Reflective Portfolio on Safety Health and Environment Management

This reflective portfolio discusses the importance of safety measures and strategies in hazardous industries such as oil drilling and marine. It also highlights the significance of product safety and the role of safety management in ensuring the wellbeing of workers. The course on Safety Health and Environment Management has provided the author with knowledge and skills to manage safety and health-related activities in their future profession.

Running head: REFLECTIVE PORTFOLIO ON SAFETY HEALTH AND ENVIRONMENT MANAGEMENT
Reflective portfolio on Safety health and environment management
Name of the student:
Name of the University:
Author note:

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REFLECTIVE PORTFOLIO ON SAFETY HEALTH AND ENVIRONMENT MANAGEMENT
The safety of labourers are compromised despite of precautions and safety measures
adopted by the various industries. Therefore, a full proof planning and strategies are
extremely necessary for ensuring safety of the workers. In oil drilling industries, workers are
exposed to high risk as it involves some of the life threatening procedures and a number of
things could go wrong. The biggest disaster that the offshore industry encountered was the
Deepwater Horizon Blowout on April 2010 (North et al., 2014). The accident involved 11
workers who were declared dead as a result from that event. In my opinion, this disastrous
event lead many people to believe that the safety measures followed in the offshore industry
is not up to the mark and may lead to fatal incidents. In this case, the reason behind the
blowout was the negligence of the BP plc. that lead to the blowout killing 11 people and
creating a long term oil spill disaster (Matejek & Gössling, 2014). However, I believe that the
safety measures and trainings provided in this field of industry is high and a number of
training sessions are provided to the labourers in order to avoid any harm. For instance, the
BOISET training offers all the workers of this industry with the general offshore training and
emergency training in escaping the disasters that the workers might encounter. Along with
this, the workers are provided with Helicopter and Underwater escape training that is
extremely essential and toughest part of the training. The rigorous part of the training ensures
that the workers of this industry are able to escape the scene of vicious event efficiently. The
response team in case of any disaster are quick to act and provide first aid to the labourers.
Another industry that have hazardous effect on its labourers are the Marine industry. One of
the significant disaster that the Marine industry encountered was the Piper Alpha explosion
on July 1988 that resulted 167 death of crewmembers on board (Swuste, Gulijk & Zwaard,
2017). The investigation run by then senior member of Scottish judiciary Lord Cullen
exposed the cause of the tragedy and provided recommendations that were later included in
the safety management, training and regulations (Bennear, 2015). The investigation even

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REFLECTIVE PORTFOLIO ON SAFETY HEALTH AND ENVIRONMENT MANAGEMENT
made a huge contribution in bringing changes such as mandatory use of automatic safety
valves on rigs in order to ensure to cease the flow of hazardous fluids that might cause
explosion. I believe this inclusion in the system benefited the marine as well as the oil drilling
industry immensely as it significantly decreased the risk of explosion caused by toxic and
hazardous fluid leakage. The first case study also highlights the stereotypical discrimination
that exists in such professions. For instance, the number of female professionals in such
industries are extensively low compared to male professionals. The reasons range from a
generalised thinking of the society that female would not be competent enough to deal in
such harsh situations. This conception has lead to gender inequality in almost every
profession including in these industries as well. In my opinion this issue could be eradicated
if the majority of society challenges the shallow thought that have been existent for a long
period of time.
The third case study provides the possible hazards that are more likely to occur in
offshore industries or in other industries such as construction or mining industry. The severity
of these hazards are maximum, as I believe that the range of accidents mentioned in this case
study may lead to life threatening incidents and thus, causing a negative impact on worker’s
health. This might lead to employers abandoning their position in these industries and shift
towards those professions that ensures full safety to a workers health. However, I believe that
proper training and suitable amendments in the required area could ensure wellbeing of a
labourer. In my opinion, bringing a change in the safety measures and the necessary changes
in equipment’s as well would ensure a better functioning that would ultimately secure the
workers’ health. Now, discussing about the fourth and final case study, it highlights the
significance of product safety. The most basic criteria that a company has to fulfil is to ensure
its consumers that the products manufactured are safe. Bringing out a quality product in the
market is a necessary obligation along with building a trustworthy relationship with the

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consumers. Therefore, in order to provide tests and certification of the products for ensuring a
quality of the products, the TUV SUD corporation delivers thousands and thousands of
organisations with certifications, trainings and tests which ultimately makes sure the safety
check of the products manufactured by various organisations and companies (www.tuev-
sued.de, 2018). The significance of the product checks is of highest priority as it may refrain
a possible accident from occurring. In my view, when a company manufactures a product,
everyone involved with the company are responsible for its impact on consumers. The
negative impact could cause fatal accidents, which involves the consumers. For instance, in
this case study, it is mentioned that the over charged battery of a drone caused a devastating
fire in 2016 that involved the death of an individual and was a valued consumer (Huiwen,
2018). Such incidents could bring in grave reputation towards the companies and eventually
deteriorate the profit of it. The job of providing quality products to the consumers and
building trust between the organisation and the consumers benefit both the company as well
as the consumers in the market.
The course that I opted for Safety Health and Environment Management course would
benefit me in my career since the profession that I look forward fall under the category of
hazardous industry (Sousa, Almeida & Dias, 2014). The various safety measures related to
various industries which was thoroughly discussed throughout my course helped me gain
knowledge and made my decision to choose a specific profession in the future (Glendon,
Clarke & McKenna, 2016). The course could provide me with the basic knowledge of safety
measures and potential hazards that I might have to face in my career in future. It also
benefited me with the history of certain regulations that were amended in recent times. This
course has extensively offered instances that how lethal the hazards may occur in various
circumstances. It has even made my choices clear to choose as the various case studies in
described in the course help me critically evaluate the circumstances that may arise in a

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specific industry. For instance, the above-discussed case study gave me the various training
protocols that are involved in an oil drilling industry.
The knowledge that the course offered me helped me gain confidence in managing
any organisation or industry’s safety and health related activities (Sayre, 2014). I acquired the
knowledge of varied laws that are linked with safety and health regulations of a business
organisation. The course even helped me gain knowledge towards the recent amendments
that are based on the safety and health activities that concerns the wellbeing of a labourer.
With the help of the knowledge, I would be able to apply certain approaches that shall help
me deal with the changed policies and regulations regarding the health and safety of products
as well as the labourers associated with an organisation.
In my opinion the ability and passion to work in a certain field will always boost an
individual to work in that field no matter how hard of hazardous circumstances arises.
However, with a proper knowledge and adequate training one could always avoid any fatal
accidents in his or her profession and efficiently complete his or her task. In addition to this
keeping, an optimistic outlook would definitely help me to achieve success in whichever field
I opt for in future (Carver & Scheier, 2014). In addition to this, I would always try to appeal
the customers or consumers with the product or service that I am assigned to deliver.
Customer or consumer’s satisfaction should be kept as highest priority (Pan & Nguyen,
2015). In any profession, it is significant to satisfy the customers or consumers with quality
products and services. Therefore, keeping this in mind I would deliver the task that I would
be assigned with in future. The recent course has changed my mind to join the technical
service corporation such as TUV SUD that ensures the safety of the products manufactured
by a company or an organisation. This industry may not involve the hazardous working
circumstances in its field of work, however, it ensures that other companies follows the safety

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guidelines and qualifies the safety of a product. This enables the safety of the consumers who
would be using the product.
The learnings that I acquired during this course work were useful for me in various
ways. The various case studies that I have to go through during the course helped me analyse
the key faults that lead to huge disasters in various field of work. It even help me detect a
basic ideology that how a minute negligence could lead to a hazardous situation and even
cause fatal outcomes. Prior to the course, I had a belief that providing quality work from an
individual’s end is mandatory. However, after the completion of the course it made me realise
that it is instead mandatory to put a joint effort in providing a quality product or service for
the consumers (Costa, Passos & Bakker, 2014). Some of the case studies suggests the fault of
an entire team lead to the fatal disasters and jeopardised the safety of the labourers. In
addition to this, the course helped me realise that in any field of profession an individual
requires proper and suitable training. In case of hazardous profession such as oil drilling
industry or marine, training plays one of the key roles in an employee’s career as it would
support him or her in dealing with difficult circumstances that might arise in the job (Dupre,
Meixner & Kielty, 2014). However, the course additionally enlightened the fact that training
alone would not help a labourer to escape hazardous situation in distinctive professions.
Along with training the routinely check-up of the equipment’s is necessary for avoiding any
hazardous situations (Strand & Lundteigen, 2016). Therefore, the safety management system
must be updated from time to time in order to adapt with the changing technologies. This will
decrease the rate of fatal circumstances from happening at the workplace.
One of the similarity that was identified from different industries relating hazardous
situations was the negligence from the labourers or workers or a team who are at the site of
work. A minute negligence could lead to hazardous situations (Main, 2014). In addition to
this, the response team’s initiative to take quick action towards a hazardous situation also

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matters in dealing with the circumstances. Another similarity that could be identified in
distinctive industry’s control measures is the investigation procedures that involves critical
analysis of past circumstances that might have occurred. In various industry’s hazardous
situations, an investigation procedure is carried out in order to identify the causes that lead to
the disaster (Shamsuddin, Ismail & Ibrahim, 2015). Later on, the controllable measures are
set depending on the type of industry and the nature of the cause behind that disastrous
situation.
The knowledge that I acquired by studying distinctive industries measures to control
the possible hazardous situation has greatly broadened my knowledge to avoid such hazards
that I might face in my career. A routinely risk assessment is extremely necessary to avoid
any disaster at the site of work. In addition to this, the workers must be trained by
professionals in order to escape hazardous situations. The rescue team must be swift to
respond in case of any emergency occurs at the site of work.
Even though the course that I opted offered me extensive knowledge about the safety
management activities and its significance in various industries. However, if I had to restart
my course once again, I would have maintained a file where I would have compiled the
different industry’s measures to control hazardous situation. This would have helped me keep
a self-track of the varied range of situations and the effective measures to cope with those
situations. This practice would have helped me in my future professional career, as I would
have an access to the compiled files during my course work. In addition to this, I would have
taken various case studies outside the course for instance from newspapers and other online
sources. This would have helped me to gain critical thinking or rather enhance my analytical
skills in hazardous situations. The articles available online would have provided me with
practical measures that were adopted in practical scenarios. A compilation of these measures
would have come in immense importance in securing good grades in my course.

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REFLECTIVE PORTFOLIO ON SAFETY HEALTH AND ENVIRONMENT MANAGEMENT
The Safety Health and Environment Management course proved to be extremely
beneficial for me. I was extremely fond of the various case studies that I had to analyse. In
doing so, I attained knowledge about varied range of safety health policies of various
countries (. The course even offered an in-depth process of necessary steps that should be
taken in a specific situation. It was interesting to know the specific escape measures that
workers of oil drilling industry had to take in case of any disaster happened at the site of
work. The course even helped me to select a specific career option related to safety
management.
This course extensively provided an insight towards the probable health hazards that a
worker might had to face in certain industry. A detailed strategy and measures to deal with
these hazards was included in this course as well (Hoyos & Zimolong, 2014). However, I
look forward to learn and acquire further knowledge related to safety health and environment
management activities. The various online training courses are a great way to enhance my
skills in this particular field of profession. Additionally, the videos available online would
give me a virtual knowledge about the hazards that might occur in various industries. I would
opt to study the Masters course that would further help me acquire knowledge and develop
my environment management skills. I would be able to further develop my skills reading
news articles related to prior disasters that occurred in distinguished industries. The
professional career that I chose is Health and Safety Consultant. In order to land the specific
job I have to sharpen my analytical skills that would help me detect the possible hazards that
a certain industry might face in future. I would also need to focus on my communication
skills since the profession that I have chosen is of a Health and Safety consultant. Therefore, I
would need to give out a thorough strategy to my clients and even have to explain them the
strategies with logical reasoning. Hence, I would require working on my communication

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skills as well. In addition to this, I would have to choose from various training session that
would further accelerate my skills as Health and Safety Consultant.
Reference
Bennear, L. S. (2015). Offshore oil and gas drilling: a review of regulatory regimes in the
United States, United Kingdom, and Norway. Review of Environmental Economics
and Policy, 9(1), 2-22.
Carver, C. S., & Scheier, M. F. (2014). Dispositional optimism. Trends in cognitive sciences,
18(6), 293-299.
Costa, P., Passos, A. M., & Bakker, A. (2014). Empirical validation of the team work
engagement construct. Journal of Personnel Psychology.
Drone batteries left to charge overnight ‘major suspect’ in Parry Avenue fire. (2018).
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Dupre, M., Echterling, L. G., Meixner, C., Anderson, R., & Kielty, M. (2014). Supervision
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Press.
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behavioral strategies and methods (Vol. 11). Elsevier.
Main, J. (2014). Workplace health and safety: Duties owed by fellow trades under the
scaffolding and lifts legislation. Ethos: Official Publication of the Law Society of the
Australian Capital Territory, (231), 26.

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Matejek, S., & Gössling, T. (2014). Beyond legitimacy: A case study in BP’s “Green
Lashing”. Journal of Business Ethics, 120(4), 571-584.
North, E. W., Adams, E. E., Thessen, A. E., Schlag, Z., He, R., Socolofsky, S. A., ... &
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Management. CRC Press.
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Strand, G. O., & Lundteigen, M. A. (2016). Human factors modelling in offshore drilling
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www.tuev-sued.de. (2018). About us. [online] Available at:
https://www.tuev-sued.de/company/tuev-sued-group/about-us [Accessed 9 Aug.
2018].

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