Report: Occupational Health and Safety in Asbestos Removal Industry

This report delves into the critical aspects of occupational health and safety within the context of asbestos removal, highlighting the potential hazards workers face and the importance of implementing effective safety measures. It examines sources of information for understanding workplace health risks, details the health monitoring process, and proposes additional monitoring strategies for identifying potential hazards. The report outlines strategies for risk identification and assessment, emphasizes the importance of consultation with workers, and describes the process of developing and planning safety measures. Furthermore, it discusses implementation strategies, the need for regular review and evaluation, and the importance of information sharing and worker involvement. The report also touches upon the application of relevant health and safety legislations, concluding that a comprehensive and proactive approach is essential for managing health and safety issues in the asbestos removal industry.

Running head: OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH AND SAFETY
Occupational Health and Safety
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Executive Summary
The study mainly focuses on the work place hazards that can affect the health of the workers in
the work place. In this study, the effect of hazards like asbestos are discussed. In addition to this,
the relevant legislation, role of workers in making work policies are also highlighted. Moreover,
it is observed that, the direct involvement of the workers in forming the safety policy can
encourage the worker in maintain the safety policy in the work place.

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
Source of Information......................................................................................................................3
Health Monitoring Process..............................................................................................................3
Additional Monitoring.....................................................................................................................4
Strategies..........................................................................................................................................4
Consultation Method.......................................................................................................................5
Process of Developing and Planning...............................................................................................5
Implementation Strategies...............................................................................................................6
Review and Evaluate.......................................................................................................................6
Information Sharing.........................................................................................................................7
Involvement of Workers..................................................................................................................7
Application of Knowledge...............................................................................................................8
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................8

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Introduction
The work place safety issue is a serious area of concern in world along with Australia. It
is very important to secure the safety of the workers in the workplaces as they are directly
exposed to many type of hazards that are related to the work place. There should be appropriate
strategies in order to evaluate the results of those factors on the worker’s health. Moreover, those
strategies should be implemented in a proper way and after the implementation, the strategies
should be reviewed whether, they are effective or not. In this report, the work place hazards of an
asbestos industry is discussed and along with this, the safety issues, implementation of those
strategies, effectiveness of those strategies are also discussed.
Source of Information
The information that are related to the worker’s health in the workplace can be found
from the official statistics reports of the Safe Work Australia. The detailed injury statistics,
fatality statistics, disease statistics, injury related to the specific occupation can be found from
the statistics report of the Safe Work Australia. In order to communicate, multicultural
communication skills and evaluation skills can be used so that the information and data can be
collected from the workers. Those data can be used in future for the preparing safety measures
for protecting the worker’s health (Safe Work Australia 2019).
Health Monitoring Process
For the monitoring of the worker’s health in a workplace there are a few things that are
needed for the monitoring process. They are-
 The relevant person should know about the primary understanding of the application of
the health monitoring process in order to identify problems of the workers.

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 Should have appropriate knowledge on factors that have severe impact on the work
related health and safety and also about their potential effects of those factors.
 Knowledge about exposure standards of hazardous chemical and particulate matter such
as asbestos.
 Policies and WHS act of the organization
 The impact of the hazardous particle on the worker’s health and their costs and benefits.
 The process of implementation of the policies in the work place.
 During the monitoring process the above factors would be required (Safe Work Australia
2019).
Additional Monitoring
The need for additional monitoring has been established through the hazard
identifications and during the hazard identification the following steps can be followed-
 In the first step of the hazard identification, the workplace should be inspected
regularly by walking around the work place regularly. The process of working
process of the workers should be monitored.
 The use of equipment and the chemicals that are used should be inspected.
 Evaluation of the workplace should be performed whether the workers are exposed to
any kind of risks related to health and safety of the workers.
 The effectiveness of the equipment that are used by the workers in the workplace
(OSHA 2019).

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Strategies
The strategies for identifying risks that can harm the worker’s health are as
follows-
 Identification of the hazards that is the type of hazards. Generally hazards can be
of 4 types. They are physical work environment related hazards, work design and
management related hazards, material related hazards and work performance
related hazards.
 The next strategy is to assess the risks of hazards. In this method, the evaluation
of the likelihood, severity of the harm should be assessed.
 In the next step, the control methods of the hazards should be identified and
required action should be taken.
 In the last step, the effectiveness of the control measures should be evaluated
(OSHA 2019).
Consultation Method
The consultation is very important for identifying risks and hazards among the workers in
a work place. The workers should be directly approached as a part of the consultation process.
However, if the workers are represented by a health and safety representative, then the
representative must be included in the consultation process. The process of consultation involves
the information sharing, taking the views of the workers, taking their view into account while
taking any decision regarding health care and safety of the worker (Safe Work Australia 2019).

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Process of Developing and Planning
The planning and development of the measures in order to secure the work place safety
in a workers, a few steps can be followed. At first, the severity of the harm should be estimated
and then the type of harm should be identified. In addition to this, it should be also evaluated
whether the hazard can cause death or not. The factors that can influence the severity of harm
should also be evaluated and during the policy making, the effect of those factors should be
minimized. After that, from the previous data, the numbers of previous accidents and injuries
should be evaluated. In the policy, there should be some measures that can minimize those
accidents and injuries. The number of people who are exposed to the hazards should be counted
and such measures will be formed that can reduce the number of exposed people. During the
policy making of the policy those steps can be followed (OSHA 2019).
Implementation Strategies
The process of implementing the controls in a work place will cause changes in the
method of work that will be different from the current procedures. The strategies for
implementing the safety measures are as follows-
 A newly designed work procedure should be developed so that the worker can
understand the new strategy and method of working and along with this the
risks should be documented so that minimized risks can be assessed.
 The workers should be trained that will allow the worker to perform the tasks
in a safer way. However, the training and instruction should be provided in a
way that the workers can easily understand the instruction of new working
method.

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 There should be supervision as per the level of risk and a risk register should
be maintained for future (Safe Work Australia 2019).
Review and Evaluate
In order to review the control measures, a few steps can be followed and that are-
 The supervisor and managers should supervise the control measures in a
regular manner.
 In order to maintain the plant and equipment, regular inspection and
testing of the equipment should be executed.
 Information related to hazards should be updated in a regular manner.
Regular review of the work place and consultation with the workers are also
required for reviewing the control measures (Safe Work Australia 2019).
Information Sharing
During the review process of the measures taken for minimizing the risks in the
workplace, the information related to the accidents and hazards are required. In addition, the
information of the cases of injuries and diseases related to the work place hazards are needed.
The cases of injuries and accidents after the implementation of the new measures also required in
order to evaluate the measures that are implemented in the work place (Safe Work Australia
2019).
Involvement of Workers
The consultation process can encourage the involvement of all the individuals in the
work place safety measures and initiatives as the process of consultation involves the workers

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directly into process of the policy making. Moreover, there direct involvement allow them to
take part in the development of the new initiatives that are made for minimizing the risk factors
in a particular work place. Their direct participation encourage them to involve more in this
procedure (Safe Work Australia 2019).
Application of Knowledge
The application of the work health and safety legislations in the work place is very
crucial. The Occupational health and Safety (OHS) legislations should be accessed and then the
knowledge of those legislation can be applied in order to identify OHS legal requirements in the
workplace. In addition to this, as a part of the legislation application, the duty of care
arrangements should be identified and the consequences of breaching policies should also be
presented to the authority so that no one will breach those policies (Australian Government
2019).
Conclusion
It can be concluded that, the workers are exposed to various hazards like asbestos in their
work place and there are various legislation for maintaining the work place safety and health
condition of the work place. With proper application of those knowledge and using various
safety method, the health and safety issue of the workers can be managed.

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References
Australian Government., 2019. Apply knowledge of OHS legislation in the workplace.
Training.gov.au. Available at:
https://training.gov.au/TrainingComponentFiles/BSB07/BSBOHS301B_R1.pdf [Accessed 13
Jan. 2019].
OSHA., 2019. Hazard Identification and Assessment | Occupational Safety and Health
Administration. Osha.gov. Available at: https://www.osha.gov/shpguidelines/hazard-
Identification.html [Accessed 13 Jan. 2019].
Safe Work Australia., 2019. Safework.nsw.gov.au. Available at:
https://www.safework.nsw.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0012/50070/How-to-manage-work-
health-and-safety-risks-Code-of-Practice.pdf [Accessed 13 Jan. 2019].
Safe Work Australia., 2019. Statistics and research. Safe Work Australia. Available at:
https://www.safeworkaustralia.gov.au/statistics-and-research [Accessed 13 Jan. 2019].