Occupational Health

ModuleLeader: AmyBrandreth
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Assessment
• Two parts:
• Written assignment due 1pm 16th March 2023
• Presentation in exam weeks (wc 8th and 15th May 2023)

• Presentation
• Level 5 – Individual 10 minutes
• Level 7 – Group 10 minutes

• Will be discussed in more detail later in the module

Assessment
• Written assignment
• Level 5 no more than 2000 words
• Level 7 no more than 2500 words
The Operations Director is becoming concerned that employees
are taking frequent absences. He has expressed concern that the
cost of the absences is taking up 5% of his employee budget. He
has explored employing an Occupational Health Advisor, and is
wondering about the benefits of instigating an Occupational
Health Programme. As such the Director has asked you as the
Health and Safety advisor to prepare a report outlining the
benefits of implementing an Occupational Health Surveillance
Programme. You will need to explain in the report of how a
Health Surveillance programme would be of benefit, and how it
may operate in outline and give an indication of other
Organisation programmes policies or process that may help
support the OH Surveillance Programme.
Assessment
• There will be opportunities to ask questions about the assignment
in class
• There is a discussion board on MyBeckett to ask questions
Occupational Health
• This module does not qualify you to be an expert in OH
• It gives you an awareness of OH
• It gives you an awareness of what an OH practitioner would get
involved with
• It gives you an awareness of a number of issues which you would
get involved with as a H&S professional
• “One might look forward to the time when the principle
would be recognised that there should be no such thing as
industrial disease possible”
Workmen’s Compensation Act of 1906 Sir Herbert
Samuel
What is Health?
• Health defined by the World Health Organization as: the state of
complete physical, mental, & social well-being – not just
absence of disease.
• Infectious diseases used to be the primary cause of death in the
past and has been replaced by cardiovascular diseases and cancers
Occupational Health
• The joint international labour organisational committee
on Occupational Health in 1950 defined Occupational
Health as:-
• “The Highest degree of physical social and mental well
being of workers in all occupations”
In the UK
• 1.6 million workers with work related ill health in 2019/20
• 51% of work related ill health in 2019/20 due to stress, depression
or anxiety
• 30% of work related ill health in 2019/20 due to musculoskeletal
disorders
• 12000 deaths each year due to work related lung disease

(HSE, n.d.)
Aviva – Health of the Workplace (2020)
• 92% of respondents reported a mental health symptom
• 41% said work was the most negative aspect of life in terms of
impact on mental health
• 71% reported stress
• 65% reported trouble sleeping
• 58% reported mood swings
• 55% reported back or neck ache
• 51% reported trouble coping mentally
• 49% reported anxiety/palpitations
Aviva – Health of the Workplace (2020)
• Where do people go for support?
• Many will speak with family and friends
• 12% would speak to a work colleague
• Less than 10% would speak to a line manager
• 4% would speak to HR

• The good news? 74% of UK employees who have experienced a

mental health condition say stigma towards mental health issues in
the workplace has reduced over the last year.
Work related health conditions

CIPD, 2019)
Why is good work good for health?
• is therapeutic;
• helps to promote recovery and rehabilitation;
• leads to better health outcomes;
• minimises the harmful physical, mental and social effects of
long-term sickness absence;
• reduces the risk of long-term incapacity;
• promotes full participation in society, independence and human
rights;
• reduces poverty;
• improves quality of life and well-being.
Occupational Health
• Represents a dynamic equilibrium between the worker his
physical and mental health and his place of work and
occupational environment
What are the top 5 Employee Concerns?
Stressful working life 26%

Financial worries 32%

Personal worries about future 34%

Worries about job security 40%

Too much work 41%

Source Aviva 2012

What is most important to you in a job?
A. Salary
B. Work-life balance
C. Location
D. Benefits package
E. Something else?
(Aviva, 2019)
Work life balance
• UK workers tend to have a poor work life balance
• The UK ranks 24 out of 25 comparative economies for jobs interfering with
family lives
• 3 out of 5 workers work longer hours than they would like to
• 1/3 of workers feel they have too much work
• 1 in 5 workers day they cannot complete their work in their allocated time
• 1 in 20 workers feel completely overloaded by their jobs
• Overwork most common in those who work from home

(CIPD, 2019)
How do you think work used to be?
• Plenty of work for the unskilled
• 8 to 18 hour days
• 5 – 6 days a week
• 52 weeks a year
• Seasonal sporadic workers discarded when ill
• Workers had no pensions
• Workers had no health provision
HSE Work Health Indicators
Common health conditions Long term latent conditions

Asbestos related
STRESS disease CANCERS

Work related skin

disease Hearing Loss Work related
vibration disease

Work related Work related

musculo skeletal Asthma Other Respiratory
disorder Disease COPD

Source HSE 2015

What are the GOALS of OH?
• To reduce industrial accidents
• Prevent occupational ill health and diseases
• To achieve maximum human efficiency
• To reduce sickness and absenteeism
Why does it matter if people are off work
sick?
• Answers in the chat window please

• Sick pay
• Overtime
• Agency staff
• Company reputation
• Compensation/court cases
• Moral reasons?
What are the Objectives of OH?
• To maintain and promote the physical well being of workers
• To prevent instances of occupational ill health and disease
• To adapt the workplace and work environment to the needs of
the workers i.e. application of ergonomic principles
• Measures being Preventative not Curative
What are the benefits of a Good OH strategy?

• A healthy workforce is happier – good for morale

• A healthy workforce is more productive
• A healthy workforce is more efficient
• A healthy workforce is less likely to have incidents
Regulations
• Management of Health and Safety at Work
Regulations 1999 (Reg 6)
• Health Surveillance
• Every employer shall ensure that his employees are
provided with such health surveillance as is
appropriate having regard to risks to their health and
safety which are identified by the assessment
• Principally to detect adverse health effects at an early
stage
Occupational Health History

• Hippocrates (c. 460-370 BC)

• Documented first mention of occupational diseases
(e.g. lead poisoning in miners and metallurgists)
• Agricola (1556) Occupational Disease in Miners

 Bernardino Ramazzini (1713)

– De Morbis Artificum Diatriba Diseases of Workers
– Chemicals and Irritating Dusts
– Admonition to any physician treating working class
patients to ask, “Of what trade are you?”.
Occupational Health History
• Percival Potts (1775) described
scrotal cancer among English
chimney sweeps
• Resulted in Chimney-Sweeps Act of
1788
Factories Act
• 1856
• Extended duties for surgeons
• Investigate accidents
• Examine those in contact with
dangerous substances (trades)
• Certifying young peoples health
Medical Factory Inspector
• 1898 Appointment of first Medical Factory Inspector – Dr Thomas
Morison Legge

• When he took up his post, Legge had no particular knowledge of

industrial disease, but he soon became a leading expert in the field
of industrial diseases.
• Legge promoted awareness of industrial health and helped raise
health standards in the workplace.
• Notified of diseases
• Produced reports and recommendations
• He was particularly interested in anthrax and lead poisoning
Asbestos dangers
• 1898 Lucy Deane
• Senior Factory Inspector
• Provided an account of
health hazards through
working with asbestos
• She was largely ignored
How can we categorise Risks To Health At Work?

• Physical – Noise – heat – cold - vibration

• Chemical -
• Biological – Bacteria – viruses – plants - animal
What are the Tools of OH?
• Occupational health has developed as a specialist
area within medical practice and takes its tools
from?

Statistics
Toxicology
Epidemiology

OH
Psychology Rehabilitative Science

Ergonomics
What is epidemiology?

• Epidemiology
• Primarily concerned with the statistical relationships between
disease agents, both infectious and non-infectious; for example a
study to establish the relative risk of lung cancer associated with
smoking
Epidemiology
• Dr. John Snow (1813-1858),
• Physicians believed that cholera was caused
by “miasmas”
• Snow began examining sick patients
• First symptoms were digestive not
respiratory
• Determined that thirty-eight deaths from
same source
• Broad Street water pump was the cause
proven after his death
The Tools of OH
• Statistics
• A branch of mathematics
that deals with the analysis
and interpretation of
numerical data in terms of
samples and populations
• Collections of numerical
data for manipulation
The Tools of OH
• Toxicology
• The scientific study of
poisons, especially their
effects on the body and
their antidotes
The Tools of OH
• Ergonomics
• The study of how a workplace and the equipment used there
can best be designed for comfort, safety, efficiency, and
productivity
• Those factors or qualities in the design of something, especially
a workplace or equipment used by people at work, that
contribute to comfort, safety, efficiency, and ease of use
• Sometimes called human engineering and human factors
The Tools of
OH
• Rehabilitation
• To help somebody
to return to good
health or a normal
life by providing
training or therapy
The Tools of OH
• Psychology
• The scientific study of the human mind
and mental states, and of human and
animal behaviour
• The characteristic temperament and
associated behaviour of an individual or
group, or that exhibited by those
engaged in a particular activity
• Subtle clever actions and words used to
influence a person or group
What is occupational health care
• Occupational health care is:
• Preventative care provided to achieve well being
• Objective is a safe healthy working environment
• Prevention of work related disease
• Maintenance of workers well being working ability
and functional ability
• Promotion of worker health
 Work Life Relationships
• It may be fair to say that “For most of the human race
work is boring, repetitive and unfulfilling. One of the
challenges of the occupational team is how to change
that”
How do you think work used to be?
• Plenty of work for the unskilled
• 8 to 18 hour days
• 5 – 6 days a week
• 52 weeks a year
• Seasonal sporadic workers discarded when ill
• Workers had no pensions
• Workers had no health provision
 How work used to be
• In this model the worker was used very much as an
animal, exploited for low wages and discarded when
no longer able to do his task. In some ways he was
worse off than a slave whose master had some
incentive to clothe, feed and care for him to
maximise his productivity.
 What is occupational health care

• Occupational health care is:

• Preventative care provided to achieve well being
• Objective is a safe healthy working environment
• Prevention of work related disease
• Maintenance of workers well being working ability and
functional ability
• Promotion of worker health
 Who May Need OH strategy

• Is it limited to?
• Any undertaking which may involve:-
• Repetitive working
• Exposure to physical agents
• Exposure to chemicals or toxic substances
• Exposure to mental stresses
What activities should the OH Unit undertake?

• Pre-employment medicals
• First aid in some workplaces
• Advice on work environment in respect of dangerous or
toxic chemicals
• Specific periodic monitoring of health
• Health education training/information
• Protecting health of all workers
• Alcohol and Drug testing
What activities should the OH Unit undertake?
• Provision of advice to employers for specific workers i.e.
Adjustments – return to work medical screening
• Monitoring of work places
• Liaison and co-operation with employees and safety
representatives
• Keeping of medical records
• Carrying out parallel activities for the promotion of workers
health and well being
Factors Affecting the OH Unit
• Nature of industry size of organisation
• Existing infrastructure of occupational health provision
• Trained manpower
• Employers commitment worker involvement
• Accessibility of information
• Surveillance of occupational health by epidemiological
information
• Current knowledge
Summary

• Work is an important part of life

• Work can endanger or enhance life
• Many problems can be minimised or eradicated
• OHS can be key to worker well being and happiness
and contributing to profitability