Staying Safe at Work: Sunway Shorts

By Xiaojun Ho and Chong Ken Chuah

Organisations that lack a proper occupational safety and health practitioner or system are vulnerable workplaces. Think of your organisation as a football team and the occupational safety and health practitioner as your goalkeeper. You could have the best players on your team but without a goalkeeper, your team will be "battling" without the last line of defence.

 

Staying Safe at Work: A Guide to Occupational Safety & Health provides an insight into the various theories on how accidents occur, the establishment of relevant laws and organisations, and the current applications of workplace safety measures. With case studies drawn from the authors' experience, this book also provides a brief overview of Malaysia's laws and practices related to workplace safety and dedicates a chapter to mental health management in the workplace written by Dr Alvin Ng Lai Oon, Founding President of the Malaysian Society of Clinical Psychology.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Sunway University Press
• Release date: Oct 23, 2020
• ISBN: 9789675492419

Xiaojun Ho

HO XIAOJUN is a Registered Safety and Health Officer and Certified Environmental Professional in Scheduled Waste Management (CePSWaM) in Malaysia. She obtained her Master of Environmental Engineering from Universiti Putra Malaysia. She is the lead implementer of ISO 9001, ISO 14001, ISO 45001, and Corporate-related OSH matters in her current organisation and has industry experience in education, marketing, and the service sector.

Book preview

Copyright © 2021 by Sunway University Sdn Bhd

Published by Sunway University Press

An imprint of Sunway University Sdn Bhd

No. 5, Jalan Universiti

Bandar Sunway

47500 Selangor Darul Ehsan

Malaysia

press.sunway.edu.my

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All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, now known or hereafter invented, without permission in writing from the publisher.

eISBN 978-967-5492-41-9

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Perpustakaan Negara Malaysia Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

Ho, Xiaojun

Staying Safe at Work: A Guide to Occupational Safety & Health / Ho Xiaojun, Chuah Chong Ken.

(Sunway Shorts)

Mode of access: Internet

eISBN 978-967-5492-41-9

1. Industrial safety.

2. Industrial hygiene.

3. Industrial safety—Law and legislation.

4. Industrial hygiene—Law and legislation.

5. Electronic books.

I. Chuah, Chong Ken. II. Series.

III. Title.

658.382

Edited by Sarah Loh

Designed by Rachel Goh

Illustrated by Ho Xiaojun

Typeset by Helen Wong

Cover image: Lera Efremova/Shutterstock.com

Image used under licence from Shutterstock.com

Preface

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A typical organisation comprises numerous departments. There is a sales team to sell, a marketing team to promote, and an operation team to produce. An organisation is also supported by other departments in the areas of finance, legal, and human resources. Yet, an often-overlooked area of concern in many organisations is occupational safety and health, or OSH in short.

OSH is generally concerned with employee welfare in terms of employees’ health as well as safe working conditions and practices. OSH also looks at anticipating and preventing health or work hazards arising in or from the work environment. You can think of OSH practitioners in organisations as the goalkeeper in football. You can have the best forwards, midfielders, and defenders but without a goalkeeper, your team will be battling without the last line of defence.

In the workplace, not having an OSH practitioner or a proper OSH management system is similar to not having any preventive measures to safeguard your employees from possible harm and danger. If you could relate your organisation’s current OSH status as a team without a goalkeeper, then you have picked up the right book.

With profit being the main objective of many organisations, OSH activities could be seen as a long-term investment that incurs costs first without bringing in immediate financial gains. In smaller and medium-sized businesses, they might not have the knowledge, resources, or manpower to invest in OSH activities. There is also a negative perception that OSH-related audits and inspection by the government agencies are about finding faults in an organisation.

There are two things we need to change in how we view OSH. Firstly, we need to prioritise OSH and see it as essential to any business. Secondly, we need to see OSH as the responsibility of everyone, from top management right down to ground-level employees. OSH personnel are there to guide organisations in the right direction by providing advice and the know-how in OSH implementation. Their plans and activities for a safe and healthy workplace, however, would not work if everyone is not onboard with their goal, particularly if the top management itself does not champion or prioritise OSH.

From our years of experience as OSH practitioners, we believe that improving the overall safety culture begins with education and awareness—which is how this book came to be. This book aims to provide a preliminary understanding of OSH in terms of its history, theories, and principles. It also provides a brief look into the development and practice of OSH legislation in Malaysia. Ultimately, this book stresses on the importance of having a proper OSH management system in an organisation and how OSH is a responsibility shouldered by everyone in the organisation.

The final chapter in this book highlights the importance of mental health management in the workplace and what organisations can do to support their employees. It has been specially written by Dr Alvin Ng Lai Oon, Professor and Head of the Department of Psychology at Sunway University, Malaysia.

This book serves as an introductory reference to the field of OSH. Whether you are new to this field or have been an OSH practitioner for years, this book offers new insights into current OSH practices which focus more on improving occupational safety management activities such as learning from accident models (understanding root causes), planning (expecting and responding to the unexpected), and managing changes in the workplace effectively.

Chapter 1: The History of OSH

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You might be surprised to know that occupational safety and health (OSH) measures have been around since ancient Mesopotamia (circa 2000 BC). Of course, early attempts to encourage a safer workplace revolved around punishments: an eye-for-an-eye concept. In Babylon, Hammurabi the king developed a code of law that covered everything from family laws to civil and criminal laws. Known as the Code of Hammurabi, this code of law contained clauses that protect the welfare of citizens and to deter them from harming each other. The types of punishment imposed on wrongdoers are based on their social status. Some of the clauses are as follows:

•  Clause 196: If a man has caused the loss of a gentleman’s eye, his one eye shall cause to be lost

•  Clause 199: If he has caused the loss of the eye of a gentleman’s servant or has shattered the limb of a gentleman’s servant, he shall pay half his price

•  Clause 206: If a man has struck a man in a quarrel, and has caused him a wound, that man shall swear I do not strike him knowing and shall answer (be responsible for) the doctor

•  Clause 213: If he has struck a gentleman’s maidservant and caused her to drop that which is in her womb, he shall pay two shekels of silver

•  Clause 214: If that maidservant has died, he shall pay one third of a mina of silver

The Code of Hammurabi was just the beginning. During 400 BC, physician Hippocrates warned employees in the mining industry about the toxicity of lead, which could result in anaemia, colic, neuropathy, nephropathy, and sterility. He also wrote about a shipmaster who suffered from the complications of tetanus after having his right index finger crushed by an anchor. The shipmaster experienced lockjaw and opisthotonos (spasm of the back muscles), and eventually passed away within two weeks. In AD 100, Roman scholar Pliny the Elder recorded the perceived health risks faced by those working with zinc and sulphur. These are some examples of records that indicated early awareness of OSH.

This awareness became more apparent in later years, particularly in the mining industry. In 1473, physician Ulrich Ellenborg recognised, identified, and reported on the diseases and injuries suffered by gold miners which included the toxicity of carbon monoxide, mercury, lead, and nitric acid. In 1556, German scholar Georgius Agricola published De Re Metallica (or On the Nature of Metals) in which he described the mining industry as based on his field research. For nearly 200 years the book stood as the authoritative text on mining engineering, which included discussions on ventilation in the mines, protection of employees, mining accidents, and diseases associated with the occupation. In the book, Agricola also described ways to improve the working conditions of the mines.

In 1700, De Morbis Artificum Diatriba (or Diseases of Workers) was published by Bernardino Ramazzini, the father of occupational medicine. This book was the first comprehensive collection on occupational diseases, outlining the health hazards of irritating chemicals, dust, metals, and other abrasive agents encountered by employees across 52 different occupations. Ramazzini saw a connection between the health of employees and their working environment, and advocated physicians to take more notice of their patients’ occupation. In addition, he realised that health issues did not always stem from poor working conditions but also the work tasks themselves (i.e., prolonged bad posture).

These are just some examples that demonstrate how early the ideas of OSH came about and how they have progressed—from the Code of Hammurabi in 2000 BC to Ramazzini’s book in early 18th century. However, these early records were either a focus on compensation methods for affected employees or merely theoretical discussions on workplace hazards and issues. Actual law enforcement that forced entire industries to change the way they operate only came about a century later.

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Global OSH Organisations

The direct implementation of practical OSH measures to protect employees’ health started at the beginning of the 19th century during the Industrial Revolution. Compared to agricultural activities, employees in industrial settings worked longer hours and in harsher conditions, which led to more workplace fatalities or work-related illnesses. As a result, employees were beginning to demand for safer and healthier workplaces. In 1824, Trade Unions were formed in Great Britain to improve working conditions and employees’ rights particularly those related to working schedules, the protection of female employees, and child labour. In 1840, a Royal Commission was established to investigate the working conditions of the mining industry. The Commission’s findings published in 1842 described accidents, brutality, lung diseases, long hours, and highly dangerous and adverse working conditions to be the norm. The Mines Act 1842 was therefore introduced to address these findings.

In 1893, female factory inspectors were appointed under the provisions of the Factory Act 1833 to investigate the working conditions of female employees and enforce OSH practices. May Tennant was the first-ever female inspector appointed and oversaw OSH issues that were pertinent in female-dominated trades such as laundries and small workshops. Female factory inspectors eventually grew in numbers and contributed to the improvement of working conditions for women labour in Great Britain.

The first international scientific and professional association, the Permanent Commission on Occupational Health, was established in 1906. Now known as the International Commission on Occupational Health (ICOH), it remains the largest, non-governmental organisation in the OSH field with 2,000 members across 105 countries.

In 1919, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) was created as part of the Treaty of Versailles that ended World War I with the aim of maintaining social justice