Introduction to Health and Safety at Work, Third edition

18 INTERNATIONAL ASPECTS OF HEALTH AND SAFETY 402

20 SPECIMEN ANSWERS TO NEBOSH EXAMINATIONS 425

The most significant change since the second edition was the introduction of the unified NEBOSH National General Certificate. More detailed information about these eight units is available in the guide to the NEBOSH National General Certificate.

Preface to the Third Edition

As mentioned earlier, the certificate syllabus has been updated to incorporate much of the new legislation. Finally, one of the aims of the book is to provide a handbook for the use of any person who has health and safety as part of their responsibilities.

Acknowledgements

Phil started in health and safety in the Factory Inspectorate at Derby County in 1969 and moved to Courtaulds in 1974. Ed Ferrett is an experienced health and safety consultant who has been in practice for over twenty years.

About the authors

He was awarded an MBE in the 2005 New Year Honors List for services to health and safety. NEBOSH National Examination Board for Occupational Safety and Health OHSAS Occupational Health and Safety Assessment Series.

List of principal abbreviations

Introduction

In a low hazard organization, health and safety can be overseen by a single competent manager. However, there are some strong incentives for organizations to strive for high health and safety standards.

Some basic defi nitions

Health and safety foundations

Welfare – providing facilities to maintain the health and well-being of individuals in the workplace. Accident – defined by the Health and Safety Executive as "any unplanned event that results in injury or ill health to people, or damage to or loss of property, plant, materials or the environment or loss of a business opportunity". .

Health and safety foundations

The legal framework for health and safety
The legal system in England and Wales
The legal system in Scotland
European Courts
Sources of law (England and Wales)
Common law torts and duties
Levels of statutory duty
The infl uence of the European Union (EU) on health and safety
The Health and Safety at Work Act 1974
Duties of employers to employees To ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health,
Duties of employers to others affected by their undertaking
Duties of landlords or owners
Duties of suppliers
Duties of Employees Two main duties
Personal liability of directors

The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999
Role and function of external agencies
Sources of information on health and safety
Moral, legal and fi nancial arguments for health and safety management
The framework for health and safety management
Practice NEBOSH questions for Chapter 1
Introduction
Legal requirements

This developed many years later into the concept of health and safety culture). These recommendations led directly to the introduction of Health and Safety at Work etc.

Figure 1.2 The court system in England and Wales for health and safety.

Policy

Key elements of a health and safety policy
Review of health and safety policy
Introduction
Control

Section 2(3) of the Health and Safety at Work Act and the Employers' Health and Safety Policy Statements. Identify the purposes of each of the following sections of a health and safety policy document:.

Figure 2.3 Good information, training and working with employees is essential.

Organizing for health and safety

Employers’ responsibilities

Other obligations for employers are covered in Chapter 1 and the Summary of the HSW Act in Chapter 17.

Employees’ responsibilities

Organizational health and safety responsibilities

Organizing for health and safety

Role and functions of health and safety and other advisers
Persons in control of premises
Self-employed
The supply chain
Contractors
Joint occupation of premises
Cooperation with the workforce
Typical organizational responsibilities
Checklist for supply chain health and safety management

Introduction
Defi nition of a health and safety culture

Status and competence are essential to the role of health and safety advisers and other advisers. Provide the necessary personnel and funding for the health and safety efforts within the organization.

Figure 3.2 Safety practitioner at the front line.

Promoting a positive health and safety culture

Safety culture and safety performance

If the organization adheres to these elements, a foundation has been laid for a good performance in the field of safety and health. There are several outputs or indicators of the state of an organization's health and safety culture. By calculating the number of accidents, health and safety performance can be compared between years and organizations.

Promoting a positive health and safety culture

Human factors and their infl uence on safety performance
Human errors and violations
The development of a positive health and safety culture
Effective communication
Health and safety training
Internal infl uences
External infl uences
Introduction
Legal aspects of risk assessment

Health and safety is an important element during the design phase of the job and possibly Health and safety should be discussed regularly in management meetings at all levels of the organisation. It is important that all management levels, including the board, receive health and safety training.

Figure 4.3 Well-designed workstation for sitting or standing.

Risk assessment

Forms of risk assessment
Some defi nitions
The objectives of risk assessment
Accident categories
Health risks
The management of risk assessment
The risk assessment process
Special cases
Equipment/mechanical Entanglement
Transport Works vehicles
Fire and Explosion
Environmental Noise
Other factors to consider Poor maintenance
Example of a risk assessment record

Introduction
Principles of prevention

The risk assessment will need to cover all those who may be at risk, such as customers, contractors and members of the public. All aspects of the organization, including health and safety management, should be covered by the risk assessment process. It is very useful to keep a written record of the risk assessment even if there are less than five employees in the organization.

6 Principles of control

The principles of prevention now enshrined in the Occupational Health and Safety Management (MHSW) Regulations should be used in conjunction with the hierarchy of control methods that define the preferred order of approach to risk management. All final decisions on risk management methods should take into account the relevant legal requirements, which set minimum levels of risk prevention or control. Some of the obligations imposed by the HSW Act and relevant statutory provisions are absolute and must be adhered to.

Principles of control

Hierarchy of risk control

If the risks are high or medium, details of the system should be documented and formally communicated to the employee during a training session. It should be documented that the employee (or contractor) has been trained or instructed in the safe system of work and that he or she understands and will adhere to it. It is critical that the operator is checked to ensure that all relevant procedures are understood and followed.

Figure 6.2 Proper control of gases and vapours in a laboratory.

Controlling health risks

If none of the above control measures prove to be adequate on their own, PPE should be provided. Health supervision should be supervised by a registered medical practitioner or, where appropriate, by a suitably qualified person (eg a registered nurse). In the case of inspections for easily recognizable symptoms such as chrome ulcers or early signs of dermatitis, health surveillance should be carried out by a properly trained responsible person.

Figure 6.6 Route map for adequate control for SMEs/non-experts.

Safe systems of work

It is the responsibility of management in any organization to ensure that its activities are reviewed to determine where safe systems of work should be developed. The safe system of work must be based on a thorough analysis of the work or operation to be covered by the system. People working or supervising work must be fully aware of the established safe systems that apply.

Lone workers

Safe systems of work must be monitored to ensure they are effective in practice. All organizations are responsible for ensuring that their safe systems of work are reviewed and revised as necessary.

Permits to work

All the categories of people identified below must receive training in the operation of the permit system as it affects them.). The permit system should be applied to contractors in the same way as to direct employees. The contractor must be given adequate information and training about the permit system, the restrictions it imposes and the precautions it requires.

Emergency procedures

Printed instructions for the steps to be taken in the event of fire must be displayed throughout the premises. Instructions for the immediate calling of the fire brigade in case of fire must be displayed at telephone switchboards, exchange telephone instruments and security houses. A program of fire drills should be planned to ensure that all employees, including shift workers and part-time employees, are covered.

First aid at work

Appointed persons should never attempt to provide first aid for which they are not trained. Posting notices telling staff who and where the first responders or authorized persons are and where the first aid kit is is usually sufficient. Any further major developments will be published on the first aid web pages on the HSE website.

Table 6.1 Contents of fi rst aid box – low risk

Practice NEBOSH questions for Chapter 6

Outline the ways in which the employer can motivate the hotel kitchen staff to follow the safe work system. a) Define term 'permit-to-work system'. b) Outline THREE types of work situations that might require a permit-to-work system, and give reasons for the requirement in EACH case. Outline the issues that should be addressed in a training session on the operation of a permit-to-work system. Outline the factors to consider when making an assessment of first aid provision in a workplace.

Job safety analysis form

Introduction
The traditional approach to measuring health and safety

The experience of the UK HSE is that organizations find measuring health and safety performance a difficult subject. They struggle to develop health and safety performance measures that are not based solely on injury and ill health statistics. What is needed is a 'basket' of measures, providing information on a range of health and safety issues.

This chapter is about monitoring health and safety performance, including positive measures such as inspections and negative measures such as injury statistics. Managers must ask key questions to ensure that health and safety risk control arrangements are in place, comply with the law as a minimum and operate effectively. Health and safety differs from many areas measured by managers because improved performance means fewer outcomes (bad injuries or illnesses) rather than more.

Monitoring, review and audit

Why measure performance?
What to measure
Measuring failure – reactive monitoring
Active monitoring – how to measure performance
Who should monitor performance?
Frequency of monitoring and inspections
Report writing
Review and audit
Workplace inspection exercises
Basic checklist of items to be covered in an area inspection

Introduction

A well-structured audit program will provide a comprehensive picture of the effectiveness of the health and safety management system in controlling risk. Decisions must be made about the level and details of the audit before beginning to gather information about an organization's health and safety management. It should make a valuable contribution to the health and safety management system and to learning.

Figure 7.2 Health and safety management system.

8 Incident and accident investigation and reporting

Incidents and accidents rarely arise from a single cause and often prove to be complex. Gathering data on all incidents and potential losses has value as it helps prevent more serious events. Incidents and accidents, whether they cause property damage or more serious injury and/or ill health to people, must be properly and thoroughly investigated so that an organization can take appropriate action to prevent a recurrence.

Incident and accident investigation and reporting

Reasons for incident/accident investigation
Which incidents/accidents should be investigated?
Investigations and causes of incidents
Legal recording and reporting requirements

RIDDOR

Internal systems for collecting and analysing incident data
Compensation and insurance issues
Injury report form
Information for insurance/compensation claims

Introduction
Hazards to pedestrians

The purpose of the investigation should be to explore the situation for possible underlying factors beyond the immediately obvious causes of the accident. Facts should be collected first, with notes at the end of the explanation. Where the injury is likely to cause lost time, one or more photographs of the situation should be taken.

Figure 8.3 Questions to be asked in an investigation.

Slips, trips and falls are responsible for most pedestrian accidents and the more serious accidents between pedestrians and vehicles can often be traced back to excessive speed or other unsafe vehicle practices, such as a lack of driver training. The most common hazards for pedestrians at work are slipping, tripping and falling on the same level, falling from a height, collisions with moving vehicles, being struck by moving, falling or flying objects and hitting fixed or stationary objects. Older workers, especially women, are the most seriously injured group due to falls resulting in fractures of the hips and/or femur.

Movement of people and vehicles – hazards and control

Control strategies for pedestrian hazards
Hazards in vehicle operations
Control strategies for safe vehicle operations
The management of vehicle movements
Managing occupational road safety
Introduction
Manual handling hazards and injuries

Waste material should be brought to ground level using pipes or lifts. Only a minimal amount of alcohol should be consumed the day before the trip. Describe the factors that must be considered when planning traffic routes for domestic transportation.

Figure 9.3 Falling from a height – tower scaffold.

Manual and

Until a few years ago, accidents caused by the manual handling of loads were the biggest single cause of more than three day accidents reported to the HSE. The Manual Operating Regulations recognized this fact and helped to reduce the number of these accidents. The term 'manual handling' is defined as the movement of a load by human effort alone.

Manual handling risk assessments

With the introduction of the rules on manual handling operations, the emphasis during the assessment of lifting operations changed from a simple reliance on safe lifting techniques to an analysis, using risk assessment, of the need for manual handling.

Manual and mechanical handling hazards and control

Safety in the use of lifting and moving equipment
Types of mechanical handling and lifting equipment
Requirements for the statutory examination of lifting equipment
Manual handling of load assessment checklist

Load characteristics 1. Heavy?
Work environment characteristics 1. Postural constraints?
Individual characteristics 1. Unusual capability required?
Other factors to consider

Care must be taken to ensure that the clothing itself does not pose a hazard (e.g. snagging on fasteners and pockets). Please provide an overview of the factors that may influence the risk of manual actions with regard to: i) the load (ii) the individual. Provide an overview of the possible direct causes of the accident related to: i) the way the vehicle was driven (ii) the workplace.

Figure 10.5 Mechanical aids to lift patients in hospital.

Work equipment

This chapter covers the scope and main requirements for work equipment as covered by Parts II and III of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations (PUWER). When work equipment is provided, it must comply with standards covering its supply as new or used equipment and its use in the workplace. This can be called the 'user's' law, PUWER 98 and applies to most work equipment.

One of the most common of these is the Supply of Machinery (Safety) Regulations 1992, which require manufacturers and suppliers to ensure that machinery is safe and CE marked when supplied. Under 'user' legislation, employers must provide safety equipment of the correct type; ensure that it is used correctly;. This is a declaration that the machine complies with the relevant essential health and safety requirements or with an example that has been type-examined.

Figure 11.3 Typical certifi cate of conformity.

Work equipment hazards and control

Information, instruction and training
Maintenance and inspection
Operation and working environment
User responsibilities
Hand-held tools
Mechanical machinery hazards
Mobile work equipment
Non-mechanical machinery hazards
Examples of machinery hazards
Practical safeguards
Other safety devices
Application of safeguards to the range of machines

This means that seat supports must be used for most of the time the vehicle is being driven. A fixed guard has no moving parts and by design must prevent access to the hazardous parts of the machine. This is a guard that is movable (or has a movable part) whose movement is related to the drive or control system of the machine.