[edit] Definition

Since 1950, the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the World Health Organization
(WHO) have shared a common definition of occupational health. It was adopted by the Joint
ILO/WHO Committee on Occupational Health at its first session in 1950 and revised at its
twelfth session in 1995. The definition reads: "Occupational health should aim at: the promotion
and maintenance of the highest degree of physical, mental and social well-being of workers in all
occupations; the prevention amongst workers of departures from health caused by their working
conditions; the protection of workers in their employment from risks resulting from factors
adverse to health; the placing and maintenance of the worker in an occupational environment
adapted to his physiological and psychological capabilities; and, to summarize, the adaptation of
work to man and of each man to his job."

[edit] Relationship to occupational health psychology

The related discipline, occupational health psychology (OHP) is a relatively new field that
combines elements of occupational safety and health, industrial/organizational psychology, and
health psychology.[2] The field is concerned with identifying work-related psychosocial factors
that adversely affect the health of people who work. OHP is also concerned with developing
ways to effect change in workplaces for the purpose of improving the health of people who
work. For more detail on OHP, see the section on occupational health psychology.

[edit] Reasons for safety and health

The reasons for establishing good occupational safety and health standards are frequently
identified as:

 Moral - An employee should not have to risk injury or death at work, nor should others
associated with the work environment.
 Economic - many governments realize that poor occupational safety and health
performance results in cost to the State (e.g. through social security payments to the
incapacitated, costs for medical treatment, and the loss of the "employability" of the
worker). Employing organizations also sustain costs in the event of an incident at work
(such as legal fees, fines, compensatory damages, investigation time, lost production, lost
goodwill from the workforce, from customers and from the wider community).
 Legal - Occupational safety and health requirements may be reinforced in civil law
and/or criminal law; it is accepted that without the extra "encouragement" of potential
regulatory action or litigation, many organisations would not act upon their implied moral
obligations.

[edit] National implementing legislation

Different states take different approaches to legislation, regulation, and enforcement.

In the European Union, member states have enforcing authorities to ensure that the basic legal
requirements relating to occupational safety and health are met. In many EU countries, there is
strong cooperation between employer and worker organisations (e.g. Unions) to ensure good
OSH performance as it is recognized this has benefits for both the worker (through maintenance
of health) and the enterprise (through improved productivity and quality). In 1996 the European
Agency for Safety and Health at Work was founded.

Member states of the European Union have all transposed into their national legislation a series
of directives that establish minimum standards on occupational safety and health. These
directives (of which there are about 20 on a variety of topics) follow a similar structure requiring
the employer to assess the workplace risks and put in place preventive measures based on a
hierarchy of control. This hierarchy starts with elimination of the hazard and ends with personal
protective equipment.

In the UK, health and safety legislation is drawn up and enforced by the Health and Safety
Executive and local authorities (the local council) under the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act
1974. Increasingly in the UK the regulatory trend is away from prescriptive rules, and towards
risk assessment. Recent major changes to the laws governing asbestos and fire safety
management embrace the concept of risk assessment.

In the United States, the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 created both the National
Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) and the Occupational Safety and Health
Administration (OSHA).[3] OSHA, in the U.S. Department of Labor, is responsible for
developing and enforcing workplace safety and health regulations. NIOSH, in the U.S.
Department of Health and Human Services, is focused on research, information, education, and
training in occupational safety and health.[4]

OSHA have been regulating occupational safety and health since 1971. Occupational safety and
health regulation of a limited number of specifically defined industries was in place for several
decades before that, and broad regulations by some individual states was in place for many years
prior to the establishment of OSHA.

In Canada, workers are covered by provincial or federal labour codes depending on the sector in
which they work. Workers covered by federal legislation (including those in mining,
transportation, and federal employment) are covered by the Canada Labour Code; all other
workers are covered by the health and safety legislation of the province they work in. The
Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety (CCOHS), an agency of the Government of
Canada, was created in 1978 by an Act of Parliament. The act was based on the belief that all
Canadians had "...a fundamental right to a healthy and safe working environment." CCOHS is
mandated to promote safe and healthy workplaces to help prevent work-related injuries and
illnesses.

In Malaysia, the Department of Occupational Safety and Health (DOSH) under the Ministry of
Human Resource is responsible to ensure that the safety, health and welfare of workers in both
the public and private sector is upheld. DOSH is responsible to enforce the Factory and
Machinery Act 1969 and the Occupational Safety and Health Act 1994.

[edit] Hazards, risks, outcomes

The terminology used in OSH varies between states, but generally speaking:

 A hazard is something that can cause harm if not controlled.

 The outcome is the harm that results from an uncontrolled hazard.
 A risk is a combination of the probability that a particular outcome will occur and the
severity of the harm involved.

“Hazard”, “risk”, and “outcome” are used in other fields to describe e.g. environmental damage,
or damage to equipment. However, in the context of OSH, “harm” generally describes the direct
or indirect degradation, temporary or permanent, of the physical, mental, or social well-being of
workers. For example, repetitively carrying out manual handling of heavy objects is a hazard.
The outcome could be a musculoskeletal disorder (MSD) or an acute back or joint injury. The
risk can be expressed numerically (e.g. a 0.5 or 50/50 chance of the outcome occurring during a
year), in relative terms (e.g. "high/medium/low"), or with a multi-dimensional classification
scheme (e.g. situation-specific risks).

[edit] Hazard Assessment

Hazard analysis or hazard assessment is a process in

which individual hazards of the workplace are identified,
assessed and controlled/eliminated as close to source
(location of the hazard) as reasonable and possible. As
technology, resources, social expectation or regulatory
requirements change, hazard analysis focuses controls
more closely toward the source of the hazard. Thus hazard
control is a dynamic program of prevention. Hazard-based
programs also have the advantage of not assigning or
implying there are "acceptable risks" in the workplace. A
hazard-based program may not be able to eliminate all
risks, but neither does it accept "satisfactory" -- but still
risky—outcomes. And as those who calculate and manage
the risk are usually managers while those exposed to the
risks are a different group, workers, a hazard-based
approach can by-pass conflict inherent in a risk-based
approach.
[edit] Risk assessment
Further information: Risk assessment#Risk assessment in public health

Modern occupational safety and health legislation usually demands that

a risk assessment be carried out prior to making an intervention. It
should be kept in mind that risk management requires risk to be
managed to a level which is as low as is reasonably practical.
This assessment should:

 Identify the hazards

 Identify all affected by the hazard and how
 Evaluate the risk
 Identify and prioritize appropriate control measures

The calculation of risk is based on the likelihood or probability

of the harm being realized and the severity of the consequences.
This can be expressed mathematically as a quantitative
assessment (by assigning low, medium and high likelihood and
severity with integers and multiplying them to obtain a risk
factor, or qualitatively as a description of the circumstances by
which the harm could arise.
The assessment should be recorded and reviewed periodically and whenever there is a significant
change to work practices. The assessment should include practical recommendations to control
the risk. Once recommended controls are implemented, the risk should be re-calculated to
determine of it has been lowered to an acceptable level. Generally speaking, newly introduced
controls should lower risk by one level, i.e, from high to medium or from medium to low.
[edit] Common workplace hazard groups
 Mechanical hazards include:

By type of agent:


o Impact force
 Collisions
 Falls from height
o Struck by objects
o Confined space
o Slips and trips
o Falling on a pointed object
o Compressed air/high pressure
fluids (such as cutting fluid)
o Entanglement Harry McShane, age 16, 1908. Pulled into
machinery in a factory in Cincinnati. His arm
 o Equipment-related injury was ripped off at the shoulder and his leg
broken. No compensation paid. Photograph by
By type of damage: Lewis Hine.

  Chemical hazards include:

o Acids
o Crushing
o Bases
o Cutting
o Heavy metals
o Friction and abrasion
 Lead
o Shearing
o Solvents
o Stabbing and puncture
 Petroleum
o Particulates
 Other physical hazards:  Asbestos and other fine
o Noise dust/fibrous materials
o Vibration  Silica
o Lighting o Fumes (noxious gases/vapors)
o Barotrauma o Highly-reactive chemicals
(hypobaric/hyperbaric pressure) o Fire, conflagration and explosion
o Ionizing radiation hazards:
o Electricity  Explosion
o Asphyxiation  Deflagration
o Cold stress (hypothermia)  Detonation
o Heat stress (hyperthermia)  Conflagration
 Dehydration (due to
sweating)  Psychosocial issues include:
o Work-related stress, whose causal
 Biological hazards include: factors include excessive working
o Bacteria time and overwork
o Virus o Violence from outside the
o Fungi organisation
 Mold o Bullying, which may include
o Blood-borne pathogens emotional, verbal, and sexual
o Tuberculosis harassment
o Mobbing
o Burnout
o Exposure to unhealthy elements
during meetings with business
associates, e.g. tobacco,
uncontrolled alcohol

 Musculoskeletal disorders, avoided by

the employment of good ergonomic
design
Key Regulations: Manpower:

Laws relating to Working Hours, Conditions of Service &

Employment

 
Factories Act, 1948

Contract Labour
(Regulation & Abolition)
Act, 1970

Mines Act, 1952

The Building & Other

Construction Workers
(Regulation of
Employment and
conditions of Service)
Act, 1996
 Plantation Labour Act,
1951

A company can ensure sustained profitability and

productivity from its investments only by taking
care of its human resources. The most important
aspect of it is the work environment provided to the
employees including hours of work, leave, safety,
rest periods, holidays and other conditions of
service of the employees.
The working conditions of an organization shall be such that workers are able to contribute their
best efforts and bring about quality output. They should feel safe and comfortable while working.
Work environment should be clean, healthy, spacious and hygienic. It should be free from
unnecessary noise and disturbances. Satisfactory physical conditions of work such as ventilation,
temperature balance, lighting and surroundings,etc. will help to remove workers irritation or
stress at work.

There should be proper performance appraisal of employees at regular intervals. Those who
perform well should be rewarded. Various incentives and benefits should be given to the
employees. A system of wage incentive will assure adequate incomes to employees and convince
them that the management is sincerely interested in a better living standard for them and not in
greater profits for itself alone.

In India, the Factories Act,1948 is the umbrella legislation enacted to regulate the working
conditions in factories; to ensure provision of the basic minimum requirements for safety, health
and welfare of the factories workers as well as to regulate the working hours, leave, holidays,
employment of children, women, etc.
 
Infrastructure refers to all those services and facilities that constitute the basic support system of
an economy. It is the foundation on which the day to day functioning of all the economic
activities of a country depends. It consists of the transportation network in the form of railways,
roadways, ports and civil aviation; the tele-communication system as well as the power sector.
All such utilities, through their backward and forward linkages, provide an enabling environment
for facilitating the growth of a nation.
Accurately

Infrastructure is the basic physical and organizational structures needed for the operation of a
society or enterprise,[1] or the services and facilities necessary for an economy to function.[2] The
term typically refers to the technical structures that support a society, such as roads, water
supply, sewers, power grids, telecommunications, and so forth. Viewed functionally,
infrastructure facilitates the production of goods and services; for example, roads enable the
transport of raw materials to a factory, and also for the distribution of finished products to
markets. In some contexts, the term may also include basic social services such as schools and
hospitals.[3] In military parlance, the term refers to the buildings and permanent installations
necessary for the support, redeployment, and operation of military forces.[4]

In this article, infrastructure will be used in the sense of technical structures or physical networks
that support society, unless specified otherwise.