Health and Safety in the workplace Adisa Nicholson

What are hazards?

Hazards are anything dangerous that can cause accidents. It is important to
keep hazards to a minimum to keep things safe so people can be healthy.

What are the most common accidents?

According to government organisation HSC (Health & Safety Commission),
the most common cause of accidents are slips and falls. More than 1,000
workers a month suffer a serious injury following a slip, trip or fall
These slips and falls cause musculoskeletal disorders. These injuries include:
low back pain, joint injuries, repetitive strain disorder and upper limb
problems.

One simple slip or fall can really harm you seriously. That is why the HSC
emphasise health and safety so much.

■ In 2006/07 an estimated 2.2 million people suffered from ill health which
they thought was work-related, according to the LFS.
■ Around three quarters of the cases were musculoskeletal disorders (eg.
upper limb or back problems) or stress, depression or anxiety.

What is the most dangerous environment?

Nobody really knows what the most dangerous environment is. For kids,
most accidents for them happen in the kitchen. For teenagers and adults,
that isn’t the case. There are so many work environments all over the place
that it’s difficult to come up with the answer.

What is the difference

between a formal and
informal care setting.
In a formal care setting, you should
expect to see this poster.

Every business in the UK is required by

law to display a copy of this poster on
their premises. The poster is a brief
guide to health and safety law, and
provides a list of the key points
employees and employers have to
know.

An informal care setting, is a place such

as somebody’s house; where people
safety and structure will not be
enforced as much as in an office.
Why should we matter about health and safety?
Concern about health and safety, whether you’re an individual or in a
business is essential. Anyone with a job, employed or self-employed is
legally obliged to take precautions to prevent any possible accidents.

We all have a responsibility, big or small to do whatever we can to protect

ourselves and look out for others. Doing so will determine whether the
business will succeed or fail. If you’re caught breaking health and safety,
you’ll be more than likely to be fired.

Health and safety is the building blocks of a business. This is why the
government places a lot of importance on preventing accidents.

So how can we prevent accidents?

Health and safety is the foundation building block of a business. This is why
the government places a lot of importance on preventing accidents.

The first step of prevention is communication. If a floor is wet, put up a wet

floor sign. If something is out of order, put a notice by it. If you do so, it
won’t be your responsibility if someone disregards your notice.

There are various rules and regulations which can be and have to be put in
place. For example the “Regulation 4 of the Manual Handling Operations
Regulations” states that heavy loads must have information telling people
how heavy the load is. You can stick up a paper and write down the weight
of a load on a cardboard box, but you must also put down “the heaviest side
of any load whose centre of gravity is not positioned centrally”. Only
reasonable things need to be loaded. Not everything. I could go on all day
about all sorts of things that can be done to prevent every sort of accident.

It is worth your time to think outside the box to think of any possible risks
that could occur to anyone at any time.

Recent statistics regarding accidents

 241 workers were killed at work, a rate of 0.8 per 100 000 workers.
 141 350 other injuries to employees were reported under RIDDOR, a
rate of 535.1 per 100 000 employees.
 274 000 reportable injuries occurred, according to the Labour Force
Survey (LFS), a rate of 1000 per 100 000 workers.
 36 million days were lost overall (1.5 days per worker), 30 million due
to work-related ill health and 6 million due to workplace injury
Health and Safety Statistics 2007/08
http://www.hse.gov.uk/statistics/overall/hssh0607.pdf
Preventing slips
http://www.hse.gov.uk/slips/preventing.htm
Common workplace accidents
http://safeworkers.co.uk/CommonWorkPlaceAccidents.html

Risk assessment – an overview

http://www.businesslink.gov.uk/bdotg/action/detail?
type=RESOURCES&itemId=1074413485