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Encyclopedia > Working conditions
It has been suggested that Occupational_Safety_and_Health_Act be merged into this article or section. (Discuss)

Occupational safety and health is the discipline concerned with protecting the safety, health and welfare of employees, organisations, and others affected by the work they undertake (such as customers, suppliers, and members of the public). Image File history File links Please see the file description page for further information. ... The Occupational Safety and Health Act, known more generally as the OSH Act, was signed into US law by President Richard M. Nixon on December 29, 1970. ... For other uses, see Safety (disambiguation). ... Welfare has four main meanings. ...


The primary, and arguably most prominent reason for occupational safety and health (OSH) standards are moral - an employee should not have to expect that by coming to work they are risking life or limb, and nor should others affected by their undertaking. A moral is a one sentence remark made at the end of many childrens stories that expresses the intended meaning, or the moral message, of the tale. ...


OSH standards are, generally speaking, further reinforced in both civil law and criminal law; it is accepted that without the extra "encouragement" of potential litigation, many organisations would not act upon their implied moral obligations. Civil law has at least three meanings. ... Criminal law (also known as penal law) is the body of common law that punishes criminals for committing offences against the state. ...


The final factor that favours OSH is economic - governments have long realised that poor occupational safety and health performance results in cost to the State (e.g. through social security payments to the incapacitated, medical costs for treatment, but also through the loss of the "employability" of the worker), and organisations undergo a number of costs in the event of an incident at work (such as legal fees, fines, compensatory damages, investigation time, lost production, lost goodwill from the workforce, lost goodwill from customers and the wider community). Economics (deriving from the Greek words οίκω [okos], house, and νέμω [nemo], rules hence household management) is the social science that studies the allocation of scarce resources to satisfy unlimited wants. ... For specific national programs, see Social Security (United States), National insurance (UK), Social Security (Sweden) Social security primarily refers to a field of social welfare concerned with social protection, or protection against socially recognized conditions, including poverty, old age, disability, unemployment, families with children and others. ... Employability is about having the capability to gain initial employment, maintain employment and obtain new employment if required. ...


In the European Union, Member States have enforcing authorities to ensure that the basic legal requirements relating to occupational safety and health are met. In many EU countries, there is strong cooperation between employer and worker organisations (e.g. Unions) to ensure good OSH performance as it is recognized this has benefits for both worker (maintenance of health) and enterprise (improved productivity and quality). Quality refers to the inherent or distinctive characteristics or properties of a person, object, process or other thing. ...


In the USA, OSHA has been regulating ocupational safety and health since the 1970s. The United States Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) was created by Congress under the Occupational Safety and Health Act, signed by President Richard M. Nixon on December 29, 1970. ...


Occupational safety and health interacts strongly with other disciplines, such as ergonomics, toxicology, and psychology. It has been suggested that Human factors be merged into this article or section. ... Toxicology (from the Greek words toxicon and logos) is the study of the adverse effects of chemicals on living organisms. ... Auguste Rodins The Thinker, bronze cast by Alexis Rudier, Laeken Cemetery, Brussels, Belgium Psychology (ancient Greek: psyche = soul or mind, logos/-ology = study of) is an academic and applied field involving the study of the mind and behavior, both human and nonhuman. ...

Contents


Hazards, risks, outcomes

The terminology used in OSH varies between states, but generally speaking:

  • A hazard is something that can cause harm
  • A risk is the probability of the hazard causing harm
  • The outcome is the result of when the hazard causes harm

For example, repetitively carrying out manual handling of heavy objects is a hazard (it can cause harm). The risk can either be expressed mathematically, (0.5 = a 50/50 chance) or just as "high/medium/low". The outcome would be a musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) Hazard is a term used in evaluating safety: A hazard is a potential unwanted event. ... Risk is the potential harm that may arise from some present process or from some future event. ... Risk is the potential harm that may arise from some present process or from some future event. ...


Risk assessment

Modern occupational safety and health legislation usually demands that a risk assessment be carried out prior to making an intervention. This assessment should: Risk assessment is a step in the risk management process. ...

  • Identify the hazards
  • Identify all affected by the hazard and how
  • Evaluate the risk
  • Identify and prioritise the required actions

The assessment should be recorded and reviewed periodically and whenever there is a significant change to work practices.


Common workplace hazard groups

A sampling of Bacillus anthracis—Anthrax A biological agent is an infectious disease that can be used in bioterrorism or biological warfare. ... The chemical agent in the context of a work place hazard is a chemical that may be hazardous due to its physical or toxicological characteristics. ... NOiSE is a one volume manga created by Tsutomu Nihei as a prequel to his acclaimed ten-volume work, Blame!. It offers some rather sketchy information concerning the Megastructures origins and initial size, as well as the origins of Silicon life. ... See Oscillator (disambiguation) for particular types of oscillation and oscillators. ... Ionizing radiation is a type of particle radiation in which an individual particle (for example, a photon, electron, or helium nucleus) carries enough energy to ionize an atom or molecule (that is, to completely remove an electron from its orbit). ... This is a hub page for electricity. ... Stress (roughly the opposite of relaxation) is a medical term for a wide range of strong external stimuli, both physiological and psychological, which can cause a physiological response called the general adaptation syndrome, first described in 1936 by Hans Selye in the journal Nature. ...

See also

Public Organizations

The United States Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) was created by Congress under the Occupational Safety and Health Act, signed by President Richard M. Nixon,on December 29, 1970. ... The European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (EU-OSHA) aims to make Europe’s workplaces safer, healthier and more productive. ... For other meanings of the ILO abbreviation, see ILO (disambiguation). ... The Health and Safety Executive (HSE), reporting to the Health and Safety Commission, is the British government body responsible for the regulation of risks to health and safety in the UK. It was created as a result of the Health and Safety at Work, etc, Act 1974, and has since...

Fields

It has been suggested that Human factors be merged into this article or section. ... Toxicology (from the Greek words toxicon and logos) is the study of the adverse effects of chemicals on living organisms. ... Auguste Rodins The Thinker, bronze cast by Alexis Rudier, Laeken Cemetery, Brussels, Belgium Psychology (ancient Greek: psyche = soul or mind, logos/-ology = study of) is an academic and applied field involving the study of the mind and behavior, both human and nonhuman. ... Science and art devoted to the anticipation, recognition, evaluation, prevention, and control of those environmental factors or stresses arising in or from the workplace which may cause sickness, impaired health and well being, or significant discomfort among workers or among citizens of the community. ...

External links


  Results from FactBites:
 
FIRST SYNTHESIS REPORT ON THE WORKING CONDITIONS SITUATION (9285 words)
A central role of the PAC is to advise on the project’s work, with the overall goal of improving working conditions.
Workers who undertook their work in a standing position were not able to sit down when taking a break because they were either not allowed to do so (9 factories) and/or no, or not enough, chairs/benches were provided for this purpose (19 factories).
A strike is a concerted work stoppage by a group of workers that takes place within an enterprise for the purpose of obtaining the satisfaction for their demand from the employer as a condition of their return to work.
  More results at FactBites »


 

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