Prevention is better than Cure in Occupational Safety and Health

One Particular day, I felt restlessness due to some illness and attended my office routine due to some urgent commitments – Gave appointments to 5 or 6 parties to finalise some business activities. As usual I discussed with the parties and ready to appraise the same with the Chief Executive of the organisation. Having studied my face, he asked me what is wrong with you. I told the health disorder. He immediately informed that the discussion can be postponed for a day. Better take rest for the second half of the day and also informed to avail the company vehicle and go home, take rest and come back for the next day. Otherwise you may have to apply leave for 2 days. Do not ignore the illness in the beginning.

Accident, Prevention, Behavioural safety based, Going  beyond Risk Management and Control Strategies.

Accident 
The preventive measures help to reduce the Accidents to some extent. Even if an incident happened there are every possibility to reduce the damage. Accidents is an unexpected event which cause risk, injury, major injury, loss of life and loss of property or damage to the property. The preventive steps may help to reduce the above stated causes such as minimise the cost of treatment, compensation and production loss to some extent to the organisation

Accident prevention
Prevention is better than a cure is an old and popular proverb which means it is better to stop bad things from happening, then to fix them after they have already happened. Accidents are preventable but  steps must be taken well before it happens. It is a legal obligation of organisations to comply with the laws, standard practices and safety observations to avoid emergencies and accidents. Many accidents occur due to human factors .These factors include unsafe facts, unmindfulness, negligence, lack of knowledge and training. Another leading factor of accidents is  unsafe working conditions, can include faulty machines, faulty designs substandard process, occupational process, fire and other hazards etc. by which the Accidents will continue to happen. Preventive measures are not taken. Accident prevention can be achieved by commitment and cooperation between Management and employees. To achieve the goal it is advisable to conduct safety programs, safety culture and accountability. Prevention requires the following actions . All accidents are incidents but all incidents are not accidents. Incidents of small nature need not be considered in general. Whereas the cause of the incidents may be reviewed to avoid recurrence in the future. Accidents can be prevented and if possible the damage control can be done.

Preventive Maintenance : The schedule can be planned in such a way as

1. On daily basis.

2. Weekly basis and 3 Monthly basis etc. The daily basis checklist can be adopted and

carried out by the operators which can be reported to the Supervisor level. The Weekly basis checklist can be done under the supervision of a Supervisor and can be recorded and reported to the Manager. In case of the Monthly basis maintenance can be carried out and the record may be submitted to the higher level management through the Manager of the department.

Whenever the machines and equipments are taken for operation, it is very important to check thoroughly without any compromise. There may be loss of time for conducting the checklist verification but such loss will become negligence while comparing the loss due to the accidents and the post operation activities. In case of Industrial Gas and Pipe line, Compressor air and handling equipments, the mechanical integrity part plays a crucial role. Even a bolt and nut tightness gives a bad result. Recently a Heavy duty Crane just fell down and resulting a loss of 11 human life. The prestart review has not been carried out when the unit was resumed after lifting the lockdown and resulting the accident at LG Visakapatnam .

* Hazard identification by Risk Assessment

*Removal of unsafe work by research and development .

*Removal of unsafe machines ,tools,and improvement of working conditions and environment.

Everybody who works to reduce accidents and improve safe performance is concerned with human behaviour and accidents is what all about. Is everybody concerned with reducing workplace injuries and illness and the  work associated with these injuries and illnesses using behavioural safety. While behavioural safety shares a concern with human behaviour and safe performance of the work  replace and other approaches. It is more than that.

Behavioural safety is  the appreciation of behavioural research on human  performance to the problems of safety in the workplace .This means  any safety labelling itself as a safety program must meet  the standards analytic research are applied to the workplace 

How does behavioural safety work?

Behavioural analysis is the service of behaviour change. Applied behaviour analysis is the application service of the behaviour to real world problems such as safety performance. As we do this, we are functional or systematic relationship between 

*Environmental changes are stimuli or cures that led to behaviour.

*The behaviour itself such as specific areas of work performance .

*The consequence of behaviour is the positive or negative responses that occur immediately after a person performs a particular task. These relationships have been exhaustively studied in the laboratories. Applied behaviour analysis the lessons learned in the laboratory research to the challenges of human behaviour in everyday life .In this case we have been  studied in the laboratories. Applied behaviour analysis in the lessons learned in the laboratory   researches to the challenges of human behaviour in everyday  life. To do these safety programs inside the basic steps.

1.Behaviourally specify the desirable performance if we want to improve safe practices in a certain work place ,we must specify as behaviourally possible  these practices. For example correct lift operation or lifting behaviour or we may specify the out that are achieved if safe practices are performed.
For e.g a shop floor that is free of hazards such as wires or oil slick that could trip  an employee and cause a fall. The process of specifying these intentions good performance result is measuring human performance in the workplace and measure human performance

2.Measure safety performance.

Using the criteria for safe workplace performance, we periodically sample and measure safety performance against those criteria. These measurements recorded and become part of the database a cumulative log of performance for each workplace.

3.Shape each performance through feedback and other consequences the graphs of the performance of work teams or departments in building in same performance over time in another form of feedback that sets the occasion for coaching .and feedback on safety performance . As teams  and departments improve their high level of safe work practices in the workplace .Celebration often held further acknowledging and reinforcing performance. Why all the indirect behavioural safety. The application of behavioural safety to the solution of human problems in building and demonstrating the first effective and reliable technology behaviour in   human history. No other field of psychology to the behavioural services has been successful to do this.. In workplaces with trouble some rates of performance ,behavioural programs properly Implemented,  produced significantly in safe performance and major reductions in workplace injuries and illness. Human suffering and financial costs are sharply reduced More over the costs of producing the gains in performance area good investment paying for themselves many times over Control Measures put in place to reduce Risk and prevent harm. In this blog at the 5 best risk assessment control and which you should apply them  with examples  .A successful risk assessment must check existing  and what should be done .

STOP

A key is how exactly are going to control the risks .After all it is an assessment..

Once you have spotted hazard and calculated the risks you need risk to get risk  under control.

A successful risk assessment must check existing controls and assess if more should be done to prevent them. These control measures and they are one of the important parts of your risk assessment 

What control measures in risk measurement

Control measures are the things you put in place is to reduce risk and to prevent them.

Control measures may one or a mixture of 

*Removal

*Rules

*Procedures 

*Equipment 

*Exclusions 

*Training 

*Supervision

*Limitation 

*Prevention

*Methods 

*Arrangements.

What is the control measure of a Risk assessment.

This means to eliminate the risks completely. Of course this is the best control measures you're removing the risk  completely. So we know what the best control is we can just this control for every risk and be  the business in the world. It does not work like that while in theory possible to eliminate every risk. In practice this would mean you and your team sitting in a padded room away from tools or equipment and not getting any work done.

What elimination  is actually absent, eliminating risks that are unnecessary for e.g working at height level of risk so that can be done at ground level ( e.g) Using extendable poles raising or lowering equipment) Then this risk that can be eliminated .

What elimination cannot be used. What if the work has to be carried out at roof height and there is no getting around it.

Enter hierarchy of controls The hierarchy of controls is simply a list of the best control measures and should be considered best for moving to item. 

5 Best Risk assessments control measures.

1. Elimination.
We have already discussed this post removed entirely from this activity.

Examples of Elimination

*.Use extendable tools to eliminate work at height.

*Materials delivered cut to size to remove the use of blades.

*Cordless equipment to get rid of trailing cables.

2. Substitution.

Substitution is the second best control measure you could use. May be the risk cannot be removed entirely but could be reduced by replacing the material substance or process with something less dangerous. Examples of Substitution

*Examples ladders with tower scaffolds 

*Substituting chemicals with a safer alternative.

*Changing the level vibrating equipment with newer equipment with less vibration exposure.

3. Engineering controls third on our list or engineering controls. These are usually fixed temporary or permanent controls. Engineering controls could be collective (protecting all workers e.g edge for protection for workers) or individual (protecting a single user e.g another points for connecting via lanyard) Drive Priority measures which protector individual measures.

Examples of EngIneering controls

*Extraction machines to remove hazardous dust or fumes from the air.

*Enclosing dangerous items of machinery or moving parts.

*Installing guards rails to fall hazards.

4. Administrative controls.

While this type of control is lower down on the list it will be a essential part of your control measures. These are rules and systems that carry out the work. Examples Of Administrative controls.

*Limiting use of vibrating equipment below exposure action values.

*Banking work at height and lifting operations in bad weather.

*Enforcing a one-way traffic system on site.

5. Personal problem clothes and equipment.

PPE is the last line of defence against hazard so while should not be your first choice when controlling risk it can give added protection for any running level of risk or should other controls fail. Example.

*Use of ear defenders when using noisy equipment.

*Harness and lanyards where the risk of falls can not be eliminated completely.

*Hard hats where they may fall off of tools or materials overhead.

Selecting the rest for your risk assessment. controls  You don't have to pick just one control for each risk from the top

5. If the risk can not be eliminated completely, then offer the best way to control it through a combination of the control measures. For e.g you may be able to replace toxic chemical for one that is no longer is   still dangerous .Your right to implement them to implement (section storage, fume extraction). Administrative controls ( training job rotation limit exposure) and PPE (Gloves, PPE, Goggles). Remember to make all the controls work well together are detailed in your risk assessment, communicated to your team and are regularly reinvented to make sure they remain ineffective. If chosen PPE should be selected and filled by the the person who uses it .Workers must be tried in the function show each item of PPE..

CONCLUSION One of my collegue, plan to visit his home town and took leave for a couple of days. Whereas while travelling in the two wheeler, he fell down and has a some injury.

He ignored The same and travelled in the Bus for about 8 hours and reached the distination.

Since he kept his legs unmoved for about 8 hours during the travel after the injury, the problem becomes acute. After reaching the office during the succeeding week, his mobility was limited. He availed assistance for movement for a week or ten days.

PREVENTION IS BETTER THAN CURE

By V. Narasimhan & A. K. Srikantan, Principal Consultants and Partners, M/s Enyes Associates, Chennai