Long term benefits of occupational safety

by Dr. Champika Amarasinghe

Occupational safety and health accounts for protecting safety, health and welfare of the employees engaged in work or employment, either the employee is on the permanent staff or contract. The goals of occupational safety and health include fostering a safe and healthy working environment.

According to the news received on September 30, two occupational fatalities were reported and a few workers were seriously injured while they were working in a confined space. The same day in the Sinhala papers reported about another fatal accident which occurred in a quarry, entangling a person in-between a heavy rock while breaking the rock. It was very unfortunate these occupational fatalities were reported just few days before the “National Safety Week” commemoration.

Since 1950, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and the World Health Organisation (WHO) have shared a common definition of occupational health. It was adopted by the Joint ILO/WHO Committee on Occupational Health at its first session in 1950 and revised at its twelfth session in 1995. The definition reads: “Occupational health should aim at: the promotion and maintenance of the highest degree of physical, mental and social well-being of workers in all occupations; the prevention among workers of departures from health caused by their working conditions; the protection of workers in their employment from risks resulting from factors adverse to health; the placing and maintenance of the worker in an occupational environment adapted to his physiological and psychological capabilities; and, to summarise, the adaptation of work to man and of each man to his job.

“The main focus in occupational health is on three different objectives: (i) the maintenance and promotion of workers’ health and working capacity; (ii) the improvement of working environment and work to become conducive to safety and health and (iii) development of work organisations and working cultures in a direction which supports health and safety at work and in doing so also promotes a positive social climate and smooth operation and may enhance productivity of the undertakings.

The concept of working culture is intended in this context to mean a reflection of the essential value systems adopted by the undertaking concerned. Such a culture is reflected in practice in the managerial systems, personnel policy, principles for participation, training policies and quality management of the undertaking.” Work and health is always interrelated. Health of the worker affects the work performance. Healthy worker is an asset to the work place because his work is productive, and efficient and less errors.

An unhealthy worker should be referred for treatment, rest or at least to relax for a short time. Time spent for other activities except for the production, such as seeking treatment or resting in the sick room, is a cost to the industry. At the same time work affects the health of a person in two ways, mostly in a positive manner, because of the earnings the workers will have a better access to nutrition, education. Accordingly, researchers, have found that the workers life expectancy is significantly longer than a non working population, which is called the “Healthy workers effect”. But if the work place is not a safe place to work, the workers might end up with occupational accidents or if the workplace is not healthy the worker might end up with occupational diseases.

An accident occurs while working is known as an occupational accident.

If the cause for a disease is definitely related to the work, it is known as an occupational disease.

Occupational diseases

In the Sri Lankan context a few Silicosis cases, were reported from the Kandy district during the past few years. More than 5,000 of Leptospirosis cases were reported among the farmers whom not using any personal protective equipment while working. Unreported cases of cancers related to work was identified from various work places. The Cancer Hospital medical staff is exposed to radioactive material while they are working, due to poor protective mechanisms and they were about to go on strike, requesting a risk allowance few years back. The hospital staff in any hospital is continuously exposed to various microbial infections while at work.

Occupational groups such as masons, carpenters never use any kind of personal protections while on work nor any mechanical devices to minimise the work related exposures.

Noise is fairly a common workplace hazard: occupational hearing loss is the most common work-related injury all over the world. But noise is not the only source of occupational hearing loss; exposure to chemicals such as aromatic solvents and metals including lead, arsenic, and mercury can also cause hearing loss.

Exposure to extreme temperature also can pose a danger to the workers. Heat stress can cause heat stroke, exhaustion, cramps, and rashes.

Heat can also fog up safety glasses or cause sweaty palms or dizziness, all of which increase the risk of other injuries. Workers near hot surfaces or steam are at risk for burns. Dehydration may also result from overexposure due to heat.

Unsafe working conditions

Occupational accidents are another common out come due to lack of safety of the workplaces. Working at height, and falling which is mostly seen in the construction sites, such as building of skyscrapers, road constructions. have become common reasons for fatal occupational accidents. Fatal injuries due to use of unsafe electrical apparatus, and unsafe wiring is also become a common cause for occupational accidents.

Machines are commonplace in many industries, including manufacturing, mining, construction and agriculture, and can be dangerous to workers. Many machines involve moving parts, sharp edges, hot surfaces and other hazards with the potential to crush, burn, cut, shear, stab or otherwise strike or wound workers if used unsafely.

Various safety measures exist to minimize these hazards, including lockout-tagout procedures for machine maintenance and roll over protection systems for vehicles. Machines are also often involved indirectly in worker deaths and injuries, such as in cases in which a worker slips and falls, possibly upon a sharp or pointed object. Confined spaces are also considered as hazardous workplaces.

The National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health defines “confined space” as having limited openings for entry and exit and unfavourable natural ventilation, and which is not intended for continuous employee occupancy. These include storage tanks, ship compartments, sewers, and pipelines. Confined spaces can pose a hazard not just to workers, but also to people who try to rescue them such as the occupational accident occurs at Chille Copper and the Gold Mine disaster in 2010.

Working with unprotected, unsafe machinery in any workplace, welding, mining is identified as common causes for occupational injuries in Sri Lanka. An engineering workshop specialising in the fabrication and welding of components has to follow the Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) according to Sri Lankan work regulations. It is the duty of the employer to provide ‘all equipment (including clothing affording protection against the weather) which is intended to be worn or held by a person at work which him against one or more risks to his health and safety’. In a fabrication and welding workshop, an employer would be required to provide face and eye protection, safety footwear, overalls and other PPE.

At the same time an equal responsibility lies with the employees as they are obligated to use the supplied personal protective equipment as per the Factories Ordinance and the Workmen’s Ordinance of Sri Lanka.

According to the Sri Lankan legislative framework, all occupational accidents and diseases should be reported to the Department of Labour.

The latest Labour statistics report which was published in 2011, states that approximately 8.6 million of us are working. Among them No occupational diseases are reported to the authorities but it doesn’t mean that there are no occupational diseases in Sri Lanka.

According to unpublished information, fairly a large number of workers is suffering from work related health problems, which goes as a hidden major issue in the country.

The number of Occupational accidents reported to the authorities is not more than 2,500 to 3,000 annually and only about 50-60 numbers of fatal occupational accidents are reported to the authorities, which we consider as a gross under reported figure. Thus, presenting the raw data in a more statistical way, in percentages of work related accidents will be a very much lesser figure in Sri Lanka.

We do not know that all the employees in any workplace are eligible to claim workmen’s compensation if anybody is suffering from an Occupational Disease, or an Occupational Accident. The awareness related to the compensation claiming for work related accidents or diseases are very poor among the community.

After the 30-year war on terrorism we all have faced a new era and now we all hope that Sri Lanka will be the “Light of Asia work” in 2016 according to the “Mihinda Chinthana” policy framework.

If we are to achieve these targets, it is important to improve the productivity of people, industries and the public sector and the small industries in the informal sector. We need to think the “Safe work” concept will attract the investors.

All workplaces should be safe to work for all workers. Occupational safety and health should not be restricted to the industry as this is a cross cutting issue for all working sectors.

Moral obligations would involve the protection of employee's lives and health. Legal reasons for occupational safety and health practices relate to the preventative, punitive and compensatory effects of laws that protect worker's safety and health.

Occupational Safety and Health practices can also reduce employee injury and illness related costs, including medical care, sick leave and disability benefit costs. The environmental impacts, such as air, water and soil pollutions also can be addressed by improving Occupational Safety and Health practices.

The writer is Director General, National Institute of Occupational safety and Health, Ministry of Labour and Labour Relations