Accident Prevention/Loss

Control
Workplace Accidents:The Global
Picture
 The International Labour Organization (ILO)
estimates that workplace hazards and
exposures cause over 160 million workers to
fall ill annually and more than 1.2 million die
as a result of occupational accidents and
diseases all over the world.
Putting a Price on Workplace
Accidents and Diseases
 It is also estimated that annual losses resulting
from work-related diseases and injuries in
terms of compensation, lost work days,
interruptions of production, training and
retraining, medical expenses, and so on,
routinely amount to over 4 percent of the total
gross national product (GNP) of all the
countries in the world.
An Unacceptable Burden
 This should be an unacceptable burden for
any company that aspires towards increased
productivity, improved quality of work or
decent work and a better corporate image.
Thus successful accident prevention should
be the goal of any right thinking corporate
body.
Cost Of Accidents
 The total or overall cost of accidents are made
up of direct/subjective expenses comprising,
for example, personal suffering, and
bereavement of the victims family, and
indirect/hidden expenses which include
material damage, loss of equipment, expenses
resulting from loss of production time and so
on.
What is an Accident?
 What then is an “Accident” and how can it
be successfully prevented to check these
losses? An accident is an unpleasant,
unplanned event which may or may not lead
to loss of life/lives and property,
injuries/illness and damages.
 Accidents therefore occur as a result of
systems failure and are preventable.
ATTITUDES TOWARDS SAFETY
 Why do workers do a job in an unsafe way when they
could do it in a safe way?
 They may consider the unsafe way – easier, less
troublesome, faster, better,

 They may consider safety precautions unnecessary

because they can look after themselves in all
circumstances
ATTITUDES TOWARDS SAFETY
 They may think that as people with
experience, they can quite well determine
their own way of working. They may be
ignorant or unaware of the safe method.
 If remuneration is tied to productivity/output,
the worker may be led to neglect safety in
order to increase output.
ATTITUDES TOWARDS SAFETY
If the safe way of doing a job demands too much
effort, physical or mental, it is usual that
workers will go for the easy way out. They
normally take the short cut. Again, this may
result to an unsafe act.
WHY DO MANY PEOPLE NOT CO-OPERATE IN
ENSURING MAXIMUM SAFETY?
 A person needs a powerful imagination to
realize what an accident can really mean. If
one is whole, it is difficult to realize what
losing a limb, or losing one’s eyesight means.
WHAT SORT OF BEHAVIOUR IS
ASSOCIATED WITH SOME ACCIDENTS?
Time and Safety:
One of the most common reasons for taking
risks at work is to save time – time for more
leisure, time to enable one earn more money,
or simply time saved by rushing to finish the
job. This wish to save time often results in
unsafe acts.
ATTITUDE AND SAFETY
In the early stages of industrialization, workers
were often unaware of the possibilities of
accident prevention. They considered
accident as they did diseases – as
unavoidable, mysterious afflictions that have
to be suffered like bad weather.
This attitude has been greatly altered by
emphasizing safety during education and
training courses.
Company Accident Profile
 Obviously then the accident profile of any
company reflects its local traditions, company
culture and the company’s level of ambition
and successful accident prevention should not
be based entirely on the effective enforcement
of relevant legislation.
A Systematic Approach to Accident
Prevention
 Before accidents can be successfully
prevented there must be a systematic effort to
acquire accurate information on accidents,
injuries, errors, deviations, risks and effective
preventive measures, and to motivate staff
towards working safely.
Major Causative Factors
 Unsafe conditions- machines, tools, etc
 Unsafe acts- administrative routines,
 Psychological and human factors- personality
issues, culture, etc
 Environmental factors- climate, other
workers, etc
Conclusion
 A well managed occupational safety and
health programme is profitable to a company
as there is a definitely positive correlation
between the safety level, quality of safety
activities and the company’s economic
results.
THE END OF SLIDES

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