Environmental Health And Safety In The Workplace

Health and safety is a fundamental factor within the working environment and it is the responsibility of a company to ensure that workplaces are free from hazards that may cause injury, illness or suffering. Each industry has risks that are specific to their sector, and as such, there are a number of different risk assessments that could be implemented. This could be to protect workers and the public from physical, environmental, chemical or biological agents and hazards.

An office environment may appear to be a neutral arena as far as hazards are concerned; however there is a risk from physical factors. Physical agents and hazards include pollution from noise, light, vibration and radiation, and injuries caused by falling objects, collisions, slips and a release of energy such as an electric shock or fire. All potential problems will be highlighted in a risk assessment, which has four major features.

An assessment will identify the hazards, identify those who are at risk, determine whether the risk is high or low and provide an action plan to minimise the impact. An environmental health and safety officer will then make sure that all the people that are potentially at risk are aware of the assessment results. It is common for training to be given to employees so they are able to spot and avoid a potential hazards as well as being shown what to do in the event of an incident.

This can be as simple as showing workers how to lift boxes correctly to avoid back injury or practicing a fire drill and identifying the muster point. For pollution control, specialist measuring equipment is used to constantly monitor air quality and light levels in the workplace. Illness from dehydration and fatigue can cost a company thousands of pounds in wages should workers have to take time off ill. Therefore it is in the management's interests to ensure that air conditioning systems are working correctly and that lighting levels are satisfactory.

The aim of environmental health and safety professionals is to ensure that all employees are able to work in a safe environment that protects their health and welfare. Although this would appear to be a basic human right, it has been thanks to a revision of the definition of occupational health in 1995 that has meant that there are less people than ever working in conditions that are likely to cause health problems, long term injury or death.