NEBOSH IGC MOCK TEST-1

MANAGEMENT OF INTERNATIONAL HEALTH AND SAFETY

Task 1: Accident Investigation

a. In this scenario what could be the reasons that are preventing workers
from workers from reporting incidents?
Answer)
Here in this scenario I started asking questions to the operator about the
forklift accident. He said he was new to the organization and also added
that such near misses and accidents are so often in the organization.
Nobody cares for it as they are not interested and management itself does
not consider it as a serious issue. Only accidents with huge impact and that
cannot be hidden are reported.
This can be because of the negative culture developed here by the workers
and the management itself. The workers are not interested because they
lack the seriousness of happening a near miss turn into an accident, which
they will only overcome by giving proper training and meetings.
The existence of huge procedures can also be a reason for the accident why
the workers are not interested in reporting the accident. From the scenario
it is clear that there is a lack of efficiency in commitment and leadership of
the management team also makes workers not reportable.
Moreover there can be a blame culture existing in this organization and the
workers fear that they can be blamed and can even lose their job if
complaint is reported.
Only major accidents that cannot be hidden are reported because they
consider that organization will go down in case of reputation and good will
if they consider all cases of accident, like safe manly hours.
Workers may also lack co-operation from the management in order to
reduce the accident to some extent. We can also assume that there is no
control measures provided for the reduction in accident because the risk
assessment was conducted before ten years ago.
Influence of negative peer group pressure can also be a reason for not been
reporting the accident and near misses. Sometimes the lack of severity of
the accident also can be a cause for not reporting.

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Some other issues related to not reporting accidents are existence of

doubtful policy on reporting accidents, no reporting system in created, lack
of time, in order to avoid first aid treatment and apathy.
b. What were the actions that the organization could have taken immediately
after an accident?
Answer)
Here in this organization accident is a frequent case so training must be
provided in order to deal with the accident when occurred. Some of the
actions that may take into consideration are:
First and foremost thing is to make the area safe avoiding more accident to
take place at that very moment. Then treat the victim with first aid and
transport the victim to hospital quickly if needed.
The next job is to isolate the accident occurred area with proper barricade
so that the evidence is not destroyed. And collect all the information
relating to accident. This can be done through taking photos, sketches,
measurements, videos etc. Separate the witness and keep them in a
secured area.
It is necessary to inform the enforcement authority if relevant. Arrange
necessary counseling and support for the workers and family.
Create an investigation team to collect evidences like personal details of
the victim involved in the accident, time and location of the event, take
evidences from witness before they creating new story, and find immediate
cause.
Inform safety representatives about the accident and pass the internal
information.
Check the details related to the training and information given to the
worker. Check the previous risk assessment and find failure of which
control measure caused the accident.
Check that any measure is left behind at the time of accident and ensure
the safety of other members.
Note down all the points in a paper so that we do not forget it when
authority asks for information.
Last but not least prepare an accident investigation checklist and start
investigation.

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c. What are the methods that you followed while obtaining statements from
witnesses?
Answer)
Examining of witness is an important task for getting valid information
related to an accident. This interview should be done before the witnesses
gather together and make new stories related to accident. In the scenario
the manager has given a cold approach to the question asked by me.
Here are the some of the good methods to interview the witness. The first
thing is to make the interview in a quiet room where there is no
interruptions and distractions. So that the witness might feel a sense of
calmness and able to remember what he saw. Introduce yourselves and
establish a stable communication so that witness feels free to talk to you.
Explain the purpose of interview i.e. it is not for blaming but for knowing
and understanding the reasons for the accident. And also to take corrective
actions.
Usage of open questions make the information more clear rather than
asking ‘yes’ or ‘no’ questions. The interviewer should keep an open mind
that will help not to forget the points made by the witness. Adequately take
notes of information.
Make the witness write and sign statement which create written document
for support. And check whether he can add any additional information that
left behind without asking.
Finally thank him for the support and the co-operation given.

d. How will you raise arguments in favour of investigating near misses when
challenged by a supervisor who is adamant that only accidents need to be
investigated?
Answer)
If my supervisor is adamant about the value that accidents are the only one
that need to be investigated I will start my explanation by stating what is a
near miss. Then as a further explanation I will give the impact of not
investigating the near misses and end with advantages of near miss being
investigated. It goes on like this.
Sir, near miss is an event which is occurring totally unplanned with an
intention and has a potential to get injured but not lead into it. The major
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impact is that it can lead to future accidents with lot more harm. This can
bring fear in workers that it is totally unsafe to work in this workplace if
near miss is recurring. It will affect the moral and reputation of the
organization. The staff turnover can be high if continuing a closed eye
approach to the frequent near miss. Frequent absenteeism can take place
with lack of commitment from workers side. We will lack competence from
the side of the workers. And mainly if an accident occurs out of near miss
we want to face the legal complications such as claims and other financial
costs and can even face an imprisonment if found guilty.
If we conduct investigation for near miss also we can solve the above issues
to some extent. And more than that we can save many a man life which is
considered as the main achievement of living as a human in a society.

Task 2: identifying immediate and root causes

a. Based on the scenario, what are the immediate causes you have identified
with respect to behavior of operator work place condition and work
equipment?
Answer)
Based on the scenario I am assigned to investigate on the accident in which
a forklift overturned causing injuries to the forklift operator. From the
manager’s cold response to my questions and no records maintained about
the accident we can assume that there is no co-operation with workers and
managers. Again operative assures that it is a very busy area where the
accident took place; I think this busy behavior is the immediate cause of
accident.
While taking about the workplace condition mentioned in the scenario the
floor was not leveled properly and was filled with dips on some areas like
curves and junctions which caused inability of the operator’s vision. The
inability to view the sign boards fixed for safety purpose. These can also be
immediate causes for the accident.
And finally about the work equipment it was old that this could lead to
mechanical failures which are an immediate cause that led to the accident.

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b. From the scenario, list the underlying /root causes that may have led to
accident?
Answer)
In the scenario we can see evidences of wear and tear of forklift and road
which lack maintenance. We can assume the absence of signaler and lack of
training which may be considered as the root causes. Here we can also
consider the lack of competence of the contractor mentioned in last
sentence of the scenario. The high risk area was not demarcated, cordoned
off can be a reason for the root cause.

Task 3: Risk assessment

a. Make notes of the points you would raise in favour of conducting a risk
assessment?
Answer)

The risk assessment is the process of checking all the matters that how an
accident can happen and avoiding it with proper techniques. And final
part of it is checking whether the measures adopted lower the risk to
acceptable level or not.
The major points for conducting of risk assessment are because of:
 Change in environment: here the risk assessment is conducted
previously 10 years ago at the time of starting of organization. Thus it
is necessary to conduct risk assessment.
 Death and personal injury: The basic aim of risk assessment process
is to lower the death and personal injury, as a death or severe injury
can cause more harm to the industry e.g. forklift accident injury
mentioned in scenario.
 Enforcement actions: if there is an occurrence of accident the
authority will come check and take enforcement action which may
lead to prosecution. Proper risk assessments prevent that.

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 Moral Reason: Every worker is dependent of his company for his

living and also for the employers living. The whole family of the
worker and the company itself depend upon him to earn a life. So the
employer must safe guard him and also support him.
 Financial Reason: Here in this scenario after the accident of the
forklift the operator was injured and made to rest at home but the
employer has to give him sick pay which comes under direct cost and
beyond that there are other financial costs such as insured and
uninsured cost etc.
 Legal Reason: If an employer not been concerned about the health
and safety activity in that organization he will have to face the legal
consequences. And the complaint if successful will lead from heavy
fines to imprisonment.

b. You have identified the hazards and the associated risks from the risk
assessment. How would you decide on the risks that need to be controlled
first?
Answer)
After identifying risk, evaluating the risk and decide on the precautions is
done. Here we calculate the acceptance level of the risk whether we want
to decrease the risk further.
It is done by categorizing the risk into very high, high, medium, low or
insignificant by giving numbers and plotting a graph with likelihood and
severity on its axis. If we get a number high corresponding to risk which
consist of death and other fatal risks, this must be lowered, and considered
as a prime importance. If we get a medium number corresponding to graph
we will check that if it can further be reduced and considered as next
priority and so on.
Here in this scenario the high risk area is not demarcated and maintenance
is not conducted this can create fatal accidents and can lead to death. This
is why it is considered as supreme priority. After this checking the
competence of contractor is considered as second priority as this when not
done can make new accidents.

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c. After assessing risks, what steps will you follow to select suitable controls?
Answer)
After assessing risks, we control the risk by adopting necessary control
measures such elimination, substitution, engineering controls,
administrative controls and at last the personal protective equipment.

In first method that is elimination we try to control the risk by eliminating

the hazard. This method is practically not possible in many of the realistic
situations.
Next is substitution in which we try to control by substituting a hazard of
lesser risk.
By engineering control we try to make a new component that reduces the
risk to some extent.
By administrative control we try to control by changing procedures and
behaviors. This done by various practices like safe system of work,
reduction of exposure, time and lastly by supervision.
The last provision is to implement PPE.

d. When conducting a risk assessment. How would you ensure quality of

content?
Answer)
When conducting a risk assessment it is must to ensure the quality of the
content this is because we are doing risk assessment in order to have a safe
atmosphere in work place. If the assessment is not of good quality as
mentioned in the scenario we can find the accidents recurring even after
risk assessment. We can ensure the quality by:

 Assigning a person outside from organization: by giving a person

outside the organization the responsibility of risk assessment we can
find more errors as he is independent and has a fresh pair of eyes.
 Dividing the tasks: by dividing the responsibility every member finds
they are able to make competency in the assessment.
 Asking questions: by asking questions to workers we get more idea
what should be done to improve company’s safety.

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 Making notes: by making notes at the time of finding errors we

delete a chance of forgetting things when combining.
 Documentation in tabular column: by documenting in tabular
column we can easily understand the risk assessment easily. And
quality will increase.
 Cross examination: this gives a chance correct the methods if an
error occurred by chance. This is done by the head of the risk
assessment work.

Task 4: monitoring health and safety

a. What are the ways in which the organization may monitor its health and
safety performance?
Answer)
In the scenario management is not caring it values of health and safety
performance. We can understand it by the way they are talking towards an
investigating officer. They also do not care about accidents also. By this we
can understand that a negative culture is present. The ways in which they
can improve by monitoring health and safety performance is by conducting
review.
Review of health and safety performance is of prime importance in case of
health and safety management system. The purpose of review is identify
the areas where more attention is needed which is carried out by managers
at all levels of the organization on a routine basis. The focus of the review
changes on each inspection and is conducted at planned intervals.

The number of review taken in an organization deals with various factors

like how often a change in the organization occur or the level of risk the
work place has.

Review can be done on monthly basis at a local level participating the local
management and the supervisors. It can be done in departmental level
quarterly participating the middle level management levels or annually
involving the organization as a whole.

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b. How can you differentiate leading indicators from lagging indicators?

Answer)
Based on the scenario active monitoring using the leading indicators are
done when the organization was introduced and then onwards nothing is
done. This led to the recurring accidents in site. At present what we can do
is take a note on lagging indicator and do reactive monitoring.
The main difference between lagging and leading indicator is that leading
indicators give the information about the organization quality before an
occurrence of accidents while lagging gives after the occurrence.
Cost associated with leading is lesser than lagging. By leading indicators we
may have the chance of saving life by lagging indicators we can only save
life in future. Lagging indicators can be easily find out but leading indicators
are not easily find out.

c. Would you go for a failure- focused method to monitor performance?

Why?
Answer)
Firstly I do not accept that an accident to happen first and then go for its
remedy because failure of accidents may also take life and money along
with them. If it is disastrous it may also have legal complications. Here at
first the organization took assessment for welfare of people or as a rule but
not maintained, this is a serious failure according to me. That is the reason I
think recurring accidents happen.
So we also have to take failure focused method because only failure can
understand the limitations which can be improved in next attempt. So my
conclusion is that we should take both active and failure focused
monitoring.

Task 5: safe system of work

a. Based on the scenario, would you recommend the use of a permit system
for maintenance work of the overhead crane? Why?
Answer)
I would strongly recommend the use of permit work system as it cannot
be dismantle down from a lower height which is not hazardous. Work at
height needs a permit work system as it a high risk hazard. Here we go for a
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maintenance work for some days not more than a month so we can
recommend permit work system.

b. Name other types of work activities that may be required to be under the
authority of permit. Give reasons.
Answer)
Apart from overhead crane which is a form of work from height which is
mentioned in the scenario other types are:
 Hot work where workers deal with naked flame which is of high
frequency hazard.
 Work on electrical systems work workers are subjected to various
shocks which may take their life.
 Machinery maintenance is other where workers face high risk on
removing the covers of various equipment.
 Confined spaces where workers are working alone and no one is
there to help when in emergency.

c. You are entrusted with developing a permit system for this maintenance
activity. Explain the steps you will include in this system.
Answer)
Here for the maintenance of crane we use permit work and I am assigned
doing it I check the following details:
 Whether authorized person issues the permit.
 Issuer knows the place and the job i.e. going to carried out.
 All the control measures are in place
 Permits once given not changed without information
 All workers obey the conditions of permit.
 Workers are trained and competent.
 Sufficient time is allotted for job to complete
 Works should be well monitored

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d. How will you ensure that this safe system of work is effective?
Answer)
safe system of work is a procedure based on an orderly examination of
work to identify the hazards. SSW defines safe methods to eliminate or
minimize hazards and risk associated with them.

To make SSW effective we must bring together:

 People: here we discuss about the people needed the SSW, their
level of competence and the number of persons working on this task.
 Equipment: here we discuss about the equipment to be worked
upon, what safety measures employed and checking what are the
hazards related to the equipment.
 Materials: here we discuss about the materials handled, hazards
associated with it, and the disposal of waste materials.
 Environment: here we discuss about the environment in which work
is taking place and how these environmental issues controlled.

We should also ensure what task is carried out, what hazards are
present, what controls are recommended, the emergency procedures
taken to escape and how it is monitored.

Task 6: management commitment to health and safety

a. Based on scenario only, can you say that the management is committed to
improve health and safety standard in the organization? Give valid reasons?
Answer)
On understanding the scenario I came into a position that management is
not committed to improve health and safety standard in the organization
because of the following reasons:
 The investigation is done only show the workers that the
management support them. Otherwise it have been done earlier
when accident and near miss occurred frequently. And if accident
happens they are hidden and reported only when all gets its
attention.

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 The manager not visiting the even after knowing the presence of my
entry to the organization and his cold behavior towards me added
this point otherwise the top level manager would have advised him
to be on time and support with valid information.
 When visiting the work site all the things were altered, which when
asked was given a reason that it is a busy area which is not valid and
strong. If they need to improve they have isolate the place.
 And even after that accident the maintenance work was not carried
out by competent person which increased my doubt about this
organization.

b. Can you suggest ways to demonstrate management commitment in health

and safety towards workers?
Answer)
By an effective leadership and co-operation between management and
workers we can improve health and safety between workers. This can be
done by conducting welfare and recreational activities to workers. Proper
risk assessments, inspections, safety tours and auditing can be done to
create moral value among workers. If workers are given once the facility to
interact with top level management we can gain support from the workers.
More than that giving prizes for exceptional skills and behavior also adds
faith in organizations. Furthermore we can adopt direct consultation
technique to see what more is needed from department.

c. What are the arguments you can put before the management in order to
persuade them to maintain good standards of health and safety?
Answer)
To get a solution from this situation we hear in this scenario it is important
to carry out a reasonably good risk assessment because the previous risk
assessment done was 10 years back, and the environment has changed
now. A competent contractor should be given the maintenance work other
than giving a person who does not perceive risk correctly. If it is not done
urgently you are liable to face legal consequences and have to shut down
your company and face imprisonment.

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The words can be mine but the action that to be taken is yours. Rest
belongs to you.

**** the total word count is 3152 avoiding questions and other embedded
words**

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