High-Risk Workplaces

A positive, proactive safety culture recognizes the fact that accidents and other downgrading events are caused by a sequence of events that can be interrupted and the accident prevented. Risk assessment will help predict potential loss events. This requires a culture wherein high-risk workplace conditions are not tolerated and high-risk behaviors are not condoned or accepted. This, after all, should be the object of a positive safety culture—safe working conditions and safe work behaviors. 

Although most nickel sensitization results from nonoccupational exposures, nickel dermatitis was historically a problem in workplaces where there was a high risk of continuous contact with soluble nickel, eg, in electroplating (qv) shops. Improved personal and industrial hygiene has largely eliminated this problem. However, there are a few occupations involving wet nickel work, particularly where detergents faciUtate the penetration of skin by nickel, where hand eczema may occur (126). 

The final element in management s communication of a desire to reduce human error is the identification and elimination of error-likely situations. Every task is an opportunity for a human error, but some situahons represent greater risks than others. Identifying these high-risk situations is not easy and an expertise in applying human factors principles to the workplace is an essential prerequisite for this identification. Eliminating these hazardous situations is often relatively simple once they have been identified. In some cases it may be appropriate to provide error-tolerant systems, which are those that facilitate identification of and recovery from the errors. 

In general, sensitization to insects occurs in about 30% of individuals with high-risk exposure. Allergenic insects are not only found at home but frequently in various types of work places which favor the exposure to a number of insect species concurrently. Storage pests are also an important consideration in workers exposed at their workplace as demonstrated in recent studies from Spain and South Africa. Prevalence rates of up to 50% for insects such as cockroaches, mealworms, and mites were documented. While the sensitization to these insects most probably occurred via the inhalational route, cross-contamination of grain and subsequently the end-products can also be expected. 

The presence of susceptible populations in the workplace is obviously of great concern since chronic and potentially high levels of exposure to nitrobenzene combined with a genetic predisposition toward methemoglobinemia can put certain individuals at very high risk (Linch 1974). 

The woikplace is clearly an area of high risk where potential chemical exposure will always be a matter of concern. Identification of adverse effects of chemicals in use in the workplace may proceed either from the periphery, that is from knowledge of the nature of industries, of the chemicals in use and of the levels of use as a surrogate for potential exposure, or from w ker-centred considerations. The approach from the periphery may involve the use of indices and classifications of various kinds discussed in this chapter. Worker-centred assessment looks at individual factories and groups of workers. It is based essentially on monitcxing the workplace and of the workers at risk and is aimed at primary prevention. Medical screening for well-defined health effects and associated epidemiology may contribute to secondary prevention. In both cases, there is a clear need to support more research in occupational medicine if resources are to be used wisely. 

Technical Labour In ectorates m opportunity to register thousands of SMEs in the Inspectorates computerised mnhives and categorise them according to whether they were High (A), Medium (B), Low (C) risk workplaces under P.D.294/88. 

The same reporting system is vital for other high-risk situations, including lack of proper equipment, machine failure, or other hazards. Often this important feedback of safety information is stifled by the culture of an organization that does not recognize its value and creates a fear of reporting at the workplace. 

High-risk conditions are physical work conditions throughout the workplace that are below accepted standards. This results in a high-risk situation or an unsafe work environment. High-risk work conditions include ... 

Based on risk assessments, a manager lists and schedules the work needed to be done to create a safe and healthy work environment and to eliminate high-risk acts of people. If the need is to change the safety culture at the workplace, this would mean the inti oduction of a suitable structured SMS based on world s best practice. All SMS should be based on the nature of the business and be risk based, management led, and audit driven. 

High-risk behaviors and conditions mostly exist where the work takes place. The heart of an organization s safety culture centers on the workplace. Management is not always at the workplace therefore, the employees doing the work are key when it comes to reporting deviations such as high-risk work practices, hazardous conditions, and the occurrences of near-miss incidents and accidents. 

Anybody can be appointed to this position, but in most cases they are selected from a work area, and represent that area or division. They are the employees most familiar with the machinery and the process of their particular workplace, and are therefore ideal candidates to identify high-risk conditions and practices within that workplace. 

Team leadership in all its forms is particularly critical in high risk activities. For example, team leaders influence safety attitudes and behaviour in the workplace, such as compliance with safety related rules and procedures and are key to the effective management of emergencies (Flin and Yule, 2004). Rigid hierarchies in healthcare teams may not be conducive to high quality care however, leadership, clarity of purpose and roles remain critical. 

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