ABSTRACT

Businesses spend lots of money building disaster recovery sites to restore business operations
in the event of a disaster affecting their primary processing sites but they pay less attention to
basic safety principles such as fire prevention techniques, servicing and maintenance of
environmental protection equipment (fire extinguishers, smoke detectors, humidity sensors,
water sprinklers), emergency response and preparedness, anti-slippery rest rooms, HSE
awareness training, etc.
INTRODUCTION
Risks abound everywhere offices, homes, schools, factories, hospitals, prisons, markets,
cinema houses, hotels, shopping malls, recreation parks, religious centres, etc. In the same vein,
we can never run away from health, safety and environmental risks. The more you run, the
more it runs after you like a shadow. Occupational safety and health (OSH) also commonly
referred to as occupational health and safety (OHS) or workplace health and safety (WHS) is an
area concerned with the safety, health and welfare of people engaged in work or employment.
The goals of occupational safety and health programs include to foster a safe and healthy work
environment. OSH may also protect co-workers, family members, employers, customers, and
many others who might be affected by the workplace environment. In the United States the
term occupational health and safety is referred to as occupational health and occupational and
non-occupational safety and includes safety for activities outside of work.













HEALTH AND SAFETY.
The popular saying about Health is Wealth may never be really appreciated unless you have
some health challenges. It becomes a thing of concern when health issues are attributable to
causes that basic preventative safety precautions could have averted. As trivial as it sounds
Health, Safety and Environmental considerations could help organisations, businesses and
individuals save money and more importantly save lives. Hardly do we spend a week in all
major cities in Nigeria without experiencing major accidents in homes, offices, markets, etc.
The proliferation of electricity generating sets in all nooks and crannies of the country is very
alarming. The noise pollution is not as disturbing as the environmental pollution from the
smoke exhaust. A lot of families have lost their lives simply because of the direct carbon
monoxide inhaled from these generating sets. Unfortunately, things are not improving as
generating set usage is on the increase. In fact, some families have 2 or 3 generating sets,
where one is the primary set; others will be used as backup
Businesses spend lots of money building disaster recovery sites to restore business operations
in the event of a disaster affecting their primary processing sites but they pay less attention to
basic safety principles such as fire prevention techniques, servicing and maintenance of
environmental protection equipment (fire extinguishers, smoke detectors, humidity sensors,
water sprinklers), emergency response and preparedness, anti-slippery rest rooms, HSE
awareness training, etc.
HISTORY OF HEALTH AND SAFETY
The research and regulation of occupational safety and health are a relatively recent
phenomenon. As labor movements arose in response to worker concerns in the wake of the
industrial revolution, worker's health entered consideration as a labor-related issue. In 1833,
HM Factory Inspectorate was formed in the United Kingdom with a remit to inspect factories
and ensure the prevention of injury to child textile workers. In 1840 a Royal Commission
published its findings on the state of conditions for the workers of the mining industry that
documented the appallingly dangerous environment that they had to work in and the high
frequency of accidents. The commission sparked public outrage which resulted in the Mines
Act of 1842. The act set up an inspectorate for mines and collieries which resulted in many
prosecutions and safety improvements, and by 1850, inspectors were able to enter and inspect
premises at their discretion. (An Account of the Founding of H.M. Inspectorate of Mines and the
Work of the First Inspector Hugh Seymour Tremenheere- British Journal of Industrial Medicine)
WORKPLACE HAZARDS
Although work provides many economic and other benefits, a wide array of workplace hazards
also present risks to the health and safety of people at work. These include but are not limited
to, "chemicals, biological agents, physical factors, adverse ergonomic conditions, allergens, a
complex network of safety risks," and a broad range of psychosocial risk factors.
PHYSICAL AND MECHANICAL HAZARDS
Physical hazards are a common source of injuries in many industries. ("Hazardous Work".
International Labour Organization. Retrieved December 26, 2012.) They are perhaps unavoidable in
certain industries, such as construction and mining, but over time people have developed safety
methods and procedures to manage the risks of physical danger in the workplace. Employment
of children may pose special problems.
Confined spaces also present a work hazard. The National Institute of Occupational Safety and
Health defines "confined space" as having limited openings for entry and exit and
unfavorable natural ventilation, and which is not intended for continuous employee
occupancy. Spaces of this kind can include storage tanks, ship compartments, sewers, and
pipelines. (Workplace Safety & Health Topics. National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health.
Retrieved 3 August 2012.) Confined spaces can pose a hazard not just to workers, but also to
people who try to rescue them.
Noise also presents a fairly common workplace hazard: occupational hearing loss is the most
common work-related injury in the United States, with 22 million workers exposed to
hazardous noise levels at work and an estimated $242 million spent annually on worker's
compensation for hearing loss disability. (John R. Franks, Mark R. Stephenson, Carol J. Merry
(June 1996). "Preventing Occupational Hearing Loss: A Practical Guide". National Institute for
Occupational Safety and Health. Retrieved 3 August 2012.)
Temperature extremes can also pose a danger to workers. Heat stress can cause heat stroke,
exhaustion, cramps, and rashes. Workers near hot surfaces or steam also are at risk for burns.
Dehydration may also result from overexposure to heat. Cold stress also poses a danger to
many workers. Overexposure to cold conditions or extreme cold can lead to hypothermia,
frostbite, trench foot, or chilblains. (NIOSH Workplace Safety and Health Topics. National Institute
of Occupational Safety and Health. Retrieved 9 August 2012.)
Vibrating machinery, lighting, and air pressure can also cause work-related illness and injury.
Asphyxiation is another potential work hazard in certain situations. Musculoskeletal disorders
are avoided by the employment of good ergonomic design and the reduction of repeated
strenuous movements or lifts.
PSYCHOSOCIAL HAZARDS
Employers in most OECD countries have an obligation not only to protect the physical
health of their employees but also the psychological health. Therefore as part of a risk
management framework psychological or psychosocial hazards (risk factors) need to be
identified and controlled for in the workplace. Psychosocial hazards are related to the
way work is designed, organised and managed, as well as the economic and social
contexts of work and are associated with psychiatric, psychological and/or physical
injury or illness. Linked to psychosocial risks are issues such as occupational stress and
workplace violence which are recognized internationally as major challenges to
occupational health and safety.
According to a survey by the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work, the most
important emerging psychosocial risks are:
- Precarious work contracts
- Increased worker vulnerability due to globalization
- New forms of employment contracts
- Feeling of job insecurity
- Aging workforce
- Long working hours
- Work intensification
- Lean production and outsourcing
- High emotional demands
- Poor work-life balance




IDENTIFYING SAFETY AND HEALTH HAZARDS
HAZARDS, RISKS, OUTCOMES
The terminology used in OSH varies between countries, but generally speaking:
- A hazard is something that can cause harm if not controlled.
- The outcome is the harm that results from an uncontrolled hazard.
- A risk is a combination of the probability that a particular outcome will occur
and the severity of the harm involved.
Hazard, risk, and outcome are used in other fields to describe e.g. environmental
damage, or damage to equipment. However, in the context of OSH, harm generally
describes the direct or indirect degradation, temporary or permanent, of the physical,
mental, or social well-being of workers. For example, repetitively carrying out manual
handling of heavy objects is a hazard. The outcome could be a musculoskeletal disorder
(MSD) or an acute back or joint injury. The risk can be expressed numerically (e.g. a 0.5
or 50/50 chance of the outcome occurring during a year), in relative terms (e.g.
"high/medium/low"), or with a multi-dimensional classification scheme (e.g. situation-
specific risks).
HAZARD IDENTIFICATION
Hazard identification or assessment is an important step in the overall risk assessment
and risk management process. It is where individual work hazards are identified,
assessed and controlled/eliminated as close to source (location of the hazard) as
reasonable and possible. As technology, resources, social expectation or regulatory
requirements change, hazard analysis focuses controls more closely toward the source of
the hazard. Thus hazard control is a dynamic program of prevention. Hazard-based
programs also have the advantage of not assigning or implying there are "acceptable
risks" in the workplace. A hazard-based program may not be able to eliminate all risks,
but neither does it accept "satisfactory" but still risky outcomes. And as those who
calculate and manage the risk are usually managers while those exposed to the risks are
a different group, workers, a hazard-based approach can by-pass conflict inherent in a
risk-based approach.
RISK ASSESSMENT
Further information: Risk assessment Risk assessment in public health
Modern occupational safety and health legislation usually demands that a risk
assessment be carried out prior to making an intervention. It should be kept in mind that
risk management requires risk to be managed to a level which is as low as is reasonably
practical.
This assessment should:
- Identify the hazards
- Identify all affected by the hazard and how
- Evaluate the risk
- Identify and prioritize appropriate control measures
The calculation of risk is based on the likelihood or probability of the harm being
realized and the severity of the consequences. This can be expressed mathematically as a
quantitative assessment (by assigning low, medium and high likelihood and severity
with integers and multiplying them to obtain a risk factor), or qualitatively as a
description of the circumstances by which the harm could arise.
The assessment should be recorded and reviewed periodically and whenever there is a
significant change to work practices. The assessment should include practical
recommendations to control the risk. Once recommended controls are implemented, the
risk should be re-calculated to determine of it has been lowered to an acceptable level.
Generally speaking, newly introduced controls should lower risk by one level, i.e., from
high to medium or from medium to low.
HEALTH RECOMMENDATIONS FOR WORK
The measures outlined in this section contribute to the general working environment of
people in the workplace.
Ventilation
Workplaces need to be adequately ventilated. Fresh, clean air should be drawn from a
source outside the workplace, uncontaminated by discharges from flues, chimneys or
other process outlets, and be circulated through the workrooms.
Temperatures in indoor workplaces
Environmental factors (such as humidity and sources of heat in the workplace) combine
with personal factors (such as the clothing a worker is wearing and how physically
demanding their work is) to influence what is called someones thermal comfort.
Individual personal preference makes it difficult to specify a thermal environment which
satisfies everyone.

Work in hot or cold environments
The risk to the health of workers increases as conditions move further away from those
generally accepted as comfortable. Risk of heat stress arises, for example, from working
in high air temperatures, exposure to high thermal radiation or high levels of humidity,
such as those found in foundries, glass works and laundries. Cold stress may arise, for
example, from working in cold stores, food preparation areas and in the open air during
winter.
Lighting
Lighting should be sufficient to enable people to work and move about safely. If
necessary, local lighting should be provided at individual workstations and at places of
particular risk such as crossing points on traffic routes. Lighting and light fittings should
not create any hazard. Automatic emergency lighting, powered by an independent
source, should be provided where sudden loss of light would create a risk.
Cleanliness and waste materials
Every workplace and the furniture, furnishings and fittings should be kept clean and it
should be possible to keep the surfaces of floors, walls and ceilings clean.
These and many more actions too numerous to be written or over emphasized.


STRESS
DEFINITION:
Stress is an adverse reaction that people experience when faced with excessive pressure.
If the factors creating the pressure are not dealt with, that pressure can lead to mental
and/or physical ill health (eg depression, nervous breakdown, heart disease).
Stress is not a disease or injury but it can lead to mental and physical ill health. The
causes of work related stress can be many and varied, but can be broadly classified into
3 groups.
a. Stress from doing the job - caused for example by monotonous work, too much
work or insufficient time.
b. Stress from work relationships - due for example to poor teamwork, complex
hierarchies of authority, working in isolation or bullying and harassment.
c. Stress from working conditions - due for example to shift work, dealing with life -
threatening injuries, illnesses and patient deaths or the threat of violence and
aggression.
The Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005, requires employers to put in place
systems of work which protect employees from hazards which could lead to mental or
physical ill-health. There is an obligation on employers to risk assess all known hazards
including psychosocial hazards, which might lead to stress. Risk assessment for stress
involves the same basic principles and processes as for other workplace hazards. The
hazard must be identified, the risk assessed and control measures identified,
implemented and evaluated.

STRESS SCHOOL OF THOUGHTS
There are two schools to study the stress: medical -psychological school and
organizational school. In the medical- psychological school, stress is defined in terms of
different parameters which affect the quality of working life and persons health. This
school is based on a natural and medical science. The human body is known as a set of
mechanisms that act in a stable and predictable state. Distance from this standard is
known as a symptom of stress in personal level.
In organizational school, studies include spectrum of activities which are undertaken in
an organisation and between the organizations. In the organisational school, the human
body is being ignored socially and organisationally. In these studies, human body as the
place of appearing stress is being forgotten. To eliminate the distance between the two
approaches, the organisational studies should be performed with respect to persons
stress and at the same time the organization should be taken into consideration (Styhre,
Ingelgard, 2003, p. 2-6). In order to encounter stress, there are two kinds of strategies,
the first one works at individual level, and the second one works at the organisational
level.
KEY CAUSES OF STRESS:
control - how much say staff have over their work
support - the encouragement and resources provided by management
demands - workload, work patterns and work environment
relationships - such as having to deal with conflict or unacceptable behaviour
change - how organisational change is managed
role - for example dealing with conflicting roles.
CONTROL MEASURES
Individual Encounter Strategies
Sport: sport is one of the most important methods to overcome the stress.
Rest: effective rest is a method to encounter stress. One of the ways of relaxing is taking
regular vacations.
Time management: it is believed that a good time management can reduce daily stress.
Role management: in this strategy, person works to avoid workings pressure,
ambiguity and active conflict. For example, if a person doesnt realize what is expected
from him, he should ask his boss more explanations in this case.
Supporting group: it is a simple group including friends and family members with
whom a person may spend the time (Moorhead and Griffin, 1995, p. 266 -268).
Mohsenzadeh (2007) also introduces two other strategies to encounter the stress.
1. Relaxation: it is a way to help us reducing and removing tension and anxiety through
decreasing unnecessary muscular contractions. This is a self-control method that helps
us experiencing less stress in stressful situations.
2. Time management. Most people believe that time limitation is one of the most
important source of stress. A busy day, lack of enough time for doing different tasks,
being loaded with works that are behind, late for meetings etc. are the problems which
people mention. Therefore, in such cases, stress management should include time
management which is an important skill needed for success. Sometimes, we
misunderstand the term "time management" and we think we must control and manage
our time. Whereas, time is not controllable and we have to control ourselves and our
time. Indeed, time management is a kind of self-management.




CONCLUSIONS
We should always note that if health is generally agreed to be wealth in proverbial terms,
then life must be more valuable than any collection of financial or material wealth which
we often chase sometimes at the expense of safety. One cannot be too careful about
safety and health as accidents are bound to occur but management is by this knowledge,
enlightened and empowered to tackle the challenges faced in health and safety of
workers in an organization. Also, we cannot see the stress as a permanent negative
phenomenon and there is some positive stress too, but it has a lot of effects on
organization members. Affected by stress, managers, staff and clients will have the
special psychological moods which may lead to actions directly reflected in activities
and productivity of organisation. Therefore, stress management and its implication for
more creativity and quicker cursor movement toward the organizational targets is one of
the goals which have been recently developed in organizations. The organizations can
prevent negative stress and its consequences by training managers and personnel
effectively for better recognition and management of stress factors.

REFERENCES

1. "Hazardous Work". International Labour Organization. Retrieved December 26,
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2. http://www.wpro.who.int/topics/occupational_health/en/

3. John R. Franks, Mark R. Stephenson, Carol J. Merry (June 1996). "Preventing
Occupational Hearing Loss: A Practical Guide". National Institute for
Occupational Safety and Health. Retrieved 3 August 2012.

4. Mohsenzade, A. (2007). Stress Managment. Journal of Managment Advice (
Industrial Development and Renovation Organization of Iran), 31-44.

5. Moorhead, G., & Griffin, R. W. (1995). Organizational Behaviour: Managing
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6. NIOSH Workplace Safety and Health Topics. National Institute of Occupational
Safety and Health. Retrieved 9 August 2012.

7. Styhre, A., & Ingelgard, A. (2003). Dealing with Organizational Stress: Toward a
Strategic Stress Managment Perspective . The National Institue for Working Life
and The Swedish Trade Unions in Co-operation , Report 6.

8. USA; Edmonds, EL (2013-01-30). "An Account of the Founding of H.M.
Inspectorate of Mines and the Work of the First Inspector Hugh Seymour
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