Prevention of occupational accidents

In the case of occupational accidents, few of the opportunities for accident prevention are usually utilised. Take the classical example of the carpenter hitting his thumb with a hammer. A moment of lack of concentration may result in a sore thumb. The only barrier against such an accident is the carpenter s ability to control the energy as represented by the kinetic energy of the hammer. There are many other such examples of hazards in our daily lives that are controlled by one barrier only. When the barrier is controlled 

Separate the source ol energy and target in time or space 

Improve the Stabilize, targefs ability repair and toendurean rehabXitate energy flow 

In Section 7.5, we will see how accidents with machinery are prevented through the application of similar principles. 

---

Institute National de Recherche et de Securie (The French Research Organization dealing with the Prevention of Occupational Accidents and Diseases)... 

Stock, M., and W. Geiger. 1984. Assessment of vapor cloud explosion hazards based on recent research results. 9th Int. Symp. on the Prevention of Occupational Accidents and Diseases in the Chemical Industry, Luzern, Switzerland. 

Smith, M., Anger, W. K., Hopkins, B., and Conrad, R. (1983), Behavioral-Psychological Approaches for Controlling Employee Chemical Exposures, in Proceedings of the Tenth World Congress on the Prevention of Occupational Accidents and Diseases, International Social Security Association, Geneva. 

All employers who are subject to the provisions of the OSH Act are required to keep records regarding the causes and prevention of occupational accidents and illnesses. This includes work-related musculoskeletal disorders. 

To promote the prevention of occupational accidents and diseases and to endeavour to eliminate their causes and results in commerce and industry on a national basis by acting as a national body and with limitation by the foregoing to promote and encourage occupational safety work and to carry on occupational safety propaganda of every kind. 

This Part illustrates different applications of SHE information systems. Chapter 27 is built around a case, the Ymer offshore platform with Norskoil as operator. The case is fictive, but it draws experiences from a number of real field developments on the Norwegian continental shelf. We will look into how experience feedback is accomplished in different phases of a platform s Ufe cycle, i.e. design, construction and operation. The purpose is to demonstrate the use of different methods presented in previous sections of this book as integral parts of a SHE management system. We will illustrate both the prevention of occupational accidents and the prevention of major accidents. 

What is the scope of the SHE information system Is the level of ambition limited to meeting regulatory requirements concerning the reporting and prevention of occupational accidents Or is the SHE information system used in a larger context in order to prevent all types of deviations and incidents that may result in accidents and illnesses with injury to personnel, environmental pollution, material damage, reduced production quality, etc. ... 

Minter, J. G. 1996. Prevention of chemical accidents still a challenge. Occupational Hazards, September. 

Prevention of Major Accidents. International Occupational Safety and Health Information Center (CIS), International Labour Office, CH-1211, Geneva 22 Switzerland, 1993. 

Since use of gloves can sometimes cause accidents, and the substitution of noxious products by less aggressive substances is sometimes not possible for technical or economical reasons, skin-care products play an important role in the prevention of occupational contact dermatitis. Preventive skin care at the workplace may be divided into pre-exposure protection by protective creams, removal of irritants by mild cleaning agents, and enhancement of barrier-function generation by emollients or moisturisers. More details are given in Chap. 62, Barrier Creams/Emollients,... 

Prevention of occupationally related accidents/incidents is the law. The Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 (OSHAct) requires employers to provide a workplace free from hazards that could cause serious harm or death. Beyond that, it makes good business sense to prevent accident/incidents. More and more companies have come to realize that the OSHAct is a helpmate, not a hindrance, to their acddent/incident prevention initiative. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSH A) sets the foundation and assumes the role of law enforcer, allowing the employer to not be viewed as the bad guy to his or her employees. Employers can deflect responsibility to OSH A. 

An article titled Reviewing Heinrich Dislodging Two Myths from the Practice of Safety was published in Professional Safety (Manuele, 2011). One of the myths considered was that unsafe acts of workers are the principal causes of occupational accidents. This article was written because of encouragement from colleagues who encountered situations in which a speaker would quote the source of the myth—H. W. Heinrich s (1950) book on Industrial Accident Prevention—and proceed to... 

Hale, A.R., de Loot, M., van Drimmelen, D., Huppes, G. 1990. Safety standards, risk analysis and decision making on prevention measures implications of some recent European legislation and standards. Journal of Occupational Accidents, 13,213-231. 

Nowadays, the phenomenon of accident proneness is still a subject of many discussions and has been widely criticized (Nazir et al. 2013, 2014). However, it is considered to refer to a small amount of accidents and it is revealed that an implementation of a preventative strategy based on it has only minor effects (Kjellen 2000). Furthermore, the results of the research showed that the exclusion of the workers on the basis of their accident proneness does not have to influence positively the rate of occupational accidents (Ham ainen 2010). On the other hand, the distribution of accidents in the general population displayed that the amount of individu s with repeated accidents was higher than the expected by chance. Therefore, it can be noticed that the accident proneness exists, but the distinction in operationalisations of the concept make its study difficult (Visser et al. 2007). 

Bumba J. et al. 2005. The procedures and methods of analysis and risk assessment for the purposes of the Act on the prevention of major accidents (in Czech). Prague Occupational Safety Research Institute. 

Mure S., Demichela M. Fuzzy Application Procedure (FAP) for risk assessment of occupational accidents , Journal of Loss Prevention in the Process Industry, 2009, 22, 593-599. 

A root cause analysis is not a search for the obvious but an in-depth look at the basic or underlying causes of occupational accidents or incidents. The purpose of investigating and reporting the causes of occurrences is to enable the identification of corrective actions adequate to prevent recurrence and thereby protect the health and safety of the public, the workers, and the environment. Every root cause investigation and reporting process should include five phases. While there may be some overlap between phases, every effort should be made to keep them separate and distinct. The phases of a root cause analysis are... 

Prevention of occupationally related accidents/incidents is the law. The Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 (OSHAct) requires employers to provide a workplace... 

When these studies were carried out, companies in Norway paid between 20 and 40 per cent of the total costs of accidents. After changes in the legislation in Norway, companies pay between 60 and 90 per cent of the costs. Even when these changes in the legislation are accounted for, the results of the studies are discouraging as to the economic incentives to the company of preventing occupational accidents. Usually, the costs for SHE work exceed the in-plant costs of occupational accidents (Rosness, 1995). 

This Part reviews different risk-analysis methods. Risk analysis is a planned activity involving an identification and evaluation of accident risks in the workplace. We will start in Chapter 21 by establishing some common principles of the different risk-analysis methods. We will then in Chapters 22 to 25 go through four different methods that primarily are used in the analysis of the risk of occupational accidents energy analysis, job-safety analysis and comparison analysis. One chapter is dedicated to the risk assessment of machinery. Finally, we will in Chapter 26 review the CRIOP method, where the interaction between the operators and the technical system are analysed when the system is in a disturbed state. The aim is here to prevent major accidents. 

Mock OSHA Inspection. Maintenance can learn a lot about how the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) trains thein inspectors and what is emphasized in an OSHA inspection. Some of the training of OSHA inspectors follows a program involving the recognition of potential hazards, avoidance of these hazards, and prevention of accidents (RAP). 

This is partly because the traditional approach is well known and documented in the industry, whereas the other approaches have received very little application to date. In addition, despite the successes of the traditional approach in the area of occupational safety, it may be less applicable in areas such as the prevention of major chemical accidents. 

G-C.Whalen, Chemlnds 54,852-3(1944) "Accident Analysis in Wartime Chemical Plants" 2)H.H.Judson J.M.Brown, "Occupational Accident Prevention",Wiley,NY(1944) 3)C.G.Daubney,Meta llurgia 33,41—4(1945 ) "Accident Investigations 4)US Army, Corps of Engineers Safety and Accident Prevention Div, Safety Requirements,Pamphlet,US Govt... 

---