Safety Plan

The scenario in the food-processing warehouse shows enough evidence that not all the safety standards have been adhered to and the repercussion is that the state of health of the workers has been put in jeopardy. The chief reason for developing organizational safety and occupational standards in the workplace was to ensure a state of utter physical, mental and social wellbeing of workers in their place work. The recurrence of incidences of dizziness and feeling of sickness among employees implies that when an audit of the safety standards is conducted the warehouse must have violated some imperative measures that would have mitigated against the occurrence of such incidences. These procedures are to enhance the health and safety of employees at work and prevent hazards that are harmful in case they occur.

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As a safety and occupational health professional for your citys health department, auditing the warehouse to identify probable hazards actualized that might lead to the dizziness and feeling of sickness among employees is a paramount duty. The warehouse needs to be assessed for any conceivable health and safety risks that might be contributing to the dizziness and feeling of sickness among employees. Advice should emanate from the safety and occupational health professional of the citys health department about the steps to be taken to elevate the standards of safety and health of the premises and create a good and healthier working environment for the employees. Based on the description of the warehouse potential accident and health perils, such as harmful gas-air moistures and toxic fumes need to be established and the health impact assessed, thereafter the management compelled to comply with implementing appropriate control measures.

The investigation will be conducted by first interviewing the ill employees and knowing which sections of the warehouse they have been frequenting. The need behind this move is to eliminate sections that dont pose any peril to the workers. After these, the next phase of the investigation will be to cross-check if there is a violation of any standards required of a cold storage facility that might be putting the workers at risk. An additional step will be to evaluate the fumes that emanate from the gas powered forklifts. The source of gas for the forklifts will be analyzed for any leakages that might be introducing harmful gasses that the employees are breathing into the air.

The refrigeration compartment could be a probable source of the dizziness and feeling of sickness among the employees. An audit will be conducted to ascertain this claim or refute it if all the right safety and health procedures are adhered to prevent any hazard that could cause dizziness and feeling of sickness among employees. The task here is to have a warehouse that meets the right cold temperature to preserve the products and maintain a warm enough temperature for employees to perform well. The facility will be assessed to establish if it issues proper protective equipment that will minimize exposure to critical workplace injuries and illness in a cold storage facility as demanded by Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA). This equipment include gloves, respirators, and protective clothing that keep the employees warm and free from any harm that may cause illness as a result of the low temperatures.

As an investigator, an inquisition into whether mandatory breaks are accorded to the employees will be important. The inquiry will try to establish if the illness might be a Bladder-Related cold temperature effect as when one is exposed to cold temperatures the urge to urinate increases. If such breaks are not granted, then this could be a source of the illness among the employees. The investigation will also endeavor to establish if the workers have been sufficiently sensitized on ways to counteract the effects of dehydration as a result of working in a cold environment. Since workers in a freezing environment urinate frequently, they need to replenish their body fluid supplies and if not such symptoms as dizziness and feeling of sickness among the employees might be observed.

Another important aspect worth investigating and could be the reason for the employees illness is the use of forklifts and especially the control of the exhaust fumes. The forklifts exhaust fumes are released into the air, the gas powering the forklifts might not be fully combusted leading to emissions of carbon monoxide. Poising from gas elicits symptoms like headaches, nausea, breathlessness, loss of consciousness and dizziness, which resonate with the cases of the employees. The investigation will establish whether protective gears such as gas masks have been provided by the management and seek to determine whether the employees have been sensitized adequately about wearing the masks. The assessment would determine the awareness of employees about health hazards related with the combustion byproducts emitted from the exhaust pipe of the for