An Analysis of Occupational Health Management in the Chemical Industry

This report provides an executive summary on occupational health management, specifically focusing on the chemical industry. It highlights the importance of maintaining a safe workplace environment for employees, emphasizing the roles of management and the availability of safety tools. The report identifies occupational hazards, including physical, chemical, biological, and psychological risks, with a particular focus on chemical plant explosions and their detrimental effects. It delves into the causes of such accidents, such as improper storage, inadequate training, and malfunctioning safety valves. The report also outlines legislative provisions like the Work Health and Safety Act and Fair Work Act in Australia, emphasizing employer responsibilities, incident reporting, and worker compensation. It covers risk assessment and management techniques, including identifying hazards, evaluating risks, and implementing control measures to prevent accidents and protect workers. The document explores the types of injuries resulting from industrial accidents. The report concludes by underscoring the importance of proactive measures, risk management, and compensation for victims, advocating for regular inspections and a commitment to employee safety.

Occupation Health Management

Executive Summary
The organizations have to maintain an appropriate workplace environment for their
employees. Workplace safety is considered to be very much important which need to be
provided to the workers. The availability of safety tools and techniques ensures that the
employees are safe within the workplace. The managers of the organization are mainly
responsible to follow the rules and regulations in order to ensure a safe environment. The
employees have the right to work in an appropriate working environment. The workers face
many problems while working in chemical industries. Thus, it becomes a major concern for
them to use safe methods while carrying out their works.
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Table of Contents
Executive Summary...............................................................................................................................1
Introduction...........................................................................................................................................3
Main context..........................................................................................................................................3
Conclusion.............................................................................................................................................6
References.............................................................................................................................................7
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Introduction
Hazards experienced in the workplaces are known as occupational hazards. Occupational
hazards can be classified as physical, chemical, biological and psychological hazards.
Occupational hazards associated with workplace can pose both short term and long term
risks. The main health hazards of chemical industries are burns, explosion, chemical contact,
accidents and inhalation of poison. Explosion and fire incidents are the deadliest industrial
accidents. The explosion in chemical industries releases toxic substances causing injury and
death to a large number of people and damage to the property (Griffin, Ebert, Starke,
Dracopoulos & Lang, 2014). An industrial accident is a major hazard. The industries must
identify the major risks and make installations accordingly. The main purpose of safety is to
protect industrial workers from hazards. The occupational health and safety act provides
procedures that enable dealing with workplace hazard. The occupational health and safety act
was enacted with an objective of providing a safe environment for the people working in the
industries.
Main context
How health hazards manifest itself and cause harm in the chemical industry
Exposure to chemicals and fire incidents can cause detrimental health effects like heart
disease, stroke, and high blood pressure. Impact of a chemical accident is deadly on human
beings and the environment. Chemical plant explosions are mainly caused by misconducts of
the employee or the officers. Lawsuits are filed for resolving disputes over liability claims.
Chemical plant explosion can be caused by a number of reasons like improper storage,
maintenance, insufficient training of the workers and malfunctioning of safety valves
(Cherrie, Howie & Semple, 2010). Chemical plant explosion has the potential of causing
various injuries like damaged ear and retina, punctured wounds in the body, skin burn and
lung damage. The employers are responsible for the safety of the industrial workers. The
management should abide by the safety measures. The occupational safety and health
administration act has made certain measures compulsory to be adopted by the management.
The employer and supervisor are under a responsibility to provide safety equipment to the
workers.
The liability of an explosion can be because of negligence or defective machinery. A claim of
negligence can be sustained in case the occupational health and safety act is violated. A
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product liability claim arises when a crucial product fails and explodes. A manufacturing
defect of the product can be claimed to win a lawsuit. Injuries caused by chemical explosions
can be classified as primary, secondary, tertiary and quaternary (Edelstein, 2010). The
classification is based on the consequences in the human body due to blast wave and blast
wind. Pulmonary injury, suffocation, and pulmonary hemorrhage can cause death after an
explosion. Blast waves cause extensive damages to air-filled and respiratory organs. Blast ear
causes hearing loss and bleeding from the ear. Blast belly causes abdominal pain, vomiting,
and rectal pain. Blast brain causes headache, fatigue, depression, and anxiety. Blast eye
causes swelling, bleeding from eye and blindness. The displaced debris penetrating the
human body through injuries causes secondary blast injuries (Dahal, 2017). When a person is
displaced by air and stuck against another object causing injury or death to that person is
known as tertiary blast injuries. All the injuries that are not included in the above three kinds
of injuries will be placed under Quaternary blast injuries.
Legislative provisions
The Australian people's health, safety, and welfare are protected by the work health and
safety act. The work health and safety act 2011 extends to employees, contractors, trainees,
and volunteers. The scope of the work health and safety act also extends to the general
public. The responsibility of providing primary health and safety is on the person running a
business or undertaking. The duty imposed on such person is of such nature as is reasonably
practicable (Johnstone, 2013). The work health and safety act has also prescribed certain
requirement those are incident notification, consultation with workers, resolving issues and
offenses and penalties. The fair work act of 2009 is the main legislation that governs
Australian employees besides other federal and state legislation. The fair work act determines
the minimum wages of the employees. The occupational safety and health regulation act lays
down the minimum guidelines to be adopted for preventing hazards and ensuring safe
administrative practices in the industries. Regulations lay down minimum standards and
specific standards required to maintain relating to a particular hazard (Izadi, 2018).
Regulations have provisions that govern the granting of license and approval. If an industrial
worker gets injured in course of employment he is entitled to claim compensation from his
employer.
According to work health and safety act 2011, accidents should be recorded in the accident
log for the purpose of claiming the insurance money. The employer is under responsibility to
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report the death or serious injuries that may result in death. The employer must take
reasonable steps to provide adequate rehabilitation facility or compensation to the injured
worker. An industrial accident can be caused by unsafe acts and unsafe working conditions
(Creighton & Stewart, 2010). Unsafe working conditions can be caused by insufficient
lighting of the workplace, excessive noise, slippery surface, exposure to extreme temperature,
inadequate safety measures when working near machinery and machine malfunction. The
unsafe act includes action or failure on the part of the employer that may cause injury. The
cause of the accident can be around or within the workplace. Accidents can be caused by
external factors like fire, toxic gas emission, chemical spills, and radiation (Leka & Sinclair,
2014). Industrial accidents can be caused by internal factors like harmful substances, toxic
chemicals, and human error. Injuries resulting from industrial accidents can be caused by one
or a number of factors operating together. Injuries resulting from industrial accidents may
include fractures, internal injury, superficial injuries, infection, and death. The employer is
protected by the worker's compensation law in lawsuits brought by employees. The employer
is liable in case he had knowledge of the unsafe working condition of the employees but did
nothing to prevent the foreseeable accident.
The injured employee can also seek compensation from the makers of defective and faulty
machinery used in the industries. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration had
recognized certain places that are more prone to explosions. They are plants, oil fields, mines,
and construction sites. The main causes of occupational explosions are chemical oxidation,
improper handling of hazardous material and electrical malfunctions (Kirton & Madunic,
2009). To prevent chemical oxidation chemicals should be stored properly in containers that
prevent oxidation. Exposed chemicals can catch fire and cause an explosion. Electrical
explosions are common in a construction site and electrical plants. Electrical explosions can
be caused by arc flash or short circuit. The employers are under a duty to set up emergency
preparedness system. Without the emergency preparedness system, the consequence of the
explosion will be more. System shutdown and evacuation procedures are included in the
emergency preparedness system. Workers surviving explosions may suffer severe burn
injuries, chemical exposure, and other injuries. The victim is entitled to receive compensation
for treating those injuries. Wage loss and loss of future earning capacity.
Measures were taken by industries to minimize health hazards
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Effective control prevents hazards, injuries, accident and provides safety. To prevent hazard
the employer should take certain steps like engaging employees those who have better
knowledge of hazard causing condition, identifying and evaluating measures that can prevent
hazards, making and implementing hazard control plan and implementing them and
evaluating the helpfulness of the existing measures to prevent hazards (Podgórski, 2010).
Risk assessment and risk management are fundamental principles for preventing and
controlling risk. Risk assessment involves a number of steps. The risk factor and its health
effects had to be identified. The adverse effects had to be clarified and effect-modifying
character has to be developed. Exposure effect and exposure response relationship determines
the severity of the risk. The occupational health physicians hold a central position in this
multidisciplinary endeavour. The contributions of occupational health physicians are
important for identifying the hazards and quantifying the risk (Chinda, 2012). Risk
assessment is done by taking all relevant risk into account and by evaluating the risk with the
safety measures available. The workers have the right to a reduction in accidents provided
that can be done by adopting proper risk assessment and risk management techniques.
Conclusion
Industrial accidents can be prevented by taking appropriate measures. Prevention of
explosion and accident can save numerous lives. Risk assessment and risk management are to
be adopted to prevent health hazard. The victims of such industrial accidents can claim
compensation from their employers provided the injury is caused during the course of
employment. The amount of compensation will be decided by taking into consideration the
gravity of the injury caused to the victim of the accident. The employer is under
responsibility to provide a proper working condition to the employees. The machinery used in
the industry should be inspected at regular intervals to prevent any such explosion or
accident.
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References
Cherrie, J., Howie, R., & Semple, S. (2010). Monitoring for Health Hazards at Work (5th
ed.). Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Chinda, T. (2012). A Safety Assessment Approach Using Safety Enablers and
Results. International Journal Of Occupational Safety And Ergonomics, 18(3), 343-361.
doi: 10.1080/10803548.2012.11076940
Creighton, W., & Stewart, A. (2010). Labour law (6th ed.). Annandale, NSW: Federation
Press.
Dahal, P. (2017). Investing on Occupational Safety and Health. International Journal Of
Occupational Safety And Health, 7(1), 1. doi: 10.3126/ijosh.v7i1.22758
Edelstein, D. (2010). Occupational hazards (3rd ed.). Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press.
Griffin, R., Ebert, R., Starke, F., Dracopoulos, G., & Lang, M. (2014). Business (5th ed.).
Toronto: Pearson Canada.
Izadi, N. (2018). Occupational Health Hazards among Health Care Workers. Public Health
Open Access, 2(1). doi: 10.23880/phoa-16000120
Johnstone, R. (2013). Work Health and Safety and the Criminal Law in Australia. Policy And
Practice In Health And Safety, 11(2), 25-44. doi: 10.1080/14774003.2013.11667788
Kirton, J., & Madunic, J. (2009). Global law (3rd ed.). Farnham: Ashgate.
Leka, S., & Sinclair, R. (2014). Contemporary Occupational Health Psychology (4th ed.).
Hoboken: Wiley.
Podgórski, D. (2010). The Use of Tacit Knowledge in Occupational Safety and Health
Management Systems. International Journal Of Occupational Safety And
Ergonomics, 16(3), 283-310. doi: 10.1080/10803548.2010.11076845
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