Technical Papers

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   There should never be another fatality within a confined space. Technologically and intellectually we have it within our capability to prevent fatal accidents from ever occurring in confined spaces. Perhaps what is still needed is for industry to accept the managerial intricacies needed to propel us towards the achievement of that goal.

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When Does a Confined Space Rescue Start?

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   The responsibility for understanding leans more towards the people who will summon the Rescue Team. Unfortunately, few Entrant Teams fully understand the mechanics of a confined space rescue. Many do not realize that with better preparation they could significantly reduce the time taken to rescue a fellow worker in the event of a problem....

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Indicators of performance in Safety Management

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Neil Budworth BSc MSc MRSC Cchem AMIEMgt FIOSH RSP

Consider a simple question.  If I rolled two sixes on some dice during one throw then how many would I be likely to achieve on the next few throws ?  The answer is it is impossible to say.  You are lacking certain information.  You do not know how  many dice I threw, how many sides were on the dice and what numbers were actually written on the dice.  In thinking about the problem we were considering the outcome and not the process that leads to the outcome.

The problem is that for years we have been guilty of looking at out comes of safety management and only looking at part at the process.  With the increased emphasis on the systematic management of safety and on safety management systems in particularly there is a greater need for reliable indicators of performance in safety management.

Many of the indicators used in the past were very effective, but with more formalised systems demanding better data then the traditional indicators may seem to lacking.

Now seems an opportune time to critically evaluate some of the indicators that are in use today.

There is no single measure of safety and health performance that is unambiguous.  For example the research of Zohar¹  can be used to show that the safety performance of a company is correlated with the status of the safety advisor as evidenced by the size of the company car provided.

Could this be used as a measure of safety performance ?  Clearly the safety performance of a company can not be improved by giving the safety officer a larger company car, but there is a clear correlation with safety performance.

This may seem trivial, but its basis is in fact, the size of the company car is a direct indicator of where that person sits in the managerial hierarchy and hence gives an indication of the level of importance that the senior management give to safety.

What then should be measured to give a good indication of safety performance. Performance indicators have been divided by Booth and Amis²  into predictors and direct indicators, accident statistics are an example of direct indicators and items such as safety audit scores are examples of predictors. 

Predictors are upstream measurements of safety performance, i.e. before the event. Unfortunately, predictors correlation with actual events can be poor. For example Booth and Amis² refer to an unpublished report by Eisner³ that there is a poor correlation between safety audit star scores and accident performance in South African mines.

What then should be measured ?  As a starting point in this debate it is worthwhile examining the strengths and weakness of some of the more commonly used measures of safety performance.

The following will be discussed; Accident statistics; Safety audit scores; Counting of near misses; Behavioural measurements; Safety inspections; Accident free time; Accident Costs; Attitudes and Miscellaneous other measures. 

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Terrorism & Violence in Our Schools

Authors:

Daniel E. Della-Guistina Ph.D. 
Chair of the Department of Safety and Environmental Management at West Virginia University
Scott E. Kerr M.S.
Hazardous Materials Administrator for RPS Inc., Pittsburgh
Dawn L. Georgevich M.S.
Associate Member of Anthony Wayne Chapter

   Acts of terrorism and violence in US schools have become more common in recent years. Researchers at West Virginia University developed a survey to determine whether schools located in three West Virginia counties have established plans and procedures to deal with acts of terrorism/ violence. recommendations are then offered, and the need for school-specific programs is emphasized.

   Twelve years ago, when the book 'Planning for Emergencies' was published, terrorist acts were discussed, but little was said about planning and preparing for such incidents (Della-Guistina). Just over a decade later, terrorism and violence have become important issues to schools across the nation.

   To assess whether schools in West Virginia have procedures in place to deal with acts of terrorism/ violence, researchers at West Virginia University developed a 25-question survey; it was distributed to administrators, faculty and staff at six schools - three high schools and three junior high/ middle schools located in three West Virginia counties. The survey was designed to document their knowledge of plans, procedures and responsibilities for preventing and responding to a violent event

   Eight of the 25 questions were used to assess school preparedness; the remaining 17 addressed how the various school districts developed and approved activities designed to prevent or reduce violence committed on school property. Responses were then analyzed to determine whether faculty, staff and administrators possessed the knowledge and skills to successfully implement preparedness and response plans.

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Developing programmes to achieve a healthy society: Creating healthy workplaces in Northern Ireland *

Author:

Dr K. Addley
Northern Ireland Civil Service, Occupational Health Service, Lincoln Building, 27-45 Great Victoria Street, Belfast BT2 7AD, UK

Healthy workplaces help to prevent occupational disease and injury as well as promoting positive healthy lifestyle behaviours. The concept of creating healthy workplaces through workplace health promotion has been identified as a legitimate area of activity for public health policy in Northern Ireland, supporting as it does, the settings approach as a means of improving the health and well-being of the population at large. Benefits accrue to businesses, organizations and individuals from the enhancement of positive healthy lifestyle messages in addition to reinforcing the principles of good occupational health practices. Developing a framework for the creation of healthy workplaces is part of a joint initiative between the Northern Ireland Health Promotion and Health and Safety Agencies. Commitment to delivering the concept is required from all the key players who include: employers, employees, trade union groups and health and safety professionals. A healthy workplace model needs to be created which is flexible and adaptable to suit all types of business and in particular the needs of small businesses which predominate in Northern Ireland. The principles underpinning the Business Excellence Model may be a useful vehicle for delivering workplace health promotion onto an organization's agenda.

Key words: Healthy workplaces; public health policy; workplace health promotion.

Occup. Med. Vol. 49, 325-330, 1999 (Received 17 December 1998, accepted in final form 29 March 1999)


* Based on a presentation given in Belfast on 17th September 1998 at a seminar on Achieving New Government Policy for a Healthy Society.

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Abstract:

Construction workers in the UK are five times more likely to be killed and twice as likely to sustain a major injury or ill health than their counterparts in other industries (New Civil Engineer, January 2001). In the 1999/ 2000 period there were 86 UK construction industry fatalities and in excess of 5000 non-fatal major accidents.

• In a call for a UK national construction health scheme UCATT the UK’s construction workers union recently reported;

• New cases of assessed disablement are highest in construction for asbestosis and mesothelioma - between five and six times the average for all industries,

• Rates for vibration white finger, dermatitis and hearing loss are relatively high,

• More than 1.2 million working days were lost in the construction industry during 1995/6, as a result of work-related ill-health and over 0.6 million as a result of work-related injury, totalling almost 1.9 million days

• Around 7.5% of all those currently or recently working in construction reported suffering from an illness caused by their work.

In the US the National Institution for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) refers to accidents as ‘preventable injuries’, a useful definition to bear in mind when considering dynamic safety management in the construction. The question for our industry is; why do we accept all these deaths, injuries and incidents of ill health? We have the technological and intellectual capability to prevent accidents.

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Risk Management has failed to achieve an acceptable level of workplace safety and it is time to rethink the strategy.  It has failed because the management of risk implies that there is a degree of acceptable risk, consequently for management the task is fundamentally to determine what that degree is and to ensure that activities can be undertaken within acceptable parameters.  In this regard risk management is, at best, an inexact science based on the premise that it is neither practicable nor feasible to have knowledge of the particulars of a process to control the outcomes sufficiently. Alternatively it is viewed as the product of a misconception about the inevitability of unplanned and uncontrolled incidents.

Workplaces are hazardous environments. Some hazards can be eliminated or contained through good engineering design solutions and others, inherent in the process, have to be worked around. The Risk Management model starts off it’s analysis by looking at the hazards, trying to determine the likelihood of the hazards being realized [accidents], and quickly loses sight of what is important because the focus is too narrow.  Whereas the Operational Analysis and Control model does not start with the identification of the hazard, rather it goes to the real starting point; the work operation, and determines from the outset what is needed to achieve a safe outcome. The safety professional and the business manager’s objective must be ‘a safe outcome to a successful work operation’ and in that there is a need to start to look at anything that will thwart the achievement of that aim.

Some safety practitioners argue that, “there are always going to be injuries and deaths in the workplace". However accepting this fatalistic approach to safety as an inevitable outcome sets the expectations and limitations. It is only possible to get closer to an acceptable standard of safety if it is defined at the outset and the operation is properly managed to allow it to be achieved. There can only ever be one standard, no matter how you dress it up, namely that the product or service is produced in a manner that will not injure workers or others who come into contact with it. That straightforward position, extended, includes no damage to the environment or to profitability. In other words it is not unreasonable to consider all the potential losses and put the proper controls in place prior to commencement.  Proper management of the entire operation requires that you define your operational outcome, provide the resources and review to consider the possibility of failure, prior to commencement, during the process and at various other stages. Operating to any less a standard will only guarantee a negative outcome and ensure that accidents continue. 

If the safety, not the risk, is managed and we can control the safety of the operation then it does not matter how hazardous the environment is since the operation itself is non-hazardous and the outcome will always be non-injurious.

This paper challenges the concept of risk management itself and argues that although techniques may improve, risk management inevitably relies on subjective judgments that cost the United States billions of dollars annually, as a direct result of safety, health & environmental failures.  This paper argues for a paradigm that shifts the onus from managing risk to managing the operation.  It presents a model of operational management where control of the operation flows from the essential foundations of knowledge and understanding of each of the integral elements of the overall operation.

The paper also examines the relationship between the core participants in the production process, worker, contractor, client and legislature, and argues that effective operational management necessarily requires each to adopt a perspective that acknowledges and acts upon the duties and obligations each owes to the others. These obligations extend to their need to be fully cognizant of the operation and competent in the exercise of their particular role.

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Engineers and designers must design construction projects that can be built, used, maintained and eventually demolished in a manner that does not cause harm to construction personnel, end users, maintenance operatives, demolition specialists, and others who may come into contact with the project. On the interface between client, designer, engineer and contractor this requires the acceptance of project objectives that include tasks/ activities being completed on time and in a manner that does not cause harm to the employees, customers, other non-employees, or the company.

Some hazards can be eliminated or contained through good engineering design solutions and others, inherent in the process, have to be worked around.  In all cases it is essential to identify at the earliest opportunity what hazards exist, the harm that can result and how it does so.

Fundamentally this necessitates a full analysis of the design safety issues and the development of appropriate controls to ensure that work operations during the construction phase proceed in a manner that make certain that people, plant and property are protected from harm prior to, during and after the work operation, regardless of the nature of the hazards faced. 

The design safety analysis and control process (below), derived from the OAC model integrates all aspects of the project process including those associated with the design elements in construction.  Underpinning this approach to safety is the elimination of risk through the absolute control of all stages of the process.

The model suits the requirements of European Council Directive 92/57/EEC on the implementation of minimum safety and health requirements at temporary or mobile construction sites with particular reference to project preparation.

There are three stages to the design analysis and control model as follows

Stage 1 - Analyse the Design
Stage 2 - Manage the Project
Stage 3 - Effectiveness Review

Corporate Governance and the Safety Professional

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Management of risk is increasingly becoming both an opportunity and challenge for companies today. The Combined Code of Corporate Governance (The Combined Code), published initially in 1998, following the work of Cadbury, Greenbury and Hampel, establishes principles for corporate governance and risk management. Although many organisations and multinationals have attempted to actively manage business risk in the past, the absence of a widely accepted set of general principles resulted in a number of piecemeal approaches to managing business risk.

Prevention - A Universal Responsibility

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Abstract:

Effective leadership reflects the organisations values and beliefs in a way that faces up to and deals with internal and external pressures. Organisations that are good at managing OSH create an authoritative, multi-directional, leadership structure to maximise the contribution of competent individuals and groups in the delivery of successful prevention and loss control programs.

 “Prevention” derives from both the common law and statutory duties of care that, in the specific relationships we establish, we are obligated to act in a manner that will not cause harm to others, whether by design or through negligence.  The courts and the legislature have defined and interpreted what those duties and concomitant responsibilities are. This paper makes the case that the simple commandment, “thou shalt not harm…” imposes specific responsibilities on everyone involved in work relationships where others are affected by their actions.

In particular it will be argued that  “Prevention” is a universal responsibility to be competently exercised by different partners in the stakeholder framework; statutory, company, contractor and supplier. With reference to the Operational Analysis and Control methodology this paper will further demonstrate that this universal responsibility can be exercised effectively within the matrix of authority extant in any given company, contingent upon authority being addressed as an essential constituent of responsibility.

Finally the authors will present the evidence of how the application of a dynamic approach to operational analysis and control involving client-supplier relationships has engendered effective leadership and management resulting in enhanced prevention strategies.

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Roads Service is an agency of the Department of the Environment for Northern Ireland, responsible for over 24,500km of public roads.  Roads Service’s unique position in the United Kingdom and Ireland as the region’s sole road authority gives it the ability to implement consistent and cost-effective practices. 

Roads Service's overall aim is to ensure the provision of a safe and effective road network throughout Northern Ireland (NI), recognising the need to protect the quality of the environment.

Roads Service employs 1035 professional, technical and administrative staff and  950 direct labour workers.  The workforce is involved in a wide range of work activities, each with its own particular hazards and risk control measures.  It is important, therefore, that the safety controls identified through risk assessment are implemented in a way that promotes an improved level of safety across the organisation.

Since 1997 Roads Service has completely revised its approach to safety.  The resulting system, embracing many of the principles of the International Quality Standard (ISO9000), is exceptional within the NI public sector and perhaps even within NI industry.  This paper addresses the many positive aspects facing an organisation taking this approach.

 Accident reduction, Partnerships, Plain speaking, Quality approach, Safety management systems.

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This paper was presented at Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (Ireland Branches) 40th/ 25th Anniversary Conference (26 September 2007) at Slieve Russell Hotel, County Cavan.

Philip McAleenan MSSc FInstLM Cert. L. Member ASSE (Managing Partner, Expert Ease International)

Abstract:

Is there anything so elusive or thought provoking as defining competence? Let’s start with this thought; “every worker is competent”. In fact let us go one stage further and say that everyone is competent. We can explore definitions later, but it important to acknowledge this fact. Now why would you imagine that to be so when the debate up to now has been about taught competence? However what of reasoning, integrity, honesty, creative thinking, visualising. Are these natural attributes not also an essential element of competence?

From the point of its conception a child has the ability and the instinct to survive. For that to happen effectively he needs to find nourishment, warmth, comfort and protection, which he gets from his mother. In those early days through to some period of months after its birth the child is totally dependent on his mother to provide for all of his needs, but eventually there comes a time when the child starts to talk, walk and develop the skills needed to survive as an independent person. As the child grows the degree of dependence he has on his parents, his teachers and his mentors diminishes. And so the journey is one from total dependence through to complete independence of thought and of deed.

In order to accept this it is necessary to acknowledge some basic truths about competence. The authors are happy to explore the skills, knowledge and ability aspect of the competence definition but first let’s get to the core. Is it possible that the natural instinct to survive is a core tenet of competence? And if this is so then at a point where individuals do not possess all of the skills and resources needed to survive there is a level of dependence on others to provide assistance; the child and his mother; the new student and his teacher; new employee and her colleagues.

But as the individuals’ skills, knowledge and ability grow their level of competence grows to a point where they can perform fully in their chosen occupation with confidence. And it is just as essential that as this journey progresses that the dependency on others will and must be allowed to diminish. Creating a false degree of dependency affects an individual’s ability to achieve their full competence potential.

Just for one second consider how well an animal reared in captivity would survive in the wild.

Competence, Authority, Independence, Motivation, Skills, Knowledge, Ability, Capability, Responsibility.

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