Introduction
Occupational health and safety are associated with the safety, health, and welfare of employees who are engaged in work. It plays an important role in managing the company’s operations. The report addresses workplace hazards and provides information about the accidents and injuries occurred in the engineering industry. One of the main aims of the report is to indicate ways of mitigating the risk of loss. The purpose of this technical report is to demonstrate that the author has engineering knowledge, professional competence, and technical ability to carry out the essential research in detail about the health and safety issues in the engineering industry. To carry out the report, various technical approaches has been used to understand the issue and factors involved in it. The report will find occupational health and safety issues in the industry and its effects on employees well being, a safety measure, technology, and management.
The identification and examination of individual suffering and economic loss due to accidents play an essential role in preventing accidents by removing and controlling the hazards in the engineering industry. The workplace hazards have generated the potential risk for employees’ health and safety in the workplace. The physical hazards are most common that may result in injury, disability, and other loss. The companies are affected due to various occupational risks that generated negative results. Despite various laws, rules, and regulation the health and safety problems are increased in the organizations. The highest rate of injuries and accidents has reported in the industry due to the negligence of the management and government. Safety management has become the severe issue that affected organizational growth and employees’ health and well being. It has increased accidents, absenteeism, grievances, and employee turnover.
The industry has focused on reducing accidents and providing safe and healthy working environment. The scope of health and safety is increased in the industry, and it has tried to ensure the workplace safety. The management has developed techniques to increase the awareness of health and safety in the organizational culture. The organizations have tried to implement the health and safety policies and environmental regulation. The report will identify the major health and safety issue in the engineering industry and investigates different factors that affected worker productivity and performance.
Background of Engineering Industry and its hazards
The engineering industry is involved in the production of various products such as machines, vehicles, electrical equipment, and other. The industry has used most efficient ways to use various factors for production such as machines, people, information, material, and energy to manufacture the products and deliver services. The history of industry can be traced back during the start of an industrial revolution in the late 18 century then it has grown dramatically in the world (Jim 3). It has created various opportunities for workers for their growth and development. Many people are working in that industries and earning handsome amount.
The industry has developed a different analytical procedure to analyze and identify the hazards presented in the working environment. Different qualitative hazards analysis has created to control injuries, accidents, and other losses. The major accidents and losses have identified in the industry during 1961-74, and a large number of technological accidents has found in the organization. The Bhopal gas tragedy was a historical accident that occurred in 1984 and injured hundreds of thousands and killed thousands of people. The explosion and fire killed 78 employees at the Consol No. 9 mines in West Virginia during 1968.The explosion took place at Azote de France (AZF) agricultural chemicals factory during 2001 that killed 31 people and injured 650 people. In 1996, the accidents occurred in Thailand in a toy factory, and it killed 188 women and injured above 400 (Palanisamy and Sebastian 2620).
In 1974, Flixborough disaster occurred in England that killed 28 people and seriously injured 36 people on the site during office hours. In the same year, Health and Safety Work Act (HASWA) has created by the Parliament of United Kingdom to highlight the problems of major hazards and decrease losses. The fatal injuries were common in the industry, and the different act was created to reduce the trend of hazards. The industry has created different strategies to enhance public awareness about the environmental hazards and develop safe and healthy environment. Later, the problems of health and safety at the workplace have become the serious issue, and various regulations, committee, and act were created to minimize it (Frank 1).
Scope of health and safety in the industry
In this technical report, the scope of practice of health and safety in the engineering industry has been evaluated to signify that how it has faced a considerable change in the last ten years. As a result of changing expectations of the social order, employers, and staff members, as well as developing national and state’s set of laws. The role of the professional and ecological physician has stretched out to improve the efficiency of the worker with deficiency management and enhanced emphasis on the overall physical condition, healthiness, and protection of the employees in the engineering industry.
The machines are getting more advanced and self-reliant, which is increasing the level of production but is also creating issues for the health of workers. The machinery that is important cannot be eliminated but certain measures to eradicate the health issues can be taken, like minimizing the use of harmful machines, etc. The programmed machinery release toxic gasses that are not good for the health of the member of staffs and this equipment generate a lot of heat as well. Since most of the workers spend at least 10 hours a day in the engineering industry, consequently, it increases the scope of health and safety in the working environment. The environment of factories should not create adverse effects on the health of the workers (Alli 4).
Workplace incidents and injuries
The technical report shows some serious workplace accidents and injuries that affect the human well being in the engineering industry. Workplace accidents and injuries are a most common issue in the industry, and the management is failed to fully control the issue and ensure the workplace safety. The rates of incidents are getting higher day by day by the ignorance of authorities that is very harmful to the workers and employees working in this industry. That is why the health authorities and higher authorities should take certain measures for the benefit of the employees working in this industry. The workplace safety needs more attention to decrease the accidents, damage, injuries, and loss of life.
The industry has developed less effective techniques to adopt the new and innovative processes and approaches given technologies, and it has created uncertainty in the workplace. The employees are less aware of the use new materials and machines. It is noted that many organizations in the private and public sector have taken the effective steps to ensure worker safety in the organizational environment. The losses often occur in the small-scale industries and complete safety program is required in those companies. The safety management is an important challenge for the management of engineering industries. The lack of supervision and poor work practices has increased the number of accidents in the industry. The different accidents and injuries are associated with the health and safety issue in the industry.
On the job violent act
Workplace violence is caused by office politics, personal arguments, and another disagreement that may result in serious physical injury. It is a serious problem in which the persons is threatened, abused, and assaulted in the workplace. It arises due to different reasons including written and verbal threats, threading behavior, harassment, physical attacks, and verbal abuse. Workplace violence has generated the conflicts in the organizational culture and affected the health and safety of employees.
Heavy Machinery and work equipment injuries
The injuries typically occur in the industry due to the usage of heavy equipment and machine. It is the leading cause of hospitalized injury due to the less effective safety system. Some organizations have taken less adequate steps to protect the employees when using heavy machinery and other work equipment that significantly affected the employees. Different accidents have reported in the industry, and most common injuries have occurred in five main ways including entrapment, ejection, entanglement, contact, and impact. It directly affected the human body parts such as arms, fingers, hair, and others. The fatal injuries have increased by 9 percent in private organizations in the U.S (Labor 1-3) that needs to be decreased for the benefit of the workers working in the engineering industry.
Falling Object Injuries
It is most common injury reported in the engineering industry that resulted in serious injury. The object that dropped by other person and falls from shelves can hit the employee body parts. It is reported that the people are not wearing safety equipment such as a helmet that resulted in head injury. The management is failed to educate the employees about safety signals that lead to multiple losses.
Noise
Noise is major hazards in the engineering industry that has affected the human body parts such as the ear. The excessive and repeated noise has reported in large engineering organizations and generated the long-term hearing problems. It has created difficulties in effective communication and interaction within the organizational culture.
Fire
Fire accidents have caused major losses to the industry, and it affected the employees and organizations. The management has failed to carry out the fire safety risk assessment and other exercises that provide information to the employees about fire presentation. The engines, machinery, electrical wires, and other heavy equipment have increased the risk of fire in the industry. The organizations have not created effective plans for placing the fire extinguishers on well marked and visible that increased in accidents due to fire.
Other Non-fatal injuries and illness
Non-fatal injuries and illness is an important health and safety issue reported in the engineering industry. It has resulted from different substances and affected the health of employees. The employees have affected due to different toxic materials and other unhygienic organizational culture (Ferguson and Janicak 14).
Major health and safety issues
The engineering industry has technically complex activities that created different types of risk in the industries. The health and safety issues can be costly for the industry, and right precautions are required to control those issues. Despite improving disaster prevention, the workplace safety is an important issue in the industry, and it needs some improvements. The ratio of accidents has increased due to different causes such as the combination of organizational issues, technical failures of equipment, and lack of competency. Current accidents are almost associated with the long working hours and bad working conditions. The health and safety issue has grown due to less awareness and knowledge, lack of effective supervision, and other factors.
The industry has strongly focused on large production instead of reducing accidents and losses that affected the human life. It has affected the worker productivity and organizational commitment. The managers have received employees’ complaints of body pain, fatigue, headaches, and other different body parts pain. The issue has risen due noisy and bad environmental conditions and lack of sufficient resources and facilities. It is the most common issue in the developing countries that adversely affected the worker performance. The employees are less effective to perform their jobs due inappropriate management practices. It has decreased the quality of work and production that negatively affected the organizational growth. The major issues are poor worker health, workplace hazards, disabilities, and other. It created difficulties to achieve the company objective effectively and smoothly (Ashraf 566).
Methods used to identify hazards in the working environment
One of the most significant characteristics of the risk appraisal is precise to determine the impending hazards in the workplace. The finest method to identify risks at any workplace is to walk around the workplace and examine each and every section of the office (Kletz 2).
Recognizing hazards and scheming risk should be done incessantly as a new course of actions, tasks, tools, and human resources come into the place of work. The fraction of this method possibly will require an engineer who can do the inspection and then take necessary action to avoid any accident in future.
The first primary method used to identify hazards at a factory is to check the company’s directives or data sheets before handling chemicals and unsafe apparatus as they can prove to be very useful in classifying out the hazards and placing them on their proper side. Similarly, staff members should care about their health as high levels of sound or exposure to damaging components at work can be extremely dangerous for them. The employees should be provided with an earphone and gloves.
The team members should also conduct a survey of non-routine functional machines for the reason that electronic and mechanical equipment can face failure and malfunction which can be excessively dangerous for the health of employees. In that case, the team members are supposed to carry out maintenance work, cleaning procedures, and make suitable changes in the cycle of production. The team should also look at the previous records of the accidents as it gives them a clue that what should be done to avoid any dangerous accident.
In factories, the temperature of heat is mostly high so the staff members should be provided with jackets made up of material that cannot catch fire or heat. The employees should even present their viewpoints in front of the manager. If employees will continue to work in a hazardous working atmosphere and will not complain it to high officials, then it means that they will be responsible for any accident that probably will take place.
The factories’ waste should be dumped in a way that it becomes safe for the staff members to continue working in that location. The plant’s waste typically contains contaminated toxins that can be unsafe for the health of the employees. At construction side, the workers should be provided with a bag of a parachute, attached on the backside of their uniform to ensure that if they will accidently fall then still, they will not face any injury. A proper medical camp should be established at any construction side to provide medical treatment to those who suffer injury. The dangerous machines and units should be placed in a position that is far away from the reach of employees. The cooling hydrants should be inspected on a weekly basis as it is critical to keep the machinery cool or else they have the tendency to get burst. Control measures that have been put into practice should be assessed, and if required, change it with more advanced equipment to make sure that they are not going to create issues in future. Keeping a record of the risk controlling procedures can help out in indicating possible accidents that possibly will occur in future. It can also contribute to monitoring the health and safety precautions in the company (Executive 2).
Factors involved in increasing the health and safety issues
Various factors contribute to the health and safety issues in the engineering field that entirely depends on the area under study. Chemical hazards involved in any company contribute a major role in deteriorating the health of employees working in any organization. In land mine engineering, the employees working face a lot of health and safety issues. Radioactive elements of engineering also play an integral role in affecting the health of employees (Kim, Park, and Park 786-796). The exposure to UV radioactive elements can cause skin and other allergies. Unsafe conditions of the plant are another factor that affects the health of employees working around. The argument is that only one chemical engineering field workers do not face the health and safety issues, but all the engineers working in the field come across the health hazards. Safety and health concerns are a major point of focus for management in organizations. Air containment, noise, heat, and radiation are major factors involved in increasing the health and safety issues. Chemical engineers face health risks by being exposed to dangerous chemicals and toxic gaseous particles in the environment (Kim, Park, and Park 786-796).
However, harmful chemicals enter the body to make employees feel sick and other health issues. Several factors affect the health of employees working in the engineering fields such as chemical, civil, electrical, radioactive, and many other engineering fields. The entire profession of engineering comes across the health and safety issues regardless of which area. Carbon disulfide produced as a result of industrial production can harm the health of employees. Nitrates, Lead, and Methylene chloride are basic chemicals that affect the health of employees. All these and other harmful chemicals produced at organizations can impact the health and safety of employees. Not just chemicals act as factors involved in affecting the health, civil engineers face safety issues during the construction and other land related work. Increased intake and exposure to carbon monoxide can result in the death of employees. Fatal rate increases with such factors being deployed at work (Kim, Park, and Park 786-796).
Dust particles and flying splinters can lead to minor injuries to employees. Other factors such as the risk of fall, contact with extreme temperatures, exposure to continuous noise, the explosions of flammable materials also contribute to the health and safety issues faced by employees working. All such factors play a crucial role in affecting the health and increasing the health risks of people getting exposed.
Role of management and government in preventing the issues
The management and government are working together to lessen the fatal rates and other injuries due to health and safety issues. Projects are being launched to create awareness among the worker to curb the health issues. In cases like fear of fall, management, and government have to ensure that workplaces are properly installed to prevent their collapse and breakage. Management has to make sure the proper clothing fitting to the working conditions and climatic conditions of the workplace. For instance, proper usage of head covers for safety against harsh climatic conditions. The government needs to educate all the employees and employers about the health issues and provide solutions for it. Knowing that carelessness can cause casualties, management has to be careful in setting the work environment (Aman, Solangi and Hossain 1190-1204).
Launch projects and programs that will create awareness among the common people that exposure to such hazardous chemicals can cause an increase in health and safety issues. It is a known fact that engineering deploys technical and scientific knowledge to solve the issues encountered by humans, so the government has to prevent the health issues faced by engineering. The work-related musculoskeletal disorders have to be addressed by the management and come up with the solution that will reduce or totally prevent such issues. For decades engineers have encountered issues, and now there is dire need required by the government to come up with solutions to prevent health and safety issues. The contributions of engineering field demand a proper program by the government to make sure that health and safety issues are avoided. Significant steps should be taken by management to save the lives of employees getting exposed to dangerous, life-threatening factors (Aman, Solangi and Hossain 1190-1204).
Employee education and awareness
Usually, employees are not aware of the health issues involved in damaging their lives passively. They might know of the major health risks but neglect the passive factors involved in affecting their health. The role of management is to communicate and address such health risks and safety issues that will be encountered by employees at work. The employees need to know the demerit of exposure to particular gas and other health issues created by gaseous and other harmful materials. Educate the employees and create awareness about the factors that can cause harm and how to prevent such health issues. Management can take measures and try to improve the health issues and simultaneously educate their employees (Kim, Park, and Park 786-796).
Surveys conducted by the administration in the past shows that majority of employees despite having educational degrees in a particular field are unaware of the health issues encountered due to exposure to active harmful materials. Management is working towards improving the awareness level among the employees and informs them about the health hazards to be careful in the future. The casualties and fatal rate have increased over the time due unawareness of employees towards the grave issue of health and safety. Organizations need to introduce strict security policies to create awareness about the health issues (Kim, Park, and Park 786-796). There are several reasons for which an organization needs to induce strict safety policies to ensure the health factors of employees. Proper education and awareness regarding the health and safety issues are very important for the employees working in this industry.
Role of employees in reducing the issues
Employees play a very important role in decreasing the issues related to health and safety in the engineering industry. First of off in a workplace employees needs to identify the issues any hazards present. They should analyze major risks, possible solutions and should predict the outcomes and results of those risks. Employees should motivate each other to maintain a healthy environment. They should check for any issue on the daily basis. The most important part that they can play is by giving feedback to the management about situation taking place around them. They should inform all the cons and pros to their management regarding health and safety measures taking place in the workplace of any engineering department. Employees should learn in detail about the hazards of the engineering industry. On a personal level, each employ should take care of their health and do their safety them self.
Like in chemical engineering the proper masks and take any measures that are required to protect them from harmful chemicals like Methylene chloride, and carbon disulfide, etc. In electrical engineering industries, the employ should wear a proper dress to avoid any contact with the electricity and should keep and eye on any exposed wires, plates, circuit overloading plugs, etc. Some chemicals also cause irritation in eyes and hair loss that should be prevented by using hair masks, caps, and eyedrops. Employees should make sure that the areas they are working in are properly sanitized. Also, it is their duty to read the terms and conditions provided by the company and choose such a company who has made strict rules for the health and safety of employees in the engineering industry.
Civil engineers come in contact with concrete a lot to prevent any respiratory disorder it is mandatory for them to wear a mask, glasses to protect their eyes concrete dust and welding parts to enter in their eyes. It is mandatory in the uniform of civil engineers to wear a solid yellow safety cap. Employees should make sure to keep the noises of machines low as much as they can during the working hours because according to the HSE about a million workers who are exposed to such noise lose their hearing ability each year. The option of first aid should be available all the time. Employees should never avoid any preventive measure on a personal level to maintain their health and safety in the engineering industry.
Policies and regulation
The Health and Safety Executive department in the United Kingdom has set certain policies to the benefit of health and safety of the employees in the engineering industry. It also plays an important role in advising and guiding on health and safety issues related to legislation. HSE also conducts different research about the efficiency of regulations and on the other issues related to the safety and heath in the engineering industry. They consult with employees and employers and also advise government and legislators on this issue. They have provided detailed information and guidance on their website on how to maintain health and safety at the workplaces and have advised obeying with health and safety regulations.
They have presented Health and Safety at Work etc. An Act was enacted in 1974 to ensure the health, welfare, and safety at workplaces. It advised safe operation, safe handling, maintenance, the staff should be properly trained to make sure the health and safety rules are followed. Employees are also told to keep written record of the policies of health and safety. In 1999 according to an Act Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations to make it mandatory for the employees to assess and manage the risk factors of the other employees. In the year 1992 Workplace (Health, Safety, and Welfare) Regulations were presented which were concerned with the environment of work. The regulations almost include every aspect of the working environment that are ventilation, maintenance of equipment, workplace, systems and devices, temperature of the environment, waste materials and cleanliness. Also, lightings, workstations and seating, space and room dimensions, traffic routes and condition of floors, clean drinking water, windows, skylights, and ventilators, etc. the approved copies of the policies and regulations are easily available.
Conclusion
It is concluded that health and safety are greatly effected in the field of engineering. But if the proper rules, regulations, and policies are followed to resolve such issues then they won't harm the employees that much and will maintain a safe and healthy environment in the workplace. The awareness and education help a lot in minimizing the health and safety issues in the engineering industry. The engineering is such a vast and important industry, many fields depend on it, so it is mandatory for the employees and management running this industry to present them as a healthy industry. Keep the environment of the workplaces friendly for the employee's satisfaction. Health and safety of the employees in any field is compulsory.
Recommendations
It is highly recommended to law and enforcement agencies to look into this matter and resolve any remaining issue for the health and safety of the employees in the engineering industry. It is crucial to make sure that the policies and the regulation that are already presented to make health and safety better are being implemented or not. HSE have presented a detailed data of recommendations to maintain a safe and healthy environment in this industry. Furthermore, it is recommended to analyze each field of engineering more deeply and separately to eliminate any remaining issue of health and safety in the industry of engineering. It is how a healthy industry can be promoted and succeeded further.
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