Industrial Safety and

Environmental Management
23MECH40H

Prof. Tamer A. Mohamed

Professor, Mechanical Engineering Department
The British University of Egypt
 Syllabus
• The Safety and Health Movement
• Accidents and Their Effects
• The OSH Act, Standards, and Liability
• OSHA’s Record Keeping and Reporting
• Incident Rates
• Slipping, Falling, and Improper Lifting
• Risk Assessment
• Noise
• Work Equipment-Hazards and Control
• Manual and Mechanical Handling – Hazards and Control
• Fire Hazard
• Air Pollution
• Water Pollution
• Solid Waste Management
 THE SAFETY AND HEALTH MOVEMENT

• The safety movement in the United States has

developed steadily since the early 1900s.
– In 1907, more than 3,200 people were killed in mining
accidents.
• Legislation, precedent, and public opinion all
favored management.
– There were few protections for workers’ safety.
• Working conditions for industrial employees today have
improved significantly.
– Chance of worker death in an industrial accident
is less than half of what it was 60 years ago.
MILESTONES IN THE SAFETY MOVEMENT

• The safety movement traces its roots to

England.
– In the Industrial Revolution, child labor in factories
was common.
– Hours were long, work hard, and conditions often
unhealthy & unsafe.
MILESTONES IN THE SAFETY MOVEMENT

• After an outbreak of fever among children

working in their cotton mills, the people of
Manchester, England, demanded better
factory working conditions.
– In 1802 the Health & Morals of Workers Act
passed marked the beginning of governmental
involvement in workplace safety.
MILESTONES IN THE SAFETY MOVEMENT

• When the industrial sector began to grow in the US,

hazardous working conditions were commonplace.
– Factory inspection began in Massachusetts in 1867.
– In 1868, the first barrier safeguard was patented.
– In 1869, the Pennsylvania legislature passed a mine safety
law requiring two exits from all mines.
– The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) was started in 1869.
– In 1877, the Massachusetts legislature passed a law
requiring safeguards for hazardous machinery.
– 1877 also saw passage of the Employer’s Liability Law.
• Establishing potential for employer liability in workplace accidents.
MILESTONES IN THE SAFETY MOVEMENT

• In 1892, the first recorded safety program was

established in a Joliet, Illinois, steel plant.
– In response to a scare caused when a flywheel
exploded.
• Following the explosion, a committee of
managers was formed to investigate and make
recommendations.
– Used as the basis for the development of a safety
program considered to be the first in American
industry.
MILESTONES IN THE SAFETY MOVEMENT

• Around 1900, Frederick Taylor began studying

efficiency in manufacturing, and drew a
connection between lost personnel time &
management policies and procedures.
• In 1907, the U.S. Dept. of the Interior created the
Bureau of Mines to investigate accidents, examine
health hazards, and make recommendations for
improvements.
– In 1908 an early form of workers’ compensation was
introduced in the United States.
MILESTONES IN THE SAFETY MOVEMENT

• Workers’ compensation actually had its

beginnings in Germany, and soon spread
through Europe.
• Workers’ compensation made great strides in
the US when Wisconsin passed the first
effective workers’ compensation law in 1911.
– Today, all 50 states have some form of workers’
compensation.
MILESTONES IN THE SAFETY MOVEMENT

• From 1918 through the 1950s, the federal

government encouraged contractors to
implement & maintain a safe work environment.
• Industry in the US arrived at two critical
conclusions
– There is a definite connection between quality &
safety.
– Off-the-job accidents have a negative impact on
productivity.
MILESTONES IN THE SAFETY MOVEMENT
• The 1960s saw the passage of legislations
promoting workplace safety.
– The Service Contract Act
– The Federal Metal & Nonmetallic Mine Safety Act.
– The Federal Coal Mine and Safety Act
– The Contract Workers and Safety Standards Act.
• These laws applied to a limited audience of workers, and
the injury & death toll due to industrial accidents was still
too high.
– In the late 1960s, more than 14,000 employees
were killed annually in connection with their jobs.
MILESTONES IN THE SAFETY MOVEMENT

• Work injury rates were taking an upward

swing, the primary reasons for passage of the
Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSH Act)
of 1970 and the Federal Mine Safety Act of
1977.
MILESTONES IN THE SAFETY MOVEMENT

• In 2000, U.S. firms began to pursue ISO 14000.

– Workplace terrorism became an important issue
in 2003.
• In 2007 special safety needs of older people
who reentered the workforce became an issue
for safety professionals.
• In 2010, organizations began to concern
themselves with off-the-job safety as a critical
part of their overall safety and health plan.
 TRAGEDIES THAT HAVE CHANGED THE
SAFETY MOVEMENT

• Safety & health tragedies in the workplace

greatly accelerated the pace of the safety
movement in the US.
 TRAGEDIES THAT HAVE CHANGED THE
SAFETY MOVEMENT
• Hawk’s Nest Tragedy - set public opinion in favor of
protecting workers from the weakening disease
silicosis.
• A company contracted to drill a passage through a
mountain in the Hawk’s Nest region of West Virginia.
– Workers spent as many as 10 hours per day breathing
dust created by drilling and blasting.
• This mountain had an unusually high silica content.
• Silicosis normally takes 10 to 30 years to show up.
– Hawk’s Nest workers began dying in as little as a year.
• By the time the project was completed, hundreds had died.
 TRAGEDIES THAT HAVE CHANGED THE
SAFETY MOVEMENT
• This tragedy & resulting public protest led a
group of companies to form:
– The Air Hygiene Foundation to research & develop
standards for work in dusty areas.
• The US Department of Labor helped make
silicosis a named disease in most states.
– Approximately 1 million workers in the US are
still exposed to silica every year.
• 250 people die annually from silicosis.
 TRAGEDIES THAT HAVE CHANGED THE
SAFETY MOVEMENT
• Asbestos Menace - in 1964, Dr. Irving J. Selikoff told a conference
on biological effects of asbestos that the widely used material
was killing workers.
– Asbestos was once considered a “miracle” fiber.
• At the time of Selikoff’s findings, asbestos was one of the most
widely used materials in the US.
– Found in homes, schools, offices, factories, ships, and even in the filters
of cigarettes.
• This conference changed how Americans viewed not just
asbestos, but workplace hazards in general.
– Selikoff was the first to link asbestos to lung cancer and respiratory
diseases.
– In the 1970s-80s, asbestos became a controlled material.
 TRAGEDIES THAT HAVE CHANGED THE
SAFETY MOVEMENT
• Bhopal Tragedy - On Dec. 3, 1984, over 40 tons
of methyl isocyanate (MIC) & other gases,
including hydrogen cyanide, leaked into north
Bhopal, India.
– Killing more than 3,000 people.
• It was discovered the protective equipment that
could have halted impending disaster was not
in full working order.
• This disaster shocked the world.
 DEVELOPMENT OF ACCIDENT
PREVENTION PROGRAMS
• Widely used accident prevention techniques
include:
– Failure minimization, fail-safe designs.
– Isolation, lockouts, screening.
– Personal protective equipment.
 DEVELOPMENT OF ACCIDENT
PREVENTION PROGRAMS
• Early safety programs were based
on the three E’s of safety:
– Engineering.
– Education.
– Enforcement.
 DEVELOPMENT OF
SAFETY ORGANIZATIONS
• The Occupational Safety & Health Administration
(OSHA) is the government’s administrative arm for
the Occupational Safety & Health Act of 1970.
• OSHA sets safety & health standards, conducts
inspections, investigates problems…
– Issues citations & assesses penalties.
– Ask courts to take action against unsafe employers.
– Provides safety training & injury prevention
consultation.
– Maintains a database of health and safety statistics.
 DEVELOPMENT OF
SAFETY ORGANIZATIONS
• The National Institute for Occupational Safety
and Health (NIOSH) is part of the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) of the
Department of Health and Human Services.
– NIOSH is required to publish annually a
comprehensive list of all known toxic substances.
– NIOSH will also provide on-site tests of potentially
toxic substances so that companies know what
they are handling and what precautions to take.
 INTEGRATED APPROACH TO SAFETY AND
HEALTH
• Health & safety staff in a modern industrial company
may include the following positions:
– Industrial hygiene chemist and/or engineer - companies
that use toxic substances may employ industrial hygiene
chemists to test work environment & people working in it.
– Radiation control specialist - monitor radiation levels
to which workers may be exposed, test for levels of
exposure, respond to radiation accidents, develop
company-wide plans for handling radiation accidents.
– Industrial safety engineer or manager - safety & health
generalists with specialized education and training.
Accidents and Their Effects
 ACCIDENTS AND THEIR EFFECTS
• Accidents are the fourth leading cause of death
after heart disease, cancer, and strokes.
• There is a long history of debate on the effect of
accidents on industry (workers and companies).
– Historically, the view was that accident prevention
programs were too costly.
– The modern view is that accidents are too costly
and accident prevention makes sense economically.
• Accident prevention, which had been advocated on
a moral basis, is now justified in economic terms.
 COSTS OF ACCIDENTS
– The Overall cost of accidents in the US is about $150
billion.

Figure 2-1 Accident costs by accident

type (in billions, in a typical year).
Figure 2-2 Accident costs by categories
(in billions, in a typical year).

Accidents on and off the job cost US industry greatly.

 ACCIDENTAL DEATHS IN THE UNITED
STATES
• US accidental deaths result from many causes:
1. Motor vehicle accidents.
2. Falls, poisoning, drowning, fire-related injuries.
3. Suffocation (ingested object), firearms (non-combat).
4. Medical complications.
5. Air transport accidents, interaction with machinery.
6. Mechanical suffocation, impact of falling objects.
• The NSC periodically computes death totals and death
rates in each of these categories.
– In a typical year, there are over 14,000 deaths in
these subcategories.
ACCIDENTAL VS OTHER CAUSES OF DEATH
• There are more yearly deaths of heart disease,
cancer & strokes than from accidents.
– But concentrated among people at or near
retirement age.
Note that for persons from
25 to 44 years of age, the
leading cause is accidents.
Accidents are a serious
detriment to productivity,
quality & competitiveness
in today’s workplace.
Figure 2-3 Causes of accidents
(ages 25 to 44 years, typical year).

Accidents are one cause of death & injury

that companies can most easily control.
 WORK ACCIDENT COSTS AND RATES
• Workplace accidents cost employers millions yearly.
– Arco Chemical Co. was fined $3.48 million for failing to
protect workers from an explosion at a Channelview, Texas
plant.
– USX paid a $3.25 million fine to settle numerous health and
safety violation citations.
– BASF Corporation agreed to pay a fine of $1.06 million
to associated with an explosion at a Cincinnati chemical
plant that caused two deaths and 17 injuries.
• In addition to fines, employers incurred costs for safety
corrections, medical treatment, survivor benefits, death &
funeral costs, & other indirect costs.
– Clearly, work accidents are expensive.
 WORK ACCIDENT COSTS AND RATES
• The trend in the rate of accidents is
downward, evidence of success of the US
safety movement.
– According to the NSC, Between 1912 &1998,
accidental work deaths per 100,000 reduced 81%,
from 21 to 4.
TIME LOST BECAUSE OF WORK INJURIES
• An important effect of accidents on industry is
the amount of lost time due to work injuries.
– About 35 million hours are lost in a typical year.
• Additional time is lost for medical checkups
after the injured employee returns to work.
– Accidents in previous years often continue to
cause lost time in the current year.
WORK INJURIES BY TYPE OF ACCIDENT

• Work injuries can be classified by the type of accident

from which they resulted.
1. Overexertion; Impact accidents; Falls; Compression.
2. Exposure to radiation/caustics; Bodily reaction (to
chemicals).
3. Rubbing or abrasions; Exposure to extreme
temperatures.
4. Motor vehicle accidents.
 DEATH RATES BY INDUSTRY
• Variety agencies & organizations collect & rank
data on death rates within industrial categories.
• Highest to lowest:
1. Mining - including oil & gas drilling/extraction.
2. Agriculture - including farming, forestry, and fishing.
3. Construction; Transportation/public utilities.
4. Federal, state, and local government
5. Manufacturing.
6. Services - including finance, insurance & real estate.
7. Trade - both wholesale and retail.

• Death rates are computed based on the number of deaths per

100,000 workers in a given year.
– Rankings sometimes change slightly from year to year.
PARTS OF THE BODY INJURED ON THE JOB

• Injuries to the back occurred most frequently.

– Followed by thumb & finger injuries and leg
injuries.
• Frequent injury rankings show that a
fundamental component of a safety & health
program should be instruction on how to lift
without hurting the back.
 CHEMICAL BURN INJURIES
• The greatest incidence of chemical burns, about
one-third, occurs in manufacturing, with the rest
in services, trade, and construction.
– Acids & alkalis; soaps, detergents, cleaning compounds.
– Solvents and degreasers.
– Calcium hydroxide (used in cement & plaster).
– Sulfuric acid (battery acid).
• Many occur, in spite of personal protective
equipment, safety instruction, and available
treatment facilities.
 CHEMICAL BURN INJURIES
• Strategies recommended for safety & health
professionals, for preventing chemical burn
injuries:
– Familiarize yourself, workers & supervisors with the
chemicals to be used and their inherent dangers.
– Secure the proper personal protection equipment.
– Provide instruction on proper use of equipment.
• Supervisors confirm equipment is used properly every time.
– Replace personal protection equipment when it
begins to show wear.
 HEAT BURN INJURIES
• Almost 40% of heat burn injuries occur in
manufacturing every year.
– Most frequent causes are flame (also smoke inhalation),
molten metal, petroleum asphalts, steam & water.
• Employees should be familiar with hazards, know the
appropriate safety precautions, and have & use the
proper personal protection equipment.
• Safety professionals should monitor to ensure
that safety rules are being followed, personal protection
equipment is being used correctly,
and that it is in good condition.
REPETITIVE STRAIN/SOFT TISSUE INJURIES
• Repetitive strain injury (RSI) are typically associated with
soft tissues of hands, arms, neck & shoulders.
• Carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) is the most widely known, but
there are several other RSIs also.
– CTS is typically caused by repeated and cumulative stress on the
median nerve.
– Symptoms of CTS include numbness, a tingling sensation, and
pain in the fingers, hand, and/ or wrist.
– Evidence suggests a higher incidence of CTS among women than
men.
– Overall incidence rate for CTS is increasing at a rate
of more than 15% per year.
 Cost-Estimation Method
• Types of accidents are categorized into the following four
classes:
– Class 1 accidents - lost workdays, permanent partial
disabilities, or temporary total disabilities.
– Class 2 accidents - treatment by a physician outside
the company’s facility.
– Class 3 accidents- locally provided first aid, property damage
less than $100, or loss of less than eight hours
of work time.
– Class 4 accidents - injuries so minor they require no physician
attention, property damage of $100 or less,
or eight or fewer work hours lost.
 Estimating Hidden Costs
• Accident costs are like an iceberg, in that the larger
part of the actual cost is hidden beneath the
surface.
• There is usually a great deal of activity when a
serious accident occurs.
– There may be a slowdown in production near the site.
– There also will be a need to replace the injured worker.
• Costs associated with the learning curve of the replacement.
– The supervisor & accident investigation team probably
will need to spend time conducting an investigation.
Estimating Hidden Costs
GLOBAL IMPACT OF ACCIDENTS AND INJURIES
• Occupational injuries in developing countries are more common
in such high-risk industries as mining, construction, and
agriculture.
– Men tend to die as the result of accidents, lung diseases, &
work-related cancers such as caused by asbestos.
– Women suffer more from musculoskeletal disorders,
communicable diseases, and psychosocial problems.
– Younger workers are more likely to suffer nonfatal injuries.
– Older workers are more likely to suffer fatal injuries.
– More than half of retirements are taken early to collect
pensions based on work-related disabilities rather than
normal retirement.
 Safety and Health Manager

• His level in the corporate hierarchy is an indication of the

company’s commitment to safety.
• His job is complex and diverse.
• A sample of his diverse duties:
–Hazard analysis
–Accident reporting
–Standards and compliance
–Record Keeping
–Training to emergency planning …etc.
 Problems Safety and Health manager face

• Lack of commitment in top management

• Production versus safety
• Companywide commitment to safety and health
• Lack of resources
Use of company’s bottom line concern to
gain safety and health commitment