Workplace Safety: Hazards and Prevention Measures
Item 10: Derivatives Risk Factors of Safety Conditions
Structural Risk Factors
Workspaces are those where normal work is performed, but areas of access, transit, or service must also be considered. Signaling and maintaining good order and cleanliness in the workplace help to prevent accidents.
Risk Factors Resulting from Handling Equipment
Equipment Description: Tools used by workers that may be moved to another place include:
- Hand tools: Tools utilizing human effort where there is a danger (e.g., hammer, saw, knife, tongs).
- Power tools: Tools using a form of energy other than human effort (e.g., drills, chainsaws).
- Machinery: Fixed elements used by workers in the development of their work (e.g., lathes, drills, presses, saws).
- Transport vehicles and facilities: Mobile or fixed elements intended for transport.
To avoid accidents, equipment handling requires well-trained personnel, proper use of tools in each case, and careful handling.
Risk Factors Derived from Environmental Conditions
These are elements that can be harmful to our health, with harm increasing upon greater contact or exposure. These elements can be identified as physical, chemical, or biological agents. On many occasions, we cannot detect them at a glance, and they may cause damage to our health.
Lighting
- Risk: Can be harmful due to both excess and deficiency.
- Damages: The most common injuries are ocular injuries resulting from accidents caused by poor lighting.
Temperature
- Risk: A rise in temperature produces dehydration and sweat.
- Damages: A sudden increase in temperature can cause heat stroke. If the temperature falls below 34°C (hypothermia), it can cause loss of consciousness, breathing problems, and muscle aches.
Noise
- Risk: To avoid noise in your workplace, the employer must reduce the risk of exposure to noise, establish measures to minimize it, and provide personal protective equipment (earplugs, earmuffs).
- Damages: Noise affects hearing aids, causes deafness, increases tension, stress, and fatigue. Indirectly, it decreases levels of attention and reaction time, causing accidents.
Vibration
- Risk: Vibrations can be produced by machines and tools.
- Damages: Harm is very often called “white finger,” a circulatory disease produced by high frequency and localized vibrations.
Radiation
- Risk: Radiation affects the human body depending on the type, time of exposure, and the area affected.
- Sources: All power equipment, nuclear, X-ray machines, lasers, and ultraviolet light.
- Damages: Not only affects a person but also their descendants. Initially, it can cause nausea and fatigue. Long-term effects include different types of cancer (bone, lung) and genetic malformations.
Chemical Agents
Chemical agents, natural or artificial, are present in the work environment in the form of gases, aerosols, fog, and dust. The consequences are very diverse and depend on the dose received and its toxicity. They can cause sickness and accidents in cases of very high doses.
Biological Agents
Biological agents are living organisms or biological structures that can infect or damage our bodies, causing diseases. The risk of these infections is high in work related to livestock, hospitals, and health centers. The most common illnesses affect the skin, lungs, and intestines, such as tuberculosis and malaria.
Workload
The most important consequence of workload is fatigue, a reduction of physical and mental capacity after performing a task for a specified time. Chronic fatigue can reduce performance and even produce premature aging.
Physical Fatigue
- When does it occur? Throughout the workday, the worker gradually experiences muscle exhaustion.
- What causes it? Muscle pain, back injuries, muscle spasms, gastrointestinal and vascular issues.
Mental Fatigue
- When does it occur? When the work involves mental effort.
- What causes it? Mental fatigue expresses symptoms that reduce work performance, such as headaches, irritability, insomnia, depression, and dizziness.
Causes of Fatigue
- Awkward positions and long hours in a standing position.
- The physical effort required to develop a fatiguing activity.
- Handling, transport, and lifting of cargo.
Factors Derived from the Organization
The workday, shift, job class, pace of work, and management style are factors that combine with the psychological characteristics of individuals to produce alterations in work. According to the ILO, these alterations can give rise to aggressive or passive situations, such as resignation, apathy, and anxiety. The individual characteristics of the worker, such as age, sex, and social status, determine the extent to which these factors affect them. Major changes to an individual arising from the organization of work are known as job dissatisfaction and stress.