SELAMAT MENYAMBUT KETIBAAN EIDIL FITRI

Saya mengucapkan Selamat Menyambut ketibaan hari raya eidil fitri, minal aidin wal faizin. Semuga tarbiyah dari madrasah Ramadhan al-mubarak akan menjadikan kita manusia yang bertaqwa. 

Ramadhan yang baru berlalu telah mengajar kita mengawal diri dan nafsu. Latihan ini sudah tentu mempunyai sumbangan kepada amalan kesihatan  dan keselamatan pekerjaan yang ingin kita bentuk di tempat kerja terutama yang berpaksi kepada 'Behaviour-based Safety'. Semuga latihan Ramadhan yang baru berlalu akan kita praktikkan untuk membentuk budaya kesihatan dan keselamatan di tempat kerja.

HAZARD RATING

After you have identified the Hazards, now you need  to register it in Health Hazard Inventory (HHI) or also known as Hazard Registry(HR). HHI/HR also contains the information of Hazard Rating. 

To rate the hazard, you need to know what is the consequences of that particular hazard.

By consequence, it means what HARM can the hazard effect your health.

The HAZARD CONSEQUENCES/HARM can be rated as:

1 - Slight Health Effects : Not affecting work performance or causing disability

2 - Minor Health Effects : Hazards capable to cause minor health effects which are REVERSIBLE  for instance: Irritant Chemical 

3 - Major Health Effects : Hazards capable of causing IRREVERSIBLE health damage without loss of life. Examples: Noise which can cause Hearing loss and impairment

4 - PERMANENT TOTAL DISABILITY or One to 3 Fatalities : Hazards capable  of causing IRREVERSIBLE DAMAGE with SERIOUS disability or Death. 

Examples : Corrosive chemicals, Psychological Stress, Carcinogens

5 - Multiple FATALITIES : Hazard that has potential to cause multiple fatalities. 

Example: Chemicals with Acute Toxic Effects - Carbon Monoxide Poisoning

Generally, Hazard Consequences or Health Effects can be categorised as Acute Health Effect and Chronic health Effect. Knowledge on Industrial Toxicology is essential especially to know the acute and chronic health effects of chemicals.

Referring to Chemical Safety Data Sheet (CSDS) and doing literature review on the health hazards are two important ways to find out the health effects of the hazard in order to RATE THE HAZARD.

After you have done Hazards Rating and enter it in your HHI/HR, now you should find out what is the Risk of getting the consequence of that hazard. 

For that, you are at STEP 2 to Risk Assessment. Next posting is on ASSESS THE RISKS.

HAZARD part III

In my previous posting Hazard Part I, I have given the definition of HAZARD. To refresh our understanding, I state again here, the definition of hazard. 

HAZARDS is anything that has potential to cause HARM to PEOPLE, ASSET, ENVRIONMENT and REPUTATION (PAER). 

HAZARDS can be classified as Safety or Health Hazards; it can be Continuous (inherited in the system) or Non-Continuous (due to system failure). 

Hazards can be divided further as:

1. Obvious Hazards which is apparent to the senses

2. Concealed Hazards which is not-apparent to the senses

3. Developing Hazards which cannot be recognised immediately but will develop over time

4. Transient Hazards which is intermittent or temporary hazards

(Refer Queensland Risk Management Code Practice 2007 Supplement I)

But for the purpose of this posting and my next few postings I will touch on Hazards as a potential harm to people in term of their health. 

Health Hazards can be classified as :

1. Biological 2. Chemical 3. Ergonomics 4. Physical and 5. Psychosocial

To memorise it, you can use this  mnemonic: BioChemist Examine Plumbum Poisoning.

By using this classification, it will help you to Identify Health Hazards at your workplace systematically.

Hazards Identification is the first step to Health Risk Assessment (HRA). Amongst Safety Professional in Malaysia, this is commonly known as HIRARC - Hazard Identification,Risk Assessment and Risk Control. DOSH just released the Guideline on HIRARC which you can download here

or you can download HSE UK 5 steps to Risk assessment here. 

So in HRA, identify the health hazards at your workplace is the first and important task. After you have identified the hazards, you need to register it in Health Hazard Inventory (HHI). The concept is similar to CSDS/MSDS. In another word HHI of workplace is as CSDS to chemical. Health Hazards also need to be rating according to its consequences.

To be continue in next posting : Hazards Rating

Occupational Skin Diseases

I gave a health talk on Occupational Skin Diseases to 22 employees of Brooke Dockyard on 23 September, 2008. My talk touched mainly on Occupational Contact Dermatitis which contributes 60% of work-related dermatoses. I emphasized on the importance of  preventive and control measures of work-related illness particularly occupational skin diseases. Congratulations to Brooke Dockyard especially Mr. Andrew Ronggie, the HSSE Manager and SN Valerie, Nurse in-charge of Occupational Health Services of Brooke Dockyard for organising the talk.