Comprehensive Report: Occupational Injury and Illness in the Workplace

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of occupational injuries and illnesses, examining their causes, impacts, and the various factors that contribute to them. It delves into the significance of these issues as public health concerns, exploring the physical and psychological harm caused by workplace environments and the potential for long-term disability. The report highlights historical, political, economic, and social determinants of health that influence occupational injury and illness, offering insights into the evolution of workplace safety measures and regulations. It also details community initiatives aimed at improving workplace safety, using the example of Holy Cross Laundry (HLC) to illustrate practical strategies such as training programs, communication channels, and health care services. The report emphasizes the importance of recognizing and addressing safety issues to protect both employers and employees, and it underscores the need for proactive measures to create healthier and safer work environments.

Occupational injury and
illnesses

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
LITERATURE REVIEW ...............................................................................................................1
Occupational injury and illness as public health issues ..............................................................1
Significance of the issue .............................................................................................................1
Causes occupational injury and illness........................................................................................2
Impact of occupational injury and illness....................................................................................3
BACKGROUND INFORMATION................................................................................................3
Historical information..................................................................................................................3
Political information....................................................................................................................3
Economical information...............................................................................................................4
Social information........................................................................................................................4
COMMUNITY INITIATIVE .........................................................................................................5
CONCLUSION ...............................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES ...............................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
Occupational illness and injury is a condition or injury which is caused by exposure in
workplace to chemical, physical or biological agents and due to which normal physical and
psychological mechanism of an individual get affected and health of a worker is affected (Green
& et.al., 2019). This essay will mainly focus on determinants of work related injury or health
risk, factors that mainly impact's worker's health and capabilities of being employed. This essay
will also focus on critical analysis of occupational health issue and injury, initiatives taken to
improve and address workplace injury and illness. Addition to this, this essay will also explore
historical, political, economic and social determinants of health that will either affect or improve
occupational injury or illness.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Occupational injury and illness as public health issues
According to Rappin, Wuellner & Bonauto, (2016) occupational injuries are known as
the physical impairment or the psychological harm caused to an individual due to working
environment or the condition. The work related accidents can even make individuals disabled for
entire life. Thus, it is very essential that the issue must be addressed and considered as public
health issues. Employment is one of the basic necessity for the survival and thus for every
occupation associated illness or injuries must be taken into account so that communities can be
prevented from the life long damage to their health. As per the view of Weaver & et.al., (2015)
occupational injuries can results from occupational hazards, manual handling or heavy
equipments, inadequate safety training and poor ergonomics. Since employment and jobs are
integral part of the society, work safety not only affects the employees but also has significant
and life long impact on the families of employees, society as well as communities living in the
area near work site.
Significance of the issue
Tadesse & Israel, (2016) stated that occupational illness can make individuals highly
vulnerable to chronic diseases. The unfavourable work condition and lack of adequate safety
approaches not only causes accidents which can harm physical functionalities but can also affect
the functionality of organs. However, the issue is not considered seriously by the employers in
order to avoid additional cost in management of such programs. On the other hand the lack of
awareness among employees and communities makes them vulnerable to occupational injuries.
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Thus, there is need that suitable community initiatives must be adopted and implemented so that
occupational injuries can be eliminated and safe and healthy work environment can be provided
to individuals. The safe work practices are fundamental right of individuals and thus this health
issue must be given priority so that suitable interventions can be used.
(Source: Lane, Collie and Hassani-Mahmooei, 2016)
Causes of occupational injury and illness
According to Gray & Collie, (2017) It is important to focus on an individual's work life
as it can directly impact an individual's health in various ways. Workplace injury or illness can
be caused due the improper working environment or can also be caused due to non working
environment as well. Non work related causes can be: inadequate amount of sleep, excessive
amount of work and many more. Work related causes can be lack of knowledge of equipments
i.e. how to use an equipment, what are the safety conditions that should be kept in mind by the
workers, how many hours workers should work continuously and many more. These are the
main causes due to which occupational injury and illness are increasing.
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Illustration 1: Estimated occupational injuries per 1000 workers by states in
Australia

Impact of occupational injury and illness
As per the view of Takala & et.al., (2017), This occupational injury and illness impacts
both organisations as well as workers drastically. It impacts the organisations because in case of
serious injuries or illness organisations need to pay compensation to the workers and due to this
their overall expense increases. It impacts the workers as their overall medical bills their monthly
expenditure increases, their work efficiency and capabilities also gets affected. Many times due
to these injuries and illness their personal relationships also gets affected.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Historical information
This section will explore all the relevant information related to occupational injury and
illness. This information will be divided into four parts i.e. historical, social, economical and
political information. In 1987, National Commission successfully recorded six main priorities of
health and safety within organisations for workers in Australia (Phoon, 1998). These priorities
were based on general issues that were faced by workers on job such as: back pain, hearing loss,
management of chemicals, equipment injury, skin disorder, work related cancer. These were the
main issues that were faced by the workers however there were many other injuries and illness
related to work but they not found on large scale. In 1980 a new strain injury erupted repeatedly.
Due to this almost 500 job related deaths were reported and more than 10,000 occupational
injuries within workers were reported every year. There were many more job related injuries
identified but were not reported but if they had reported all the work related injuries then it
would had become one of the main reason for financial crises and would have severely affected
the image of the company in a negative manner. After few years due to such occupational injury
and illness issues, a new health and safety Act was established in order to improve working
condition for the employees in order to reduce injuries like strain injury within the workers.
Political information
However, the political condition related to work injury and illness, and the occupational
health and safety act were not supportive completely and because of this many problems and
jurisdictions were being created. But, however after some times the overall quality of work
safety and standards in Australia was improving mostly because of increasing number of
guidelines, code of practise, regulations, legislations and rules that helped in distinguishing
occupational health and safety objectives. Many training programs were organised, educational
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programs were also being developed in order to improve health and safety within the
organisations (Weaver & et.al., 2015).
Economical information
Other than this due to occupational injury and illness use of government and medical
services were also increasing. Most f the workers were either admitted to the hospitals or were
referred to doctor's, so that their diagnosis and treatment can be done. Due to this overall
economical condition of were and their families were getting disturbed because of medical
treatment expenses and as a result it would become quite difficult for the families to manage
their monthly expenses. Not only this if any worker suffered from any kind of permanent
disability then it would become extremely difficult for families to manage their living expenses
plus medical expenses of disabled person.
Social information
Due to these work based injuries and illness, and expenses social issues and factors
related to job has also increased both positively and negatively (Takala & et.al., 2017). Social
factors such as family relationship were getting affected, use of medical and healthcare facilities
has increased, discrimination among workplace as well as in society has also increased,
involvement of individuals within community services and many more. Few of these factors
resulted in positive impact such as community services increased but few of them resulted in
negative impacts such as increase in discrimination, affected relationship such as divorce etc.
Due to these factors workers behavior also changes like few of them become helping in nature
and contribute to community services, few of them goes into depression due to their social and
economic conditions. In order to improve such conditions, World health organization are trying
to bring many changes within working conditions which would help organizations to improve
their work injuries and illness of their workers. It has helped in improving organizational
environment, reduce harmful risk to employees health and injury so that workers can work as per
their capacity and give their best in order to fulfill their roles and responsiblities within an
organization.
COMMUNITY INITIATIVE
Holy Cross laundry (HLC) organisation provides commercial laundry services in
Australia and employs nearly 175 employees. The organisation has been witnessing huge
number of WorkCover claims due to increasing events of occupational injuries and illness. The
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Workcover QLD and workplace health and safety (WHS) Queensland initiated a program for
enhancing and improving safety and health at workplace along with the injury management
frameworks. One of the major factor which increases vulnerabilities of the occupational injuries
is the improper safety and equipment handling training (Xiang & et.al., 2015). Under peer
pressure or lack of knowledge individuals often neglect the safety measures which increases the
vulnerability of the work place accidents.
The community initiatives by WHS is conducting training sessions for the employees so
that the injuries due to fall or mishandling of equipments can be controlled. HLC has also
encouraged its staff members to communicate with the management before making WorkCover
claim. The communication helps organisation to identify the factors causing illness and injuries.
For instance the faults in equipments, unhygienic atmosphere, lack of training and knowledge
and lack of resources which can affect the well being of the staff members are highlighted only
through proper communication channel. When such irregularities are highlighted then it is easy
for the HLC to fix them prior to any injury.
In addition to this WHS initiatives also assure that the performance and safety standards
are measured in advance prior to making claims. The occupational health must be more specific
and consist of training programs so that positive developments can be accomplished for health
services (Reese, 2015). For instance when HLC observes that injuries are related to improper
handling of equipments and technology then initiatives like WorkSafe Australia are used. Such
initiative provide education to employees so that injuries can be avoided and their impact can be
minimised. The proactive education outreach programs consider all causal factors such as lack
of safety precautions or the training resolving the issue.
The work based initiatives such as quick reporting of faulty machines, incorrect lifting or
equipment handling are vital for the increasing awareness among staff members. In addition to
this the organisation also uses various initiatives for identifying the occupational illness. For
example various chemicals are other processing are used for the operational activities. These can
serve as the factors contributing towards the illness and allergies (Rappin, Wuellner & Bonauto,
2016). Thus, such types of illness must be taken into account by the employers so that suitable
precautions and safety measures can be used.
Another community initiative which must be considered by the HLC is that within
organisation there must be sufficient services health care services for dealing with the health care
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emergency situations such as wounds, cuts or accidents. The immediate health care response at
the work place site can prove to be highly beneficial in terms of minimising the extent of risk.
There must be periodic check and monitoring of the equipments and processes so that health risk
can be identified (Tadesse & Israel, 2016). The implementation of the health and safety policy at
work place proves to be effective for enhancing the work place safety. The communication
regarding safety issue and regular maintenance of the equipments are effective measures to
promote the work place safety and to address increasing events of occupational injuries. The
performance evaluation of the staff members must also constitute the safety parameters and
training.
CONCLUSION
It can be concluded from the above discussion that occupational injuries and illness is one
of the significant concern and must be addressed by the employers. The hazards due to such
illness are usually unrecognised and thus both employers and employee must identify and
resolve the safety issues. It has been also analysed that negligence to occupational illness can
have long termed impact on the well being and health of the individuals. Along with the physical
and mental well being of staff members it also has negative impact upon the productivity and
safety of the work place. Thus, it is recommended that occupational safety and management
community initiatives must be incorporated in organisational policies essentially.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Gray, S.E. & Collie, A., (2017). The nature and burden of occupational injury among first
responder occupations: a retrospective cohort study in Australian
workers. Injury. 48(11). pp.2470-2477.
Green, D.R., & et.al., (2019). Occupational Injury Among Janitors: Injury Incidence, Severity,
and Associated Risk Factors. Journal of occupational and environmental
medicine. 61(2). pp.153-161.
Phoon, W. O. (1998). Occupational health in Australia. International archives of occupational
and environmental health, 71(6), 363-371.
Rappin, C. L., Wuellner, S. E., & Bonauto, D. K. (2016). Employer reasons for failing to report
eligible workers’ compensation claims in the BLS survey of occupational injuries and
illnesses. American journal of industrial medicine. 59(5). 343-356.
Reese, C. D. (2015). Occupational health and safety management: a practical approach. CRC
press.
Tadesse, S., & Israel, D. (2016). Occupational injuries among building construction workers in
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Journal of Occupational Medicine and Toxicology. 11(1). 16.
Takala, J., & et.al., (2017). Comparative analysis of the burden of injury and illness at work in
selected countries and regions. Cent. Eur. J. Occup. Environ. Med. 23. pp.6-31.
Weaver, M. D., & et.al., (2015). An observational study of shift length, crew familiarity, and
occupational injury and illness in emergency medical services workers. Occup Environ
Med. 72(11). 798-804.
Weaver, M.D., & et.al., (2015). An observational study of shift length, crew familiarity, and
occupational injury and illness in emergency medical services workers. Occup Environ
Med. 72(11). pp.798-804.
Xiang, J., & et.al., (2015). Extreme heat and occupational heat illnesses in South Australia,
2001–2010. Occup Environ Med. 72(8). 580-586.
Online
Lane, T., Collie, A., and Hassani-Mahmooei, B., 2016. Work related injuries and illness in
Australia, 2004 to 2014. [Online]. Accessed through
<https://research.iscrr.com.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0020/540830/work-related-injury-
illness-in-Australia-20042014.pdf>
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