The document discusses environmental health and safety in the workplace. It provides a brief history of environmental health and safety management, noting two major industrial disasters in the 1980s that sparked the development of standards and practices. It then covers three related content areas: (1) the five characteristics of an effective environmental health and safety management system, (2) how industrial engineering can help achieve safety by design through practices like hazard elimination and substitution, and (3) the interdisciplinary nature of occupational safety and health, which draws from fields like design, toxicology, and economics.
The document discusses environmental health and safety in the workplace. It provides a brief history of environmental health and safety management, noting two major industrial disasters in the 1980s that sparked the development of standards and practices. It then covers three related content areas: (1) the five characteristics of an effective environmental health and safety management system, (2) how industrial engineering can help achieve safety by design through practices like hazard elimination and substitution, and (3) the interdisciplinary nature of occupational safety and health, which draws from fields like design, toxicology, and economics.
The document discusses environmental health and safety in the workplace. It provides a brief history of environmental health and safety management, noting two major industrial disasters in the 1980s that sparked the development of standards and practices. It then covers three related content areas: (1) the five characteristics of an effective environmental health and safety management system, (2) how industrial engineering can help achieve safety by design through practices like hazard elimination and substitution, and (3) the interdisciplinary nature of occupational safety and health, which draws from fields like design, toxicology, and economics.
The document discusses environmental health and safety in the workplace. It provides a brief history of environmental health and safety management, noting two major industrial disasters in the 1980s that sparked the development of standards and practices. It then covers three related content areas: (1) the five characteristics of an effective environmental health and safety management system, (2) how industrial engineering can help achieve safety by design through practices like hazard elimination and substitution, and (3) the interdisciplinary nature of occupational safety and health, which draws from fields like design, toxicology, and economics.
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Polytechnic University of the Philippines
College of Engineering Fundamentals to Industrial Engineering
Group 7
Environmental Health
and Safety
Arcilla, Luis Gabriel
Ermitano, Albhie Rhyzaad Lucero, Jessa Plaza Jr., Consolador
Maria Theresa Bongulto
BSIE 1- 4 Environmental Health and Safety
I. Introduction
Quality is a must with regards to the safety of the products and the assurance of integrity
to the word that they live on- it is reflected based on the product that they're selling. This is just a
factor that acknowledges the superficial things that they're advertising, but one thing that needs
to be considered is the environmental health and safety in the workplace. The thought may be
referred to as the holistically preservation of occupational health, safety of the workers and the
environmental aspects that is observed inside the workplace (n.a, 2015).
II. History
The history of the environmental health and safety management started way back in 1985
and founded by the chemical industry's notable catastrophic disasters- the Bhopal disaster and
the Seveso disaster. The first disaster came from the world's prestigious and sophisticated
fashion industry- Milan, Italy. Before its crowning glory of elegance, it went to a serious
problem that affected most of the residence on the northern part of Milan in Seveso. It all started
in a company named ICMESA (Industrie Chimiche Meda Società Azionaria)- a sub-company of
a pharmaceutical company. The disaster struck when one of its plants have turned off its cooling
system, heating the machine and releasing dioxin known as 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzodioxin or
TCDD for short; affecting 37,000 people. Though its effect was not that critical- the animals
didn't survive in the vicinity (Centemeri, 2010, pp. 251-273).
The next disaster sparked during December 3, 1984 in Bhopal, India where a pesticide
company, Union Carbide India Limited (UCIL), started it all. Thanks to the far below standards
and unresponsive government fearing the fall of its economy, it caused a faulty leak in its facility
in which 40 tons of methyl isocyanate gas was released in the air. The tragedy caused 3,800
Indians killed instantaneously- and over half a million Indians died in the aftermath and not
including the livestock that was damaged in the duration which may soar the casualties
(Broughton, 2005).
Because of those catastrophes, the “Responsible Care” was created - a voluntary initiative
under the guardianship of International Council of Chemical Associations (ICCA), expanding
over 50 other countries and over 90 major multinational companies have signed- helping them
implementing standards that is safe and ideal both to the workplace and the workers (ICCA,
2006). Then, general concepts regarding environmental health and safety management became
more evident in the ‘90s and could be found in manuals and trainings such as Occupational
Health and Safety Assessment Series- also known as OHSAS 18001; it is also in International
Organization for Standardization or ISO 14001 (ISHM, 2014).
III. Related Content
Environmental Health and Safety apply in different contexts as to what and how to
implement the regulations and standardizations supposedly practiced. The ability to acknowledge
the proper ways to adapt from hazards due to shortcomings is a must. However, a better outlook
is prevention instead of solution that is why it is important to prioritize systematical processes in
which no harm is done to lives and the environment.
i.
Content form this section respectively came from Environmental Health and Safety Support 2019
Implementation must include the following five characteristics of an effective management
system:
1. Policy Awareness – The EHS Policy represents EHS Support’s commitment to EHS
excellence, at all levels of the organization.
2. Plan – Planning is used to identify potential EHS risks from activities, products and services,
and to evaluate the types of programs and goals to minimize those risks.
3. Implementation and Operation – This part of the management system defines the people,
systems, strategies, resources and structures necessary to meet EHS goals.
4. Review and Measure – The Review and Measure portion is designed to monitor and record,
performance, and implement corrective and preventive actions for continuous improvement. The
ongoing progress towards meeting the requirements of the EHS Management System is assessed
by management. 5. Improve – Process integrated within the EHS Management System to ensure the correction of
program deficiencies and ongoing improvement of performance.
ii.
Content from this section respectively came from Faiz Mohammad Khan, Deputy Manager –
EHS since 2014-present.
Industrial Engineering is the leading factor for building a good Occupational Safety Management
system. Out of all the aspects of Industrial Safety, one fact with which every Engineer will agree
is that “Safety by Design” is the best possible system to provide safer working environment, the
core of which lies in solid engineering.
A sustainable safety system is not just about shouting at the workers for wearing helmets,
goggles and doing work correctly, but it is based on systematic provision of “control measures”
to prevent an accident. This systematic provision is called the “Hierarchy of Control”, which
comprises of 5 steps, as follows:
1. Elimination of Hazard: If there is known hazard to an existing process, our first
approach should be to eliminate it from the process. For e.g. taking tiger as a pet at
home is a big risk, so we should “eliminate” the risk by returning it to forest.
2. Substitution of Hazard: If we cannot eliminate a risk due to process constraints, we
should substitute the risk with a safer alternative. For e.g. one can replace a tiger with
safer dog or cat as pet :)
3. Engineering Control: We can put some kind of safeguard or control on the hazard so
that it doesn’t impact the safety of system. For e.g. putting your pet tiger in a cage or
keeping their tooth and nails blunt.
4. Administrative Control: This means enforcing the workforce to comply with Safety
standards by rewarding and reprimanding. For e.g. Training your tiger to stay inside
cage and training your family members to always keep it tied in leash.
5. Ensuring Personal Protective Equipment: This system comes at bottom of the
hierarchy and involves wearing safeguards such as helmets, goggles, gloves, safety
shoes, safety harness etc. The reason why this can be least relied upon is that it
depends on humans and unfortunately the humans can make more errors anytime. For
e.g. Keep the tiger in open but you yourself wear a body guarding all the time (It’s
tough, right ;)).
So, if you see the first 3 elements of the hierarchy of control, i.e., elimination, substitution and
engineering controlling, you can easily understand that all 3 of them require good engineering
practices, which may be mechanical, chemical, electrical, civil, biotechnology etc. depending on
the industrial process.
How engineering can be utilized for achieving “Safety by Design”:
Some of the crucial methods are as follows-
1. Piping and Instrumentation Diagrams (P&IDs): This is the basis of designing any
system and should be taken very seriously. The P&IDs should be “as built”, which
means that they should depict the existing (or proposed) safety features in process or
facility from initial designing phase. The safety systems may be sprinkler system,
venting units, containment facility and fire hydrant system etc. This is crucial since in later phases of commissioning, the Project team may overlook considering safety
system in facility due to absence in drawings.
2. Process and mechanical interlocks: The interlocking system is always a key factor in
safe operation, specially “when no one is watching or supervising” an operation. The
critical parameters to a system such as temperature, pressure, fluid level or vibration
frequency etc. should always be controlled with interlocking mechanism to ensure
foolproof safety. Proximity sensors are also a good example.
3. Poka Yoke: This Japanese term means “False proofing” in a system or equipment by
which a person cannot make mistake even on total overlooking. Examples are
dedicated fit lock couplings, dedicated designed pins for sockets, dead man’s control at
petrol pumps etc.
4. Machine guarding: Another important method of ensuring incident free workplace is
by ensuring least man-machine interaction by providing zero access guards on a
machine. The guard on a machine should be such that a person’s limbs cannot touch
any sharp or nipping points.
5. Equipment Design Standards: Depending upon the type of risks being handled in the
facility, we should provide the equipment that can withstand the risk. Examples are
flame proof, explosion proof, water proof, shock proof etc. type of equipment based on
engineering standards available.
Safety should be taken as a priority in building any facility from design phase itself, and
Engineering plays a huge role in this aspect.
iii.
INTERDISCIPLINARY NATURE OF OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY AND
HEALTH
Occupational Health and Safety has its foundations in a several disciplines, including
such differing fields as designing, toxicology, the study of disease transmission, medication,
human science, brain research, and financial matters. Basically, it is a multidisciplinary requiring
learning from differing sources to manage the communicating elements of individuals,
innovation, the workplace, and the association of work exercises.
A PUBLIC HEALTH MODEL FOR OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY AND
HEALTH PROTECTION
Figure 1 delineates a general public health approach for improving the safety and health of the
workforce
Levels of the Model
1. Surveillance
- Before we can set priorities on where to apply our restricted resources and create
intervention policies, we need to understand what the risks are and their security and
health implications.
2. Services and protection
- The model's second level describes particular facilities and safeguards to avoid risks
and injuries / illnesses from occurring. It also involves fast and efficient treatment
facilities in the event of injury or disease. For instance, security employees keep track
of state and federal workplace exposure standards demands. The security personnel
then establish a mechanism to enforce the norms through inspections and correction
operations.
3. Professional Awareness
- At the next stage of the model is the need to raise the consciousness of the workplace
experts who have to create safety-related choices such as manufacturing technicians,
accountants, operations managers, and supervisors.
4. Public Awareness
- Workers need to be informed about the hazards and implications of work-related
exposures.
- It is essential that those individuals who can have a direct effect on plant exposures,
such as executives and staff, have the data they need in an readily understandable and
helpful way to make informed decisions that can lead to reductions in negative
exposures.
5. Risk Reduction
- The next step in the model is to reduce risk by controlling or removing recognized
detrimental agents of injury or disease. Risk decrease contributes to the final phase,
which is an improvement in the workforce's health and safety status.
References:
Broughton, E. (2005). The Bhopal disaster and its aftermath: A review. Environmental Health,
4(1). doi:10.1186/1476-069x-4-6
Centemeri, L. (2010). The Seveso disaster legacy. Nature and History in Modern Nature.
Swallow Press, 251-273. Retrieved July 14, 2019.
The History of Environmental Health and Safety. (2015, May 16). Retrieved from
