OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY

WHAT IS IT?
 Part of larger discipline of Occupational Safety and
Health
 Which is part of Public Health
 Aimed at preventing accidents and injuries in the
workplace
OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY AND HEALTH
TEAM
• Safety Specialist
– Prevention of accidents and injury
– Every facility should have someone dedicated to this position either
full time in larger facilities or as one of their assigned duties
• Industrial hygienist
– Prevention of occupational disease
– Anticipation, recognition, evaluation and control of chemical,
physical (noise, heat, radiation, etc) and biological hazards arising in
or from the workplace
– Not every facility needs a full-time IH
OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY AND HEALTH
TEAM
 Occupational Health Nurse
 Provides treatment for minor injuries
 Helps run the health and safety program

 Occupational Health Physician

 Provides treatment as needed
 Helps run the health and safety program
OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY AND HEALTH
TEAM
 Other potential team member
 Ergonomist
 Occupational Health Psychologist
 Human Resource Specialist
 Toxicologist
 Epidemiologist
SOME BASIC TERMS
 Accident – an unplanned event that disrupts the
completion of an activity
 Injuries may or may not be involved
 Hazard – an existing or potential condition in the
workplace that can result in injury, illness, death or
property damage
WORKER – EQUIPMENT –
ENVIRONMENT SYSTEM
 This is the system of job performance that leads to the
completion of a task
 Worker functions
 Sensing
 Information processing
 Controlling

 Equipment (and materials)

 Should be properly designed maintained and used
WORKER – EQUIPMENT –
ENVIRONMENT SYSTEM
 Environment
 Layout
 Housekeeping
 Conditions: lighting, temperature, humidity, noise, vibrations
 These three components of the system interact to
produce job performance and tack completion
WORKER – EQUIPMENT –
ENVIRONMENT SYSTEM
 While we will look at accident theory in a little more
detail later…
 Accidents can often be linked to an imbalance in this
system or a failure in one of the components
SOME PERSPECTIVE
 In the US and other developed countries occupational
safety and health has come a long way
 However in much of the world, the working conditions
are still horrible. To wrap up this introductory module
you will view a video on the shipbreaking industry and
discuss it on the discussion board.