Workplace activities

In the UK the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health (COSHH) Regulations 2002 oblige laboratory managers and supervisors (and employers in general) to assess the risks to health from hazardous substances used in or created by workplace activities. 

Workplace-related psychological safety demonstrates itself when employees feel unable to put themselves on the line, ask questions, seek feedback, report problems, or propose a new idea without fearing negative consequences to themselves, their jobs, or their career. A psychologically safe and healthy workplace actively promotes emotional well-being among anployees while taking aU reasonable steps to minimize threats to employee mental health. 

In June 2011, NIOSH introduced Total Worker Health M (see http //www.cdc.gov/niosh/twh/). According to NIOSH, Total Worker Health M is a comprehensive organizational strategy that integrates traditional occupational safety and health protection efforts with health promotion and other workplace activities to prevent illness and injury, regardless of cause, so that all workers have opportunities to achieve optimal levels of health and well-being. Will NIOSH s strategic shift impact your worksite Stay tuned for updates. 

Ladders must be used only on stable and level surfaces unless secured to prevent accidental movement. Ladders must not be used on slippery surfaces unless secured or provided with slip-resistant feet to prevent accidental movement. Slip-resistant feet must not be used as a substitute for the care in placing, lashing, or holding a ladder upon slippery surfaces. Ladders placed in areas such as passageways, doorways, or driveways, or where they can be displaced by workplace activities or traffic, must be secured to prevent accidental movement or a barricade must be used to keep traffic or activities away from the ladder. The area around the top and bottom of the ladders must be kept clear. 

Ladders placed in any location where they can be displaced by workplace activities or traffic, such as in passageways, doorways, or driveways, shall be secured to prevent accidental displacement, or a barricade shall be used to keep the activities or traffic away from the ladder. 

Comprehensive surveys that evaluate the entire facility should be periodically conducted. Baseline surveys are important workplace activities that identify, analyze, and evaluate the current status of ... 

For example, within organisation science, the study of practice has emerged, illuminating a degree of tension between studies of workplace activity without evaluation of practice, and normative accountability, what counts or could be evaluated as competent or exemplary practice (Gherardi, 2009). However, the study of practice has, as one its main aims, a theoretical framework within which to understand practice in a general sense, rather than to inform practitioners in one specific discipline. 

Occupational or work-related ill-health - is concerned with those illnesses or physical and mental disorders that are either caused or triggered by workplace activities. Such conditions may be induced by the particular work activity of the individual or by activities of others in the workplace. The time interval between exposure and the onset of the illness may be short (e.g. asthma attacks) or long (e.g. deafness or cancer). 

Work at height accounts for about 50-60 deaths - more than any other workplace activity - and 4000 injuries each year. During the first two weeks of June 2003, inspectors from the Health and Safety Executive visited 1446 construction sites and stopped all work at one quarter of them due to concerns about the level of risks of falls from height. Another 5% of sites visited were issued with improvement notices. Other problems included a lack of or inadequate toe boards and intermediate guard rails on scaffolding and working platforms. 

As identified by many safety and health professionals over the years, work-related accidents do not simply happen. Work-related accidents are the result of identifiable hazards in the workplace, workplace activities and stressors, deficiencies in training and education, and related factors. As identified by C. Everett Marcum in his domino sequence, the risk of accidents is the result of inadequate task preparation, substandard performance, and miscompensated risks. If the risk cannot be eliminated or... 

Active employee safety committees are partnerships between the company and the employees with the goal of creating and maintaining a safe and healthful workplace. Active employee safety committees mean that employees become advocates for their represented group, perform safety audits, engage in safety training. 

Some hazards are caused by workplace exposure. Other hazards arise from a combination of workplace exposure and personal lifestyle. Two examples illustrate this point. Stress may arise at work (and usually does to some extent) and be quite tolerable to an individual. However, combine that with stress from the individual s personal life (such as undergoing a divorce or a bereavement) and harm to health can easily arise. The other example is musculo-skeletal injury, such as carpal tunnel syndrome, which may be experienced by a VDU operator using a keyboard all day. Combine the workplace activity with a hobby of surfing the net and it easy to see that this additional exposure increases the risk of wrist injury. In both these examples it is not easy to determine which of these activities are the causative factors and what their contributions are to the resulting harm. An activity that is not a hazard because it does not cause harm can become one under different circumstances. 

Care and use requirements for portable wood and metal ladders are specified in 1910.25(d) and 1910.26(c) however, there are no requirements regarding storage or securement. However, OSHA publication, Stainways and Ladders A Guide to OSHA rules, says that all ladders should be secured in areas such as passageways, doorways or driveways, or where they can be displaced by workplace activities or traffic to prevent accidental movement. This is not a requirement, but rather a recommendation by the agency. 

Liquid and solid chemicals can become suspended in the air. The spraying or splashing of a liquid chemical can produce a mist. A mist is an airborne cloud of tiny liquid droplets. Some acids used in the workplace can produce airborne mists when they are sprayed, shaken, or stirred. Paint sprajdng is another workplace activity that produces mists. 

The fire safety manager and/or fire safety coordinator will, in most cases, require the assistance of competent fire wardens or fire marshals (these terms are interchangeable). Fire wardens/marshals have two distinct roles first, they will assist in the overall management of fire safety in a workplace (active management) and second, they will undertake specific duties in the event of a fire emergency to ensure the full and safe evacuation of all people in the premises and to ensure, as far as is possible, the risk of fire spread is minimised (see Chapter 10). 

To protect others against the risks arising from workplace activities... 

Workplace Activities Surface miners may also be exposed to hazardous combinations of conditions and situations in the workplace (e.g., working around equipment, and especially near high-walls, and performing maintenance tasks in confined spaces). Repetitive motion tasks and materials handling also place stress on important parts of the miner s body, which can lead to chronic motion-related diseases and sprains and strains. Methods for mitigating the impact on miners will be discussed later. 

The principles of passive and active fire safety apply just as strongly to the ancillary and workplace activities of the museum as to those of the public areas. Laboratories and workshops may be located in basement or other areas remote from the public galleries, and it may be necessary to consider additional escape routes and exits to avoid dead end situations. There may be also certain structural requirements associated with workplace activities involving highly flammable or otherwise hazardous substances. 

This is frequently the most expensive, inconvenient and least effective means of preventing fires. Flame-proof lighting, spark-proof switches and flame-arrestor devices, etc., may be appropriate where large volumes of highly flammable materials are stored or used, but the scale of most museum workplace activities probably does not justify such preventive measures. 

Proper work practices for specific workplace activities, occupations, or assignments, such as late night retail sales, taxicab driver, or security guard... 

If feasible, practice in the operation of powered industrial trucks shall be conducted in an area separate from other workplace activities and personnel. 

There are several steps that you can take to reduce or eliminate the root cause(s) of the accident from your facility s workplace activities. Keep in mind that a root cause can be a mechanical problem with a machine or a personal problem with an employee. 

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