Introduction to Occupational Safety and Health

An Approach to addressing injuries and illnesses at work

Global Burden of Occupational Injury and Disease/Year

Injuries Diseases Total

Fatal 100,000 700,000 800,000

Non-Fatal 99,000,000 10,300,000 109,300,000

100,000,000 11,000,000 111,000,000

*From Leigh, et al., Epidemiology 10(5):626-31, September 1999

*Estimated Annual Incidence of Occ Injury & Disease Worldwide

# New Cases/year

Injuries 100,688,000

Diseases

Pesticide poisoning 109,000

Other poisoning 122,000

Cancer 191,000

Mental disorders 318,000

Pneumoconioses 453,000

Noise-induced hearing loss 1,628,000

Skin disorders 1,895,000

Chronic respiratory disease 2,631,000

Musculoskeletal disorders 3,337,000

Global Burden Non-fatal Occ Illness & Injury, WHO

NON-FATAL OCCUPATIONAL INJURY

12%1%4%1%4%

66%

12%

SKIN

DUST/LUNG

RESP TOX

POISONING

PHYSICALAGENTS

REP TRAUMA

ALL OTHER

TRAUMATIC INJURY

Primary Prevention

• Identify and eliminate hazards

• Systems to protect workers health and safety

• Eliminate and reduce exposure

Secondary and Tertiary Prevention

• first aid

• treatment

• emergency services

Introduction to Occupational Safety and Health

• Identification– recognition– assessment

• Control– eliminate– manage

– personal protection

• Prevention

Framework

Framework• Awareness• Qualitative Assessment

– Exposure– Health

• Hazard Judgment– Acceptable– Unacceptable– Uncertain

• Quantitative Assessment– Exposure– Health

• Risk communication

InterventionsEngineeringAdministrative

Framework

• Awareness of Exposure Hazard– Sentinel Event– Observations

• personal

• newspaper

• reports

– Complaints– Near misses

Framework

• Qualitative Assessment– Exposure assessment

• epidemiology

• reports

• historical data

– Health assessment• toxicology

• surveillance reports

• historical data

Framework

• Exposure Profile and Hazard Judgement Where do I begin?????

– Acceptable --Unacceptable --Uncertain

Framework

• Hazard Judgement----uncertain– quantitative health assessment

• medical surveillance

• health surveys

– quantitative exposure assessment• personal monitoring

• workplace/environmental monitoring

• exposure surveys

Framework

• Risk communication– principles of risk communication– policy

Resources• Training

• Internet

– World Health Organization

– International Labour Organization

– Other

• Local Expertise

– scientists

– physicians

– nurses

– public health practitioners

– health educators

• Reference Materials

– journals

– ILO encyclopedia

Cost of injuries and illnesses to employers

• Payment for work not performed

• Medical payments

• Reduction or interruption of services

• Administrative costs

• Replacing injured or ill worker

• Training new workers

• Poor public relations

Course Objectives• Recognize a sentinel event as a warning signal that

preventive measures need to be taken

• Conduct a basic incident investigation

• List the occupational hazards in a complex manufacturing workplace

• List the adverse health outcomes from exposures in this workplace

• Interpret data from a follow-up investigation of this workplace.

Course Objectives• Develop a surveillance program that serves as an evaluation

tool for health risks in tanneries

• Develop a questionnaire surveillance tool for monitoring hazards and adverse health outcomes in industry

• Discuss issues related to worker surveillance

• Present data in a form that can be understood by employees and policy makers, including employers and local/state enforcement agencies

• Apply information gathered from above activities to develop policy recommendations for the tannery industry

Skills • develop incident investigation questions

• create a report from incident investigation

• take a work history

• categorize hazards

• develop workplace exposure and health questions

• organize questions into a surveillance tool

• administer a survey

• communicate findings of a survey

Defining Terms

• Hazardous Source

• Hazardous Agent

• Hazardous Effect

• Assessment

• Sentinel

• Tannery – Complex Manufacturing Process