NEBOSH IGC 1 Book
NEBOSH IGC 1 Book
NEBOSH IGC 1 Book
Study notes
The purpose of this chapter is to introduce the foundations on which appropriate health
and safety management systems may be built. Occupational health and safety affects
all aspects of work. In a low hazard organization, health and safety may be supervised
by a single competent manager. In a high hazard manufacturing plant, many different
specialists, such as engineers (electrical, mechanical and civil), lawyers, medical doctors
and nurses, trainers, work planners and supervisors, may be required to assist the
professional health and safety practitioner in ensuring that there are satisfactory health
and safety standards within the organization.
The UK Health and Safety Executive's (HSE) mission is to ensure that the risks to health
and safety of workers are properly controlled. In terms of corporate responsibility, it is
working to encourage organizations to:
improve health and safety management systems to reduce injuries and ill-health
demonstrate the importance of health and safety issues at board level
report publicly on health and safety issues within their organization, including
their performance against targets.
substance deaths
Asbestos-related deaths 274 100 000
In order to fully understand a health and safety issue you need to be familiar with:
The technical background to the issue and have the relevant knowledge.
The standards that may apply to the workplace and to the specific health and safety
issue under consideration.
The possible strengths and weaknesses of the various options that is available to solve
the problem.
The study of health and safety therefore involves many different subjects including the sciences
(chemistry, physics and biology), engineering, psychology, sociology and the law.
New methods to deliver the competencies which employers and employees require need to be
developed, taking into account the multidisciplinary nature of occupational health and safety
provision and the considerable overlap which exists in the competencies of the professionals in
the team.
Good management of the health of workpeople and workplaces requires the advice of
competent occupational health professionals. For physicians, such training in occupational
medicine should start with tuition at undergraduate level but various surveys have shown this
aspect of their training to be either inadequate or non-existent. Therefore general practitioners
and hospital doctors are ill equipped to deal with work related health issues seen in their
patients.
For those who decide to train as occupational physicians, there is a need to ensure that the
educational content of postgraduate teaching reflects the knowledge, skills and competencies
needed to create a cadre of highly skilled doctors to aid good management in healthy
enterprises for the 21st century. Although the professional bodies responsible for training here
and in other European countries have drawn up lists of competencies for occupational
physicians, the views of employers and employees on these competencies had not previously
been canvassed. The results of the present study are an important contribution to that
knowledge base and the findings need to be incorporated into future training programmes for
occupational physicians.
The occupational physician is only one of the large multidisciplinary team required to provide
advice and support. This study also confirms the low level of access to occupational health and
safety support services particularly for smaller organizations. Expanding this provision as
envisaged by Securing Health Together will require new approaches to the delivery of the wide
range of competencies which workplaces and workpeople need.
reduced costs;
reduced risks;
lower employee absence and turnover rates;
fewer accidents;
lessened threat of legal action;
improved standing among suppliers and partners;
better reputation for corporate responsibility among investors, customers and
communities;
increased productivity, because employees are healthier, happier and better motivated.
HSE statistics reveal the human and financial cost of failing to address health and safety.
Each year:
Millions of working days are lost due to work-related illness and injury.
Thousands of people die from occupational diseases.
Around a million workers self-report suffering from a work-related illness.
Several hundred thousand workers are injured at work.
A worker is fatally injured almost every working day.
Organisations can incur further costs - such as uninsured losses and loss of reputation.
There are many barriers to good standards of health and safety in a workplace:
Conflicting demands - there are often competing and conflicting demands placed upon people
and organisations. A common conflict of interest is that between the need to supply a product
or a service at an appropriate speed so as to make a profit, and the need to do so safely and
without risk to people’s health. Another conflict can be created by the need to comply with
different types of standards at the same time, e.g. health and safety law as well as
environmental protection law.
Behavioural issues - good health and safety practice often relies on the perfect behaviour of
individuals, and people sometimes do not behave in this ideal way. The solution to a health and
safety problem usually requires a worker to carry out their job in a particular way. For example,
a worker on a construction site should wear a hard hat to protect themselves from falling
objects. But people are not robots; they do not behave as they are supposed to all the time.
Workers sometimes make mistakes (they do the wrong thing thinking that it is the right thing
Safety - The protection of people from physical injury. The borderline between health
and safety is ill-defined and the two words are normally used together to indicate
concern for the physical and mental well-being of the individual at the place of work
Welfare - The provision of facilities to maintain the health and well-being of individuals
at the workplace. Welfare facilities include washing and sanitation arrangements, the
provision of drinking water, heating, lighting, accommodation for clothing, seating
(when required by the work activity or for rest), eating and rest rooms. First-aid
arrangements are also considered as welfare facilities.
Environmental protection - These are the arrangements to cover those activities in the
workplace which affect the environment (in the form of flora, fauna, water, air and soil)
and, possibly, the health and safety of employees and others. Such activities include
waste and effluent disposal and atmospheric pollution.
Accident - This is defined by the UK Health and Safety Executive (HSE) as 'any
unplanned event that results in injury or ill-health of people, or damage or loss to
property, plant, materials or the environment or a loss of a business opportunity'. Other
authorities define an accident more narrowly by excluding events that do not involve
injury or ill-health. This book will always use the HSE definition. It is important to note
that work-related accidents may not always occur at the place of work. Commuting
accidents occur during work-related travel (usually by road).
Near Miss - This is any incident that could have resulted in an accident. Knowledge of
near misses is very important as research has shown that, approximately, for every 10
'near miss' events at a particular location in the workplace, a minor accident will occur.
Dangerous occurrence - This is a 'near miss' which could have led to serious injury or
loss of life. Specified dangerous occurrences are always reportable to the enforcement
Hazard and risk - A hazard is the potential of a substance, person, activity or process to
cause harm. Hazards take many forms including, for example, chemicals, electricity and
working from a ladder. A hazard can be ranked relative to other hazards or to a
possible level of danger. A risk is the likelihood of a substance, activity or process to
cause harm and its resulting severity. A risk can be reduced and the hazard can be
eliminated or controlled by good management.
According to the ILO, deaths due to work-related accidents and illnesses represent 3.9
percent of all deaths and 15 percent of the world's population suffers a minor or major
occupational accident or work-related disease in any one year. A large number of the
unemployed - up to 30 percent - report that they suffer from an injury or disease dating
from the time at which they were employed. The number of fatal occupational
accidents, especially in Asia and Latin America, is increasing.
Diseases related to work cause the most deaths among workers. Of the 2.2 million
work-related deaths a year, 1.7 million - or nearly four-fifths - are due to work related
disease. The ILO has estimated there to be 160 million incidents of work-related disease
each year. This estimate is reasonable for the 2.8 billion global work force, if non-
recorded, part-time, child and other informal sector workers are taken into account.
Hazardous substances kill about 438 000 workers annually; asbestos alone claims 100
000 lives. Most of the other deaths are due to various forms of cancer. Another major
killer is silicosis, which affects 37 per cent of miners in Latin America.
Table 1.2 Estimates of work-related occupational accidents and diseases for several
countries in 2002
Table 1.3 Distribution of fatal occupational injuries and incidence rates around the world
(2001)
Established 5 4.5
Market
Economies
Former 5 13.0
Socialist
Economies
India 11 11.0
WORLD 100
In the UK during 2007/08, there were an estimated 2.1 million people suffering from
work-related illness, of whom 563 000 were new cases in that year. This led to 28
million working days lost, compared to 6 million due to workplace injury. Over the last
3 years, 5700 cases have been assessed for industrial injuries disablement benefit. The
largest groups were vibration white finger, carpal tunnel syndrome and respiratory
diseases. 8.8 million working days were lost due to musculoskeletal disorders causing
each sufferer to have, on average, 21 days off work. 13.5 million working days were
lost due to stress, depression and anxiety causing each sufferer to have, on average, 31
days off work. Recent research has shown that one in five people who are on sickness
leave from work for 6 weeks will stay off work permanently, 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.
Table 1.4 Global estimates of work-related fatalities caused by occupational accidents and
work- related diseases for 2001
Other Asia and Islands 415 527 598 76 886 178 786 255 672
Sub-Saharan Africa 279 680 390 53 292 211 262 264 554
Middle Eastern 135 220 721 17 977 120 725 138 702
Crescent
World 2 836 897 404 351 251 1 697 061 2 048 312
Some of these items, such as business loss, may be uninsurable or too prohibitively
expensive to insure. Therefore, insurance policies can never cover all of the costs of an
accident or disease because either some items are not covered by the policy or the
insurance excess is greater than the particular item cost.
Many countries have either fault or no-fault compensation schemes for workers
involved in accidents. Knowledge of these schemes is important for those who work in
more than one country.
The spiralling cost of insurance premiums to cover the increasing level and number of
compensation awards, despite the Woolfe reforms in the UK (see Chapter 8), has led to
another debate on the introduction of a no-fault compensation system. It has been
estimated that in medical negligence cases, it takes, on average, six years to settle a
claim and only 10% of claimants ever see any compensation.
1.2.4 The need to provide a safe place of work, safe plant and
equipment, safe system of work, training & supervision and
competent workers.
As an employer, you are legally obliged to protect the health, safety and welfare of your
workers and other people who could be adversely affected by work carried out by your
business under the Work Health and Safety Act 2012 (the OHSW Act).
The purpose of the OHSW Act is to prevent injuries and illness at work. Consult with
your workers, particularly your injured workers, as they will be able to offer insight into
workplace health and safety issues – and potential solutions.
Health and safety in the workplace is about preventing work-related injury and disease,
and designing an environment that promotes well-being for everyone at work.
When buying new or second-hand plant and equipment, you must check it meets health and
safety standards before buying it.
Maintenance on plant and equipment is carried out to prevent problems arising, to put
faults right, and to ensure equipment is working effectively.
An effective maintenance programme will make plant and equipment more reliable.
Fewer breakdowns will mean less dangerous contact with machinery is required, as well
as having the cost benefits of better productivity and efficiency.
Additional hazards can occur when machinery becomes unreliable and develops faults.
Maintenance allows these faults to be diagnosed early to manage any risks. However,
maintenance needs to be correctly planned and carried out. Unsafe maintenance has
caused many fatalities and serious injuries either during the maintenance or to those
using the badly maintained or wrongly maintained/repaired equipment.
The Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 (PUWER) require work
equipment and plant to be maintained so it remains safe and the maintenance
operation is carried out safely.
If you are an employer and you provide equipment for use, from hand tools and ladders
to electrical power tools and larger plant, you need to demonstrate that you have
arrangements in place to make sure they are maintained in a safe condition.
Think about what hazards can occur:
Failing to correctly plan and communicate clear instructions and information before
starting maintenance can lead to confusion and can cause accidents. This can be a
particular problem if maintenance is during normal production work or where there are
contractors who are unfamiliar with the site.
Safe isolation
Ensure moving plant has stopped and isolate electrical and other power supplies. Most
maintenance should be carried out with the power off. If the work is near uninsulated,
overhead electrical conductors, eg close to overhead travelling cranes, cut the power off
first
Lock off machines if there is a chance the power could be accidentally switched back on
Isolate plant and pipelines containing pressured fluid, gas, steam or hazardous material.
Lock off isolating valves
Release any stored energy, such as compressed air or hydraulic pressure that could
cause the machine to move or cycle.
Support parts of plant that could fall, e.g. support the blades of down-stroking bale
cutters and guillotines with blocks.
Allow components that operate at high temperatures time to cool.
Place mobile plant in neutral gear, apply the brake and chock the wheels.
Safely clean out vessels containing flammable solids, liquids, gases or dusts, and check
them before hot work is carried out to prevent explosions. You may need specialist help
and advice to do this safely.
Avoid entering tanks and vessels where possible. This can be very high-risk work. If
required, get specialist help to ensure adequate precautions are taken.
Clean and check vessels containing toxic materials before work starts.
Do…
ensure maintenance is carried out by a competent person (someone who has the
necessary skills, knowledge and experience to carry out the work safely)
maintain plant and equipment regularly – use the manufacturer’s maintenance
instructions as a guide, particularly if there are safety-critical features
have a procedure that allows workers to report damaged or faulty equipment
provide the proper tools for the maintenance person
Don’t…
ignore maintenance
ignore reports of damaged or unsafe equipment
use faulty or damaged equipment
The essence of the present legislation is that employers are expected to manage hazards
with the same degree of attention and with the same allocation of resources and priorities
as they manage other subjects such as quality control, industrial relations and budgetary
matters. Furthermore, as part of management commitment to the principles, employers
have a duty to establish and maintain, so far as is reasonably practicable, safe systems of
work. Safe systems of work must be identified through the risk assessment process.
The requirement to establish and maintain safe systems of work applies not only to routine
activities, which are repeated every day; it also applies to tasks occurring infrequently at
certain times such as during annual maintenance work. It also applies to single, one-off
jobs, which happen only once in a lifetime. It will be clear that there is a different emphasis
in each of the three categories given. In the first there may be problems of familiarity and
the potentially hazardous complacency arising from it. In the last there needs to be
emphasis on meticulous planning and constant close supervision by qualified, skilled and
experienced staff.
In certain cases ensuring that systems of work are safe may be achieved with the help of
permits-to-work. Such written permits formalise the progression through a particular operation.
Most often the operations are those with a high risk. They require clearances at specific stages
throughout the operation and a signed go-ahead that it is safe to continue from a named,
specifically appointed person. Only when this is done is the next stage allowed to go ahead.
The principle of establishing and equally importantly, maintaining safe systems of work, is
keenly regarded by enforcing authorities who see it as a direct reflection of managerial
competence and commitment.
Young people are likely to need more supervision than adults. Good supervision will
help an employer get a clear idea of the young person’s capabilities and progress in the
job and monitor the effectiveness of their training.
It is important that employers check young people have understood the instruction and
training which will include, for example:
In workplaces where there are health and safety representatives, they can play a
valuable role early on by:
As employees, young people have a duty to take care of their own health and safety
and that of others who may be affected by their actions.
This includes co-operating with their employer by listening carefully, following instructions,
using any safety equipment that has been provided and taking part in relevant training.
When getting help, you should give preference to those in your own organisation who
have the appropriate level of competence (which can include the employer themselves)
before looking for help from outside. You must consult health and safety
representatives in good time on the arrangements for competent help.
(a) to provide and maintain workplaces, machinery and equipment, and use work
methods, which are as safe and without risk to health as is reasonably practicable.
(e) to provide, without any cost to the worker, adequate personal protective clothing
and equipment which are reasonably necessary when workplace hazards cannot be
otherwise prevented or controlled.
1. Freedom of Association - The right of workers and employers to form and join
organizations of their choice is an integral part of a free and open society and is
linked to the recognition of the right to collective bargaining.
Forced Labour — The ILO is pressing for effective national laws and stronger
enforcement mechanisms, such as legal sanctions and vigorous prosecution against
those who exploit forced labourers.
The rights of workers are also contained in the ILO Code of Practice - Ambient factors
in the workplace. The code specifies that workers and their representatives should have
the right to:
In accordance with national laws and regulations, workers should have the right:
(b) to appeal to the competent authority if they consider that the measures taken
and the means employed by the employer are inadequate for the purposes of
ensuring health and safety at work;
(c) to remove themselves from a hazardous situation when they have good reason
to believe that there is an imminent and serious risk to their health and safety
and inform their supervisor immediately;
(d) in the case of a health condition, such as sensitization, to be transferred to
alternative work that does not expose them to that hazard, if such work is
available and if the workers concerned have the qualifications or can reasonably
be trained for such alternative work;
(e) to compensation if the case referred to in (d) above results in loss of
employment;
(f) to adequate medical treatment and compensation for occupational injuries and
diseases resulting from hazards at the workplace;
(g) to refrain from using any equipment or process or substance which can
reasonably be expected to be hazardous, if relevant information is not available
to assess the hazards or risks to health and safety.
(a) take reasonable care for their own safety and that of other persons who may be
affected by their acts or omissions at work;
(b) comply with instructions given for their own health and safety and those of
others and with health and safety procedures;
(c) use safety devices and protective equipment correctly and not to render them
inoperative;
(d) report forthwith to their immediate supervisor any situation which they have
reason to believe could present a hazard and which they cannot themselves
correct; and
(e) report any accident or injury to health which arises in the course of or in
connection with work.
In the UK, there has been a movement from prescriptive legislation to risk assessment
by the employer and this movement is now occurring in many parts of the world
including the EU. A management system is an essential tool to achieve this movement
and such a system is implied in the UK Management of Health and Safety at Work
Regulations. Countries such as Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Norway have
developed occupational health and safety management systems as an encouragement
for such self-regulation. The ILO-OSH 2001 system has been adopted by Germany,
Sweden, Japan, Finland, Korea, China, Mexico, Costa Rica, Brazil, Indonesia, Vietnam,
Malaysia, India, Thailand, the Czech Republic, Poland and Russia.
International labour standards contain flexibility measures to take into account the
different conditions and levels of development among Member States. However, a
government that ratifies a Convention must comply with all of its articles. Standards
reflect the different cultural and historical backgrounds of the Member States as well as
their diverse legal systems and levels of economic development.
ILO occupational safety and health standards can be divided into four groups, and an
example is given in each case:
1. Guiding policies for action — The Occupational Safety and Health Convention,
The ILO also publishes Codes of Practice, guidance and manuals on health and safety
matters. These are often used as reference material by either those responsible for
drafting detailed Regulations or those who have responsibility for health and safety
within an organization. They are more detailed than either Conventions or Recommen-
dations and suggest practical solutions for the application of ILO standards. Codes of
Practice indicate 'what should be done'. They are developed by tripartite meetings of
experts and the final publication is approved by the ILO Governing Body.
For example, the construction industry has a Safety and Health in Construction
Convention, 1988 (No. 167) that obliges signatory ILO Member States to comply with
the construction standards laid out in the Convention - the Convention is a relatively
brief statement of those standards. The accompanying Recommendation (No. 175)
gives additional information on the Convention statements. The Code of Practice gives
more detailed information than the Recommendation.
The ILO Codes of Practice and guidelines on health and safety matters that are relevant
to the International General Certificate are:
Important ILO Conventions (C) and Recommendations (R) in the field of occupational
safety and health include:
External sources, which are available outside the organization, are numerous and
include: