OSHE 111

INTRODUCTION TO OCCUPATIONAL
SAFETY, HEALTH, AND ENVIRONMENT

Instructor: Chris Kuiper, CSP

Email: august.Kuiper@selu.edu
 Background and experience – industry and
university

 Approach to teaching

 Call or email anytime – I will return

 I care that you gain from this class

INTRODUCTION
 What does safety mean to you?

 What is a hazard? Are there really “accidents”?

 Safety is a culture.

 What is the difference between occupational safety and

occupational health?

 How does safety and health interact with the environment?

SAFETY, HEALTH AND THE

ENVIRONMENT
SAFETY - RISKS AND COMPLIANCE

 Control or elimination of recognized hazards to attain

an acceptable level of risk.

 Company safety policy says “ We will comply all with

all laws and regulations.” What do you think about
that statement?

 When a company and its employees commit to

removing or limiting hazards in the workplace through
policies, procedures, accountability and enforcement,
hazard control can be successfully implemented.
 Do you think we can achieve and maintain control?
 Something that can cause harm if not controlled.

 A condition that, either by itself or in combination

with others, can result in an accident.

 We will discuss incident theories in this course.

Interesting topic because it makes us go deeper
than “Employee was not paying attention” or
“lack of proper training.”

HAZARDS
ACCIDENT
 An event or series of events that results in, or has the potential to
result in
 Death, injury, or illness
 Property damage
 Environmental harm

 Webster Dictionary defines an accident as “… an unforeseen and

unplanned event or circumstance. An unfortunate event resulting
from carelessness or ignorance.”
 Could it have been foreseen?
 Struck by lightning an accident?
 Ever been in a car “accident?”

 Because we can identify a risk – does not mean we can control it.
 Needless destruction of life, health, and environment is
morally unjustified.

 Failure to take necessary precautions against predictable

accidents and occupational illnesses makes management
and workers morally responsible for those accidents and
illnesses.

 Know anyone hurt, or killed, in an industrial accident?

WHY WE STRIVE TO PREVENT

ACCIDENTS
WHY STRIVE TO PREVENT ACCIDENTS

 Accidents and occupational illnesses severely limit

efficiency and productivity.
 Accidents and occupational illnesses can produce far-
reaching social harm.
 There are techniques available and effective in
reducing accident rates and promoting efficiency and
productivity.
 Regulations mandate management responsibility to
provide a safe and healthful workplace.
OSHA GENERAL DUTY CLAUSE
- SECTION 5(A)(1)

(a) Each employer --

(1) shall furnish to each of his employees employment and a

place of employment which are free from recognized hazards
that are causing or are likely to cause death or serious physical
harm to his employees;
 
(2) shall comply with occupational safety and health standards
promulgated under this Act.

(b) Each employee shall comply with occupational safety and

health standards and all rules, regulations, and orders issued
pursuant to this Act which are applicable to his own actions and
conduct.
 DIFFERENCES BETWEEN SAFETY
AND HEALTH
 Safety is concerned with injury causing
situations.
 Lacerations, sprain, strain, etc.

 Health is concerned with illness causing

situations.
 Asbestos, carpal tunnel syndrome,
hydrogen sulfide, noise exposure, etc.
PRIOR TO THE INDUSTRIAL
REVOLUTION
 Most production was conducted by master craftsmen

 Used apprentices and journeyman as assistants

 What is the difference between and apprentice and a journeyman or
a Master?

 System fostered skill and safety

 Close, personal supervision and mentoring
 There is no try ...
 Long-term relationship
 Reputation of the master/mentor
 Focus on quality instead of quantity
 INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION
(1840-1870)
 Faster and greater production based on inventions and innovations.

 Increased hazards.

 Work organization shifted into large units: Supervision not as close as it had been; Lack
of training; etc.

 Accidents were “cheap.” Half of those killed recovered any compensation – then about
half a year pay.

 Appalling number of workers’ accidents and deaths in mining, for example.

 1890 – 18,943 est.
 1900 – 19,043 est.
 Source: Aldrich, Mark. “Preventing ‘The Needless Peril of the Coal Mine': the
Bureau of Mines and the Campaign Against Coal Mine Explosions, 1910-
1940.” Technology and Culture 36, no. 3 (1995): 483-518.
 U.S. SAFETY & HEALTH MOVEMENT

 Production rates increased rapidly in the last half of the 1800s

 Poor safety and health

 1.75 million (probably an underestimate) working children
between the ages of 10 to 15 (1900 census)
 Source:
Child Labor - Facts & Summary - HISTORY.com
 Worked 12 to 14 hours per day
 No health or safety guidelines
 Deaths and injuries: “one of the costs of doing business”
 U.S. SAFETY & HEALTH
MOVEMENT

 Common Law of the time favored the employer

 Fellow Servant Rule: The employer was not liable
for an injury to an employee that resulted from
the negligence of a fellow employee.
 Contributory Negligence: The employer was not
liable if the employee was injured due to his own
negligence.
 Assumption of Risk: The employer was not liable
because the employee took the job with full
knowledge of the risks and hazards involved.
 RESULTS OF INJURIES

 Lost income since they could not work because of

disabilities.

 Charities and other means of assistance were limited.

 Court proceedings were expensive and drawn out.

 Threw families into conditions of poverty.

THE 1906 PITTSBURGH SURVEY

 The first serious survey of worker injuries/fatalities (Source: Pittsburgh

Survey of 1906 – vol. 2)
 Concentrated on accidents in the Allegheny County in
Pennsylvania
 “Death Calendar”: Two deaths per day for the entire year, plus
many more crippling injuries

 How about the entire U.S.? (Source: CDC Morbidity and Mortality
Weekly Report, Vol, 48/No .22, June 11, 1999.)
 1913 – Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) approximately 23,000
deaths among 38 million workers (61 deaths per 100,000 workers.)
 1997 – 5,100 deaths but 130 million workers (4 deaths per 100,000
workers.)
THE TRIANGLE
SHIRTWAIST FACTORY
FIRE
 New York City in 1911

 146 employees dead – most

women and children

 Outraged the public – spurred

efforts at factory and working
conditions reform

http://www.osha.gov/oas/trianglefactoryfire.html
ACCELERATION OF SAFETY
AND HEALTH
 Workers’ compensation
 First compensation system in America was proposed by
President Taft and put into law in 1908 to cover those
workers involved in interstate trade
 Source: Haller JS. Industrial accidents-worker
compensation laws and the medical
response. Western J of Med.1988;148:341–348.
 First comprehensive workers' compensation law was
finally passed shortly thereafter in Wisconsin in 1911.
 Source: Ibid
 Injured worker would receive some means of sustenance,
regardless of who was at fault for the injury.
 Employers required to pay for the workers’ compensation.
 WORKERS’ COMPENSATION

 New York: Wainwright Law (1910)

 Declared unconstitutional
 Denied employer 14th Amendment rights for due process

 Wisconsin: Workers’ Compensation Act (1911)

 New Jersey and Washington tried with similar results

 1917: U.S. Supreme Court says that workers’ compensation is

constitutional

 Laws enacted at the state level

 Workers’ compensation laws set fixed rates for all
injuries so employees would not have to sue to recover
damages.
 Worker fatalities once cost railroads $200, now cost
$2,000.

 Made costs to businesses predictable and reduced labor

strife.

ACCELERATION OF
SAFETY AND HEALTH
 Sharp rise in accident costs that resulted from compensation
laws and tighter employers’ liability initiated the modern
concern with work safety. 

 Managers look for hidden dangers and require workers wear

hard hats and safety glasses.

 Air brakes and automatic couplers for rail cars.

 Machine guarding, fire prevention, etc.

 Mining industry shifted to strip mining.

 The steel industry and railroads were some of the earliest to

advance safety as a concern.

TECHNICAL PROGRESS
  Rates were based on a company’s accident record.

 Insurance companies hired safety inspectors to get clients’

injury rates down.
 Widely used today.

 Insurance companies also kept statistics on injuries.

 Actuarial uses probability statistics to set industry rates.

 Some companies misuse Experience Modification Rate (EMR)

to portray a better incident rate.
 How do you suppose a company could underreport losses?

INSURANCE
 Collapse of Tacoma Narrows Bridge in 1940 – Galloping
Gertie
 Three Mile Island Accident in 1979 – Partial Nuclear
Reactor Meltdown
 Bhopal Disaster in 1984 – Over 2,000 dead
 Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster in 1986 – An Accident?
 Pepcon Disaster – Shock wave
 Phillips Disaster in 1989 – 23 dead
 BP - Deepwater Horizon – 11 dead/210 million gallons oil
and over $60 billion and counting.

LEARNING FROM DISASTERS

 American Society of Safety Engineers
(ASSE): founded in 1911 to promote
professionalism among safety
practitioners
 National Safety Council (NSC): founded
in 1913 to educate and influence
people to prevent accidental injury and
death
 American National Standards Institute
(ANSI): formed in 1918 to establish
standards and codes for products,
processes, systems, safety, etc.

CREATION OF
ORGANIZATIONS
 American Industrial Hygiene
Association (AIHA): founded in 1939
as a membership organization of
occupational and environmental
health professionals practicing
industrial hygiene in industry,
government, labor, academic
institutions, and independent
organizations.

ORGANIZATIONS (CONT.)
 OCCUPATIONAL ACCIDENT TRENDS

 Every 5 seconds a worker is injured.

 Every 10 seconds a worker is temporally or permanently disabled.

 Each day, an average of 17 people die from workplace injuries on the

job.

 Each day, an average of 137 people die from work-related diseases.

Source: Reese, Charles, D. (2003) Occupational Health and Safety Management: A Practical Approach. Lewis
Publishers.
 
ACCIDENTS – DEMOGRAPHICS WHO
AND WHEN? (PRIVATE SECTOR)

 Strains, sprains – 37%

 Men = 61% all cases
 Age: 45-54 (days away)/55-64 highest IR
 Distracted walking – 62% women 40 and younger
 #1 cause injury and death off the job - Poisoning
 Over 45 year career construction workers have a 1 in
200 chance of dying
 11% surveyed said they did not report injuries
MOST DANGEROUS DAY
 DEMOGRAPHICS

 Shift work is more hazardous

 Days away from work (DAFW) cases are highest
in June and August, followed by February,
January then October (BLS-2013)
THINK ABOUT …

 What would happen if federal

and state mandated
regulations were taken away?