Hazard identification, risk assessment and risk control: a study at construction site

Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA) is an Act to make further provisions for securing the safety, health and welfare of persons at work, for protecting others against risks to safety or health in connection with the activities of persons at work, to establish the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health, and for matters connected therewith. This study focuses on infrastructure construction in Pagoh Education Hub. In present days, despite of knowledge in OSHA act, workers often proceed the work without considering any safety precaution or act at workplace as stated in OSHA Act. Due to ignorance of workers and employee on OSHA Act, workers are exposed to danger and hazard at their workplace causing them minor or worst fatal injury. The data collection was carried out through site investigation using Preliminary Hazard Analysis (PHA), HIRARC form and interview session with several workers in the constructio. The main objective of this study is to support the idea to coordinate and redefined the practice of occupational safety and health as workers discipline at their workplace based on existing potential hazard. This study was conducted to identify the hazard that occur at the workplace and analyse the safety precaution taken by the workers and employer to avoid accidents. As a result, this study listed several suggestions to improve the practice of occupational safety and health among workers in the workplace

Health and safety in hospitality

Health and safety involves rules and regulations at the workplace. It is important at workplaces to protect employers and employees from accidents and injuries. The aim of this research project is to identify health and safety issues at motels, identify possible causes of those problems, provide some potential solutions to solve those problems, and suggest ways to develop a safe work environment. Observation was used as a primary research method. Results show that staff are not following the health and safety rules properly and managers do not inspect or observe properly. Common hazards in motels are slips, trips and falls, forceful exertions, and musculoskeletal disorders. Lack of health and safety education and training prior to commencement of work, carelessness, ignorance, lack of inspections, are some of the reasons for workplace accidents. Both managers and workers are responsible for keeping the workplace safe and healthy. Recommendations include frequent and timely inspections at the workplace, verbal warnings to workers, a health and safety meeting prior to starting work, and meeting to remind them every day, as well as motivating and rewarding employees to encourage them to develop a safe working culture

Design for safety: theoretical framework of the safety aspect of BIM system to determine the safety index

Despite the safety improvement drive that has been implemented in the construction industry in Singapore for many years, the industry continues to report the highest number of workplace fatalities, compared to other industries. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the theoretical framework of the safety aspect of a proposed BIM System to determine a Safety Index. An online questionnaire survey was conducted to ascertain the current workplace safety and health situation in the construction industry and explore how BIM can be used to improve safety performance in the industry. A safety hazard library was developed based on the main contributors to fatal accidents in the construction industry, determined from the formal records and existing literature, and a series of discussions with representatives from the Workplace Safety and Health Institute (WSH Institute) in Singapore. The results from the survey suggested that the majority of the firms have implemented the necessary policies, programmes and procedures on Workplace Safety and Health (WSH) practices. However, BIM is still not widely applied or explored beyond the mandatory requirement that building plans should be submitted to the authorities for approval in BIM format. This paper presents a discussion of the safety aspect of the Intelligent Productivity and Safety System (IPASS) developed in the study. IPASS is an intelligent system incorporating the buildable design concept, theory on the detection, prevention and control of hazards, and the Construction Safety Audit Scoring System (ConSASS). The system is based on the premise that safety should be considered at the design stage, and BIM can be an effective tool to facilitate the efforts to enhance safety performance. IPASS allows users to analyse and monitor key aspects of the safety performance of the project before the project starts and as the project progresses

Occupational safety and health practice: a study at quarry site by using hirarc form

Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA) is a discipline with wide scope involving many specialized fields. In other words, occupational health and safety comprises of aspects in terms of social, mental and physical. This study focuses on the occupational safety and health act ABC Quarry Site located in Kedah. Nowadays, the workers lack of safety and health practice from their companies based on the observations being done one site during this project’s site visit. It is very important for the employers to manage occupational safety and health at the workplace because of the lack of management control often leads to the existence of causes of accidents and allows for unsafe practices among the workers. The data collection was carried out through site investigation and HIRARC form and interview with the person in charge during the site visit. The objective of this study is to promote the occupational environment adaptable to the employer and employees at the workplace based on the existing potential hazard. This report was conducted to identify the hazard on the construction site and to analyse the occupational safety and health in the workplace. This study suggests recommendations for improving occupational safety and health act in the construction site. Effective job safety and health training will help to reduce worker injuries and illnesses

Workplace Safety Policy: Past, Present, and Future

With an annual budget of about $400 million, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is about 5 percent the size of the Environmental Protection Agency, another federal agency created by President Richard M. Nixon in 1970, the "Year of the Environment." Nearly all workers in the United States come under OSHA's juridction, with some notable exceptions, including miners, transportation workers, many public employees, and people who are self-employed. OSHA is currently responsible for ptoecting over 100 million workers at 6 million work sites with the help of only about 2,000 workplace health and safety inspectors. Nevertheless, suppoers of OSHA argue that it has significantly improved worker safety over the last 30 years and that a beefed-up enforcement effort would produce even greater improvements. We examine the available evidence and find little support to the notion that OSHA has effectively reduced accidents and diseases in the workplace or that a more vigorous enforcement campaign would be likely to do so. Other policy instruments--tort laws, state Workers' Compensation insurance programs, and research and public education on the causes and consequences of work hazards--now keep workplace deaths and injuries low and can reduce them even more. The wage premiums, estimated at$210 billion per year, that workers receive for accepting job-related health hazards give employers a stronger economic incentive to eliminate workplace health and safety hazards than the $132 million per year in fines imposed by OSHA and its state counterparts for violations of workplace safety standards. Because of the heterogeneity of workers and firms, we argue that public policy should expand the economic incentives for workplace safety while allowing firms and workers freedom to discover on their own the best ways to improve workplace safety.

Workplace Violence: Why Every State Must Adopt a Comprehensive Workplace Violence Prevention Law

[Excerpt] On August 24, 2012, a fired clothing designer gunned down a former co-worker outside the Empire State Building in New York City. The violent act was the culmination of built up tension between two former co-workers. Their anger towards one another had already resulted in at least one physical confrontation at work that led to both men filing police reports against each other. This case is an extreme example of workplace violence; however, workplace violence takes many forms and occurs with great regularity. Nearly 2 million employees are victims of workplace violence annually. The Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 (“OSH Act”) is not well-enforced and therefore fails to provide protection to employees subjected to workplace violence. This article explores what can be done to better protect workers at the state level. Part I of this article reviews the phenomenon of workplace violence. Part II discusses the lack of enforcement of the OSH Act as it relates to workplace violence. Part III of this article describes how some states choose to supplement the OSH Act with their own workplace violence laws. Finally, Part IV proposes that state legislatures should adopt a law in line with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (“OSHA”) promulgated suggestions to provide legal protections for workers against workplace violence. Since Congress has yet to enact federal legislation that provides comprehensive workplace violence prevention, all states must enact legislation beyond the OSH Act to protect their workers

WORKPLACE SUBSTANCE USE, THE RISK OF OCCUPATIONAL INJURY, AND TESTING

Over the past 20 years, the "workplace substance abuse prevention industry" has grown enormously in size and has become more sophisticated in its marketing approach. Drug testing alone has become a $6 billion industry. Employee assistance programs are now widely used by employers at significant cost. This thesis presents a brief review of drug use patterns as related to occupational injuries together with a history of workplace testing. Results from studies suggest that drug-free workplace programs are an important public health approach to improving workplace health and safety through early intervention and, quite possibly, substance abuse prevention

Workplace Safety: Estimating Workers' Marginal Willingness to Pay

The aim of the present paper is to empirically estimate the monetary value workers place on safer working conditions. The marginal willingness to pay for workplace safety is estimated using data on job durations together with data on accident risks and wages. The results indicate that individuals value safety to 0.65-4.1 percent of annual wages. Male workers in service occupations are found to have the highest marginal willingness to pay. Female blue-collar workers are found to value workplace safety higher than male blue-collar workers.Search; Accelerated duration; Wage differentials; Sweden

Recessions are Bad for Workplace Safety

Workplace accidents are an important economic phenomenon. Yet, the pro-cyclical fl uctuations in workplace accidents are not well understood. They could be related to fluctuations in effort and working hours, but workplace accidents may also be affected by reporting behavior. Our paper uses unique data on workplace accidents from an Austrian matched worker-firm dataset to study in detail how economic incentives affect workplace accidents. We find that workers who reported an accident in a particular period of time are more likely to be tired later on. And, we find support for the idea that recessions in fluence the reporting of moderate workplace accidents: if workers think the probability of dismissals at the firm level is high, they are less likely to report a moderate workplace accident.Workplace accidents;economic incentives;cyclical fl uctuations