ES 411 OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY AND HEALTH I

WEEK 1
Introduction to Occupational Health and Safety, Basic concepts
PURPOSE OF THIS COURSE
• To have knowledge about occupational health and safety in accordance with legal regulations.

• To prepare environments where they can apply their engineering knowledge and experience on
occupational health and safety.

1 To have general information about Occupational Health and Safety

2 Being knowledgeable about risks
3 To learn the laws and other legal regulations in Turkey
4 Fighting fire and similar emergencies
5 Recognizing environmental risk factors
CONTENT
Week
1 Introduction to Occupational Health and Safety, Basic concepts
2 Injury and Illness Statistics, Record Keeping and Reporting
3 Occupational Health and Safety Law No. 6331
4 Ergonomics
5 Anthropometry, Antropometric Design: Design Approaches
6 Manual Material Handling, Biomechanics
7 Work Accidents And Case Examples
8 Midterm
9 Workplace Safety Signs and Signals: Signboards, Acoustic, Hand, and Verbal Signals
10 Emergencies at Workplaces
11 Fire Safety
12 Safety Factor, Fail-Safe Designs, Unsafe Acts and Unsafe Conditions, Accident Causation
13 Hazard Control
14 Review
EXAMS

 MIDTERM 30%
 FINAL 70%

 Multiple-choice Exam
WEEK 1-
INTRODUCTION TO OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH AND SAFETY:
BASIC CONCEPTS

BASIC DEFINITIONS
Hazard: Any source of potential damage,
 harm or adverse health effects on something(etc., equipment, property, environment) or
 someone (threat to life, health) under certain
 conditions at work.

WHAT DOES IT MEAN?

BASIC DEFINITIONS

Based on Act/Law No.6331. Article 3

 Hazard: potential which exists at the workplace or may arise from

outside the workplace to cause harm or damage which could affect the
worker or the workplace
EXAMPLES OF HAZARDS AND THEIR EFFECTS

Workplace Hazard Example of Hazard Example of Harm Caused

Thing / Object Knife Cut

Substance Benzene Leukemia

Material Asbestos Mesothelioma

Source of Energy Electricity Shock, electrocution

Condition Wet Floor Slips, falls

Process Welding (kaynak) Metal fume fever

Practice Hard rock mining Silicosis

DESCRIBING HAZARDS
 DESCRIBING HAZARDS

Source Mechanism Outcome

unguarded,energized pinching, crushing, death, equipment

equipment electrocution loss
gasoline vapours near hearing loss, burns, death,
explosion
ignition sources equipment loss

steam boiler operating with loss of nearby equipment and

overpressure explosion personnel
EXAMPLE

no relief valve

oxygen deficient atmosphere

(Oxygen content below 19.5% by asphyxia death
volume)
unprotected excavation wall collapse and/or falling into death, equipment loss, re-excavate
MINI NOTE

 What is asphyxia/hypoxia?
CLASSIFICATION OF HAZARDS

Physical hazards
• noise, vibration, radiation, heat/cold stress, magnetic fields, light, UV, high pressure (and vacuum)

Chemical hazards
• physical, chemical and toxic properties of the chemicals

Biological hazards
• biological agents (viruses, parasites, bacteria, food, fungi, toxins, and insects, plants, birds, animals, and
humans)
Psychological (organisational), psychosocial hazards
• fatigue, stress, work pressure, violence, mobbing, conflict or bullying, illness and lack of training

Ergonomic hazards
• repetitive movements, awkward posture, prolonged duration
ANY HAZARD?
SPOT THE HAZARD?
SPOT THE HAZARD

 You have 10 mins

 Spot as much as hazard you can find
 Describe the risks
22 HAZARDS
 Spot the hazard
 Assessment (Describe the risks)
 Suggest ways to control the risk

 You have 15 minutes

Spot the hazard Assessment (Describe the risks) Make the changes to control the risk

Wires The wires scattered at the floor Make an electric outlet so that wiring
cannot be scattered
Open Cabinet Open cabinet cause wounds or harm if not seen Close the cabinet
Cup next to the man The cup can be fall on the table keep the cup away from the work space
so that it is not spilled
Paper cutter Small work space cannot organize things properly Fix the paper cutter after use
Small workspace The paper cutter is not in the proper place and its up can Organize things at work space
cause wound.
WORKPLACE HAZARD CLASSES

 Classification based on the nature of the work performed, substances

used or produced at every stage of work, work equipment, production
methods

 It is listed on Occupational Health and Safety Law No. 6331

WORKPLACE HAZARD CLASSES

 ANY IDEA? HOW COULD THEY CLASIFIED?

Less Very
Hazardous
Hazardous Hazardous
• Office work • Farming • Mining
WORKPLACE HAZARD CLASSES
BASIC DEFINITIONS
RISK

Risk:
 the chance or probability that a person will be harmed or
 experience an adverse health effect if exposed to a hazard.
 It may also apply to situations with property or equipment loss.
EXAMPLE OF RISK

 The risk of developing cancer from smoking

cigarettes could be expressed as
 cigarette smokers are 12 times more likely to die of
lung cancer than non-smokers
 55 (for example) smokers per 100,000 smokers
will likely develop lung cancer
FACTORS THAT INFLUENCE THE DEGREE OF RISK

Duration Type of exposure Severity

• how much a • how the person • how severe are

person is is exposed (e.g., the effects under
exposed to a breathing in a the conditions
hazardous thing vapor, skin of exposure
or condition contact) to a
hazardous thing
or condition
BASIC DEFINITIONS
RISK ASSESSMENT

Risk assessment: the process where you:

 identify hazards,
 analyse or evaluate the risk associated with that hazard, and
 determine appropriate ways to eliminate or control the hazard.
BASIC DEFINITIONS
INCIDENT

Incident: an unplanned, undesired event that

 prevents you to complete the task and may cause injury, illness, death, or property
damage or some combination of all these
 outcomes in varying degrees from minor to catastrophic.

 Incident can refer to any event – big or small, good or bad, intentional or unintentional.

EXAMPLE: A bank robbery, a funny or controversial situation, an argument between celebrities, etc. – all can be
described as incidents.


BASIC DEFINITIONS
ACCIDENTS

Accident: an unintentional (unplanned) and undesired (unwanted) event or sequence of

events caused by error or by chance and usually result in illness, injury, or death of
individuals or property damage to equipment and hardware.

 It is directly or indirectly a result of human activity rather than a natural event.

BASIC DEFINITIONS
ACCIDENTS

 A car crash is one example of an accident.

 If some equipment malfunctions in a factory and injures the workers, that is also an
accident.

 Examples of very minor accidents: when you step on someone’s foot or spill your
coffee on someone else.

 You didn’t want or plan to do it.

 BASIC DEFINITIONS
NEAR MISS*

Near miss: A near miss is an unplanned event that did not result in
injury, illness, or damage for this time – but had the potential to do
so.

 A subset of incidents that could have resulted in injury, illness or

property damage, if given a different set of circumstances, but
didn't. Treat near misses as wake-up calls to prevent serious
accidents

 NEAR MISS: *RAMAK KALA

ACCIDENT VS. INCIDENT

 An accident is regarded as a particular type of incident in which an injury, illness, or

death actually occurs.
Accident = injuries / illnesses / death

 A near-miss is an incident where no injury or illness occurs.

 Therefore, an incident can be either an accident or a near-miss.

Incident = accident / near-miss
 SAFETY ACTIVITIES
Reactive safety activities: Proactive safety activities:

 After an accident happened (Needs Before an accident happens (Needs training, control,
performing risk analyses, measurements, meetings,
accident report, illness report, near record keeping, taking notes)
miss report, saying sorry, saying
goodbye to good friends, and being
sad!)
WHAT DID WE LEARN?

 Describing Hazards
 Classification of Hazards
 Spotting the hazards
 Workplace Hazard Classes
 Risk
 Risk Assessment
 Incident
 Near Miss