CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1.

1 Background of Study

1.1.1 Safety and Health Safety is the state of being safe, the condition of being protected against physical, social, spiritual, financial, or other types or consequences of failure, damage, error, accidents, harm or any other event which could be considered non-desirable. This can take the form of being protected from the event or from exposure to something that causes health or economical losses. Safety can be limited in relation to some guarantee, or a standard of insurance to the quality and not harmful function of an object or organization. It is used in order to ensure that the object or organization will do only what it is meant to do. A safe condition is one where risk of injury or property damage is low and manageable. According to World Health Organization, health is a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being, not merely an absence of disease and infirmity. A hazard is a condition with the potential of causing injury to personnel damage to equipment or structures, loss of material, or lessening of the ability to perform a prescribed function.

1.1.2 Different Views about Safety and Health Safety and health, although closely related, are not the same. One view is that safety is concerned with injury-causing situations, whereas health is concerned with disease-causing conditions. Another view is that safety is concerned with hazards to humans that result from sudden severe conditions; health deals with adverse reactions to prolonged exposure to dangerous, but less intense, hazards. For example, stress is a hazard that can cause both psychological and physiological problems over a prolonged period. In this case, it is a health concern. On the other hand, an overly stressed worker may be more prone to unintentionally forget the safety precautions and thus may cause an accident. In this case, stress is a safety concern.

1.1.3 Comparison between Work Accidents and Other Deaths Causes There are more deaths every year from heart disease, cancer, and strokes than from accidents; these causes tend to be concentrated among people at or near retirement age. Among people 44 years of age or younger prime working years, accidents are the number one cause of death.

1.2

Problem Statement Occupational safety and health is the discipline concerned with preserving and protecting

human and facility resources in the workplace. Occupational Safety & Health Act (OSHA) are normally set out in legislation. Governments have long realized that poor OSHA performances usually result in costs to the respective states. According to the data and statistic disclose by the Department of Occupational Safety and Health (DOSH), there is a high number of occupational accidents occurred. The manufacturing and construction industry is being a highly hazardous industry because it marks a high accidents and fatality rates. The reasons why there are a high number of accidents in those industries can be the slow implementation of OSHA in the workplace. Besides that, it also slows the awareness of both employer and employees on the organizational safety and health itself. Regular accidents and property loses create a great impact towards the Malaysian industry such as manufacturing and construction. It not only will cause a delay in operation but also directly or indirectly incur a cost. Therefore it is compulsory for all the industry in Malaysia to create awareness among its employees on the safety and health in establishing a safe working environment. The right to work in a safe and healthy environment is the fundamental right of every worker. OSHA standards are mandatory rules and standards, set and enforced to reduce OSHA hazards in the workplace. OSHA standards aim to provide at least the minimum degree of protection that must be afforded to every worker in relation to the working conditions and dangers of injury, sickness or death that may arise by reason of his or her occupation. The provision of OSHA standards by the state is an exercise of the police power, with the intention of promoting welfare and well-being of workers.

The awareness and consequently the application of occupational safety and health are important in all industry or workplace. All employees must be aware about the significance and impacts of OSHA towards them. On the ground of this, the most important is they must know what are their responsibilities stipulated in the OSHA 1994.

1.3

Objectives The objective of this project is to identify the safety and health consideration.

1. 2. 3.

To identify health and safety awareness To identify professional and contractual responsibilities To identify law and regulation of safety and health

1.4

Scope of Work In this project, we have decided to focus on safety and health at site which are related to

our course, Civil Engineering. We will study about the law and regulation, safety awareness and professional responsibility regarding safety and health at site. Two sites have been chosen and we will be going there for the site visit and make an interview to the person in charge of safety and health at the site. Despite of that, we will make an interview with a lecturer who had a wide experience regarding with the subject of safety and health.

There are lots of law and regulations that are related to safety and health such as Occupational Safety and Health (OSHA). By doing the site visit and interview, we can gain more information about the law and regulations. We will ask them to tell us more about OSHA and other law and regulation that related to safety and health. Safety awareness means being able to recognize unsafe practices and conditions. It requires following safety procedures. As we know, safety awareness is the most important thing in our life especially when we are at the construction site. We hope that after the interview, we will know what should and should not we do when we are at the site. Every construction company of any size should appoint a properly qualified person who is an expert on safety and health. We will personally ask that person on how he carries out the responsibility given to him.

CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Literature Review The subject of health and safety is the most important aspect for us as an engineer to consider especially when we are at the construction site as how our profession requires at times. According to Lt. Kol. Ahmad Zubir in his 5th module for his Executive Diploma in Project Management entitled Occupational Safety and Environmental Parameters, high rates of injury and fatality still persists even with strict governing legislations and policies regarding health and safety. As an example, OSHA or Occupational Safety and Health Act were designed to ensure that the working environment is safe and healthy. Not just that, there are also other organizations that ensure occupational safety in the workplace. They are CIDB; Construction Industry Development Board, NIOSH; National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, NCOSH; National Council of Occupational Safety and Health, and also DOSH; Department of Safety and Health. He also stated that industry professionals and academicians were noted and aware that relying on regulations and legislation is not enough to achieve a goal of zero accidents and incidents on construction site. It is not enough to ensure safety but it does improve site safety. However, without proper codes and standard, the results can be absolute reverse. As what is stated by Center to Protect Workers Rights 1993, increased costs and disputes can arise from delays in construction progress, penalties for these delays, financial losses, personal injuries and

fatalities. Regardless of the strictly enforced safety and health regulations in most countries, high rates of injury and fatality do persist. According to statistics reported by the Social Security Organization (SOSCO), the numbers of fatality cases in the construction industry are among the highest in the 10 categorized industries in Malaysia. For the period of year 2000 to 2004, we can see that the number of death cases had decreased. Although not abruptly, it does not mean that safety at workplace had been improved but should a more effective method shall be implemented to possibly have zero accidents and incidents. Before doing so, we must first identify how the matter of health and safety is being taken care of around the construction industry by the employers in our country. Taking a case in Ireland that was trialed April 2011, a worker was dismissed because he had reported a safety matter and this was rejected by the Labour Court. Summarizing his case, it is seen that he had did the right thing accordingly to what he is responsible for in terms of his work. However, it is claimed that he was at fault and later fought for his right which then caused him to be penalized. This is the example of cases that we want to figure out if it ever occurred before and if it does, what action has been taken by the employer and employee in putting their health and safety first.

CHAPTER 3 METHODOLOGY 3.1 Methodology The first step of the study is identifying research problem which covered the significance, objective and scope of the study. After that, we identify the problem statement through detail study. This will be followed by exploratory research of the literature. Information was gathered mainly through journals, books, working papers and reports. Then, details about research methodology of these studies are explained in this chapter too. Afterward, all data obtained from the site visit or interview will be analyzed. Later, data analysis will be done. From the data analysis, we will recommend any action due to the problems occurs. Finally, we need to conclude all of the data that were obtained from the research.

Step 1: Identifying Research Method i. Qualitative Research Methods - Interview We are doing a site visit and interviews where we are aiming a construction site located at Mont Kiara and Cheras, Kuala Lumpur. Interview is made by writing their answers. We draw up an interview schedule of questions which can be either closed or open questions, or a mixture of these. Closed questions tend to be used for asking for and receiving answers about fixed facts such as name, numbers, and so on. They do not require speculation and they tend to produce short answers. For closed questions we could even give our interviewees a small selection of possible answers from which to choose. By this, we will be able to manage the data and quantify the responses quite easily.
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We chose to interview Assoc. Prof. Ir. Dr. Nor Mariah binti Adam, who is a lecturer in Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering Department and a specialist in this topic. She used to give a talk regarding safety and health at NIOSH, Bangi. The questions will be asked are basically divided into three parts which are Health and Safety Awareness, Professional and Contractual Responsibility as well as Law and Regulations. Before the interview, we need to make an appointment with the lecturer.

ii.

Quantitative Research Methods - Questionnaire As with interviews, we decided to use closed and open questions. Open questions are

questions with answers that offer respondents multiple choice answers that describes closely to the given statement to them. We took advice from our tutor in preparing the questionnaire, ensuring that all the respondents information which we need is included.

Step 2: Data Collection Preparation We first contact the company to get their cooperation besides explaining the purpose of our research case study. We also get some information regarding the requirement needed when the visit later such as the appropriate attire and equipment. We also do some reading about the project via internet and asking others before the visit.

Step 3: Data Collection at Field We first arrange the site visit with the Project Manager and ask for possible copies of the organizations profile, brochures and any other written material related with them. We will schedule individual interview times with project manager and lecturer.

Step 4: Data Evaluation and Analysis We analyze the response data from the interview and questionnaire. From the results, we may know whether the company has fulfilled the requirement from the NIOSH, CIDB and OSHA.

Step 5: Report Preparation The outline of the report includes thanking all of the participants, stating the problem, listing the research questions, describing the methods used to conduct the research and any potential flaws in the method used, explaining the data gathered and analysis of techniques used, and concluding the research based on questionnaires and interviews done.

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Start

Identify Significant, Objective and Scope of Study

Identify Problem Statement

Exploratory on the Literature Review

Determine Research Area 1. High Rise Building Work (Damansara) 2. Superstructure Works for Taman Shamelin Taman Maluri Flyover 3. Interview Assoc. Prof. Ir. Dr. Nor Mariah bt. Adam

Site Visit

Data Collection

Data Analysis

Recommendation

Conclusion

End Figure 1: Flowchart of Methodology

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CHAPTER 4 CONCLUSION 4.1 Conclusion For overall of this project, the data collection and analysis was carried out by doing the interview section and site visit at the construction site. The question that we make for interview section is regarding to the scope of work and objectives of our project that are to identify health and safety awareness, professional and contractual responsibilities and also law and regulation of safety and health. As a conclusion, by doing this project, we can get more knowledge about safety and health and can used it when we are working with our employers. By working safely at construction site, we can reduce accidents, insurance premiums and have a better-motivated workforce. This is not only protecting the physically but it is benefits for the company such as do not spent extra money to recover the unwelcome accidents happened.

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REFERENCES

Anonymous. (2011) National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health. [Online]. Available at www.niosh.com.my (Accessed : 24th October 2011) Soehod, Khairiah and Kunju Pillai Laxman, Lekha. (2003). Law On Safety And Health In Malaysia. Unpublished Project Report, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia. Department of Safety and Health. (2007). Guidelines for Public Safety and Health at Construction Site. 1st Revision, Ministry of Human Resources of Malaysia.

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