Introduction:
HSSE is the
abbreviation for Health, Safety, Security & Environment. It describes the
processes or activities that are carried out by companies to ensure HSSE in
their workplace.
Definition:
Health:
As per World Health Organization, a state of complete physical, mental, and social wellbeing, not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.
Safety:
Safety can be defined as
a condition that is free from all kinds of hazards (Hazards involved in
Confined spaces, Excavations, Lifting operations, Working at height, Electrical
etc.)
Security:
Security means the
freedom from, or resilience against, potential harm caused by others.
Environment:
The surroundings or
conditions in which a person, animal, or plant lives or operates.
Principle of Health, Safety, Security & Environment:
Welcome to Principles of Health, Safety, Security and Environment. To start the principles we'll start first with an introduction to HSE what is it and why is it important now. Good health and safety practices are everyone's as possibility when you start going to work. The organizations must make sure that their activities do not cause harm to anyone. Normally HSE is the department in the company or an organization that is tasked with ensuring that the work undertaken by the company does not cause undue environmental damage and does not put the workers’ health and safety including security at high risk. It should comply with applicable legislation and follows best practices. Now HSSE aims to prevent and reduce accidents emergencies and health issues at work along with any environmental damage that could result from work practices.
Now let's take a look at the definition one by one what is HSSE, H for health and the standpoint of health it consists of the development of safe high-quality and environmentally friendly processes and work practices this is to prevent or reduce the risk of harm to people and this can be related to toxicology exposure limit diseases and so on from a safety standpoint this involves creating organized procedures for identifying workplace hazards. Now the goal is to reduce accidents and exposure to harmful substances it also includes training of personnel in accident prevention accidents response emergency preparedness and use protective clothing PPE and equipment in the environment standpoint this is related to pollution ways air quality Green technology and sustainability it involves creating a systematic approach to comply with the environmental regulations for example managing waste or air emissions and all the way to helping a site to reduce the company's carbon footprint.
This next slide shows a funny cartoon that is a bit some common hazards that can occur in a workplace. Now one example that I can see here is that there is a hamburger on the desk and a mouse is eating that burger so that mouse may carry infectious diseases which can transmit to the workers. Now this is a hazard so what should be done. To avoid such Food hazard, simply food should not be left open on a work space. Can you identify the other types of hazards in this cartoon. Now your task is to identify at least one hazard and comment on what would be the consequences of that hazard and how should this be handled to avoid the consequences I would like you to please post your answers and comments in the below comments section.
Historical Perspective of OSH Development:
Good points or positive points of the Industrialization is that we have products or tasks that were previously handmade using crude tools or animal power such as horse or buffalo and cows so those have been replaced by machineries and new methods which have made mass production possible and not just that workers also became more productive and their work functions became more specialized and this has caused an overall improvement of the living standards however the bad points are our industrialization has caused pollution which increased and not just that harmful working conditions it has been created due to all the machineries, new risk have been created new types of diseases has emerged that's never existed before now this answers the question of why HSE is so important if we look at the three words HSE so the first point is to prevent and eliminate the risk of injuries health hazards and damage to the properties. Now everybody desires to work in a healthy atmosphere you see nowadays many workers are just not fit they're not healthy and this is because they have busy schedule they have long working hours and not to mention work pressure now all these things can lead to some kind of illnesses or depression to the employee and would affect their professional as well as their personal life so start taking care of your health, take regular breaks sit in an appropriate posture eat healthy diet. So these are the things that HSE officers would advise you so HSE should oversee a range of health hazards which includes agronomy hazards for example are you sitting in the right kind of chair in a right posture are you being exposed to carcinogens are there any toxic gases in this room are you in a in a very dangerous condition where you can fall from height and many other things so the second point here is to minimize these unsafe acts or unsafe conditions. It is a duty and moral responsibility of the company to look after the employee’s protection now each and every person who leaves home for work in the morning should come back home in evening and good health. You don't want your loved one for example going to work and then never returning home due to workplace accident you don't want that to happen so not just that the worker yourself also should be aware of the surrounding hazard and it should be alert all the time to reduce risk and take precautionary steps and it is also important for the worker to always update their supervisor about any unsafe conditions. Now that third point is to identify steps towards the conservation and preservation of the environment. The world that we have right now really doesn't belong to you they belong to your great-grandchildren so think about. It is important to implement programs to ensure that we have better resource management and that it will lead to a healthier natural environment you want to mitigate climate change lower the cost and improved of the overall public health.
HSE programs approach early safety programs
were based on the three e's of safety nowadays there if you Google you can find
this actually for ease and five years they've come up with different kinds of
ease of safety but we'll stick with the traditional three e’s which are engineering
education and enforcement engineering describes design improvement in process
and product so you design develop implement operate maintain safety programs
for the employees so secondly education will cultivate safety awareness or
habits because education would increase a person's understanding of a subject
so the strategy would involve promotion of a safe environment and workplace
teach about safety rules create awareness of the benefit and goals of safety in
the community and work place and finally enforcement to ensure compliance to
law and regulations now enforcement is a key component of work and
environmental safety as it reinforces laws that serve to protect you so this
involves making sure that all employees obey the safety rules and regulations
in the workplace so also to follow the employees should follow necessary
procedures that are required during a safety routine for example and strict
punishment will be given for those who fail to abide by the set of safety rules.
