STUDENT NUMBER 49984

FULL NAME OF STUDEN T: CHARI WELLINGTON

EMAIL ADDRESS: chariwellington2@gmail.com

80%
CONTACT TELEPHONE/CELL: 0776684700

MODULE: SAFETY, HEALTH AND WELLNES HRM103

QUESTION 2
Identify and explain some agents of occupational hazards.
Introduction
Ford and Tetrick (2011) described occupational hazards as aspect of one`s occupation-specific
context that increase the risk of injury. Occupational hazards are risk associat ed with working
in specific occupations. I will going to explain the agents of occupational hazards and their
examples, these agents are chemical, physical, biological, psychosocial and ergonomic hazard

Chemical hazard is a substance that has the potential to cause harm to life and health.
Chemical are used in the home and industries that is solvents, dust, vapours and fumes. In the
workplace chemical hazards can be health hazards where workers and other personnel are
exposed to hazardous chemicals through inhalation, ingestion and swallowing.

b) Physical hazard are environmental factors that can harm an employee without necessarily
touching them, including noise, vibration, light, and heat. These are hazards that create unsafe
working conditions. For example poor housekeeping might result in a tripping hazard,
exposure to harmful substances, confined spaces, electricity, and toxic materials.

c) Biological hazard is a biological substance that poses a threat to the health of living
organisms primarily humans. Biological hazard are bacteria, viruses, HIV and AIDS. They can
pose a threat to human health when they are inhaled, eaten, or come in with contact with skin.
They can cause illness such as food poisoning, tetanus, respiratory infections and parasite
infection.

d) Psychosocial hazard is a hazard related to the work is designed, organized and management
of work that increase the risk of work. Examples of psychosocial hazards might include poor
supervisor support, long working hours, and shift work, work in isolation and high job
demands. Employees are likely to be exposed to a combination of psychosocial hazards. Some
hazards might always be present at work, while others only occasionally.

e) Ergonomic hazard are workplace situations that cause wear and tear on the body and cause
injury. There are injuries that are caused by strain placed on the body from ergonomic hazards.
Ergonomic hazards include heavy manual work, work station design, forceful motion and
direct pressure. Ergonomic hazard are often a results of the way a space is designed, meaning
that planning ahead and thinking about how employees interact with their work space is
crucial.
CONCLUSION, These are occupational hazards and their explanations that can cause harm to
the people during working hours, sometimes it is a chance, high or low, that any hazard will
actually cause somebody harm or causing a lost time injury. However, there are measures that
can be put in place to prevent hazards in the working place such as elimination, engineering
controls, provide safe working procedures, and provide personal protective equipment and to
make hazard identification risk assessment before at task.

QUESTION 3 79%

Outline a) 5 causes of fatigue in the workplace.

Fatigue are caused by many things like long working hours, working in hot environment, and
demanding work with no breaks. These are some of the causes of fatigue in the workplace that
I am going to outline below. Frone and Tidwell, 2015), states that fatigue is a reduction of
one`s functional capacity due to extreme tiredness.
I) Long working hours –refers to work performed beyond the legal normal working hours
during the day or per shift. Spend many hours a day at work cause a fatigue in the workplace.
Long working hours can lead to depression, poor well-being that cause an employee to be
fatigue at work. Employees spend more time working on same job or exceeding legal hours are
causing of fatigue in the work place.
ii) Working in hot environment – workers who are exposed to extreme heat or work in hot
environments may be at risk of heat stress and causes fatigue .It can bring about a variety of
physical disorder among workers. As the temperature or heat burden increases employees may
feel increased irritability, loss of concentration and loss of ability to do skilled tasks or heavy
work so that causes a fatigue in the workplace.
iii) Demanding work with no breaks –doing more work without taking break cause fatigue in
the workplace. People need to take a break of 30 minutes to manage fatigue. If an employee
don’t take a break between works the muscles of the back which are anti-gravity muscles will
get fatigued which will lead to pain and stiffness. Neck pain is another issue which arise
because of awkward working hours. During task need to take a short break so have the stamina
to be your best.
iv) Job stress – is the harmful physical and emotional responses that occur when the
requirements of the job do not match the capabilities, resources, needs of the work. Job stress
can lead to poor health and injuries in the work place. Workplace stress then is the harmful
physical and emotional responses that can happen when there is a conflict between job
demands. Work-related stress include long hour’s heavy workload, job insecurity and conflicts
with co-workers or bosses at the workplaces. The conflicts causes stress in the responsible
people may have when presented with work demands and pressures that are not mat ched to
their knowledge of work. Low salaries, excessive workloads are common sources of work
stress that lead to fatigue.
v) Long hours of mental activity –mental exhaustion can develop after long periods of
cognitively demanding activities and affect overall well-being. When people experience
emotional exhaustion, it can make them feel emotionally drained, drained, overwhelmed and
fatigued. So you need to take a short break and gain power and strength. Mental exhaustion,
sometimes called mental fatigue, if a person study for long hours with no break and spend a lot
of time each day dealing with overwhelming responsibilities. When brain is working harder
than usual it causes fatigue in the workplace.

b) 8 ways of overcoming these problems.

Ways of overcoming the problems of fatigue are drink plenty of water, reduce job stress and
boost energy, optimize schedule, take a rest for a short while, provide adequate ventilation,
schedule complex tasks during the day, including activity breaks for example simple stretching
,exercise of limbs and body and provide facilities to break.
I) drink plenty of water – if an employee works in hot environment it encourages to drink
more fluids. Talk to your supervisor or manage if you foresee or experience being impaired by
fatigue. Drinking water can prevent dehydration, a condition that can cause unclear thinking
result in mood changes
ii) Optimize schedule – the process of making sure each task in a schedule is aligned with your
ultimate goal. It needs to stick to a daily schedule and avoid multitasking, it reduces long
working hours and be able to manage fatigue in the working place. The policies of the
organisation and the labour law thereby enabling to achieve the creation of the best schedule
for work and avoid any form of job stressing and demanding more work with no breaks hence
it causes accidence and incidence at the workplace. Early start ups it creates a space of
avoiding long working hours.
iii) Provide adequate ventilation – is a free and unrestricted circulation of fresh air enclosed
areas of their workplaces. Working areas that are high risk of dust and hot need fresh air.
Good ventilation is associated with higher level of satisfaction with an environment, and
reduced exposure to a wide range of air pollutants.
iv) Take a short break –if takes long in a place of loud noise a one can feel exhausted. Workers
need to take rest, getting a proper rest can encourage people to be proactive about exercise and
job stress management. Employees can manage stress and fatigue in the workplace by
examining staffing issues such as workload and long working hours. Arranging schedule to
allow frequent opportunities for rest breaks and adjusting the working environment such as
loud noise, hot, dust and creating a culture of safety.
v) Activity breaks- taking activity breaks during your day is an excellent way to keep your
focus, prevent fatigue, and relieve body stiffness especially long hour of mentally activity.
Stand up doing simple stretching exercise of limbs and body or a short stretch break, a 5- 10
minutes movement break. This helps to reduce job stress.
vi) Adjust to work environment – adaptability in the workplace include being willing to adjust
your plans in response to shifting strategic aligned with company`s standards and procedures
and to copy with new roles, responsibilities, new system and change management and also
policy changes. The first few weeks of any new job are always difficult admit change and
work associated with the change, embrace every change so that be able to manage fatigue in
the workplace.
vii) Do something stretching and exercising – when takes time sitting in one place it causes
pains to the body. Stretching keeps muscles flexible, strong, and healthy and need that
flexibility to maintain a range of motion in the joints. For example of operators of machine
takes ten hours sat on machines cabins the muscle shorten and become tight, then when call on
the muscle for activity, they are weak and unable to extend all the way. That puts you at risk
for joint pain, strains, and muscle damage.
Viii) Education – Before implementing a fatigue risk management, it is important that every
employee in the workplace understand the meaning of workplace fatigue. To know the causes
of hazards help everyone to take measures to the problem, supervisor need to implement safety
programs about the challenges of working on hot environment, dust and noise.

REFERENCES; Bird J (2006) Employment Relations Today.

De Beer J and Heyns HJ, 2005) safety principles and practice.
IPMZ 2010 Module p, 145
WHO and UNAIDS (2007) Resources Training Report Zimbabwe, UNAIDS, Geneva.