ERGONOMICS PART 7

ERGONOMICS RISK FACTORS (ERF)

ERF arises due to poor design of the workstation and job. There are 7 ERFs found in the workplace namely
1. Force or Workload
2. Frequency of the job
3. Awkward posture during the job
4. Static position
5. Lack of Recovery
6. Contact stress
7. Vibration
Study done by NIOSH,US found that 3 Risk Factors above (1,2 &3) are consistently found in precipitating musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs).

Health Talk on Ergonomics at Proton Edar Sdn Bhd

On 21st February 2009, Proton Edar Sdn Bhd Kuching Office, invited me to give a talk on Ergonomics in colloboration of their Health,Safety and Environment(HSE) Week. Around 100 employees attended the talk. I chose 'Ergonomics & Productivity' as the title of my talk. In Act 1(introduction) of my talk, I stressed that in global economic competition, maintaining and maximising productivity is a must for the survival of any organisation. Workers as the primary tool of business play an important role in organisation's productivity. However, in many organisations, workers' health and safety is always under threat in the effort to achieve maximum productivity. Productivity can only be maintained and maximised by protecting the health and safety of the workers. To achieve this, all organisations must implement ergonomics program or approach in their workplace in order to maintain and maximise their productivity. Ergonomics approach means fitting the work environments and the job to the workers capability.

ERGONOMICS PART 6

Ergonomics Risk Factor(ERF) is a factor, which can cause trauma to the musculoskeletal system.
Ergonomics risk factor is the end product of disequilibrium of the W-WE ecosystem. This disequilibrium is normally caused by the component of work environment in the form of flaws in workstation and machine design, poor work procedure standard and non-conducive workplace environment. When this happen, the work environment will cause strain to the W-WE relationship, which will result in disequilibrium of the ecosystem.

This poor work environment condition and arrangement will produce strain in the form of ergonomics risk factors.

The magnitude of the risk factors will determine the course of the injury. If the magnitude of the risk factors above tolerance to human body, it will cause macro trauma in the form of sprain and strain.
On other side, if the magnitude of the risk is below tolerance, it only causes micro trauma, which can recover overtime. This process is called wear and tear of the musculoskeletal system. However, the micro trauma will accumulate and turn into major trauma if the risk is persistently imposed on the musculoskeletal system.  The bottom line is ergonomics risk factors will cause MUSCULOSKELETAL DISORDERS (MSDs).

ERGONOMICS PART 5

The work environment (WE) – the second component of the W-WE ecosystem consist of the work environment, secondary tools and the job procedure. The work environment including all the hazards existed in the environment such as noise, temperature, vibration etc. The secondary tools are the tools used in business other than the worker. The job procedure including all the standard and non-standard work practices at workplace. It is clear that all the above are human created: the human determines the environment, the machine and the job procedures. This statement is very important because it brings us to the conclusion that the work environment component of W-WE ecosystem is adjustable and  can be redesigned.
The first component of the ecosystem is not adjustable although from physiological perspective our body system tends to adjust to the strain arose from the external before it ends up with serious injury.
Factors in work environment such as vibration can cause harm to the worker. Flaws in design of the workstation will impose strain to the human who try to adjust their body by adopting an awkward posture. Poor work/job standard procedures will cause inefficiency and constant injury to the musculoskeletal system.
Interesting to point out here that although the human body system is not adjustable in the sense of major changing in its size and measurement,the human body is naturally adjusting to the work environment factors until the body system cant resist the strain further. When this happened, it will cause injury to the musculooskeletal system .
This is the challenging that we face if we want to implement ergonomics at workplace.
Any attempt to change the workstation design and improving the inefficient standard procedure of practice will face a resistance from both workers and the management.
The management will label this attempt as challenging the decision of the past policy maker and management leadership.

ERGONOMICS PART 4

The Worker(W) or Human as the primary tool of business has limited capability in term of their physical, mental and physiology. Human physical is formed by muscle, bone, nerve, tendon, ligaments and joints. In anatomy, it is called Musculoskeletal System. So the worker is basically the Musculoskeletal system. Our physical measurements are fixed. We cannot increase our height, the length of our upper and lower limbs etc, although we can increase our weight which can gives burden to our body if it is above the ideal body weight. Human has physical variation. The study of human physical measurements and its variation is called Anthropometry. The developed countries like US has their own anthropometric table. The muscle and joint has its movement limitation. This is the focus of study in the Biomechanic field. The study of how human body functions is called physiology. 

Inorder to understand human limited capability, we need to have some knowledge in Anthropometry, Biomechanics, Anatomy, Physiology and also Pyschology.

What is the indicator to say that the human limited capability is overburdened by the factors existed in the work environment? 

Generally, we can say that when the safety and health of the human is affected, there is a factor in the environment causing it. To be specific, from ergonomics perspective, if the human or worker suffers from Musculoskeletal disorder(MSDs), there is always a physical overburden created by his work environment.

God The AlMighty had created human with this limited capability and we cannot change it. The only thing we can change is what we have created in our work environment : - the workplace design and the work (job & task) arrangement, i.e. the second component of the worker-work environment (W-WE) ecosystem.

ERGONOMICS PART 3

The Worker(W) as the the component of worker-work environment(W-WE) ecosystem was first came into the mainstream of ergonomics focus during the World War II (WWII). Previously, the engineering experts only focused on machine-work environment system, they never thought of the human as one of the vital component of the system. Only during the WWII, they realised that the military machines were very complex to operate and very heavy in size for human capability. For instance, the design of Fighter Plane Cockpit which would only fit  for 5 feet 8 inches and 150 Ib male. 

After the WWII, the human become the main focus in designing the machine and workstation, giving birth to the field of Ergonomics.

Why worker is so important in the worker-work environment ecosystem? 

The worker is the primary tool of the organisation to do their business. The term primary tool was first coined by our very own renowned  Ergonomist, Dr Jalaludin Dahalan of Ergoworks. 

Without the worker, the business in any organisation will collapse. If the worker cannot function to the optimum, the business productivity will be jeopardised. The worker cannot function to the optimum, if the work environment components cause overburden to their capability.This will cause inequlibrium of the system.  

ERGONOMICS PART 2

The Worker-Work Environment (W-WE) relationship formed a system. This concept is very important in-order to understand Ergonomics.

First let us understand what is a system? 

*A system can be defined as an aggregate of interactive components operating together to perform a function. The key words here is aggregate and interactive. Aggregate - loose association of a components that are not necessary homogenous, but nevertheless are brought together to serve a purpose. These components is interactive which means they have a mutual or reciprocal effect, one upon other. Interactive in the sense that they are working in mutual harmony to perform a function. (source: The Worker at Work by T. Morris Fraser)

The harmony of this relationship will keep the equilibrium of this system. This is the MAIN FUNCTION of ERGONOMICS. 

ERGONOMICS PART 1

OSHA 1994 (Act 514) in its section 4(c), Object of the Act says:

'To Promote environment for persons at work which is ADAPTED to their physiological and psychological needs'. 

The above object, simply means ERGONOMICS. So what is Ergonomics?

Ergonomics, from two words of Greek origin - Ergon which means work and Nomos - Natural laws. Ergonomics simply means FITTING the work environment to the worker capability using scientific approach. 

The key words here are: FITTING, WORK ENVIRONMENT, WORKER CAPABILITY and SCIENTIFIC APPROACH.

Fitting is the process of designing and arranging the work environment so that it is suitable to the human capability. This process of fitting the work environment to the worker capability should be based on scientific approach. Therefore Ergonomics is a field which consist of multiple disciplines of knowledge from human anthropometry, physiology to industrial engineering.

More on ergonomics definition here and here.

Do you have FLU? Dont drive because you are at risk of Road Accident

Telegraph.co.uk reported today  that : 

Driving while suffering from flu increases the risk of a road accident, as much as two glasses of whisky, according to a British new study.

Read the detail of the report here.

KPJ National Patient Safety GOAL No. 2

IMPROVE EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION

Effective communication is essential in any relationship including patient-care provider relationship. Communication is a two way pipeline. Effective communication means the message from the messenger perceived by the receiver accurately.

To improve effective communication we need to eliminate communication barriers. There are a lot of communication barriers but I would like to highlight three barriers as follows:

1.Assumption : Never assume the receiver understand technical term without checking their understanding

2. Avoid Curse of Knowledge(COK): COK is a condition when you become expert in particular subject,but it is hard to imagine not knowing what you do.

3. Closed Mind :  a condition when you are resistance to new ideas or informations.

Spanish Philosopher,Jose Ortega Y Gasset called it  'the barbarism of specialization' in one chapter of his famous book:  Revolt of The Masses

KPJ National Patient Safety GOAL No. 1

IDENTIFY PATIENTS CORRECTLY

The first step in patient safety goals in healthcare service is to identify patients correctly. This is the most important goal because without proper and correct identification of the patient, the patient safety is in danger - the medical treatment will be given to wrong patients. Imagine you are given radiotherapy but you are not having any indication for it. Imagine the doctor is operating on the wrong patient and the consequence is very costly.

Identification of patients correctly need a simple , accurate and standard process. One of the way is by identifying them using their National Identification Card (NRIC). Call the name written in NRIC and compare the image in the NRIC to the patient. Then register the patient by giving them unique Registered Number. Dont use location such as room number to identify the patient correctly. 

KEMENTERIAN KAJI HENTI PERJALANAN BAS EKSPRESS TENGAH MALAM

Kementerian Pengangkutan  mengkaji untuk hentikan perjalanan bas ekspres tengah malam, begitulah saranan menterinya, Datuk Seri Ong Tee Keat. Dalam tulisan dalam blog saya sebelum ini, saya menyatakan salah satu faktor utama penyebab kemalangan jalanraya ialah keletihan atau fatigue yang disebabkan kekurangan tidur atau HUTANG TIDUR. Kajian menunjukkan tahap konsentrasi kognitif seseorang yang kurang tidur kerana berjaga melebihi 15 jam adalah sama dengan tahap konsentrasi kognitif orang yang mengandungi 0.1% tahap alkohol dalam darah (Blood alcohol level/BAC). Di Malaysia, seseorang itu akan didakwa memandu di bawah pengaruh alkohol sekiranya tahap alkohol dalam darahnya menjangkau 0.08%. Saya mengalu-alukan saranan tersebut dan berharap ianya menjadi realiti.

Untuk maklumat lanjut, sila rujuk pautan berikut:

1. Quantifying the performance impairment associated with fatigue

2. Sleep deprivation concerns in the transportation industry

3. Reducing American Sleep Debt : Guest Editorial

2. Quantitative similarity between the cognitive pyschomotor performance decrement associated with sustained wakefulness and alcohol intoxication (pdf)

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2009

The year 2008 has gone, the year 2009 is here. Let us celebrate this new year by examining our OSH performance & achievement in 2008. How is our OSH SCOREBOARD in 2008? Based on our achievement, let us PLAN our OSH program for the year 2009. We have to continue our struggle toward HEALTHY WORKFORCE, SAFE WORKPLACE in our effort to face the uncertainty in economic scenario ahead.

AWARENESS TALK ON HIV & AIDS

My 2nd Health Talk for IOT staff was held on 22 Dec. 2008 at its conference room. 15 staff attended the talk. To share some information of the latest statistic of HIV/AIDS in Malaysia:

Since 1986 until Dec. 2008 : 80 938 of HIV infected cases was reported in Malaysia. 13 636 were confirmed to have AIDS and 10 334 of them died.*This figure is from MAC & MOH.

The above figures revealed that 13 Malaysian were infected by HIV per day and 3 Malaysian suffering from AIDS per day.

HIV and AIDS is NOT the same ; HIV is the virus, AIDS is the disease. HIV only can be transmitted through blood, body fluid (semen & vagina fluid) and from mother to her fetus.

HIV carrier normally appears healthy as you and me, so it is difficult to differentiate them. The only way to fight HIV/AIDS is through PREVENTION. HIV/AIDS is not merely medical problem, it is a social problem....... everybody needs to fight inorder to prevent it from spreading. One of the preventive measures is to have a healthy life style. Note: 1 December every year is WORLD AIDS DAY.

You can visit Malaysian AIDS Council (MAC), here

Here is the list of reference, click

SOEM Workshop on Lung Function Test & Audiometry

At Hotel Istana, Kuala Lumpur - on 8 & 9 November, 2008 SOEM organised Continue Professional Development (CPD) on Occupational Medicine & Workshop on Spirometry & Audiometry.

The Workshop on Spirometry was coordinated by Prof. Dr K.G. Rampal from UKM and practical session was leaded by Dr Abed Onn. Just to mention few important points given by Prof. Rampal - Spirometry only need to be done 2 yearly because of the spirometer machine error causing declination about 50 mls of lung function , compares to reduction of human lung function approximately 25 mls per year of age. 

The spirometer needs to be calibrated daily using syringe provided with the machine. There are 2 normal value which are determined by age, gender and height :-  Percentile & Predictive Value (75%/80%) which is unique to race of one particular population. Since the spirometer came with the predictive value for western population, this value needs to be corrected between *8 - 12% for our population. *Can use any figure between 8 -12% for correction BUT must stick to the same figure for validity of interpretation of the result.

Dr Abed gave the following important techniques for good spirometry result : 1. Full inspiration (using abdominal muscle) 2. The mouth piece must fit tightly by the lips and 3. Give force expiration to the maximum and very fast. The followings are the contraindication for spirometry : 1. Recent smoking 2. Upper Respiratory Tract Infection 3. After heavy meals

KPJ National Patient Safety GOALS

On 30th November until 2nd December, 2008 I represented Kuching Specialist Hospital together with  Medical Director, Dr. David Ling, General Manager, Mdm Mah Lai Heng, Nursing Chief Officer, Mdm Ting Lay Hua, one Staff nurse and physiotherapist, attending KPJ Annual Health Conference @ PERSADA Convention Johore Bharu.

Amongst the presentations at that conference was KPJ National Patient Safety Goals as stated in the left image. As OH Practitioner, I am proud that KPJ has dwelled deeply in pioonering this field ahead of other hospital in Malaysia.

A Must Buy 'OH Book' for the year 2009

This book is the "MUST BUY" Occupational Health Book for the year 2009. Edited by 2 prominence Malaysian Occupational Health Expert, Dr G Jayakumar & Dr M Retneswari, contains 22 chapters discussing all aspects of occupational health concerning the Health Care workers, contributing by 28 experts in occupational health from both local and international.  This 280 pages hard cover book, was published by Malaysian Medical Association (MMA) and cost only RM88.00

You can buy the book from MMA, call 03-40411375

SELAMAT MENYAMBUT MAAL HIJRAH 1430H

Saya mengucapkan Selamat meyambut Maal Hijrah 1430H kepada semua rakan-rakan pengunjung laman blog ini. Saya mendoakan semuga tahun 1430H akan memberikan kita ruang untuk terus meningkatkan aras prestasi segala aktiviti perjuangan kita untuk menjadikan tempat kerja kita lebih selamat dan sejahtera.

SHELL KUCHING SAFETY WEEK

SHELL TIMUR Sdn Bhd  launched their HSSE Week from 21 -24 October 2008. I was invited by PMT, one of Shell's haulier to give a health talk on Stress Management. I delivered my health talk for one hour from 4 pm to 5 pm on 21 Oct, 2008 at SHELL Kuching's Canteen.

Here is the outline of my health talk :

1. Understanding what is stress? In this section, I discussed the definition of stress. Like beauty, stress is in the eye of the beholder. Basically, it occurs in situation where our life's demand exceeds our capability. The most important things in understanding stress is to know the two components model of stress. The two components are the stressor - the situation which cause the stress and our response - how we response to the stressor. To understand more, I presented the biochemical and physiological changes in our body during the stress process.

2. What causes stress?  There are a lot of things that can cause stress. In the nutshell, it can be divided into recent event and on-going event: both can be in a form of threat or loss. These two events can occur at the workplace or outside the workplace. So, we can classify stress into occupational stress which happens because of factors at workplace and non-occupational stress, because of factors in our life. However, these classification is to simplify our understand but in reality stress does not have boundary, it affect us both at work and out of work. Other important things to know is the 3 Ps factors viz.  predisposing, precipitating and perpetuating factors, which we need to identify in order to manage the stress effectively.

3. Basic Stress management? Effective management of stress must using the holistic approach. Holistic domains of life (physical,social,psychologicall and spiritual)  need to be revisited by identifying the shortage in each domain. This shortage could be the 3 Ps factors which need to be addressed. The 2 components of stress also needs to be explored. Then the stress management can be constructed by using individual and/or workplace approach.

HEALTH TALK SERIES AT IOT MANAGEMENT

On 20 October, 2008, I delivered my first health talk to staff of IOT Management , an Independent Oil Terminal located at Senari, owned by ASSAR SARAWAK.

This is one of the series of Health Talk as part of my service as Occupational Health Doctor and Advisor (OHDA) to IOT Management. The first topic I gave is on HEALTH HAZARDS AT WORKPLACE. Around 15 employees attended the talk at their conference room at 10 am to 12 noon.

In the afternoon, I attended IOT Management HSSE Meeting.

Reference Books

The Worker at Work: A Textbook Concerned with Men and Women in the Workplace

By Thomas Morris Fraser

Contributor Thomas Morris Fraser

Published by CRC Press, 1989

ISBN 0850664810, 9780850664812

444 pages

The attractiveness of this book lies on the uniqueness of its author. The author, Dr Thomas Morris Fraser was trained in two disciplines - occupational medicine and engineering. He is a former Professor at Department System Design Engineering and Director of Centre for Occupational Health & Safety at University of Waterloo, Canada.

This book covers in detail the two important disciplines of Occupational Health - Ergonomics and Industrial Hygiene. Both disciplines are discussed from their historical aspects as well as their core knowledge contents.

Your can read more info about this book, here

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. 

Small Change, Big Difference

On 11 June, 2008: SHELL TIMUR Sdn Bhd celebrated their Global Safety Day with a theme : Small Change, Big Difference. I was invited to give a talk on Ergonomics and Productivity.

On that day, all SHELL staff submitted their own pledge on safety based on the the above theme. One of the worker created his pledge : I will not drive if I drink. 

Based on the theme, this pledge is Small Changes which the worker able to carry out and it has big impact on safety of the worker - Big Difference.

So you can adopt the idea and ask your employee to create their own pledge.

FATIGUE

Today, 17 August, 2008 : PMT, one of SHELL Contractor Haulier, invited me to give a health talk to their staff at their monthly meeting. The topic of my talk is FATIGUE , a condition of tiredness, listlessness, poor memory,weariness and feel sleepiness. There are multiple causes of fatigue such as viral infections, metabolic, immunological and genetic. The contributing factors are also plenty from lifestyle, work nature, lack of sleep etc. Fatigue can be divided into acute of which the duration is less than 30 days and chronic if more than 30 days.

It is important for the SHELL drivers to minimise their fatigue condition by identify its contributing factors inorder to safeguard their safety when carrying out their job.

Root Cause Analysis (RCA) Workshop

I have an oppurtunity to attend the above workshop on Wednesday, 13 August 2008, conducted by one of our Board of Directors Dr Kok, Consultant Paediatrician of Puteri Specialist Hospital, Johor. Dr Kok was assisted by Ms Julie and Madam Annie. This workshop was conducted for the first time for all HOS (Head of Service) of Kuching Specialist Hospital. Last year a workshop on Clinical Risk Assessment and Management was conducted by Tuan Hj Abdul Wahab who is KPJ Risk Management Director cum our Executive Director.

The purpose of RCA is to find the flaws and loopholes in the system that create an incident either in the form of near-missed or sentinel events. So the first step in RCA is Incident Reporting. With every incident reported, we need to find out its Care Management Problem (CMP). Using fish bone method and brain storming session we need to find out what are the contributing factors to this problem. After prioritised the main contributing factors, then we find the solutions which we called as Risk Reduction Action Plan. 

Being trained in occupational health and safety, I found this workshop as a excellence oppurtunity for me to enrich my knowledge in risk management.

Health Talk

My message to the audience : High Blood Pressure is a silent killer and it is related to our life style which includes the way we eat and the way we cope with stress in life.

Community Outreach program 18 May,2008

On 18th May, 2008, In conjunction with International Nurses Day, Kuching Specialist Hospital in collobaration with Salako Rara Recreation Club, organised Community Outreach Health Screening Project at Kampong Jampari, Lundu. The project was officially launched by YB Encik Ranum AK Mina, Wakil Rakyat N1 Opar.

I gave a health talk on HYPERTENSION at the function.

My activities in April and May, 2008

Mr. Anthony Yeo delivered one of his lectures.

On the 8th and 9th May, 2008 I attended a Counselling Course on Coping with Crisis and Trauma joinedly organised by Sarawak Women for Women Association, Ministry of Social and Urban Development Sarawak and Counselling & Care Centre, Singapore. The course was conducted by a well known Consultant Therapist from Singapore Counselling and Care Centre, Mr. Anthony Yeo. Anthony Yeo has written few books of which one of them is my favourite : Counselling: A Problem Solving Approach  Click to see my brief comment about the book.The course was attended by about 190 participants. I will post a brief write up on knowledge I gained from Anthony Yeo during this 2 days in my coming posting

On 7th May, 2008 I was giving my last lecture on Ergonomics entitled Work Improvement for Small Enterprise(WISE) for INSEP SHO students of PPKS/ICATS, Kuching.

In April, I was invited by PPKS/ICATS to give a talk on Enhancing Productivity Through Ergonomics in the seminar during their open day week. 

On 3oth April, UNIMAS HR Department, invited me to deliver a talk on Occupational Health and Safety Risk Assessment as part of the Human Resource modules for Ujian Tahap Kecekapan (UTK), attended by 12 of their senior executives

RCOH -Conference Day 2

The key lecture for the second day was delivered by NIOSH US Representative, Dr George Conway on Applying Research Results to Practice: General Principles and Some examples of successes.

6 Concurrent Symposiums was taking place after the plenary lecture. The symposiums were :

1. Fitness to Return to Work

2. Ergonomics

3. Chemical Health and Safety

4. Mental Health

5. Sickness Absenteeism

6. Occupational Safety and Health Legislation

Besides that, 4 concurrent free paper sessions were conducted. Finally a Forum on Future Direction of Occupational Health which involved speakers from DOSH, MTUC, MEF and MOH.

A lot of latest development and updates were obtained from this year RCOH3. I am looking forward to attend RCOH 4, Insyaallah.

RCOH -conference Day 1

RCOH D1 started with the plenary presetation on Workplace Health Surveillance and The Role of Biological Monitoring by Prof. Dr. Malcolm Sim of Monash University, Australia. The RCOH was officially declared open by the Honourable New Minister of Human Resource, Dato' Dr. Subramaniam and then followed by the Keynote address entitled Occupational Health: Toward a healthy workplace by DG Ministry of Health, Tan Sri Datuk Dr Ismail Merican.
There were 4 concurrence symposiums for the day:
Symposium 1 on Occupational Injuries
Symposium 2 on Occupational Health in healthcare sectors
Symposium 3 on Occupational Health Services and
Symposium 4 on Occupatinal Lung Diseases
The entire sesssions were very informative and update. Amongst the speakers was Prof Dr David Koh of Singapore National University who talked on Emerging Occupational Medical issues- The nano examples.
The Vascular Surgeon from Selayang Hospital, Mr V Pathmanathan touched on Occupational hand injuries.
I met few participants from Sarawak at the conference and bought one book published by SOEM - Case Series in Occupational Medicine.
Poster Presentations from local participants and Exhibition booth from SOCSO, DOSH and few companies make the conference more attractive. The conference was also attended by local experts like Prof. Dr KG Rampal of UKM, Dr Abu Hasan Samad of Exxon Mobile, Dr BJ Singh, Dr G Jayakumar of Petronas BASF, AP Dr M Retneswari of UM, Dr Mohd Nizam of SHELL Malaysia and Dr Jefferelli of SHELL Miri.

My activity in April, 2008

1. 12 - 13 April, 2008 : Giving lectures on Occupational Health at SHO Course organised by  NIOSH SARAWAK, Kuching

2. 16 April, 2008 : Attending lecture on Early Return to Work Program : Challange and Strategies given by Dr B Jagdev Singh at Nestle Sarawak Office

3. 25 April, 2008 : Giving Awareness Talk on Enhancing Productivity via Ergonomics at PPKS/ICATS Kampus Kuching

3rd Regional Conference on Occupational Health - PreConference Workshop

I attended the RCOH3 which started from 3rd April until 5th April at PJ Hilton attended by about 300 participants. There are 3 Pre-conference workshops on Chemical Health Risk Assessment (CHRA), Allergic Dermatoses and Aviation Medicine. It is quite difficult to choose which workshop to attend. Finally after much ponder, I opted to attend aviation medicine in view of the participation of our astronaut Dr Sheikh Muszhafar Shukor(SMS) and Dr Khalid Faiz as the speakers beside other speakers form Institute of Aviation Medicine, RMAF.

Dr Khalid spoke on the physiological effect of microgravity while Dr SMS spoke on his real experiencse in space, to be accurate at ISS (International Space Station).

This workshop covered the whole  aspects of aviation medicine. As the aviation medicine experts said the main issue of aviation to our health is the effect of low pressure level the higher the altitude we fly. A lot of Gas laws such as Boyle and Dalton law were explained as a revision.

Microgravity which means small force of gravity in the space making all mass floating in the air despite of their weight due to no external force acts on the mass. Although the mass floats, there is still the issue of momentum which means every movement must be as slow as possible. The heavier the mass, the higher the impact to the mass if the momentum is bigger. 

The two speakers (Dr Khalid and Astronaut Dr SMS) received over whelming questions from the participants. Among the questions asked was how does astronaut pass motion in space in view of microgravity effect? If you want to know the answer, you can email me....

Disappeared for a while

I am really sorry for not posting in my blog quite a while. This was due to my hectic schedule travelling back to my "kampong" after the passing of my beloved dad. This coming Wednesday, I am going to Kuala Lumpur to attend 3 days 3rd Regional Conference on Occupational Health (RCOH) from 3rd April to 5th April, 2008 at Petaling Jaya, organised by Society of Environmental and Occupational Medicine (SOEM)of MMA.

After the conference, I will update my blog regularly.

testing

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