ADDITIONAL TOPIC (MAY 2022 CIVIL ENGINEERS BOARD EXAM)
Importance of Occupational Safety & Health
What is Occupational Safety and Health (OSH)?
Occupational safety and health is a discipline with a
broad scope involving three major fields:
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
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.
Factors that Contribute to the Occurrence of Accidents in the
Construction Industry
a) Fall from heights is the predominant causes of
accidents
b) Lack of supervision for workers working at heights
c) Workers lack awareness on OSH
d) Workers have limited trainings
e) Due to lack of training, workers
i. build improper temporary structures
ii. tolerate improperly guarded floors
iii. work with unstable/unsecured/ scaffolds
iv. use defective equipment
f) Accident reports lack relevant information
g) Proper investigations are hardly conducted
RECOMMENDATIONS
Policy Makers and Enforcers
• Strict enforcement of DO 13
• Strict implementation of reporting mechanism and
revision of report form
• Continuous development of Construction Safety
Training
• Research on KAP
Employers and Construction Companies
• Compliance to DO 13
• Provision of adequate trainings and information
• Supervision on works at heights
• Provision of adequate access and egress in
construction sites
• Conduct of accident investigation3) Employees and
Workers
• Comply with OSH rules and policies
• Take initiative in learning OSH
• Demand for approved type PPE
• Observe proper hand signals
• Report any hazard found
Leading causes of fatalities in construction
1.Falls from Heights
a.Temporary structures
b.Excavation
c.Roof
d.Moving vehicle and equipment
2.Excavation and Trench Work
a.Cave-in
b.Falling of persons, materials and equipment
c.Asphyxiation
3.Construction Machineries and Equipment
a.Power tools
b.Woodworking machines
c.Heavy machines
4.Cranes and Elevators
a.Overloading
b.Lifting and carrying of loads
c.Erection and dismantling
5.Electrical Accidents
a.Electrical Shock and Burns
Definition of Terms
Severity Rate (SR) –the total number of days lost or charged
per million-employee hours of exposure.
Frequency Rate (FR) –the total number of disabling injuries
per million employee-hours of exposure.
Incidence Rate (IR) –refers to cases of occupational injuries
with workdays lost per 1,000 workers.
Average Workdays Lost –refer to workdays lost for every case
of occupational injury resulting to temporary incapacity.
Exposure is the total number of hours worked by all
employees in each establishment including employees of
operating production, maintenance, transportation, electrical,
administrative, sales and other departments.
ADDITIONAL TOPIC (MAY 2022 CIVIL ENGINEERS BOARD EXAM)

Disabling injuries -work injuries, which result in death,

permanent total disability, permanent partial disability or
temporary total disability.

Non-disabling injuries (Medical Treatment) -injuries which do

not result into disabling injuries but required first aid or
medical attention of any kind.

Occupational accident–this is an unexpected and unplanned

occurrence, including acts of violence arising out of or in
connection with work which resulted in one or more workers
incurring a personal injury, disease or death. It may have WHITE,BLACK,or a combination of these, are the basic colors
occurred outside the usual workplace/premises of the for the designation of traffic and housekeeping marking.
establishment while the worker was on business on behalf of
his/her employer ,i.e., in another establishment or while on
travel, transport or in road traffic.

Occupational injury –this is the case of an injury that resulted

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.

Temporary incapacity–this is a case where an injured person

was absent from work for at least one day, excluding the day
of the accident,
YELLOW-CAUTION.
Construction safety signage: •For marking physical hazards, such as striking, against
stumbling falling, tripping and “caught in between.”
–Areas where there is potential risk from falling objects
–Tripping or slipping hazards
–Periodic update of man-hours lost Standard Color of Signs For
Safety:
RED–Fire protection
•To call attention to fire protection equipment apparatus and
facilities

GREEN–Designating Safety, First Aid

ADDITIONAL TOPIC (MAY 2022 CIVIL ENGINEERS BOARD EXAM)
ORANGE –WARNING
•To designate dangerous parts of machines energized
equipment. Electrical hazards. (Yellow-Gold)
BLUE –NOTICE
•To designate caution, limited to warning against starting use
of or the movement of equipment, which is under repair.
PURPLE –Radiation
•To designate hazards. Yellow is used in combination with
purple for markers, such as tags, labels, signs.
JOB HAZARD ANALYSIS
A job hazard analysis (JHA), also called a job safety analysis
(JSA), is a technique to identify the dangers of specific tasks in
order to reduce the risk of injury to workers.
HAZARD VS RISK
Hazard – is material/behavior/circumstance that has the
potential to cause harm.
Risk – is the likelihood of a certain hazard to cause harm
WHY ISA JHA IMPORTANT?
• Once you know what the hazards are, you can reduce
or eliminate them before anyone gets hurt.
• The JHA can also be used to investigate accidents and
• To train workers how to do their jobs safely.
PROCEDURES
1. Identify basic steps of a job
2. Determine associated hazards
3. Make recommendations to control the hazards
SPECIAL NOTES:
READ DEPARTMENT OF LABOR (DOLE)
Department Order No. 13 (DO-13)