OCCUPATIONAL

HEALTH AND SAFETY

NURS 421

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Learning objectives
• At the end of this lesson, the student should be able to:
• Define occupational health
• Discuss challenges for the development of occupational
health and safety.
• Explain the scope of occupational health and safety.
• Explain the interrelationships between work and health.
• State the objectives of occupational health and safely
• Outline the principles of occupational health and safety

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 Introduction
• Occupational health and safety is one of the most important
aspects of human concern. It aims an adaptation of working
environment to workers for the promotion and maintenance of
the highest degree of physical, mental and social well being of
workers in all occupations.
• The question of occupational health and safety, as a global issue,
is now taking a new turn. The main contributory factors towards
this peculiarity seem to be due to the rapid industrial and
agricultural development that are taking place in the developing
countries, and the emergence of new products and product
processes from these places.
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• Many of these countries are moving from manual labour to service
mechanization in the main productive sectors, such as manufacturing,
mining and agriculture, hence the potential occupational health
ramifications should be anticipated.
• Also the insatiable desire of these countries for technical
advancement has brought about the importation of sophisticated
machinery and pieces of equipment not only into the industrial
production sector, but also to services and commerce.
• This invariably has been associated with a change in the structure of
the labour force as a whole including a rise in the employment of
women. As to be expected the health problems would also change.
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• For example, more emphasis on ergonomics and occupational
psychosocial factors would be needed in the services
industry. This obviously would be a new challenge for
occupational health and safety practice in most of the African
countries because the tool to deal with such a problems and
the expertise is not yet advanced when compared to the
developed countries

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• The benefit of occupational health service in developing countries
is seen locally as well as on a national level.
• The positive impact of occupational health service locally may be
observed in reducing morbidity and work-related injuries.
• In addition, this also means fewer losses to employer and worker
as there will be a reduction of wage losses and decreased
compensation costs.
• The reduction of absenteeism is of great importance concerning
skilled labour, especially so in countries where there is a shortage
of skilled labour.

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• Making working conditions healthy and safe is in the interest
of workers, employers and governments, as well as the public
at large. Although it seems simple and obvious, this idea has
not yet gained meaningful universal recognition.
• Hundreds of millions of people throughout the world are
employed today in conditions that breed ill health and/or are
unsafe.
• Each year, work-related injuries and diseases kill an
estimated 2 million people worldwide, which is greater than
the global annual number of deaths from malaria.

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• Annually, an estimated 160 million new cases of work-related
diseases occur worldwide, including respiratory and
cardiovascular diseases, cancer, hearing loss, musculoskeletal
and reproductive disorders, mental and neurological illnesses.

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• An increasing number of workers in industrial countries
complain about psychological stress and overwork. These
psychological factors have been found to be strongly
associated with insomnia, depression and fatigue, and burn-
out syndromes, as well as with elevated risks of
cardiovascular diseases.
• Only 5-10% of workers in developing countries and 20-50%
of workers in industrial countries (with a few exceptions) are
estimated to have access to adequate occupational health
services. Even in advanced economies, a large proportion of
work sites are not regularly inspected for occupational health
and safety.
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CONCEPT OF OCCUPATIONAL AND
ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH

• Occupational and environmental health (OEH) is relevant to

all branches of industry, business and commerce.
• There are many obstacles to the achievement of good OEH
standards.
• Pressure of production or performance targets
• Financial constraints
• Complexity of the organization
• Incentives for organizations to strive for high standards:

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❖Moral reasons are centred on the need to protect people from
injury and disease while they are at work.
❖Legal reasons are embodied in the criminal and civil law
❖Financial reasons come as a consequence of infringements
of the law with consequent fines, compensation payments,
associated financial costs and even, in extreme cases,
imprisonment.

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 DEFINITION OF TERMS
OCCUPATION
• The action of entering and taking control of a building.
• The action of living in or using a building or other place.
• A job or profession.
• ENVIRONMENT
• In broad terms, all that which is external to man is the environment.
The concept of environment is complex.
• The circumstances, objects or conditions by which one is surrounded
• The complex of climatic, soil-based, and biotic factors that act upon
an organism or an ecologic community.
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• OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH
• The branch of medicine dealing with the prevention and
treatment of job-related injuries and illnesses.
• Occupational health deals with all aspects of health and
safety in the workplace and has a strong focus on primary
prevention of hazards.
• Health of workers have several determinants, including risk
factors at the workplace leading to cancers, accidents,
musculoskeletal diseases, respiratory diseases, hearing loss,
circulatory diseases, stress related disorders and
communicable diseases and others.

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• ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH
• Those aspects of the human health and disease that are determined
by factors in the environment.
• It also refers to the theory and practice of assessing and controlling
factors in the environment that can potentially affect health.
• Components of Environment:
• PHYSICAL: air, water, soil, housing, climate, geography, heat, light, noise,
debris, radiation, etc.
• BIOLOGICAL: man, viruses, microbial agents, insects, rodents, animals and
plants, etc.
• PSYCHOSOCIAL: cultural values, customs, beliefs, habits, attitudes, morals,
religion, education, lifestyles, community life, health services, social and
political organization.
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• HEALTH
• A general condition of something in terms of soundness,
vitality, and proper functioning - not just the absence of
disease.
• The condition of being sound in body, mind, or spirit.
• A state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being
and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity (WHO,
1948).

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• According to WHO (1995), occupational safety and health can
be defined as a multidisciplinary activity aiming at:
• Protection and promotion of the health of workers by
eliminating occupational factors and conditions hazardous to
health and safety at work
• Enhancement of physical, mental and social well-being of
workers and support for the development and maintenance of
their working capacity, as well as professional and social
development at work
• Development and promotion of sustainable work
environments and work organizations
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• The International Labour Organization (ILO)/ world Health
Organization (WHO) definition of occupational health is
“The promotion and maintenance of the highest degree of
physical, mental social well- being of workers in all
occupation” and the WHO considers occupational health
service to be responsible for the total of worker and, if
possible, his or her family.

• Occupational Health is a diverse science applied by

occupational health professional engineers, environmental
health practitioners, chemists, toxicologists, doctors, nurses,
safety professionals and others who have an interest in the
protection of the health of workers in the workplace.
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• The discipline covers the following key components:
• The availability of occupational health and safety
regulations at workplace
• The availability of active and functional occupational health
and safety committee at workplace
• Monitoring and control of factory hazards to health
• Supervision and monitoring of hygiene and sanitary
facilities for health and welfare of the workers
• Inspection of health safety of protective devices
• Pre-employment, periodical and special health examination.
• Performance of adaptation of work to man
• Provision of First Aid
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• Health education and safety training to the worker
• Advice to employers on the above mentioned items
• Reporting of occupational deaths, diseases, injuries,
disabilities, hazards and their related preventive measures at
working

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• According to a statement by occupational health institutes
collaborating with the WHO (1995) the most important
challenges for occupational health for the future will be:
• Occupational health problems linked to new information
technologies and automation
• New chemical substances and physical energies
• Health hazards associated with new biotechnologies
• Transfer of hazardous technologies.
• Aging working populations
• Special problems of vulnerable and underserved groups
(e.g. chronically ill and handicapped), including migrants and
the unemployed.
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• Problems related to growing mobility of worker
populations and occurrence of new occupational diseases of
various origins.

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 INTERDISCIPLINARY RELATIONSHIPS

• Environmental Managers: are those trying to eliminate hazards

from the workplace cause many environmental problems.
• Toxicology: is the science that studies poison and toxic substances
and their mechanisms and effects on living organisms. In other
words toxicology is the study of adverse effects of chemical on
biologic systems, or when a substance has a capacity to produce
undesirable physiological effect when the chemical reached a
sufficient concentration at a specific site in the body.

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• Toxicologists: are persons who study poisoning and
responsible defining quantitatively the level of exposure at
which harm occurs and they also prescribe precautionary
measures and exposure limitations so that normal
recommended use of chemical substance does not result in
excessive exposure and subsequent harm
• Ergonomics: is a multidisciplinary activity dealing with the
interaction between man and his total working environment
plus such traditional environmental elements as atmosphere,
heat, light, and sound as well as all tools and equipment of
the work place.
• Chemical engineers: are those who design process plant,
they choose values, decide on how access will be gained and
how cleaning will take place.
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• Mechanical engineers: are those who responsible for
choosing materials handling systems or for specifying noise
levels on machinery.
• Environmental health professionals: are those who apply
their knowledge and experience, understand the
environmental health hazards, analyze the technical and
social approaches and reduce and eliminate human exposures
and health impacts.
• Industrial hygienists: are scientists, engineers, and public
health professionals committed to protecting the health
people in the workplace and the community.
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• Occupational Health is a science concerned with health in its
relation to work or working environment. This involves four
main concepts to ensure total care of the individual and these
are;
• surveillance of working environment
• surveillance of workers health
• information, education and training and advice
• treatment and health programmes
• emergency preparedness - response planning (first aid etc.)
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• It is therefore the maintenance of the highest degree of
physical, mental and social well-being of workers in all
occupations. The hazardous human work factors include;
• chemicals
• ergonomics
• physical hazards
• mechanical/electrical
• biological
• psychological

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 Objectives of Occupational Health and Safety
• The prime objective of OHS at a global level is to ensure that
health and safety is accessible to every worker employed in any
sector across the economy.
• The World Health Organisation (WHO) since its inception has
included elements of occupational health in its policy. The need
to protect the worker from occupational health hazards and
promote safety of all at the workplace has been emphasised in
key documents of WHO - the Constitution of the WHO,
Declarations of Alma Ata Declaration, Global Strategy on
Occupational Health for All, WHO General Programmes of
Work and several resolutions of the World Health Assembly.
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• According to the document, Global Strategy on Occupational
Health for All, the ten high priority objectives proposed by the
strategy are as follows:
• Strengthening of international and national policies for health
at work and developing the necessary policy tools
• Development of healthy work environment
• Development of healthy work practices and promotion of
health at work
• Strengthening of OHS
• Establishing of support services for occupational health
• Development of occupational health standards based on
scientific risk assessment
• Development of human resources for occupational health
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• Establishment of registration and data systems, development
of information services for experts, effective transmission of
data and raising of public awareness through public
information
• Strengthening of research
• Development of collaboration in occupational health and with
other activities and services

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 Principles of Occupational Health and Safety
• Occupational health and safety is a multi-disciplinary field,
covering issues related to law, medicine, technology, economics
and industry specific concerns. The core occupational health and
safety principles put forth by the ILO are as follows:
• All workers have rights. Workers, as well as employees and
government, must ensure that these rights are protected and
foster decent conditions of labour. As the International Labour
Conference stated in 1984:
• - Work should take place in a safe healthy environment;
• - Conditions of work should be consistent with workers‟ well-
being and human dignity;
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• - Work should offer real possibilities for personal achievement,
self-fulfilment and service society1.
• Occupational health and safety policies must be established. Such
policies must be implemented at both the governmental and
enterprise levels. They must be effectively communicated to all
parties concerned.
• There is a need for consultation with the social partners (that is,
employers and workers) and other stakeholders. This should be
done during the formulation, implementation and review of such
policies.
• Prevention and protection must be the aim of occupational health
and safety programmes and policies. Efforts must be focused on
primary prevention at the workplace level. Workplaces and
working environment should be planned and designed to be safe
and healthy.
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• Information is vital for the development and implementation of
effective programmes and policies. The collection and
dissemination of accurate information on hazards and hazardous
materials, surveillance of workplaces, monitoring of compliance
with policies and good practices, and other related activities are
central to the establishment and the enforcement of effective
policies.
• Health promotion is a central element of occupational health
practice. Efforts must be made to enhance workers‟ physical,
mental and social well- being.
• Occupational health services covering all workers should be
established. Ideally all workers in all categories of economic
activity should have access to such services, which aim to protect
and promote workers‟ health and improve working conditions.
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• Compensation, rehabilitation and curative services must be
made available to workers who suffer occupational injuries,
accidents and work related diseases. Action must be taken to
minimise the consequences of occupational hazards.
• Education and training are vital components of safe, healthy
working environments. Workers and employers must be made
aware of the importance and the means of establishing safe
working procedures. Trainers must be trained in areas of
special relevance to different industries, which have specific
OHS concerns.
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• Workers, employers and competent authorities have certain
responsibilities, duties and obligations. For example, workers
must follow established safety procedures; employers must
provide safe workplaces and ensure access to first aid; and the
competent authorities must devise, communicate and periodically
review and update occupational health and safety policies.
• Policies must be enforced. A system of inspection must be in
place to secure compliance with occupational health and safety
and other labour legislation.

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