Safety Management Part 1

Safety Management

Concpets

Evolution of modern concepts of safety:

Heinrich principle: Any accident can be preventable.

Heinrich triangle:

After investigating many incidents

Heinrich proposed that for every 300

Near misses there will be 29 minor

Injury cases and one major injury

It might occur in any possible way i.e

the first might be a major one.

Three reasons for unsafe acts are:

1.     Attitude

2.     Technical skills / knowledge

3.     Physical competence

4.     Condition

Techniques of accident prevention are:

1.     Engineering

2.     Education

3.     Enforcement

4.     Enthusiasm

In modern concepts Evaluation is added as one of the accident prevention technique

Principles of safety management:

1.     Safety is an important management function of every organization

2.     Accidents are caused by unsafe acts and unsafe conditions

3.     Behind one accident there are several near misses

4.     Unsafe acts and unsafe conditions can be identified in advance and eliminated at the root.

5.     For achieving ultimate safety, each link in the safety chain must be healthful.

Safety Policy

Necessity of safety policy:

1.     Management Commitment to Safety

2.     Organisation and Arrangements for  controlling work related hazards

3.     Protect people from injury and ill-health

4.     Comply with legal requirements

5.     Manage health and safety on a cost effective basis

How is safety policy framed?

There are three elements of safety policy they are:

1.     Statement of Intent

2.     Organization

3.     Arrangements

Statement of Intent:

 Statement of intent states the target or goal which is set and that is to be achieved.

How do you set a target?

A target is set according to SMART concept

The goal which is set shall be:

S –Specific

M- Measurable

A- Achievable

R – Reasonable

T – Time bound

Organization:

Organization is formed by the different levels of management and employees. The goals of an organization shall be set according to the policy set by the management. A organization chart will determine the flow of authority. In a good organization there shall be one and only one superior.  All the employees hired shall be competent.

Competent means a person who has Knowledge, Ability, Training and Experience (KATE).

A good organization can be determined by following characteristics:

1.     Coordination and Control.

 Policies, Organisational development, Planning, Auditing, Monitoring, Reviewing

2.     Communication

 Management involvement, Information systems, Documentation, Liaison, Team briefings, Tool box Talks.

3.     Cooperation

           Health and Safety meetings, Team briefings, Problem solving meetings

4.     Competence

Staff selection, Training, Supervision

Failing in any one of the above characteristics the organization fails to achieve the goals.

Arrangements:

Set out in detail the specific systems and procedures for implementing the safety policy

•Risk Assessments

•COSHH Assessments

•Emergency Arrangements e.g. Fire, First Aid,

•Written Procedures, e.g. SSOW, Permits

•Training Programmes, e.g. Manual Handling, DSE, Fork Lift Trucks

•Maintenance Information

•Information/Consultation

•Personal Protective Equipment

The safety Policy shall be signed by the top level management (like a vice chairman or general manager ) in general would be a occupier. This will show the management commitment and gives the policy authority. Person who signgs it has ultimate responsibility.

Communicating Safety policy:

Employers must bring the policy to Employees attention. This can be done by:

•      Displaying it on notice boards

•      Introducing it on induction and training session

•      Considering it on team briefings and tool box talks

•      Using newsletters

•      Inserts in wage slips

•      Posters

•      Build into safe systems and codes of practice

•      Managers to discuss with workforce

  

Ineffective  Health & Safety Policies

•      No commitment or leadership

•      No annual objectives

•      Health and Safety not given enough priority

•      Insufficient resources provided

•      Personnel do not understand aims

•      Too much emphasis on employee responsibility

•      No measure of performance

•      Management unaware of their role

•      No training of management in their responsibilities

When shall the Safety Policy shall be reviewed:

a)     Accidents / Incidents occurs

b)    Changes in Organisation

c)     Processes change

d)    Materials

e)     Premises extended or changed.

f)      Legislation changes

g)     Work Patterns changes

h)    Ineffective Risk Assessments

i)       Following Accident Investigation

j)       Enforcement Action

k)    Policy Review

l)       Professional Advise

Safety Organization:

Safety organization developed by following hirearchy

Policy (H&S policy, Target, Goals)

Organising (leadership, competence, consultation & communication)

Planning (H&S equal priority)

Measuring performance (targets, proactive monitoring, no-blame culture, inspection and sampling, site survey)

Review and Audit (learning from mistakes)

Organization is to identify health and safety responsibilities and reporting lines within the company.

Directors and Senior Managers –setting policy and objectives

Line Managers –Implementing policy in their department

Supervisors –Checking compliance with the policy

Safety Advisors – advising Company on accident and safety compliance

Employees –Responsibility for own and others safety

Fire Marshals –Ensure evacuation of building and roll calls

First Aiders–to provide first aid

In every organization there shall be clear set or roles and responsibilities

Management’s Responsibilities for Employees

1.     Safe plant  and equipment

2.     Information, instruction, and training

3.     Supervision

4.     Safe place of work and access and egress

5.     Safe environment and welfare facilities

6.     Safety policy

7.     Consult and inform employeesRisk Assessments

8.     Effective health and safety management

9.     Competent health and safety assistance

10.                        Health and surveillance

11.                        Serious and imminent danger

 Management is also responsible for non employees and they include:

1.     Contractors

2.     Visitors

3.     General public

4.     Other employees

5.     Trespassers

Precautions for visitors safety

•      Signing in

•      Providing identification badges

•      Providing PPE

•      Site induction e.g. Fire precautions

•      Escorting visitor to area of work

•      Remain with visitor or regular monitoring

•      Escorting visitor back to reception area

•      Signing out visitor and removing badge

Duties of Employees

a)     Not to endanger themselves and others

b)    Co-operation with their employer

c)     Not to interfere with anything provided for safety

d)    Follow instructions and training given

e)     Inform Employer of dangers and problems with health and safety arrangements

Designers, Manufacturers, Suppliers and Importers

1.     Articles must be designed and constructed to be safe when being set, used, cleaned, maintained 

2.     Substances must be safe when being used,  handled, processed, stored or transported

3.     Carry out and arrange tests

4.     Provide revisions if necessary

5.     Installers and Erectors must be competent

Safety Practitioners should have:

1)   Knowledge and understanding of the work involved

2)  Understand principles of risk assessment

3)   Knowledge of current health and safety applications

4)   Capacity to apply to tasks required

5)   Ability to identify problems

6)   Ability to assessing the need for action

7)   Ability to design and develop strategies

8)   Evaluation of effectiveness of strategies

9)   Promoting and communication health and safety

10) Understanding of current best practice

10) Awareness of own limitations

11) Willingness to learn

12) Membership of a professional body

13) Competence based qualifications

Role of Safety Practitioner

 Safety is both line and staff function

Staff functions are:

1.     Provide Information and Advice

2.     Support Line Management with Co-ordination of Health and Safety Effort

3.     Advise Management

4.     Investigate accidents

5.     Record/Analyse accident Data

6.     Assist with Training

Line functions are:

1.     Monitor Effectiveness of Actions to meet Responsibilities

2.     Identify Hazards, Unsafe acts and unsafe conditions.

3.     Carry out inspections

4.     Liaison with Workforce

Management Strategy for Contractors

•      Identification of suitable bidders

•      Identification of hazards of job

•      Checking (health and safety aspects) of bids

•      Contractors agree to clients rules

•      Managing Contractors on site

•      Checking contractors work

Selecting a Contractor

•      Experience with type of work

•      Reputation

•      Suitable references or recommendation

•      Previous work record

•      Adequacy of safety policy

•      Enforcement history

•      Accident and ill health data

•      Membership of trade organisations

•      Suitable training for employees

•      Arrangements for sub-contractors

•      Suitable risk assessments etc.

 Safety Committees Objectives and Functions

The agenda should consist of:

1.     Study of statistics

2.     Examination audit reports

3.     Safety rep. reports

4.     Monitor safe systems etc.

5.     Effectiveness of training

6.     Health and safety communications

7.     Links with appropriate Inspectors

Effectiveness of Committee

•      Clear terms of reference

•      Balanced representation

•      Influence in decision making

•      Respect of management/workforce

•      Commitment from members

•      Good leadership and chairmanship

•      Good communication channels

•      Access to information/specialist advice

•      Formalised procedures with agendas

•      Relevant (non trivial) agenda items

•      Agenda not led by industrial relations

Budgeting for safety:

For carrying out safety functions a separate budget to be allocated for safety from the managements. This budget will involve the following:

1.     Hardware

2.     Labor safety and health protection

3.     Emergency purpose

4.     Safety training and promotion

5.     Routine safety activities

6.     Safety management systems

7.     Travelling and accommodation.

Incident Recall Technique (IRT)

Necessity for IRT is to eliminate or reduce unwanted events such as human suffering, material damage, liability claims, product loses, reputation loss, loss of claims.

How to conduct IRT

1.     Select the appropriate person for interaction

2.     Interview time (length of the session shall not take more time)

3.     Stop fault finding

4.     Prepare a checklist for what is about to be asked

5.     Put the person at ease.

6.     Explain the importance of recall technique.

7.     Discuss the possible causes and recommendations

8.     Review the understanding

For conducting IRT we shall maintain privacy and there shall be no distraction from the topic.

Safety Inspection

Safety inspections are a basic tool for establishing and maintaining safe conditions and discovering unsafe practices in the workplace. Systematic inspections are practical ways to identify and correct unsafe equipment, conditions, processes, and work practices. If unsafe conditions and practices are found to exist, prompt corrective actions are initiated. They are an excellent way to prevent accidents from occurring and to safeguard employees.

An additional benefit occurring from inspections is that they give employees an opportunity to point out deficiencies in their area that may otherwise go unnoticed and uncorrected. Safety inspections are conducted primarily not to find out how many things are wrong, but rather, to determine if things are satisfactory. Their secondary purpose is to discover conditions that, when corrected, will bring the facility up to accepted and approved standards and/or regulations. As a consequence, the inspected facilities should become safer and more healthful places to work.

Safety Inspection can be carried out by and individual or a team with the use of checklists or other inspection tools.

Effective Safety Inspection

There are several factors necessary for effective safety inspection. The inspection team must:

• Be selective. An inspection team might look over the department first for safety and second for improvement of operations.

• Know what to look for. The more a team knows about a job and a worker’s responsibilities, the more effectively the team members can observe.

• Practice observing. The more often a person looks with the conscious intention to observe, the more they will see at each fresh look. Like all skills, observation improves with practice.

• Keep an open mind. One way to increase open-mindedness is not to prejudge facts. Team inspectors must accept facts, no matter what conclusion they may find. Each inspector must keep an open mind at least until all the facts are in.

• Do not be satisfied with first impressions. A clean shop or a careful routine may still contain hidden hazards.

• Guard against habit and familiarity. Asking the questions what, where, who, how, when, and (especially) why often will help uncover the real meaning of the situation.

• Record observations systematically. Date all notes. Include space for comments on actions taken and on results of the actions taken.

• Use a checklist. A systematic check for litter, obstructions, handling of flammables, condition of fire-fighting equipment, and so on, can help uncover tangible problems to correct. But never rely exclusively on a checklist!

Starting the Inspection

There are three basic steps for conducting an inspection:

1. Contact the department head and solicit his or her help.

2. Observe all conditions for compliance with established standards (use checklist).

3. Observe all operations for any unsafe acts or violations of safety rules.

Safety Surveys

Wherever there is a suspected hazard, conduct a special inspection to determine the extent of the risk and the precautions or mechanical safeguarding needed to provide and maintain healthy conditions. Follow up to these inspections usually requires air sampling for the presence of toxic fumes, gases, and dusts, testing of materials for toxic properties, or testing of ventilation and exhaust systems for proper operation.

Safety Audit

A safety audit is a structured, methodical assessment and evaluation of how workplace activities affect safety and health. It reveals how an organization is doing in maintaining a safe and healthy environment. Its goal is to ensure a safe and healthy workplace by striving to eliminate unsafe practices and hazards that lead to injuries and accidents.

There are two types of audits:

1.     External : These are conducted by a third party

2.        Internal : Corporate : By headquarters or personnel from other units of                                       the same company.  

                                          

An audit is not for fault finding, it is for fact finding and it should identify the strengths as well as the weaknesses of a program. It should reveal to management and the employees where and how they could and should make improvements. On-site audits require three main actions. First, arrange interviews with facility personnel who have key roles in developing or implementing safety management systems. Next, review documentation that defines safety system records or verifies completion of critical tasks. These tasks may include emergency preparedness; hazard identification, control, and monitoring; and safety education and training.

Objectives of Safety Audit

1.     Verify compliance with established standards (regulations, internal policies and industry wise standards of practice )

2.     Identify deviation from designed and planned operating and maintenance procedure and standards

3.     Identify plant condition or operating procedures that could lead to an accident and significant losses to life or property

4.     Ensure that the plan and operating and maintenance procedures match the design intent and standards.

5.     Keep the operating personnel alert to the process hazards

6.     Review operating procedures for necessary revisions

7.     Seek to identify equipment or process changes that could have introduced new hazards

8.     Ultimate application of new technology to existing hazards

9.     Review adequacy of safety inspections

10.                        Look for major risk situations recommend measures to improve overall safety performance of the plant

Assessing Strengths and Weaknesses :

In assessing strengths of internal controls, auditors look for the following indications.

1.     Whether factory personnel are trained and experienced

2.     Whether responsibilities at various levels are clearly defined and carefully assigned.

3.     Whether duties are so divided that these minimize conflicts of interest

4.     Whether authorization systems are in existence

5.     Whether internal verification procedures are in place

6.     Whether protective measures-security systems and alarms are taken

7.     Whether procedures and compliance / exception results are in place

For each of the areas assigned, the auditor should ask himself the following questions :

1.     If the facility is doing everything the way they say it happens, is that acceptable?   

2.     Is the facility incompliance with applicable requirements and is the factory adequately protected?                                                                                                                       

Management System

The essential elements of safety management system to be audited are given below:

1 )  Safety, Health & Environment ( SHE ) Policy 

     i) Management’s commitment to SHE                                          

     ii) Accountability and Responsibility

     iii) Implementation

     iv) Policy review

2 )  Safety and Health Organizational Set-up  

3 )  Education and Training                                                

4 )  Communication / Motivation / Promotion in Safety

5 )  Safety Inspections

6)   Maintenance of Accident Statistics and its Utilization

7)   Previous reports of Safety Audits

8)   Personal Protective Equipments                                                                                  9)   Process / Plant Modification Procedure              

10) Safe Operating Procedure

11) Work Permit System

i)    Line breaking                                                                                                          ii)  Confined space entry

iii) Hot work                                                                                                              iv) Electrical lockout and tag system           

v)  Excavation

vi) Working at height

vii)  Working on fragile     

12)    Fire Fighting System

i)   Selection of fire fighting equipment

 ii)   Fire fighting procedures

iii)   Fire fighting team

 iv)   Communication system

v)    Drills

vi)  Inspection and maintenance of fire fighting equipment  

                                                   

 13)   Health and Safety Improvement Plan / Targets 

 14)   Prevention of Occupational Diseases     

 15)  Work Environment Monitoring System         

 16)  Medical Examination 

                                                                                                  

i)   Pre-employment                              

ii)  Periodical

17) Material Safety Data Sheets                           

18) Emergency Preparedness Plan ( On-site / off-site )  
19) Hazardous Waste Treatment and Disposal 

20)  Transportation of Hazardous Materials

21)  Hazard Identification

22)  Contractor Safety Systems

24)  New Equipment Review / Inspection

       

Job Safety Analysis (JSA)

There are five steps for doing JSA

1.     Select the Job

2.     Divide the job into job steps or tasks

3.     Identify hazards in each task

4.     Evaluate the risks and decide whether existing precautions are adequate or more should be done.

5.     Identify the responsible person to take action.

Safety Sampling

It is a management tool for making the workplace safer by studying how processes and people operate. By studying unsafe behaviors future accidents can be avoided.

Disaster Control

Types of disasters

There is no country that is immune from disaster, though vulnerability to disaster varies. There are four main types of disaster.

·         Natural disasters: including floods, hurricanes, earthquakes and volcano eruptions that have immediate impacts on human health and secondary impacts causing further death and suffering from (for example) floods, landslides, fires, tsunamis.

·         Environmental emergencies: including technological or industrial accidents, usually involving the production, use or transportation of hazardous material, and occur where these materials are produced, used or transported, and forest fires caused by humans.

·         Complex emergencies: involving a break-down of authority, looting and attacks on strategic installations, including conflict situations and war.

·         Pandemic emergencies: involving a sudden onset of contagious disease that affects health, disrupts services and businesses, brings economic and social costs.

Any disaster can interrupt essential services, such as health care, electricity, water, sewage/garbage removal, transportation and communications. The interruption can seriously affect the health, social and economic networks of local communities and countries. Disasters have a major and long-lasting impact on people long after the immediate effect has been mitigated. Poorly planned relief activities can have a significant negative impact not only on the disaster victims but also on donors and relief agencies. So it is important that physical therapists join established programmes rather than attempting individual efforts.

Local, regional, national and international organizations are all involved in mounting a humanitarian response to disasters. Each will have a prepared disaster management plan. These plans cover prevention, preparedness, relief and recovery.

Disaster prevention

These are activities designed to provide permanent protection from disasters. Not all disasters, particularly natural disasters, can be prevented, but the risk of loss of life and injury can be mitigated with good evacuation plans, environmental planning and design standards

Disaster preparedness

These activities are designed to minimize loss of life and damage – for example by removing people and property from a threatened location and by facilitating timely and effective rescue, relief and rehabilitation. Preparedness is the main way of reducing the impact of disasters.

Disaster relief

This is a coordinated multi-agency response to reduce the impact of a disaster and its long-term results. Relief activities include rescue, relocation, providing food and water, preventing disease and disability, repairing vital services such as telecommunications and transport, providing temporary shelter and emergency health care.

Disaster recovery

Once emergency needs have been met and the initial crisis is over, the people affected and the communities that support them are still vulnerable. Recovery activities include rebuilding infrastructure, health care and rehabilitation. These should blend with development activities, such as building human resources for health and developing policies and practices to avoid similar situations in future.

Disaster management is linked with sustainable development, particularly in relation to vulnerable people such as those with disabilities, elderly people, children and other marginalized groups.