Occupational Health and Safety | Study

Running Head: OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH AND SAFETY
OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH AND SAFETY
Name of the University:
Name of the Student:
Author Note:

1OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH AND SAFETY
Task 1 Reflection:
1.
Accidents occurring in the workplace can be coined by the term workplace accidents.
Last summer while working on my part time job, I had faced a very serious accident, which
actually had become one of the grave reasons of my life long back pain. Slips, falls and trips are
considered as one of the most valid reasons of causing personal injuries. While going through my
night shift duties, I was on rounds visiting the patients. On the way to the corridor, the floor was
getting swept. The whole floor was wet and slippery with soap water and there was no presence
of board or any sign, which could have determined or warned me of the respective hazard.
Following this as soon as I stepped on the floor, I completely slipped, making me fall in a very
bad manner. My back was badly hurt along and the heavy fall had completely affected L3 and L5
region.
2.
Slipping or spilling is one of the most common but can become of the most grave reasons
for serious conditions. The reason due to which I had tripped was completely because of the lack
of following essential protocols along with the safety measures. These kind of accidents can be
clearly avoided if the safety measures are placed properly. The sweeper while sweeping the floor
or the hospitality department could have made it clear to the employees or the people assigned to
work to place boards whenever necessary and that they should be clearly not put soap water on
the hospital floor and leave the work premises for other work. The scenario in my case projects
that they were negligent in ensuring a safe working environment for their employees. This kind

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of hazards can be totally avoided with the use of proper hazard preventive measures and with
providing adequate education regarding the work health hazards to the workers.
Task 4 Answer:
1.
The case of Westray coal mine (Tucker, 2016) is considered as one of the milestone
cases, which had been very helpful in forming the rules regarding how the occupational health
should be maintained along with the implementation of the safety rules and marking the
violations occurring in providing safety in Canadian law. In the year May 9th of 1992, at 05:20
am, a huge explosion occurred in the Westray coal mine, which resulted in the death of 26
miners. Even though more than 170 mine rescue workers were saved with extensive application
of rescue efforts, the explosion pointed out clearly the loop holes in the Canadian law to provide
safe work environment for the workers to work in. The case was investigated by Justice Peter
Richard and he mentioned in his final report The Westray Story: a Predicatble Path to Disaster,
that the disaster had been a eye opener for the people of the community and that if there were
ample amount of precautions taken, the total disaster was more likely preventable. The report
also stated about the reasons due to which the disaster took place in the first place. The report
also focused on the style undertaken by the management to emphasize more on the production
rather than looking into the safety of the workers or the work environment. Justice Richard also
mentioned about the fact that the workers were over worked by making them work for a 12 hours
shift and were given no required training for performing safe mining procedures. The supervisors
present were also without any authority to correct the hazardous conditions or control the
shortcuts taken by the workers to gain more productivity. Rules and regulations were violated