Occupational Health and Safety: A Comprehensive Guide to Risks, Hazards, and Consequences
Health and Safety at Work:
Concept: We can define safety and health at work as all measures taken during the performance of work to protect the worker from the risks of injury and illness that it entails. (Within the working environment). Terminology: One of the problems that arise from the description of this material is its terminology. It was originally called “Industrial Hygiene,” which is inadequate because it regulates other subjects such as agriculture, trade, etc. However, the concept of Health and Safety at work is the most suitable, since it comprises:
- Avoiding workplace accidents (Safety)
- Combating occupational diseases (Hygiene)
Occupational Hazards:
Concept of Risk: Risk is the possibility that there is a risk associated with damage. All work has a risk that may result in an accident or professional illness, which is called occupational risk.
Types of Pollutants: These vary from the physical point of view (gases, particles, and complex mixtures). Among the first, we have gases, and among the second, we have vapors. Among solids or liquids or powders, we have fumes, mists, and fogs, and among complex mixtures, we have “smoke” or “smog.” “Smokes” are products of incomplete combustion fumes, such as those produced by car exhaust in cities. “Smog” is the combination of incomplete combustion aided by different atmospheric agents such as spray or fog, which can be dangerous.
Routes of Entry for Contaminants:
- Inhalation: It affects the respiratory system (nose, mouth, larynx, trachea, bronchi, bronchioles, and alveoli).
- Dermal: Includes the entire epidermal surface that surrounds the human body.
- Digestive: Understands the digestive tract (mouth, esophagus, stomach, and intestines).
- Mucosa Absorption: The corresponding penetration through the conjunctiva of the eye.
- Parental Via: Consists of the penetration of the pollutant into the body through a break in the skin (open wound or puncture or by injection).
Source of Risk: Occupational hazards appear at work. The work itself need not pose a danger, but it is required to observe forms and rules for its realization and thus avoid potential hazards.
Identification of Danger at Work: An indispensable condition for the existence of security risks is to locate them, as it is the only way to try to avoid causing damage to individual workers. Accidents are internally linked to:
- The managed elements.
- The type of conditions in which operations are carried out, both industrial and environmental. The conditions where the work takes place, as well as the worker himself, can give rise to two types of factors that can cause accidents and that are dangerous: objective and subjective factors.
(F. Subjective [From PEOPLE] and Objective factors [machine]).
Occupational Hazards:
- Hazards caused by electrical, mechanical elements, heat, which are inadequately protected or projected.
- Disposition of the work area, such as narrow passages, pavements with bumps or slippery angles, protruding material in disrepair.
- Accidents in loading and unloading operations, lifting and carrying of materials using overhead cranes, hoists, the most common risk is crushing.
- Handling of materials at treacherous temperatures, as well as acids and corrosives.
- Produced by working at height, the risk is more frequent, fall, loss of balance.
- Produced as a result of hand injuries, working without gloves when handling sheets, Ian Steel, wire, glass particles, etc.
- For the use of inappropriate costumes, e.g., long sleeves, high heels, worn shoes. In the case of long sleeves, they can get caught in machines or moving gear.
Peril by Subjective Factors:
- For not having the necessary instruction (incomplete or erroneous).
- With ineptitude of the worker (experience, ignorance).
- For indiscipline, disobeying orders.
- For lack of concentration, distractions, or attention.
- Unsafe practices, such as trusting the random result of what is being done, bypassing operations, doing it too quickly.
- Imprudence, caused by ignorance or overconfidence.
- The psychic and social environment agents are becoming more valued and taken into account. Example: Emotions, concerns, diagnoses, etc.
Professional Damage: We have seen that these potential and contingent risks can materialize, transforming into specific damages, which are professional damages. Professional damages can be classified according to the specific causes that determine them in:
- For the specific pathology of the work (the accident and occupational disease).
- The nonspecific pathology of work (fatigue, dissatisfaction, and premature aging).
The Accident and Occupational Disease:
Concept: An injury is any physical injury suffered by the worker in connection with or as a consequence of the work performed on behalf of another. By illness, we understand those produced by the elements or substances in industries or operations in a painting or legal framework that cause permanent or progressive disability for the normal exercise of the profession or death.
Difference between Accident and Occupational Disease:
- How to place: A work accident occurs suddenly, while the occupational disease occurs gradually, slowly, and progressively, without braces.
- How to provide for: The accident was caused by unforeseen events, impromptu, while occupational diseases are unpredictable.
- Consequences: The consequences of incidents at work are of immediate and violent results, often serious and even death. On the contrary, occupational diseases can sometimes remain unknown until the moment that suddenly manifests itself when a sufficient amount of time has passed for it to take over the body.
Characteristics of the Accident:
- Rarity: Accidents that cause injury are relatively rare.
- Specialty of the causes: The causes of serious accidents are often not the same as those of the mild.
- Random Character: The accident is a small probability conditioning.
- Pluricasuality: In an accident, there is a simultaneous occurrence of several causes; accidents with a single cause are rare.
- Identity of the causes of accidents and incidents: The causes of injury crashes are the same as incidents, i.e., accidents that failed.
Consequences of the Accident: The accident causing the injury, according to which the suffering may be: mild, serious, very serious, or fatal. The injury may result in the following situations:
- Temporary disability: Is a situation in which the employee remains unable to work with a duration of 12 months, adjourn for another 6 months of operation.
- Permanent incapacity: That may be of the following degrees:
- Partial for regular work
- Total for regular work
- Absolute for any type of work
- Severe disability
EVI (Disability Assessment Teams). It’s the team.