COSH TERMINOLOGIES Occupational health is a broad concept which explains how the

different hazards and risks at work may cause an illness and

Standard Colors of Signs for Safety Instructions and emphasizes that health programs are essential in controlling
Warnings in Building Premises work-related and/or occupational diseases.
Industrial hygiene discusses the identification, evaluation, and
control of physical, chemical, biologic and ergonomic hazards. “In
1. Red - Fire Protection. To call attention to fire
its broadest sense, OSH aims at:
protection equipment apparatus and facilities. 2. Green -
Safety. Designating “safety” • the promotion and maintenance of the highest degree of
3. White Traffic. White, black, or a combination of these physical, mental and social well-being of workers in all
are the basic colors for the designation of traffic and occupations;
housekeeping marking. Solid white, solid black, single-color
stripping or alternate stripes of black and white.
• the prevention of adverse health effects of the working
4. Yellow - Caution. To designate caution and for marking conditions
physical hazards, such as striking against, stumbling, falling,
tripping, and “caught in between”. Solid yellow, yellow and black • the placing and maintenance of workers in an
stripes, yellow and black checkers or yellow with suitable occupational environment adapted to physical and
contrasting background shall be used in interchangeably, using mental needs;
the combination which will attract the most attention in the
particular environment.
• the adaptation of work to humans (and NOT the other
way around).
5. Orange - Alert. To designate dangerous parts of
machines or energized equipment which may cut, crush, shock or In other words, occupational health and safety encompasses the
otherwise injure, and to emphasize such hazards when enclosure social, mental, and physical wellbeing of workers, that is, the
doors are open or when gear, belt or other guards around moving “whole person”.
equipment is open or removed, exposing unguarded hazards.
The terms hazard and risk are often interchanged. Because you
6. Blue - Precaution. To designate caution, limited to
will be encountering these throughout the course it is a must that
warning against starting, use of, or the movement of equipment
you understand the difference between them.
which is under repair or being worked upon.
7. Purple - Radiation. To designate hazards. Yellow is Hazard – a source or situation with a potential to cause harm in
used in combination with purple for markers, such as tags, labels, terms of injury, ill health, damage to property, damage to the
signs and floor markers. environment or a combination of these.
Risk – a combination of the likelihood of an occurrence of a
What are the Fatal Four? hazardous event with specified period or in specified
circumstances and the severity of injury or damage to the health
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration identifies of people, property, environment, or any combination of these
four leading causes of deaths in construction: falls, struck by caused by the event.
an object, electrocutions and caught in or caught between. Hazard control – the process of implementing measures to
reduce the risk associate with a hazard. Hierarchy of control –
Falls. These account for 36.5% of construction deaths. They the established priority order for the types of measures to be
include falls off ladders, roofs and scaffolding because of used to control risks. Hazard identification – the identification
unprotected areas, improperly constructed working spaces or of undesired events that lead to the materialization of the hazard
failure to use safety equipment and techniques. Struck by an and the mechanism by which those undesired events could occur.
object. 10% of construction fatalities happen because of Risk assessment – the process of evaluating the risks to safety
swinging, falling or misplaced objects. Sometimes an and health arising from hazards at work. Risk management –
equipment malfunction causes the object to fall. Other times the total procedure associated with identifying a hazard,
it’s rigging failures, loose materials or because a vehicle struck assessing the risk, putting in place control measures, and
something. reviewing the outcomes.
Electrocution. At 8.6%, electrocution causes fewer deaths than
being struck by an object but can happen in various ways. An In mathematical term, risk can be calculated by the equation -
exposed wire, poorly maintained extension cords and wet Risk = Likelihood x Severity
conditions around electrical equipment are just some of the
electrical hazards workers face in the field. Likelihood is an event likely to occur within the specific period
Caught in or caught between. About 2.5% of all construction or in specified circumstances and,
fatalities happen in this manner. Getting caught in between Severity is outcome from an event such as severity of injury or
machines, rotating equipment, or collapsing structures can all health of people, or damage to property, or insult to environment,
lead to serious injury or death. or any combination of those caused by the event.

What Is Occupational Safety and Health (OSH)? Accident is an undesired event often caused by unsafe acts or
Occupational safety and health is a discipline with a broad unsafe conditions that results in physical harm to persons,
scope involving three major fields – Occupational Safety, damage to property, or business interruption.
Occupational Health and Industrial Hygiene.
Injury is one of the many possible outcomes of an accident and is
Occupational safety deals with understanding the causes of the most prominent consequence. It is tallied and used as a
accidents at work and ways to prevent unsafe act and unsafe measure of safety effort, safety failure, or safety success.
conditions in any workplace. Safety at work discusses concepts
on good housekeeping, proper materials handling and storage, Near-miss incidents are also known as close-call incidents, close
machine safety, electrical safety, fire prevention and control, shaves, and warnings or near hits. Other terms are close calls, or
safety inspection, and accident investigation. in the case of moving objects, near collisions. Near-miss incidents
have also sometimes been termed near hits.