Sunday, August 21, 2011

Occupational Health and Safety

This is my entry to Techie She Lucky Blogger Weekly Giveaway Week 12. This week’s prize is $10 paypal cash credit from Sir Rob of Be a LifeSaver of Goodness.


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The topic on Safety in the Workplace is very important. Nowadays, companies are giving emphasis on the Occupational Health and Safety of the employees and the community. But companies also has business advantages on doing this, some requires it before any transaction and it gives the company itself added value to their brand or name. So it’s a win-win situation.

Why am I taking about this, well I am not the assigned Safety Officer of our company but I am assigned to manage and update our certification to OHSAS 18001:2007 standards (Occupational Health and Safety Management System). That is aside from ISO 9001:2008 (Quality Management System) and ISO 14001:2004 (Environmental Management System). I am more on the documentation rather than on the implementation.

WARNING: From here on, it might get a little boring. Read at your own risk.

What is OHSAS 18001:2007? It is the standard for managing Occupational Health and Safety of an organization. While the standard specifies the requirements such as documentation and other activities, we need a third party assessor/ auditor to certificate us to the standard. And let me tell you it is not just a simple auditing, so being certified is a big thing.


Sample of the requirements is assessing the hazards and risks associated for a particular area. We usually call it HIRA or Hazard Identification and Risk Assessment, here we identify the likelihood and severity of a given activity or area and propose actions to lower the risk.

Ex.
Area: Office
Activity: Use of Computers
Hazard: Eye Strain
Risk: Eye Problem
Likelihood: 4 (scoring 1 to 5, since use of computer usually takes most of the time)
Severity: 2 (scoring 1 to 5, impact is not that severe)
Control Measures: Take breaks every 2 hours, use antiglare glasses or screen protector.

This is a simple and common sample. Activity varies from one company to another depending on the nature, of course.

1 comments:

Techie She said...

thanks for this informative post. i've read that the 50:10 rule should work when using computers. after 50 minutes of using it, you should rest your eyes for at least ten minutes.

anyway, thanks for joining in the week 12 of the weekly giveaways yuuki. Sorry for the late visit too.

Regards and good luck! :)