Operation and working environment

To operate work equipment safeiy it must be fitted with easiiy reached and operated controls kept stab properly lit kept ciear and provided with adequate markings and warning signs. These are covered by PUWER, which appiies to aii types of work equipment. 

Equipment should be operated in clear unobstructed work areas, particularly if they are high-risk machines. Debris and rubbish given off from the equipment should be removed quickly. 

Sometimes there will be need for special systems to remove waste to prevent accumulations of dust and/ or substances hazardous to health, for example, wood dust from wood working machinery. 

Equipment should be provided with efficient means of isolating it from all sources of energy. In some cases this source is the mains electrical energy but it must cover all sources such as diesel or petrol engines, LPG, steam, compressed air, hydraulic, batteries, heat, etc. In some cases special consideration is necessary where, for example, hydraulic power is switched off, not to let heavy pieces of equipment like the shovel on a front loading excavator, fall under gravity. 

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Human Factors A diseipline eoneerned with designing maehines, operations, and work environments so that they mateh human eapabilities, limitations, and needs. Ineludes any teehnieal work (engineering, proeedure writing, worker training, worker seleetion, ete.) related to the human faetor in oper-ator-maehine systems. 

Human Factors - A discipline concerned with designing machines, operations, and work environments to match human capabilities and limitations. 

There are gradients of health status across income and education (referred to as socioecomic status or SES ) that are not explained by access to health care or other simple explanations [40]. Therefore, it may be of great relevance in the future to understand the role of such factors as sense of control, helplessness, persistent fear and anxiety, diet, exercise, and the impact of the living and social (e.g. family and work) environments in regulating the allostatic systems these factors could cause allostatic systems to operate inefficiently and lead to an acceleration of genetic predispositions towards disease. 

A relevant therapeutic group of active substances, handled aseptically, are parenteral antineoplastics. Many are classified as very toxic for the operator, mainly because of carcinogenicity and reprotoxicity [17], see also Sect. 26.3.3. Therefore, if antineoplastics are involved in aseptic handling, requirements are not only to protect the product against contamination of micro-organisms, but also to protect the operator and the environment from the product. The first measure however is a working procedure to minimise exposure to antineoplastics. This involves... 

To protect the operator and the environment, the most effective measure is working in a safety cabinet or in an isolator with underpressure (negative pressiue). Ideally the exhausts of these cabinets should be connected to the open air. An isolator gives more protection than an open-fronted cabinet. See Sect. 28.3. 

Workspace and environmental factors include system design recommendations relating to the aspects of the physical workspace and work environment that impact operator workload, such as interface and display design and noise, temperature, and ambience. 

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