Chemical Safety in the Workplace

Chemical Safety in the Workplace (and Occupational Health in general) is often overlooked when compared to Occupational Safety. The reason might be that the exposure to chemicals in the workplace might not cause illness or injury when exposure occurred, but months, if not years later. According to the Irish Cancer Society ‘work related cancer is increasing year on year with 5% of all cancers linked to occupation. Lung cancer represents nearly a quarter of all these cancers. Across Europe, exposure to cancer causing elements at work is estimated to cause at least 80,000 deaths a year. In Ireland this is over 400.’

The majority of the workplaces, across all industries use chemicals in some form. A number of chemicals are all around us to which employees could be routinely exposed. For example, paints, sprays, toners and inks, adhesives, petrol, solvents and not to mention a wide range of materials used in cleaning and maintenance such as detergents and oils.

All workplaces must assess the workplace against the risk of chemicals. These risks must be managed.

 

Why is Chemical Safety in the Workplace Important

Chemicals can cause serious harm. This harm can range from mild skin irritation to cancer. Whilst sometimes the effects of chemical exposure can be seen immediately after contact (e.g. chemical burn), some might be evident many years after the exposure (e.g. cancer – mesothelioma). Mesothelioma is related to asbestos exposure, continues to increase and it is estimated that about 56 people a year get this disease. There is no cure for this fatal form of asbestos related disease.

 

Chemical Safety in the Workplace and Key Duties of Employers and Employees

There are key duties for employers and employees under the relevant health and safety legislation:

Employers are required to:

• Determine which hazardous substances are present in the workplace.
• Assess the risks to employees and others from the presence of these hazardous substances.
• Prevent or control exposure to the hazardous substances to as low a level as is reasonably practicable.
• Have arrangements in place to deal with accidents, incidents and emergencies.
• Provide information, training and consultation to employees.
• Make available health surveillance to employees.

Employees also have duties. They must:

• Co-operate with their employer e.g. follow procedures.
• Make full and proper use of control measures e.g. using extract ventilation where provided, and report any defects.
• Report any defects in plant/ equipment immediately to the employer as appropriate.
• Report any accident or incident which may have resulted in the release of a dangerous
• chemical/substance into the workplace.

 

Assessing Chemical Safety in the Workplace

A chemical risk assessment follows the same steps as a risk assessment for any other hazards in the workplace. For some additional information, please read eLearn Safety blog entry from 12 January 2024 titled Workplace Risk Assessment.

There are three basic steps to chemical risk assessment:

1. Identify the Hazard: This involves identifying the chemicals you have in your workplace and the hazards associated with them.
2. Assess the Risk: This involves assessing the risk from chemicals or processes in your workplace.
3. Control the Exposure: This involves considering the various recognized control measures to eliminate or reduce the risk.

Please remember – if you are unsure of any aspect of managing chemicals safely in your workplace, you should seek help from a competent person.

 

Implementation of Suitable Control Measures

Once you have assessed the risk associated with the use of your chemicals, you then need to decide what control measures are required to keep you, your employees and your workplace safe.
At this stage you should also consider any current control measures that are in place, such as:

• Type of engineering controls e.g. enclosures and ventilation – are they effective and maintained regularly?
• Current work practices or procedures.
• Personal protective and safety equipment.
• Training provided to employees. The Chemical Safety course provided by eLearn Safety is a fully online course that describes the risks associated with exposure to chemicals and looks into control measures in place to avoid the risks.
• Hygiene arrangements e.g. separate meal and wash facilities.
• Storage arrangements.
• Level of housekeeping.
• Disposal of waste.
• Emergency procedures e.g. eyewash, emergency shower.

 

Online Health and Safety Training

Proactive Health and Safety training is critical to ensure a safe workplace. An effective training program can reduce the number of worker injuries and deaths. It can also reduce instances of property damage, legal liability, illnesses, and missed time from work.

Health and Safety training helps establish a culture in which employees themselves help promote proper safety procedures while on the job. It is important that new employees be properly trained and embrace the importance of workplace safety. The role of training in developing and maintaining effective hazard control activities is a proven and successful method of intervention.

This is why we have established Myelearsafety school. We pride ourselves in how we guide, support and mentor our students. They receive support throughout their learning experience and into their working lives. Our staff have extensive training experience and also have many years industry experience. We understand the challenges that exist within Environmental and Occupational Health and Safety. Our priority is to ensure that all learners are fully prepared to differentiate themselves in the workplace after completing our Health and Safety courses.

Myelearnsafety offers fully online Health and Safety courses.

To find out more, please check our Courses page.

Alternatively, should you need any additional information, please do not hesitate to let us know via email info@elearn.ie

Work Related Stress and Mindfulness

Work related stress and mindfulness are those workplace topics that are very often overlooked by both employers and employees. However, employers have a duty under the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005 to protect all employees from hazards which can lead to injury.

 

Work Related Stress

It is believed that a significant work downtime is due to sick leave brought by work related stress. This may be due to various personal reasons, or the physical and emotional challenges of the job. Work related stress, however, is not only this invisible ‘illness’. Stress can manifest itself by causing stomach and skin conditions, heart disease and depression.

There are a number of factors that can influence stress in the workplace. Some of these factors include poor working conditions, overwork, job insecurity, personal reasons (such as ‘imposter syndrome‘), peer pressure (such as harassment), unrealistic targets, lack of leadership (not knowing what to do) and poor management.

 

Identifying Work Related Stress

No person is exactly the same and stress will affect people differently. There are a number of factors which may affect how an employee will cope with stress. Some of the examples are employee skills and experience, age and disability, etc. Employees should be encouraged to report stress and management should be trained to recognise the causes and symptoms. By talking to employees, an employer can identify the signs of stress, and importantly they can prevent and reduce workplace related stress.

 

Mindfulness

Prevention is one of the most important steps of any successful risk management. One of the ways to prevent stress is raising awareness about work related stress. For this purpose eLearn Safety has designed and developed a number of relevant fully online courses. For example, the Workplace Stress course is designed to suit a diverse range of workplaces. It deals with topics such as how to define workplace stress, which safety legislation applies to it, how to identify common causes of workplace stress and stress management.

Another beneficial course is a fully online Working Safely course. Working Safely is a 2 hour online course for people at any level, in any sector, that will boost business performance and staff motivation. Simply by showing how everyone can enhance their safety, health and wellbeing through everyday behaviours. The topics include importance of working safely, definitions of hazards and risks, common workplace hazards and how to improve safety performance.

 

Additional Resources

The Health and Safety Authority (HSA) has a number of useful resources that can be used in managing work related stress. One of these resources is WorkpositiveCI. WorkpositiveCI has been developed by the Health and Safety Authority (HSA), State Claims Agency (SCA) and Critical Incident Stress Management (CISM) Network Ireland. It is a free, easy to use, innovative, confidential, psychosocial risk management process that provides feedback on workplace stress, employee psychological wellbeing and critical incident exposure in the workplace. It is designed to deliver structured guidance enabling organisations to develop an action plan to mitigate against these stressors.

In addition, the Health and Safety Authority (HSA) has published a number of useful guidance, publications and resources on workplace stress.

 

Online Health and Safety Training

Proactive Health and Safety training is critical to ensure a safe workplace. An effective training program can reduce the number of worker injuries and deaths. It can also reduce instances of property damage, legal liability, illnesses, and missed time from work.

Health and Safety training helps establish a culture in which employees themselves help promote proper safety procedures while on the job. It is important that new employees be properly trained and embrace the importance of workplace safety. The role of training in developing and maintaining effective hazard control activities is a proven and successful method of intervention.

This is why we have established Myelearsafety school. We pride ourselves in how we guide, support and mentor our students. They receive support throughout their learning experience and into their working lives. Our staff have extensive training experience and also have many years industry experience. We understand the challenges that exist within Environmental and Occupational Health and Safety. Our priority is to ensure that all learners are fully prepared to differentiate themselves in the workplace after completing our Health and Safety courses.

Myelearnsafety offers fully online Health and Safety courses.

To find out more, please check our Courses page.

Alternatively, should you need any additional information, please do not hesitate to let us know via email info@elearn.ie

Workplace Risk Assessment

Workplace risk assessment is fundamental step of any workplace Safety Management System (SMS). A risk assessment is a process used to identify potential hazards and analyze what could happen if a disaster or hazard occurs.

 

Understanding Risk Assessment

In order to understand ‘risk’ and ultimately ‘risk assessment’ we must perhaps firstly comprehend what constitutes risk and what risk is. Why we, as humans take risks almost every day of our waking lives. We take risks at home, in the office, and certainly on our way to work in the mornings as we undergo the ‘commute’ and face the challenges inherent within.

Haimes (2009), discusses risk as an amalgamation of risk dimensions, but with a more ‘human’ understanding of a problem or ‘risk interpretation’. For example, the crusty ‘old timer’, has a subjective understanding of a system that only ‘he’ understands. To use an example of a ships’ engine, the ‘old boy’ can ‘hear’ the problem. They can almost ‘feel’ the problem, sensing the risk in its continued use as opposed to the new trainee. The new trainee approaches the problem from a ‘text book’ stance. Both individuals are aware of ‘risk’ but each approach the issue from completely different angles.

 

Risk as an Uncertainty Management

Power (2004), labels risk as ‘uncertainty management’. He goes on to discuss how we try to create ‘constructs’ in which we can work and live. For example, seatbelts, signage, ISO standards etc. Power (2004, p.9) states that “we cannot know the risks we face now or in the future but we must act as if we do”. This is perhaps the whole ‘crux’ of risk management and risk assessment. We ‘plan’ for an outcome, we anticipate it to a certain extent but we can never fully know what its full effect will be.

As previously mentioned, we wear seat-belts, and bikers wear helmets. Unfortunately, that that does not remove the risk of excessive speed or other motorists. We can experience a car crash, we can survive. We exit our vehicles in a state of shock but then we wander onto the motorway and are stuck by a passing vehicle whose driver’s attention has been taken up with their voyeuristic intent to see the carnage of our current situation. That momentary ‘lapse’ in their concentration dooms us. Although we have ‘planned’ for a certain risk, (a car crash), we have not planned for our own immobility or shock, nor the ignorance of outside observers.

 

Available Solutions

So, what can we do? How do we plan for risk and conduct adequate risk assessment. Can we remove or reduce the factors which precipitate disaster, and stop ourselves and others from for getting hurt? Hollnagel, (2008, p. 172) discuses resilience and how it requires the capacity for anticipation of risk and a management plan to be applied as risks arises. To this end, perhaps the ‘Robson Risk Management Model’ may be adequate and appropriate in this regard.

This model can be used in both a ‘personal’ concept and applied in an organisational context.

 

Perception of the Risk

The individual or organisation perceives that a risk may be inherent in a certain activity or action.

 

Risk Identification.

The risk(s) of the activity is ‘identified’ and ‘labelled’ (in the organisational context) with a ‘risk assessment’ form.

 

Assessing Risk

The risk is ‘assessed’ on the basis of its ‘potentiality’ and ‘gravity’. If we are competent and thoughtful driver, the likelihood that we will experience a car crash might be low, but still exist. The severity however, if we crash, might be catastrophic.

 

Risk Strategies

Stemming from the risk assessment above, numerous risk strategies are developed with a view to removing the risk even further. This can take the form of ‘avoidance’, transfer, retention or reduction. This is referred to as the ‘HOC’ or hierarchy of controls, and is applied as follows:

Eliminate hazard at source

Elimination of a hazardous material or method. This is a permanent solution which eliminates the offending item completely, however this may not always be a viable scenario. Some hazardous items must be used or worked with in their current state, such as ‘live’ munitions on a range.

Substitute hazard at source.

If it is possible to substitute an item. An example of which is when a military force might use ‘blank rounds’ for exercises and instruction of new entrants. This substitution completely removes the risk of ‘friendly fire’ occurring.

Isolate or enclose the hazard.

An example of this is range practices being conducted ‘only’ on certified and controlled ranges. An adequate security and signalling is there in place to prevent entry to non-firers and to inform others that a shoot is taking place. This allows for the hazard to be successfully isolated and controlled without the possibility of injury.

Engineering controls

Examples of this are the aforementioned security at ranges, flag system of notification and cordon enclosing the range.

Administrative controls

Adequate supply of qualified and experienced range managers ‘in situ’ to manage the firing, observe and enforce safety measures/controls and relieve one another for breaks throughout the day. This allows for fresh, focused and diligent staff to manage the activity.

Personal protective equipment (PPE)

The last measure is the use of the correct PPE. On range practices, shooters, range security, ‘butt party’ members (those controlling the targets) and range staff must all wear adequate PPE. PPE is in the form of a Kevlar helmet, double hearing protection and GSBA (general service body armour). This control enables an extra layer of protection in the unlikely event of a miss fire.

 

Risk Evaluation

Following all of the above measures, the risk is then re-evaluated in order to ascertain if it still poses the same levels of risk or if the necessary controls are adequate and appropriate to remove or reduce the threat as far as possible. However, it must always be borne in mind that the full elimination of risk is perhaps impossible as it encapsulates far too many variables (both known and unknown), such as human factors, equipment, environment and indeed the risk area itself, thus in order to live with risk we should perhaps understand that a measure of risk is ever present and ‘natural’ and may even be ‘necessary’ for our continued advancement as a species.

 

Online Health and Safety Training

Proactive Health and Safety training is critical to ensure a safe workplace. An effective training program can reduce the number of worker injuries and deaths. It can also reduce instances of property damage, legal liability, illnesses, and missed time from work.

Health and Safety training helps establish a culture in which employees themselves help promote proper safety procedures while on the job. It is important that new employees be properly trained and embrace the importance of workplace safety. The role of training in developing and maintaining effective hazard control activities is a proven and successful method of intervention.

This is why we have established Myelearsafety school. We pride ourselves in how we guide, support and mentor our students. They receive support throughout their learning experience and into their working lives. Our staff have extensive training experience and also have many years industry experience. We understand the challenges that exist within Environmental and Occupational Health and Safety. Our priority is to ensure that all learners are fully prepared to differentiate themselves in the workplace after completing our Health and Safety courses.

Myelearnsafety offers fully online Health and Safety courses.

To find out more, please check our Courses page.

Alternatively, should you need any additional information, please do not hesitate to let us know via email info@elearn.ie

 

Bullying in the Workplace

Bullying in the workplace is a serious moral, ethical and a legal issue.

According to the Health and Safety Authority of Ireland (HSA), bullying in the workplace can be defined as:

“… repeated inappropriate behaviour, direct or indirect, whether verbal, physical or otherwise, conducted by one or more persons against another or others, at the place of work and/or in the course of employment, which could be reasonably regarded as undermining the individual’s right to dignity at work…”

 

Occupational Health

Occupational health is the promotion and maintenance of not only physical well-being of all staff but also mental wellbeing. Bullying at work impacts performance and productivity at work as well as a person’s mental wellbeing. The best way of dealing with bullying in the workplace is prevention. Bullying can have serious negative effects for all those involved. This might include not only the person being bullied, but also the person being accused of bullying. It is important to distinguish bullying from other inappropriate situations or appropriate workplace engagement.

 

Examples of Bullying in the Workplace

Behaviour which makes for a bullying in the workplace pattern will likely include not just one but a range of the following behaviours:

• Exclusion with negative consequences.
• Verbal abuse/insults.
• Being treated less favourably than colleagues in similar roles.
• Belittling a person’s opinion.
• Disseminating malicious rumours, gossip or innuendo.
• Socially excluding or isolating a person within the work sphere.
• Intrusion – pestering, spying or stalking.
• Intimidation/aggressive interactions.
• Excessive monitoring of work.
• Withholding information necessary for proper performance of a person’s job.
• Repeatedly manipulating a person’s job content and targets.
• Blaming a person for things beyond their control.
• Use of aggressive and obscene language.
• Other menacing behaviour.

 

What is not Bullying in the Workplace

Bullying does not include (non-exhaustive list):

• expressing differences of opinion strongly,
• offering constructive feedback, guidance, or advice about work-related behaviour which is not of itself welcome, ordinary performance management,
• reasonable corrective action taken by an employer or supervisor relating to the management and direction of employees (for example managing a worker’s performance, taking reasonable disciplinary actions, or assigning work), or
• workplace conflict where people disagree with or disregard the others’ point of view.

 

Bullying in the Workplace – Stress and Violence

Bullying in the workplace can quickly escalate, introducing other unwanted hazards such as general stress that can lead to alcohol and drugs abuse and violence.

A large percentage of sick leave is due to stress. Employees should be encouraged to report stress and management should be trained to recognise the symptoms and causes of stress such as inability or reduced ability to cope with normal tasks and situations, increased sick leave and/or poor time keeping.

Violence abuse, threats, bullying or assault can cause stress and concern as well as a physical injury. Staff should be encouraged to report all occurrences to their supervisors who should record and investigate the details and if necessary report to the relevant authorities.

 

Preventing and Dealing with the Bullying at the Workplace

eLearn Safety has developed a fully online Bullying Awareness course. Bullying Awareness course is for all employees. It provides practical steps and conscientious guidance to help prevent, identify and confidently confront bullying and harassment at work.

If you feel you are being bullied at the workplace, the HSA has a useful information page What to do if You Feel You are Being Bullied. Additional useful resource is Code of Practice for Employers and Employees on the Prevention and Resolution of Bullying at Work.

 

Online Health and Safety Training

Proactive Health and Safety training is critical to ensure a safe workplace. An effective training program can reduce the number of worker injuries and deaths. It can also reduce instances of property damage, legal liability, illnesses, and missed time from work.

Health and Safety training helps establish a culture in which employees themselves help promote proper safety procedures while on the job. It is important that new employees be properly trained and embrace the importance of workplace safety. The role of training in developing and maintaining effective hazard control activities is a proven and successful method of intervention.

This is why we have established Myelearsafety school. We pride ourselves in how we guide, support and mentor our students. They receive support throughout their learning experience and into their working lives. Our staff have extensive training experience and also have many years industry experience. We understand the challenges that exist within Environmental and Occupational Health and Safety. Our priority is to ensure that all learners are fully prepared to differentiate themselves in the workplace after completing our Health and Safety courses.

Myelearnsafety offers fully online Health and Safety courses.

To find out more, please check our Courses page.

Alternatively, should you need any additional information, please do not hesitate to let us know via email info@elearn.ie