MODULE I

INTRODUCTORY CONCEPTS AND

OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY (Part 1)

Lesson 1 Introduction to OSH and

OSH Situation

Lesson 2 Unsafe / Unhealthy Acts

and Condition

Lesson 3 Housekeeping

Lesson 4 Materials Handling &

Storage

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MODULE I

INTRODUCTORY CONCEPTS AND OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY I

 INTRODUCTION

This module presents the Introductory Concepts and Occupational

Safety (Part 1). Topics include the Introduction to OSH and OSH Situation. It
will also discuss the Unsafe / Unhealthy Acts and Conditions. Occupational
Safety topics on Housekeeping and Materials Handling and Storage will also
be presented.

OBJECTIVES

After studying the module, you should be able to:

1. Define OSH.
2. Identify work hazards and risks.
3. Identify the problems, issues and challenges associated with OSH.
4. Identify the different unsafe / unhealthy acts and conditions in
the workplace.
5. Identify and discuss good housekeeping practices.
6. Describe safe procedures in manual handling, mechanical handling
and materials storage.

 DIRECTIONS/ MODULE ORGANIZER

There are four lessons in the module. Read each lesson thoughtfully
then answer the learning activities and a summative test at the end of the
module to find out how much you have benefited from it. Work on these
activities carefully. Date of submission and how will be submitted will be
posted in the google classroom or group chat.
All activities required can be printed or copied in a coupon bond.
Solutions/answers will be handwritten.
On the paper, write first your family name then your first name on
the blank provided fill up and then affix your signature over printed name
on the right bottom part (all pages).
In case you encounter difficulty, contact or message your
instructor/professor through messenger or cellphone no. 09186205795.
Good luck and happy reading!!!

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Lesson 1

 Introduction to OSH and

OSH Situation

What is Occupational Safety and Health (OSH)?

Occupational safety and health is a discipline with a broad scope

involving three major fields – Occupational Safety, Occupational Health
and Industrial Hygiene.

Occupational safety deals with understanding the causes of

accidents at work and ways to prevent unsafe act and unsafe
conditions in any workplace. Safety at work discusses concepts on
good housekeeping, proper materials handling and storage,
machine safety, electrical safety, fire prevention and control,
safety inspection, and accident investigation.

Occupational health is a broad concept which explains how the

different hazards and risks at work may cause an illness and
emphasizes that health programs are essential in controlling work-
related and/or occupational diseases.

Industrial hygiene discusses the identification, evaluation, and

control of physical, chemical, biological and ergonomic hazards.

“In its broadest sense, OSH aims at:

the promotion and maintenance of the highest degree of
physical, mental and social well-being of workers in all
occupations; the prevention of adverse health effects of the
working conditions the placing and maintenance of workers in an
occupational environment adapted to physical and mental needs;
the adaptation of work to humans (and NOT the other way
around).

In other words, occupational health and safety encompasses the

social, mental and physical well-being of workers, that is, the “whole
person”.

Successful occupational health and safety practice requires the

collaboration and participation of both employers and workers in
health and safety programs, and involves the consideration of issues
relating to occupational medicine, industrial hygiene, toxicology,
education, engineering safety, ergonomics, psychology, etc.

Occupational health issues are often given less attention than occupational
safety issues because the former are generally more difficult to confront.
However, when health is addressed, so is safety - a healthy workplace is by

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definition also a safe workplace. The reverse, though, may not be true - a
so-called safe workplace is not necessarily also a healthy workplace. The
important point is that both health and safety issues must be addressed in
every workplace.”

The terms hazard and risk are often interchanged. Because you will be
encountering these throughout the course it is a must that you
understand the difference between them.

Hazard – a source or situation with a potential to cause harm in terms of

injury, ill health, damage to property, damage to the environment or a
combination of these.

Risk – a combination of the likelihood of an occurrence of a hazardous

event with specified period or in specified circumstances and the severity
of injury or damage to the health of people, property, environment or
any combination of these caused by the event.

The hazards affecting the workplace under each major area should be
detected, identified, controlled and, at best, prevented from occurring
by the safety and health officer of the company. Occupational safety and
health should be integrated in every step of the work process, starting
from storage and use of raw materials, the manufacture of products,
release of by-products, use of various equipment and ensuring a non-
hazardous or risk-free work environment.

Lesson 1, aims to provide a background on both the local and

international OSH situation. We hope that by being aware and focusing on
the magnitude of work-related accidents, injuries and illness, you will
understand the prevalent conditions that exist which contribute to the
accidents and illness at work.

Let us share with you a historical event which led to OSH improvements
in the early 19th century. During the industrial revolution of 1800 – 1900s,
the use of machines, equipment and chemicals were intensive as
manufacturing processes, agriculture and train/steam engine transport
were the driving force of the economy. However, numerous work-related
accidents and deaths occurred arising from hazards in these industries.
Statistics, at that time, showed that safety hazards, chemical exposures
and injuries from manufacturing work were very high. This led to the
development of guidelines and standards to protect workers from work-
related hazards and risks in the above-mentioned industries.

As work patterns change, trends on accidents and diseases may also

reflect how workers are affected. In the late 20 th century and until the
present, we see that predominance of the service sector (wholesale and
retail trade, education, hotels and restaurants, banks, health-care etc.),
and we are now confronted with data that reveal work-related muscle
and joint injuries experienced by the service sector workers and the

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emergence of the science of ergonomics which will be discussed at length

in the Occupational Health module.

Global OSH figures

The International Labour Organization (ILO) Safework Introductory Report

in 2008 showed that close to 50% of work-related deaths occur in Asia. In
developing countries, fatality rates are five to six times higher than in
industrialized nations and in developing countries where, every year,
around 170,000 agricultural workers and 320,000 people die from
exposures to biological risks such as viral, bacterial, insect or animal
related risks.

The latest ILO figures reveal that,

“Every 15 seconds, 160 workers have a work-related accident. Every 15

seconds, a worker dies from a work-related accident or disease.

Every day, 6,300 people die as a result of occupational accidents or

work-related diseases – more than 2.3 million deaths per year. Over 337
million accidents occur on the job annually; many of these resulting in
extended absences from work. The human cost of this daily adversity is
vast and the economic burden of poor occupational safety and health
practices is estimated at 4% of global Gross Domestic product each year.

The safety and health conditions at work are very different between
countries, economic sectors and social groups. Deaths and injuries take a
heavy toll in developing countries, where a large part of the population
is engaged in hazardous activities such as agriculture, fishing and mining.
Throughout the world, the poorest and least protected – often women,
children and migrants – are among the most affected.”

Philippine Labor and OSH statistics

According to the latest Labor Force Survey (LFS) of the National Statistics
Office (NSO), the Philippine labor force/ economically active population,
which refers to persons 15 years old and above who are employed or
underemployed, totals 38.905M in October 2010.

“Of the estimated 36.0 million employed persons in 2010, more than half
(51.8%) were engaged in services and about one-third (33.2%) were in
agriculture. Most of those who worked in the services sector were into
wholesale and retail trade, repair of motor vehicles, motorcycles and
personal and household goods (19.5% of the total employed).

Of the total employed persons, the laborers and unskilled workers

comprised the largest group (32.3%). This was followed by farmers,
forestry workers and fishermen (16.0%); officials of government and
special interest organizations, corporate executives, managers, managing
proprietors and supervisors (13.8%); and service workers, shop and

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market sales workers (10.6%). The rest of the major occupation groups
each comprised less than 10 percent ranging from 0.4 percent to 7.7
percent.
The majority (54.4%) of the employed were wage and salary workers,
most of whom were in private establishments (40.4% of the total
employed). Thirty percent were self-employed without any paid
employee; four percent were employer in own family-operated business
or farm while nearly 12 percent worked without pay in own family-
operated farm or business.

More than half (63.5%) of the total employed were full time workers or
have worked for at least 40 hours per week. On the average, employed
persons worked 41.7 hours a week in 2010.

The number of underemployed workers in 2010 was 6.8 million,

representing an annual underemployment rate of 18.7 percent.
Underemployed workers are persons who express the desire to have
additional hours of work in the present job, or to have an additional job,
or to have a new job with longer working hours. The lowest
underemployment rate was observed in Central Luzon (9.1%) while the
highest was noted in Bicol Region (36.8%).

About 2.9 million Filipinos were unemployed in 2010 representing an

unemployment rate of 7.3 percent for the year. The unemployed persons
who have attained high school accounted for 45.2 percent of all
unemployed. The proportion of unemployed males was greater than that
of their female counterparts (63.3% compared to 36.7%).”

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The BITS results reveal that a total of 44,800 occupational accidents

occurred in 4,600 non-agricultural establishments employing 20 or more
workers in 2007, a figure lower by 14.7% than the 52,515 accidents that
affected 4, 824 establishments in 2003. Occupational injuries resulting
from workplace accidents declined by 20.7% from 58,720 in 2003 to
46,570 in 2007.

Cases that required absence/s from work stood at 23,265 in 2003 and
20,386 in 2007 or a reduction of 12.4%. Almost all cases with workdays
lost in 2007 were temporary disabilities (20,109). This is 12.4% lower than
the caseload of 22,964 in 2003.

On the other hand, training on the proper handling and correct operation
of machines, use of personal protective equipment (PPE) precautions and
carefulness in work prevent accidents and promote safety in
establishments.

Definition of Terms:

Occupational accident
- an unexpected and unplanned occurrence, including acts of violence arising
out of or in connection with work which results in one or more workers
incurring a personal injury, disease or death. It can occur outside the usual
workplace/premises of the establishment while the worker is on business on
behalf of his/her employer, i.e., in another establishment or while on
travel, transport or in road traffic.

Occupational injury
- an injury which results from a work-related event or a single instantaneous
exposure in the work environment (occupational accident). Where more than
one person is injured in a single accident, each case of occupational injury
should be counted separately. If one person is injured in more than one
occupational accident during the reference period, each case of injury to
that person should be counted separately. Recurrent absences due to an

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injury resulting from a single occupational accident should be treated as the

continuation of the same case of occupational injury not as a new case.

Temporary incapacity - case where an injured person was absent from work
for at least one day, excluding the day of the accident, and 1) was able to
perform again the normal duties of the job or position occupied at the time of
the occupational accident or 2) will be able to perform the same job but
his/her total absence from work is expected not to exceed a year starting the
day after the accident, or 3) did not return to the same job but the reason for
changing the job is not related to his/her inability to perform the job at the
time of the occupational accident.

Permanent incapacity - case where an injured person was absent from work
for at least one day, excluding the day of the accident, and 1) was never able
to perform again the normal duties of the job or position occupied at the time
of the occupational accident, or 2) will be able to perform the same job but
his/her total absence from work is expected to exceed a year starting the day
after the accident.

Fatal case - case where a person is fatally injured as a result of occupational

accident whether death occurs immediately after the accident or within the
same reference year as the accident.

Injuries incurring days away from work recorded a Frequency Rate (FR)
of 2.79 in 2007. This was 1.28 percentage points lower than the FR of
4.07 in 2003. Expectedly, this was coherent to the 12.4% reduction in
the number of cases of occupational injuries to 20,386 in 2007 from
23,265 in 2003.

Categories by incapacity for work on cases with workdays lost

recorded frequency rates as follows:

Definition of Terms:

Frequency Rate (FR) – refers to cases of occupational injuries with workdays

lost per 1,000,000 employee-hours of exposure.

Incidence Rate (IR) – refers to cases of occupational injuries with workdays lost
per 1,000 workers.

Severity Rate (SR) – refers to workdays lost of cases of occupational injuries

resulting to temporary incapacity per 1,000,000 employee-hours of exposure.

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Average Workdays Lost – refer to workdays lost for every case of occupational
injury resulting to temporary incapacity.

Cases of occupational diseases in non-agricultural establishments

employing 20 or more workers decreased by 14.8% from 55,413 in 2003 to
47,235 in 2007. Incidences of occupational diseases decreased in almost
all types of diseases in 2007 except in bronchial asthma (+29.9%),
occupational dermatitis (+18.6%) and essential hypertension (+7.8). Work-
related musculoskeletal diseases were most prevalent in non-agricultural
establishments employing 20 or more workers both in 2003 and 2007. This
type of disease accounted for 37.2% (2003) and 28.1 % (2007) of the
totals. Other types which made up more than 10% of the total diseases in
2007 were bronchial asthma (18.5%), infections (13.8%), essential
hypertension (13.0%) and occupational dermatitis (12.6%).

The present local data does not present a total picture of OSH situation in
the Philippines. As you can see, the BITS survey is limited only to the
6,460 companies covered out of the estimated 780,500 existing
establishments in the country. Many companies do not report accidents
and injuries.

Data gathering has been problematic because of the following conditions:

 Under reporting of work-related accidents and illnesses. Rule

1050 of the Philippine Occupational Safety and Health Standards
(OSHS) requires all employers to report all work accidents or
occupational illnesses resulting to disabling conditions to the
DOLE Regional Office in their area. However, very few
companies submit reports.

 Limited coverage of the OSH information and education and

OSHS implementation. Vulnerable groups such as the informal
sector (which amounts to 28M or 80% of the Filipino workforce)
are often left out in the OSH education, information and
program implementation because they are do not have the
capacity to pay for trainings and most of the time are not even
aware that they can protect themselves from accidents and
illnesses. Many of them think that the diseases and accidents
they experience is part of the nature of their work and cannot
be prevented. On a positive note, OSHC has been doing a lot of
OSH awareness campaigns for informal workers.

 Inadequate number of trained OSH personnel. There has been an

upsurge of OSH awareness worldwide and companies both here
and abroad require companies to hire trained OSH personnel.
This has caused an exponential increase in the number of
workers who have undergone and are wanting to avail of OSH
trainings but because accidents continue to happen, more
dedicated and trained personnel are needed.

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 Absence of strict penalties. There is no system of fines for

violations of the different provisions of the OSHS.

 Weak enforcement of OSH laws –problem is traceable also to the

absence of strict penalties on violations of OSH standards.

 Fragmented OSH administration. There is no central authority to

coordinate all OSH efforts.

 Public apathy on OSH concerns. Most people do not generally

pay attention to OSH concerns.

 Low priority on OSH concerns by both management and labor.

The former is more concerned about profit while the latter is
with wages and other monetary benefits.

Emerging issues in OSH

 Aside from the problems already identified, participants should

also be aware that there are emerging OSH issues – such as
women workers’ issues, OSH and child labor, OSH in the informal
sector, agriculture, in schools and lifestyle diseases such as AIDS
and diabetes, and many others.

 Women are often faced with multiple burdens. They have taken
on the burden of the home they perform the role of a wife and a
mother. These may also affect her performance at the
workplace and add to the stresses that come with the job. The
hazards that a women worker is exposed to while at work to can
affect her reproductive health and for a pregnant worker, her
unborn child.

 There are 250 million child laborers around the world of which
3.7 million are found in the Philippines. Of these, 2.2M are in
hazardous jobs. Employing children in these types of work
greatly affects the quality of their life and in serious cases, may
even cause serious disabilities or death. The OSHC researches on
the footwear industry, fishing, mining, and agriculture, helped
in the formulation of policies, in advocacy campaigns to take
children out of hazardous work.

 The use of pesticides in farms is also another issue. Farmers or

farm workers who handle pesticides may be unaware of the
hazards that they are exposed to. Constant exposure of a
worker, has enormous adverse effects his or her health. Workers
handling pesticides may even bring home residues of the
chemicals and, affecting their families and the community.

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 There is also little mechanism on OSH for the informal sector

considering that they represent more than half of the total
workforce and is the sector badly in need of OSH information
since they have the tendency to ignore such concerns just to get
their daily incomes.

 In schools, students are also exposed to hazards such as

chemicals and electricity, while bullying and hazing (both
psycho-social issues) are becoming more common. Many school
buildings are also risks themselves.

Although the number of work-related accidents and illnesses has

decreased in the recent years here in the Philippines, cases of
occupational injuries and diseases continue to occur. We at the OSHC
subscribe to the principle that “one life lost is one too many.” Everyone
must therefore be involved in the effort to contain OSH concerns to
enhance one’s working life. After all, most of us work mainly for
economic purposes - “ang hanap-buhay ay para ikabuhay, hindi para
ikamatay.”

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