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Read MoreOccupational Health - All You Need To Know
Introduction
Occupational health is the science of promoting health and reducing illness as a result of an individual’s job relationship. The science of protecting workers’ health by controlling the work environment.
According to the WHO. Occupational health should aim to promote and maintain the highest level of physical, mental, and social well-being among all workers in all occupations.
Preventing workers from becoming ill as a result of their working conditions.
Protection of employees from risk caused by health-adverse factors.
The placement and maintenance of the worker in an occupational environment that is appropriate for his physiological and psychological capabilities; and, to summarize, the adaptation of work to man and of each man to his job.
There are three different objectives considered the main focus of that science
- The health and working capacity of workers are maintained and promoted.
- Improving the working environment and working towards health and safety.
- Development of work organizations and working cultures in a direction that promotes health and safety at work while also promoting a positive social climate, smooth operation, and possibly increasing the productivity of the undertakings.
Occupational Health Definitions You Should Know
Occupational Health Care: It refers to worker health care, which includes preventive health care, health promotion, curative health care, first aid, rehabilitation, and compensation, as well as strategies for quick recovery and returns to work.
Occupational Health Professionals: These are persons who are accredited to practice as occupational health professionals or who are providing occupational health services following the applicable regulations.
Occupational Health Services: Services which are primarily responsible for prevention and the advisory services of employers, workers, and their representatives in the undertaking on the requirements for the establishment and maintaining a safe and healthy working environment that will facilitate optimal health of the workplace and the adaptation of work to workers’ capabilities in light of their state of physical and mental health.
Occupational Health Practice: It includes more than just the activities of the occupational health service.
It is a multidisciplinary and multisectoral activity that includes, in addition to occupational health and safety professionals, other specialists both in the enterprise and outside, as well as competent authorities, employers, workers, and their representatives.
Occupational Health Surveillance: Is the systematic collection, analysis, interpretation, and dissemination of data for prevention on an ongoing basis.
Surveillance is critical for the planning, implementation, and evaluation of occupational health programs, as well as the control of work-related illnesses and injuries, as well as the protection and promotion of workers’ health.
Occupational health surveillance encompasses both workers’ health and working environment surveillance.
Occupational Health Surveillance System: This is a system capable of collecting, analyzing, and disseminating data relating to occupational health programs.
It encompasses all activities conducted at the individual, group, enterprise, community, regional, and country-level to detect and assess any significant deviation from health caused by working conditions, as well as to monitor workers’ overall health.
Occupational health surveillance programs keep track of incidents of occupational exposures, work-related illness, injury, or death, and track trends in their occurrences across different types of economic activities, over time, and between geographical areas.
Occupational Health and Safety: This is the discipline concerned with preventing injuries or diseases linked to work as well as protecting and promoting workers’ health.
It aims at improving working and environmental conditions.
For example, engineers, physicians, hygienists, and nurses, all contribute to occupational safety, occupational health, and occupational hygiene, as well as the improvement of the working environment.
Factors influence occupational health
Basic Principles of Occupational Health
This field is a multidimensional field that includes science, social progress, economics, law, employment studies, and family issues. Everyone’s health and safety at work are a major concern in all societies and countries.
It deals with the most basic aspects of working life:
- Making a living.
- Taking care of a family.
- Maintaining good health.
- Avoiding unnecessarily high injury risks.
- Avoiding harm to oneself and others.
- Developing useful products and services for the benefit of society.
- Anticipating and preventing future problems.
- Information sharing
- The right to be informed about potential health hazards.
- Workers are treated with fairness and justice.
- Attaining workplace responsibility and accountability.
- Reducing the risks of necessary but hazardous work.
Occupational Health Services and Functions
- Identifying and assessing the risks from health hazards in the workplace.
- Surveillance of factors in the working environment and working practices
- that may have an impact on workers’ health, such as sanitary installations, canteens, and housing provided by the employer.
- Advice on work planning and organization, including workplace design, on the choice, maintenance, and condition of machinery and other equipment, and substances used at work.
- Participation in the development of programs to improve working practices, as well as the testing and evaluation of new equipment’s health aspects.
- Advice on occupational health, safety, and hygiene, as well as ergonomics and individual and collective protective equipment.
- Surveillance of workers’ health concerning to work.
- Promoting the adaptation of work to the worker.
- Contributing to vocational rehabilitation measures.
- Collaborating to provide information, training, and education in the fields of occupational health and hygiene, as well as ergonomics.
- Organizing first aid and emergency treatment.
- Participating in the analysis of occupational accidents and occupational diseases.
Common Issues in Occupational Health
Issues are deeply embedded in society and have a significant, but largely unacknowledged, impact on economic growth. Some of these issues include:
- Health risks that workers face to making a living.
- Impact on their families when workers become ill or injured.
- The social contract between employees and employers, as well as the responsibility to keep the workplace safe.
- Financial loss to workers and their families as a result of a long-term illness or injury that renders them unable to work.
- Cost of medical and rehabilitation care for injured workers.
- The hidden cost to the healthcare system of illnesses that are not recognized as occupational, particularly those that develop slowly.
- Cost of providing benefits and wage replacement to injured workers.
- Productivity loss is a result of avoidable injuries and illnesses.
- New technology development, production costs, and return on investment.
- Social management of risk spreading i.e., by workers’ compensation or other insurance plans.
- Management and minimization of the risk of disasters.
10 Objectives of the WHO Global Strategy on Occupational Health for All
- Strengthening international and national policies for health at work, as well as developing the necessary policy tools.
- Creating healthy working environments.
- Developing healthy work practices and promoting workplace health.
- Improving the quality of occupational health services.
- Establishing occupational health support services.
- Developing occupational health standards that are based on scientific risk assessment.
- Developing human resources for occupational health.
- Developing registration and data systems, developing information services for experts, effectively transmitting data, and increasing public awareness through public information.
- Strengthening research.
- Developing collaborations between occupational health and other activities and services.
Occupational Hazards
Hazards in the workplace can be purely mechanical, or they can take the form of materials or substances capable of causing fire or explosion, as well as causing injury or illness through inhalation, by contact with skin or eye, or by ingestion.
Noise, ionizing and non-ionizing radiation, and heat are all physical forms of energy that can be harmful to your health.
Types of Occupational Hazards
The following table discusses different types of hazards with the most common examples
| Type of Hazard | Example |
|---|---|
|
Physical Hazards |
|
|
Chemical Hazards |
Particles, fibers, fumes, and mists i.e.,
Metals and metalloids i.e.,
Organic solvents and compounds i.e.,
Inorganic gases i.e.,
|
|
Biological Hazards |
|
|
Mechanical and ergonomics Hazards |
|
|
Psychosocial Hazards |
|
General Processes of Hazard Management in Occupational Health
Make sure that all hazards are identified, the risks assessed, and effective control measures are developed and implemented.
Hazard Identification
A hazard is something that can harm the health, safety, and welfare of employees.
Examples of hazards in the workplace include noise, hazardous substances, unguarded power-driven machinery, working at heights, and stressful working conditions (e.g., the threat of violence).
Risk Assessment
Once the hazards have been identified, assess the risk that hazard creates.
The risk is the probability that the hazard will cause injury, illness, or disease in the manner in which it is used or occurs in the workplace, as well as the severity of the injury, illness, or disease that may result.
The process of evaluating the likelihood and consequences of injury, illness, or disease caused by exposure to an identified hazard or hazards is referred to as risk assessment.
Risk Control
After hazard identification and risk assessment, appropriate control measures should be developed and implemented. The goal is to eliminate or reduce the risk.
Employers can control workplace risks to health, safety, and welfare in a variety of ways. A hazard should be controlled at its source as much as possible rather than forcing an employee to “work safely” in a dangerous environment or requiring the employee to wear protective clothing and equipment.
Controlling the hazard at its source is far more effective in terms of preventing injury, illness, or disease.
Summary
Occupational health is the science of promoting health and reducing illness as a result of an individual’s job relationship. The science of protecting workers’ health by controlling the work environment.
Three different objectives are the main focus of occupational health that includes the health and working capacity of workers are maintained and promoted, improving the working environment, and working towards health and safety and development of work organizations and working cultures in a direction that promotes health and safety at work while also promoting a positive social climate, smooth operation, and possibly increasing the productivity of the undertakings.
Occupational Health Practice includes more than just the activities of the occupational health service. It is a multidisciplinary and multi-sectoral activity that includes, in addition to occupational health and safety professionals, other specialists both in the enterprise and outside
Occupational Health Services is primarily responsible for prevention and for the advisory services of employers, workers, and their representatives in the undertaking on the requirements for the establishment and maintaining a safe and healthy working environment that will facilitate optimal health of the workplace.
This science deals with the most basic aspects of working life including making a living, taking care of a family, maintaining good health, avoiding unnecessarily high injury risks, avoiding harm to oneself and others, the right to be informed about potential health hazards.
There are several functions and services include identifying and assessing the risks from health hazards in the workplace, participation in the development of programs to improve working practices, as well as the testing and evaluation of new equipment’s health aspects, advice on occupational health, safety, and hygiene, as well as ergonomics and individual and collective protective equipment and Collaborating to provide information, training, and education in the fields of occupational health and hygiene, as well as ergonomics.
Issues are deeply embedded in society and have a significant, but largely unacknowledged, impact on economic growth. Some of these issues include health risks that workers face to make a living, impact on their families when workers become ill or injured, and the social contract between employees and employers, as well as the responsibility to keep the workplace safe.
The major types of occupational hazards include physical, chemical, biological, psychosocial and mechanical, and ergonomics hazards.
To manage hazards in occupational health we must ensure that all hazards are identified, the risks assessed, and effective control measures are developed and implemented.
References
- Guidotti, T. L., Rantanen, J., & Rose, S. G. (2011). Global occupational health. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
- Occupational Health and Safety, and Occupational Health Services Profile of Fiji. Suva: The Government of Fiji Islands.
- US Army Medical Course MD0165-100 – Occupational Health and Industrial Hygiene. TEXAS: U.S. Army Medical Department Center and School (AMEDDC&S).
- Smedley, J., Dick, F., & Sadhra, S. S. (2013). Oxford handbook of occupational health. Oxford: OUP Oxford.
- Introduction to Occupational Health and Safety Training – Facilitators Guide. THE NAMIBIAN EMPLOYERS’ FEDERATION.
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