastries. Since it was established in 1961, it constantly produces new products each year. Because of these achievements the company and specially its worker have been facing a lot of challenges to bring up high quality products. Unfortunately, workers had been suffering from safety and health issues. So the following study will recognize these problems by identifying The hazards and risks that the workers were exposed and try to control them with the needed safety measures and concepts such as hazards assignments, prevention and control procedures to minimize the effect of those identified analyzed hazards and risks within bakery.

Keywords: safety engineering, hazard, risks, risk analysis, risk assessment

Introduction

The term 'safety' is defined classically as the ability to obtain protection and immunity from possible circumstances that could lead to the damage of environment, damage or property or equipment or may lead to occupational illness, injury or death ("Safety Engineering Concepts - Safety Info", 2017). Studies done in the area of safety have proved that both security and safety share a common goal that ensures the safety of the hosting system or the hosting environment and workers. The point of difference between safety and security is their ability to provide a functional system application that prevents complexities within the different types of systems and the control of any sort of danger or injury that may occur. There are several principles and concepts have been designed and implemented through the provision of relevant management and engineering principles such as safety engineering.

Safety engineering is a discipline that aims at providing functional and acceptable engineered systems. Therefore, this field advocates for systems that are controlled and have suitable levels of safety. Moreover, the designed systems are also referred to as life-critical systems because they might lead to threats that may lead to possible occupational illness or injury or sudden death. Therefore, whenever there is a system failure or a component of it, the other components ought to function as backups so as to ensure that the system performs as required so that any types of hazards and risks are eliminated.

Health and safety of the employees form the main purpose of this process is two measures are critical elements in any workplace. However, on the contrary, it becomes very costly for an organization that has inadequate safety and health systems as the company will be subjected to lost productivity and compensation. The provision of safety and health policies, maintenance of a safe working environment and effective risk management are the responsibilities of the employers. Through risk management, organizations are able to identify, evaluate their impact and take necessary measures to control the possible hazards. Moreover, companies need to have internal policies and hazards that guide both health and safety. In addition, this should be accompanied by training procedures to create awareness among employees.

Workplaces such as bakeries need effective safety and health procedures and practices. A bakery is vulnerable to various hazards such as manual handling processes, fire, noise, odor, heat, sugar and biscuit dust, slips and falls. Asthma and bronchitis are examples of some of the health conditions that might result due to prolonged exposure to dust in the bakeries. Moreover, diseases such as skin diseases, breathlessness, and many other diseases are caused by heat hazards and chemical odors. Therefore, it is important for owners of bakeries to ensure that there are right health and safety procedures which are adhered to for the sake of employee's safety.

For this project, students will visit Kuwait Flour Mills Company (KFMB) and conduct research related to employee safety and health and workplace environment. Kuwait Flour Mills Company (KFMB) is one of the leading food industries (Kuwait Flour Mills Company, 2017). Therefore, this study will seek to examine the health and safety hazards found within this company. It will go further to illustrate the needed regulations and rules that should be taken with regard to the risks and hazards. The study will further illustrate and suggest the needed steps in order to protect the employees and mitigate the possible workplace risks, hence ensuring the safe environment.

Literature Review

The Abbotsford news by Carmen Weld on the piece Canada Cake baker loses an arm in dough mixer nuance clear picture on what happened to a famous cake baker in the West Kelowna bakery. The employee by the name Anja Dumas was a renowned baker who is recognized in the House of Commons for baking the famous cake used in celebrations. According to the report by WorkSafeBC, the accident occurred as a result of negligence and failure to take precautionary measures. The dough mixer that harmed Dumas had hinge adjustments which posed a threat to the operator, and as a result, an accident was experienced is paramount to note that had the hinge not been adjusted then the accident would not have occurred.

Agata Stobnicka and Rafal Gorny in their writing Exposure to flour dust in the professional environment examine the adverse health effects brought by dust found in the food industry and that obtained in the animal feeds processing factories. The authors explain the

health complication which includes both allergic and non-allergic reactions brought by the dust in the industry. They tell that health and safety measures to the employees need to be adhered to prevent them from getting exposed and becoming ill because of the adverse conditions at the workplace.

Additionally, Fred Hosier in his writing Worker's neck snapped as he's pulled into dough mixing machine. He explains a case where OSHA is looking into, and it involves an accident in a bakery in Brooklyn New York where a worker's neck is crushed causing death. The deceased by the name Juan Batten was a 22-year-old Guatemalan immigrant who was working in the factory, and from the surveillance, it is evident that the worker had been stretching into the machine several times daily to push the dough. On the contrary, the employees say perhaps he had reached to pick ear his headphones that had fallen into the machine. It is also a case of improper safety measures to the employees which would have otherwise been adhered to and accidents minimized.

Heidi Hatch the article Family heartbroken after bakery mixer kills the woman in freak accident examine a case where Jacqui Lindhardt a 45 years old woman was killed in a bakery through an accident at work at the Reams grocery store in Sandy. The woman was pulled into a large bakery mixer in the store and suffered death immediately the sandy police officers, and OSHA followed into the investigation to establish how the accident happen. It is suggested that the crash would have resulted from loose clothing that the employee had worn in the course of duty. The management, in this case, is also liable because if the cause of death is as a result of how the employee had dressed then no proper training and right gear had been providing to the employee to avoid such accidents.

Rod Addy in his article mixer accident could have been avoided expounds a case that involved the Edinburg food firm Jeans dumplings Ltd where an employee was injured by the dough mixer in the course of duty. The victim by the name Joseph Brunette who is 22 years of age sustained severe injuries that saw him undergo surgery. According to the health and safety executive (HSE), the case would have avoided if a risk assessment had been done and proper training given to the employee. Health and safety executive suggests that safety and health can be exercised in the food industry if the right measures are adhered to. It is worth noting that accidents and deaths can be minimized if health and safety standards are adhered to by manufacturers and other food processing plants.

According to the International Labor Organization (ILO), the cost associated with workplace death, injury, and illness account for 45 of the annual global gross domestic product (Gahan, Sievewright, & Evans, 2014). In Australia, workplace death, injury, and illness cost the coun...