How Do Safety Officers Prevent Workplace Accidents? A Look at Their Key Steps

Steps Taken by Safety Officers to Prevent Accidents

The safety officer plays a crucial role in ensuring a safe work environment within a company. To prevent accidents, the safety officer typically follows a series of important steps:

1. **Risk Assessment:** The safety officer conducts a thorough risk assessment to identify potential hazards in the workplace.

2. **Implementing Safety Protocols:** Based on the risk assessment, the safety officer develops and implements safety protocols and procedures to mitigate risks.

3. **Training and Education:** The safety officer ensures that all employees receive proper training on safety procedures and protocols.

4. **Regular Inspections:** Regular inspections of the workplace are conducted by the safety officer to identify and address any safety concerns promptly.

5. **Incident Investigation:** In the event of an accident, the safety officer conducts a thorough investigation to determine the root cause and prevent similar incidents in the future.

By diligently following these steps, the safety officer plays a vital role in maintaining a safe and secure work environment for all employees.

Appointment of Safety and Health Officers

For every 150 employees, a safety officer must be appointed. Additionally, for every 300 employees or more, a health officer must be appointed. This step is crucial in preventing accidents across all companies.

Regards

Appointment of a safety officer or health officer will not prevent any accidents in any organization. It's all about the organization's culture in terms of safety.

Regards,
Sam

Steps to Prevent Workplace Accidents

1. Identify the hazards by means of inspection, audit, discussion with workers of the specific task, by reviewing your accident history, or by using hazard identification tools like JHA, Hazap study, and job safety survey. Then make a list of high-risk areas/activities according to their rank and severity. Note: Include long-term hazards to health also, such as noise level, vibration, illumination, and exposure to hazardous substances like dust, fumes, etc.

2. Try to eliminate the identified hazards totally by design itself, like revised design or substitution for hazardous material. Then ensure the reliability of the activity. If it's not that reliable, implement early failure identification techniques and continuously monitor it to identify the symptoms of failure early. Refer to the same type of operation in various plants to understand the major causes of equipment/design failure, etc. Some hazards are residual or unavoidable for the operation according to its necessity. In this case,

3. Limit the hazard level by engineering control, administrative control, or by means of PPE, like using an automatic pressure relief valve or forced ventilation.

4. Isolate hazards from workers by isolating explosive materials, storage tanks, or fuel sources for furnaces in designated areas. Isolate man-machine contact by using machine guards, distance machine guards, interlocks, etc. Isolate man-machine and operation by using lock-ins/lockouts and tag-outs during maintenance or whenever necessary. (The rate of accidents increases during maintenance.)

5. Use fully automated fail-safe design (reasonably applicable) by implementing fail-passive arrangement, fail-active arrangement/fail-operational arrangement, like circuit breakers, battery-operated sprinkler devices, fusible links in fire doors, etc.

6. Minimize the causes for failure that lead to accidents by designing or equipping machinery/plant for more strength than its actual requirement. Reduce failures by periodic/predictive proactive maintenance and properly monitoring the activity/operation, etc., like parameter monitoring and buddy system (confined space, hot work).

7. Provide a proper warning system (alert the worker) by visual means like placing caution, warning signboards, highlighting hazardous areas by yellow paint, spotlight, or proper illumination for high-risk activities. By sound, like a siren or beep sound when a malfunction starts, by hearing the warning, the operator will get alert and take proper remedial action. By smell, like using odorant for refined natural gas or overheating of a machine.

8. Each and every operator should know about the safe operating procedure/emergency shutdown procedure and other mandatory things given in the manufacturer's operation manual. This helps prevent incidents before they become serious.

9. Provide a proper backup and recovery plan and allocate responsibilities for workers.

10. In the worst case, the accident may happen (because of man-machine interaction), so be prepared for that as well to minimize the impact of the accident on the person/property/environment. By physical isolation, PPE, creating weak links, escape and survival equipment and procedures, rescue equipment and procedures.

ALL ACCIDENTS ARE PREVENTABLE

By creating a well-deserved safety policy, implementing it, practicing it, and reviewing it whenever necessary. Implement all factory acts/OSHA/ETC rules and regulations and follow them. Create a very good safety culture. Provide proper training and awareness to workers. Use competent persons according to job requirements. Properly use LOTO. Incorporate a proper work permit system. Place the right person for the right job. Always follow safe working procedures. Maintain all machines/equipment in proper working condition. Create a culture among the workers for pre-work and post-work visual inspections and report it properly to identify unsafe conditions. Provide proper PPE according to their fit. Avoid continuous shifts of work for workers. Educate about all the consequences of accidents. High levels of supervision are required to prevent accidents.

Regards

I think your company should have a monthly medical check for every employee, like my company does. This way, you will have an idea about your employees' health. After all, if your employees are healthy, your company is healthy.