Chapter 1: HEALTH AND SAFETY FOUNDATIONS Nations (UN) have estimated that there are 270

million occupational accidents and 160 million

After reading this chapter, you should be able to: occupational diseases every year throughout the
- Outline the scope and nature of occupational world – and these are recognized as relatively
health and safety conservative estimates due to probable under-
- Explain briefly the moral, social, and economic reporting. The ILO estimates that 2 million people die
reasons for maintaining and promoting good each year as a result of occupational accidents and
standards of health and safety in the work-related diseases. Table 1.1 shows the global
workplace numbers in more detail.
- Outline the role of national governments and In the USA in 2002, approximately 2 million
international bodies in formulating a workers were victims of workplace violence. In the UK,
framework for the regulation of health and 1.7% of working adults (357,000 workers) were the
safety victims of one or more incidents of workplace
- Identify the nature and key sources of health violence.
and safety information Ten percent of all skin cancers are estimated to be
- Outline the key elements of a health and attributable to workplace exposure to hazardous
safety management system substances. Thirty-seven percent of miners in Latin
America have silicosis, rising to 50% among miners
1.1 Introduction over fifty years of age. In India 54.6% of slate pencil
Occupational health and safety are relevant to all workers and 36.2% of stone cutters have silicosis.
branches of industry, business, and commerce The size of the health and safety ‘problem’ in
including traditional industries, information terms of number of work-related fatalities and injuries
technology companies, leisure facilities, and offices. and the incidence of ill-health varies from country to
Occupational health and safety affect all aspects country. However, these figures should be available
of work. In a low-hazard organization, health and from the statistics branch of the national regulator,
safety may be supervised by a single competent similar to their availability in the UK from the annual
manager. In a high-hazard manufacturing plant, many report on health and safety statistics from the Health
different specialists, such as engineers (electrical, and Safety Executive (HSE).
mechanical, and civil), lawyers, medical doctors and
nurses, trainers, work planners, and supervisors, may 1.2 Some basic definitions
be required to assist the professional health and  Health – The protection of the bodies and minds
safety practitioner in ensuring that there are of people from illness resulting from the
satisfactory health and safety standards within the materials, processes, or procedures used in the
organization. workplace.
The UK Health and Safety Executive’s (HSE)  Safety – The protection of people from physical
mission is to ensure that the risks to the health and injury. The borderline between health and safety
safety of workers are properly controlled. In terms of is ill-defined and the two words are normally used
corporate responsibility, it is working to encourage together to indicate concern for the physical and
organizations to: mental well-being of the individual at the place of
 Improve health and safety management work.
systems to reduce injuries and ill-health;  Welfare – The provision of facilities to maintain
 demonstrate the importance of health and the health and well-being of individuals at the
safety issues at the board level; workplace. Welfare facilities include washing and
 report publicly on health and safety issues sanitation arrangements, the provision of drinking
within their organization, including their water, heating and lighting, accommodation for
performance against targets. clothing, seating (when required by the work
activity or for rest), eating, and restrooms. First-
The HSE believes that effective management of aid arrangements are also considered as welfare
health and safety: facilities.
 is vital to employee well-being;  Occupational or work-related ill-health – This is
 has a role to play in enhancing the reputation concerned with those illnesses or physical and
of businesses and helping them achieve high- mental disorders that are either caused or
performance teams; triggered by workplace activities. Such conditions
 is financially beneficial to business. may be induced by the particular work activity of
the individual or by activities of others in the
The International Labour Organization (ILO), the workplace. They may be either physiological or
World Health Organization (WHO), and the United psychological or a combination of both. The time
 interval between exposure and the onset of the
illness may be short (e.g. asthma attacks) or long 1.3.1 Moral reasons
(e.g. deafness or cancer). The moral reasons are supported by the
 Environmental protection – These are the occupational accident and disease rates. The ILO
arrangements to cover those activities in the estimates that globally some 2.2 million people have
workplace that affect the environment (in the work-related accidents or contract work-related
form of flora, fauna, water, air, and soil) and, diseases every year. There are around 270 million
possibly, the health and safety of employees and occupational accidents and 160 million victims of
others. Such activities include waste and effluent work-related illness annually.
disposal and atmospheric pollution. According to the ILO, deaths due to work-related
 Accident – This is defined by the UK Health and accidents and illnesses represent 3.9 percent of all
Safety Executive (HSE) as ‘any unplanned event deaths and 15 percent of the world’s population
that results in injury or ill-health of people, or suffers a minor or major occupational accident or
damage or loss to property, plant, materials or the work-related disease in any one year. A large number
environment or a loss of a business opportunity.’ of the unemployed – up to 30 percent – report that
It is important to note that work-related accidents they suffer from an injury or disease dating from the
may not always occur at the place of work. time at which they were employed. The number of
Commuting accidents occur during work-related fatal occupational accidents, especially in Asia and
travel (usually of the road). Latin America, is increasing.
 Near miss – This is any incident that could have The main (preventable) factors for accidents
resulted in an accident. Knowledge of near misses are:
is very important as research has shown that,  Lack of a preventative safety and health
approximately, for every 10 ‘near miss’ events at a culture;
particular location in the workplace, a minor  Poor management systems;
accident will occur.  Poor supervision and enforcement by the
 Dangerous occurrence – This is a ‘near miss’ government.
which could have led to serious injury or loss of
life. Specified dangerous occurrences are always Accident rates
reportable to the enforcement authorities. Table 1.2 gives statistics for various countries.
Examples include the collapse of a scaffold or a Table 1.3 shows the distribution of the 351,000
crane or the failure of any passenger-carrying fatal occupational injuries and fatality incidence rates
equipment. around the major global economic geographical areas
 Hazard and risk – A hazard is the potential of a in 2001.
substance, person, activity, or process to cause Table 1.4 compares the number of fatalities due to
harm. Hazards take many forms including, for work-related accidents and diseases for the same
example, chemicals, electricity, and working from economic areas.
a ladder. A hazard can be ranked relative to other Table 1.5 shows the top eight causes of work-
hazards or a possible level of danger. A risk is the related fatalities across the world.
likelihood of a substance, activity, or process to Commuting accidents are often included in work-
cause harm and its resulting severity. A risk can be related fatality statistics as recommended by the ILO.
reduced and the hazard can be eliminated or Various researchers have estimated that
controlled by good management. approximately 30% of all global work-related accidents
are due to commuting accidents. A study for the ILO
It is very important to distinguish between a has estimated that there are approximately 350,000
hazard and a risk – the two terms are often confused work-related fatalities annually, of which 160,000 are
and activities such as construction work are frequently due to fatal commuting accidents.
called high risk when they are high hazard. Although
the hazard will continue to be high, the risks will be Disease rates
reduced as controls are implemented. The level of risk Diseases related to work cause the most deaths
remaining when controls have been adopted is known among workers. Of the 2.2 million work-related deaths
as the residual risk. There should only be a high a year, 1.7 million – or nearly four-fifths – are due to
residual risk where there is poor health and safety work-related disease. The ILO has estimated there to
management and inadequate control measures. be 160 million incidents of work-related disease each
year. This estimate is reasonable for the 2.8 billion
1.3 Moral, social, and economic reasons for global workforces, if non-recorded, part-time, child,
maintaining and promoting good standards of health and other informal sector workers are taken into
and safety in the workplace account.
 Hazardous substances kill about 438,000 workers 4. provide safe and competent fellow
annually; asbestos alone claims 100,000 lives. Most of employees; and
the other deaths are due to various forms of cancer. 5. provide an adequate level of supervision,
Another major killer is silicosis, which affects 37 information, instruction, and training.
percent of miners in Latin America.
Accident rates among female workers are different The requirement to provide competent fellow
from those of male workers. ILO research appears to employees include the provision of adequate
show that even in the same jobs, women tend to supervision, instruction and training. In many
adopt more preventive and protective ways of countries, employers are responsible for the actions of
carrying out work. On the other hand, with large their employees (vicarious liability) provided that the
numbers of women working in agriculture in action in question took place during the normal
developing countries, they are particularly vulnerable course of their employment.
to communicable diseases, such as work-related
malaria, hepatitis, schistosomiasis (infection by a
water-borne parasite) and other bacterial, viral, and
vector-borne diseases. While men are more likely to
be involved in fatal accidents and other work-related
deaths, the everyday burden of muscular-skeletal
disorders, stress, and violence hits women hard, but
the outcome may often be long-term disabilities
rather than death.
In the UK during 2007/08, an estimated 2.1 million 1.3.3 Economic reasons
people were suffering from work-related illness, of Poor occupational health and safety performance
whom 563,000 were new cases in that year. This led to results in additional costs to both the public and
28 million working days lost, compared to 6 million private sectors of the economy of a country.
due to workplace injury. Over the last 3 years, 5700
cases have been assessed for industrial injuries Costs of accidents
disablement benefit. The largest groups were Any accident or incidence of ill-health will cause
vibration white fingers, carpal tunnel syndrome, and both direct and indirect costs and incur an insured and
respiratory diseases. 8.8 million working days were an uninsured cost. All of these costs must be taken
lost due to musculoskeletal disorders causing each into account when the full cost of an accident is
sufferer to have, on average, 21 days off work. 13.5 calculated. In a study undertaken by the UK HSE, it
million working days were lost due to stress, was shown that indirect costs or hidden costs could be
depression and anxiety causing each sufferer to have, 36 times greater than the direct costs of an accident.
on average, 31 days off work. Recent research has In other words, the direct costs of ana accident or
shown that one in five people who are on sick leave disease represent the tip of the iceberg when
from work for 6 weeks will stay off work permanently, compared to the overall costs (Figure 1.3).
leaving paid employment.
The WHO has estimated that 37% of low back
pain, 16% of hearing loss, 13% of chronic obstructive
pulmonary disease, 11% of asthma, and 8% of injuries
are related to workplace activities.

1.3.2 Social reasons

In all countries, employers owe a duty of care to
each of their employees and others who might be
affected by their undertaking, such as contractors and
members of the public. This duty must not be
assigned to others, even if a consultant is employed to In 2000, the European Union estimated that the
advise on health and safety matters or if the cost of occupational accidents among the Member
employees are subcontracted to work with another States (15 at that time) was 55 billion Euro each year.
employer. This duty may be subdivided into five This was probably an underestimate and did not cover
groups. Employers must: the costs of work-related diseases. It further
1. provide a safe place of work, including access suggested that the costs due to work-related diseases
and egress; may be twice as high as that caused by accidents at
2. provide safe plant and equipment; work. The ILO has estimated that there were 120,000
3. provide a safe system of work; annual deaths in the EU in 2000 caused by work-
related diseases, compared to 6000 fatal occupational all of the costs of an accident or disease because
accidents during the same timeframe. either some items are not covered by the policy or the
insurance excess is greater than the particular item
Direct costs cost.
These are costs that are directly related to the
accident and may be insured or uninsured. Employers’ liability insurance
Insured direct costs normally include: In many countries, employers are required to take
 claims on employers and public liability out employers’ liability insurance to cover their
insurance; liability in the event of accidents and work-related ill-
 damage to buildings, equipment, or vehicles; health to employees and others who may be affected
 any attributable production and/or general by their operations. This ensures that any employee,
business loss; who successfully sues his/her employer following an
 the absence of employees. accident, is assured of receiving compensation
Uninsured direct costs include: irrespective of the financial position of the employer.
 fines resulting from prosecution by the
enforcement authority;
 sick pay;
 some damage to product, equipment, vehicles
or process not directly attributable to the
accident (e.g. caused by replacement staff);
 increases in insurance premiums resulting
from the accident;
 any compensation not covered by the
insurance policy due to an excess agreed
between the employer and the insurance
company;
 legal representation following any
compensation claim.

Indirect costs
These are costs that may not be directly
attributable to the accident but may result from a
series of accidents.
Again, these may be insured or uninsured. Insured
indirect costs include:
 a cumulative business loss;
 product or process liability claims;
 recruitment of replacement staff.
Uninsured indirect costs include:
 loss of goodwill and a poor corporate image;
 accident investigation time and any
subsequent remedial action required;
 production delays;
 extra overtime payments;
 lost time for other employees, such as first-aid
staff, who tend to the needs of the injured
person;
 the recruitment and training of replacement
staff;
 additional administration time incurred;
 first-aid provision and training;
 lower employee morale possibly leading to
reduced productivity.

Some of these items, such as business loss, may

be uninsurable or too prohibitively expensive to
insure. Therefore, insurance policies can never cover