scholarly journals Control Banding: The New Approach of Risk Assessment in Malaysia

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Hazlina Yon
Keyword(s):  
Risk Assessment ◽  
Occupational Safety ◽  
Health Knowledge ◽  
Assessment Tool ◽  
New Approach ◽  
Control Banding ◽  
Safety And Health ◽  
Small Medium Enterprises ◽  
Medium Enterprises ◽  
And Control

The control banding method is a simplified risk assessment for chemical handling tasks. It has been integrated into Malaysian risk assessment tool called Simple Risk Assessment and Control (SiRAC). A brief introduction of SiRAC is narrated with small medium enterprises (SMEs) as the initial target audience. SMEs are lacking in occupational safety and health knowledge and resources yet contributed 66% to employment in Malaysia. Purpose of study is to elaborate on this new tool of risk assessment. There are seven steps in the assessment where bands of hazards grouped with bands of exposure to select one of the appropriate four control approaches. Appropriate control guidance sheet will be selected based on task under each approach. SiRAC has its limitation in scope of coverage and only chemicals in liquid or solid forms can be assessed. SiRAC is using hazard classification introduced by the Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labelling of Chemicals (GHS) which has been embedded in the local legislation. Person to conduct SiRAC should be trained by approved training provider. SiRAC Online is under development to complement the tool. Despite its limitation and anticipated weaknesses, SiRAC is expected to be sufficient as an initial tool to assist SMEs in chemical risk management in Malaysia.

scholarly journals Biological risk assessment: A challenge for occupational health and safety practitioners during the COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2) Pandemic

Work ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 1-11
Author(s):  
Carlos Carvalhais ◽  
Micaela Querido ◽  
Cristiana C. Pereira ◽  
Joana Santos
Keyword(s):  
Risk Assessment ◽  
Occupational Safety ◽  
Assessment Method ◽  
Occupational Safety And Health ◽  
Risk Level ◽  
Biological Risk ◽  
Occupational Risks ◽  
Qualitative Risk Assessment ◽  
Safety And Health ◽  
Medium Risk

BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 global pandemic brought several challenges to occupational safety and health practice. One of these is the need to (re)assess the occupational risks, particularly, biological risks. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this work is to promote guidance to occupational safety and health practitioners when conducting a biological risk assessment in this context. METHODS: The main steps of the biological risk assessment are explained with some inputs regarding the novelty posed by SARS-CoV-2 and an example of a qualitative risk assessment method is presented. Also, its application to two different activities was exemplified. RESULTS: In both cases, the assessment considered that vulnerable workers were working from home or in medical leave. The results showed low or medium risk level for the assessed tasks. For medium risk level, additional controls are advised, such maintain social distancing, sanitize instruments/equipment before use, use proper and well-maintained PPE (when applicable), and promote awareness sessions to spread good practices at work. Employers must be aware of their obligations regarding biological risk assessment and OSH practitioners must be prepared to screen and link the abundance of scientific evidence generated following the outbreak, with the technical practice. CONCLUSIONS: This paper could be an important contribution to OSH practice since it highlights the need to (re)assess occupational risks, especially biological risk, to ensure a safe return to work, providing technical guidance.

Components of a risk assessment tool for prevention and control of bovine respiratory disease in preweaned dairy calves

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-7
Author(s):  
Sharif S. Aly ◽  
Betsy M. Karle ◽  
Deniece R. Williams ◽  
Gabriele U. Maier ◽  
Sasha Dubrovsky
Keyword(s):  
Risk Factors ◽  
Risk Assessment ◽  
Risk Factor ◽  
Respiratory Disease ◽  
Scoring System ◽  
Prevention And Control ◽  
Assessment Tool ◽  
Bovine Respiratory Disease ◽  
And Control ◽  
Management Changes

Abstract Bovine respiratory disease (BRD) is the leading natural cause of death in US beef and dairy cattle, causing the annual loss of more than 1 million animals and financial losses in excess of $700 million. The multiple etiologies of BRD and its complex web of risk factors necessitate a herd-specific intervention plan for its prevention and control on dairies. Hence, a risk assessment is an important tool that producers and veterinarians can utilize for a comprehensive assessment of the management and host factors that predispose calves to BRD. The current study identifies the steps taken to develop the first BRD risk assessment tool and its components, namely the BRD risk factor questionnaire, the BRD scoring system, and a herd-specific BRD control and prevention plan. The risk factor questionnaire was designed to inquire on aspects of calf-rearing including management practices that affect calf health generally, and BRD specifically. The risk scores associated with each risk factor investigated in the questionnaire were estimated based on data from two observational studies. Producers can also estimate the prevalence of BRD in their calf herds using a smart phone or tablet application that facilitates selection of a true random sample of calves for scoring using the California BRD scoring system. Based on the risk factors identified, producers and herd veterinarians can then decide the management changes needed to mitigate the calf herd's risk for BRD. A follow-up risk assessment after a duration of time sufficient for exposure of a new cohort of calves to the management changes introduced in response to the risk assessment is recommended to monitor the prevalence of BRD.

scholarly journals NSI: A major occupational hazards among the health care workers in Nepal

2013 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 22-25 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jaita Mondal
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Health Care Workers ◽  
Body Fluid ◽  
Occupational Safety ◽  
Assessment Tool ◽  
Health Workers ◽  
Needle Stick Injury ◽  
Safety And Health ◽  
Care Workers ◽  
B Virus

A percutaneous piercing wound as in needle stick injury is a typically set by a needle point, but possibly also by other sharp instruments or objects. These events are of concern because of the risk to transmit blood-borne diseases through the passage of the hepatitis B virus (HBV), the hepatitis C virus (HCV), and the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), the virus which causes AIDS. The present study was done to determine the risk status regarding NSI among health care workers of Private Hospitals, Pokhara, Nepal. Samples were selected through purposive sampling. Self administered questionnaire & risk assessment tool were used to collect data. Study revealed that majority of health care workers were females (93%) with mean age of 22.66 years (±3.1). Sixty eight percent had got NSI, among them 41% had NSI more than 2times in life. Maximum NSI cases happened either by recapping of the needle (18%) or during disposal of sharps (16%) or while transferring a body fluid (blood) to a specimen bottle (15%). The study concludes that majority of health workers had NSI more than two times which denotes NSI is a major occupational hazard. Cases happened either by recapping of the needle or during disposal of sharps or while transferring a body fluid to a specimen bottle. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3126/ijosh.v3i1.9098   International Journal of Occupational Safety and Health, Vol 3 No 1 (2013) 22-25

scholarly journals Preventing Young Worker Fatalities

AAOHN Journal ◽  
2002 ◽  
Vol 50 (11) ◽  
pp. 508-514 ◽  
Author(s):  
Doloris N. Higgins ◽  
Jeanette Tierney ◽  
Lawrence Hanrahan
Keyword(s):  
Occupational Safety ◽  
Young Worker ◽  
Regulatory Agencies ◽  
Young Workers ◽  
Work Related ◽  
Safety And Health ◽  
Labor Statistics ◽  
Control Evaluation ◽  
And Control ◽  
Bureau Of Labor Statistics

During the period between 1992 through 1998, the Bureau of Labor Statistics identified an average of 67 work related deaths of individuals younger than 18 each year. This article describes the Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation (FACE) program and summarizes indepth data collected on 59 young worker fatalities in 26 states. These investigations were conducted between May 1986 and February 2002. Young workers ranged in age from 9 to 17 years, with a mean age of 15.3 years: 21 were working in the agriculture, forestry, and fishing industry; 12 in construction; 10 in manufacturing; 8 in services; and 8 in the retail industry. The majority worked as laborers. Ninety-three percent were young men. Each investigation resulted in the formulation and dissemination of strategies to help prevent future similar occurrences. As an example of state FACE activities, the article describes the Wisconsin FACE program's efforts to foster collaboration between regulatory agencies, researchers, educators, and occupational safety and health professionals, and to integrate efforts aimed at improving safety for young workers.

scholarly journals Systemic Management of Pandemic Risks in Dental Practice: A Consolidated Framework for COVID-19 Control in Dentistry

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Habib Benzian ◽  
Eugenio Beltrán-Aguilar ◽  
Richard Niederman
Keyword(s):  
Infection Control ◽  
Occupational Safety ◽  
Risk Mitigation ◽  
Healthcare Setting ◽  
Mitigation Measures ◽  
Health Administration ◽  
Safety And Health ◽  
Clinical Responses ◽  
And Control ◽  
The U.S

Dental teams and their workplaces are among the most exposed to airborne and bloodborne infectious agents, and therefore at the forefront of pandemic-related changes to how dental care is organized and provided to patients. The increasing complexity of guidelines makes is challenging for clinicians to navigate the multitude of COVID-19 guidelines issued by different agencies. A comparative analysis of guidance issued for managing COVID-19 in dental settings leading U.S. agencies was conducted, including documents of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), an agency of the U.S. Secretary of Labor, and of the U.S. Centers for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC), an agency of the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services. Details of infection control and other risk mitigation measures were reviewed for consistency, overlaps and similarities, then clustered according to thematic areas covering all domains of managing a dental healthcare setting. The analysis revealed five distinct areas of pandemic control, comprising (1) planning and protocols, (2) patient screening, (3) preparation of facilities, (4) PPE and infection control, and (5) procedures and aerosol control; thereby covering systematically all aspects requiring adaptation in a pandemic context. The “Pandemic-5 Framework for COVID-19 Control in Dentistry” provides an opportunity to simplify comprehensive decision-making from a clinical practitioner perspective. The framework supports a comprehensive systems-driven approach by using dental clinics as a setting to integrate pandemic clinical responses with the implementation of appropriate infection control protocols. Traditionally these two aspects are addressed independently from each other in separate concepts.

scholarly journals Expanding Reach of Occupational Health Knowledge: Contributing Subject-Matter Expertise to Wikipedia as a Class Assignment

2021 ◽  
Vol 58 ◽  
pp. 004695802110357
Author(s):  
Diana M. Ceballos ◽  
Robert F. Herrick ◽  
Tania Carreón ◽  
Vy T. Nguyen ◽  
MyDzung T. Chu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Occupational Health ◽  
Digital Literacy ◽  
Science Communication ◽  
Occupational Safety ◽  
Health Knowledge ◽  
Occupational Safety And Health ◽  
Safety And Health ◽  
Subject Matter Expertise ◽  
Education Platform ◽  
Health Content

The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) and several university programs have collaborated on a large effort to expand and improve occupational safety and health content in Wikipedia using a platform developed by Wiki Education. This article describes the initiative, student contributions, and evaluations of this effort by instructors from two universities between 2016 and 2020. The Wiki Education platform allowed instructors to set timelines and track students’ progress throughout the semester while students accessed training to best expand health content in Wikipedia. Students chose topics in occupational health based on their interests and by a set of topics deemed as a priority by the “WikiProject Occupational Safety and Health.” Students’ contributions were peer-reviewed by instructors, NIOSH Wikipedians-in-Residence, and traditional Wikipedians. Students presented their projects in class at the end of the semester. Students from both schools expanded 55 articles, created 8 new articles, and translated 2 articles to Spanish, adding 1270 references; these articles were viewed over 8 million times by May 2020. Feedback received from the implementation suggested that students learned about science communication and digital literacy—providing valuable content on occupational health while reducing misinformation in the public domain. The process of identifying and addressing gaps in occupational health in Wikipedia requires participation and engagement toward improving access to information that otherwise would be restricted to the scientific literature, often behind a paywall. The Wikipedia assignment proved to be an engaging approach for instruction and information literacy. It helped students improve their science communication skills and digital literacy, tools that are likely to be critical for successful communication of science in their future careers.

scholarly journals Integral risk assessment to optimize expenses for occupational safety measures at a machine-building enterprise

2019 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 10-22
Author(s):  
Vitalii Bezsonnyi
Keyword(s):  
Risk Assessment ◽  
Occupational Safety ◽  
Workplace Safety ◽  
Machine Building ◽  
Assessment Procedure ◽  
Safety Measures ◽  
Safety And Health ◽  
Building Enterprise ◽  
Integral Assessment ◽  
Industrial Risks

In the absence of uniform and unified requirements for the assessment of industrial risks at an enterprise, the system approach remains the only tool for a comprehensive assessment of the workplace safety. Implementation of Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) system involves identifying, analyzing and reducing risks at the workplace. The purpose of the article is to calculate the minimum expenses for occupational safety measures and minimize production risks identified through the developed procedure for analyzing the hazards of the machine-building enterprise. The research methodology is based on the integrated use of qualitative and quantitative approaches to risk assessment, namely, structured assessment and integral assessment using the “rucksack problem” optimization model. The study identifies the risks that are most common and the most serious ones. The procedure of risk reduction is proposed, which is to determine the minimum costs for achieving each of the integral assessments for the machine-building enterprise. The practical value of work consists in the ability to directly apply the developed methodology for risk assessment at the enterprises of the machine-building industry, and to easily adapt the risk assessment procedure to other conditions.

scholarly journals Development of an Occupational Risk Assessment Tool for Laboratory Animal Facilities

2019 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 72-82 ◽  
Author(s):  
April M. Clayton ◽  
James Hayes ◽  
George W. Lathrop ◽  
Nathaniel Powell
Keyword(s):  
Risk Assessment ◽  
Laboratory Animal ◽  
Occupational Safety ◽  
Assessment Tool ◽  
Occupational Risk ◽  
Risk Assessment Tool ◽  
Laboratory Research ◽  
Occupational Risks ◽  
Risk Acceptability ◽  
Animal Care

Introduction: Laboratory animal facilities aim to provide excellence in animal care and welfare and support scientific research. Critical to these goals is to ensure a safe work environment for personnel comprising veterinary and animal care, laboratory research, and maintenance staff. Objective: Thus, performing occupational risk assessments allows for evaluation of risks from identified hazards associated with a variety of tasks ongoing in laboratory animal facilities. Methods: Herein, we present the development of an occupational risk assessment tool purposed to capture the dynamics of work performed in laboratory animal facilities, calculate and prioritize identified risks associated with procedures and processes, and inform and evaluate risk mitigations. Results: We also discuss a risk assessment for refining sharps use in nonhuman primate husbandry and care to demonstrate the utility of this tool to improve occupational safety in our animal facility. Conclusion: This tool and framework evolve into a holistic occupational risk management system that identifies, evaluates, and mitigates occupational risks; determines risk acceptability; consistently ensures communication and consultation with frontline personnel, stakeholders, senior leadership, and subject matter experts in biosafety, science, and animal care and welfare; and continuously strives to improve and enhance the operations of laboratory animal facilities.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document