EMM5616

Industrial Safety , Health and

Environment
Lecture 1: Introduction to Safety, Health and Environment.

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Eris Elianddy Supeni

Department of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering
Universiti Putra Malaysia
Introduction to Safety
Then and Now

The Safety Movement in the United States

 Reason for this course
Occupational Safety and Health in the workplace has undergone drastic
changes in the past twenty years. The reasons for this are numerous.
Some of the more important reasons include: technological changes that
created new hazards,
creation of new safety and health legislation,
increased pressure from certain regulatory agencies,
executives realizing that safe and healthy environments encourage
increased productivity,
an increase in the cost of health care and worker’s compensation,
pressure from environmental groups,
pressure from the public,
pressure from labor organizations, professionalization of the health and
safety occupations,
cost of product safety litigation and, increased workplace violence.
When put together, all of these factors make the job of the skilled trades
professional more challenging and more important than ever before and a
need for an updated Safety training program that includes the most recent
Accidents were Common Place
in the Early 1900’s
1907:3200 people killed
Today:4 per 100K (NSC)
Reasons for Change:
Cost, Pressure for Legislation and,
Professionalization of Safety as an
Occupation

Safety is not a new concept

Evidence of Safety in ancient
civilization.
Hammurabi: 2000 B.C.
His code contained clauses for dealing with injuries, doctor’s fees
and, monetary awards from those who injure others.
Rameses II 1500 B.C.
Created an ancient “EMS” to care for slaves and developed
requirements of hygiene.
Roman Empire: 1567
Provided medical care for workers.
Historical Knowledge of Diseases

• 1567-Philippus Aureolus: Treatise on the pulmonary

diseases of miners. This work also identified health
risks of handling Mercury.
• 1700-Bernardino Ramizzini: Treatise on “workers diseases:
Correlation between occupations and injuries.
• 1964-Dr. Irving J. Selikoff: Reported on the effects
of asbestos at a conference.
• 1900- Fredrick Taylor: A factors influencing
efficiency in manufacturing.
 The Industrial Revolution

• Steam Power - Industry 1.0

• Machines - Industry 2.0
• New Ways of Raw Material Conversion
• A Division of Labor (transition to Robot) -- Industry 3.0
• Cyber physical system, IOT, Network -- Industry 4.0

These factors created a need to focus on the safety and health of workers.
The introduction of steam power created the potential for life threatening
injuries as did all machines. The new methods introduced for converting raw
materials also created risks and new ways to get hurt or sick. Specialization of
labor increased boredom and, therefore, the possibility of inattentiveness which
promotes a more dangerous work environment.
The Four Industrial Revolutions
Significant Achievements in
the Safety Movement
(A timeline of events)
Health and Morals of Apprentices Act: 1802-
England
Factory Inspection: 1867-Massachusetts
First Barrier: 1868
Pennsylvania: 1869 Mine Safety Law
Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS): 1869
Massachusetts: 1877 Requirement of Guards on
Hazardous Equipment
 Significant Achievements in the Safety
Movement
(A time line of events)

• Employer’s Liability Law: 1877

• First Safety Program: 1892 Illinois
• Fredrick Taylor Study: 1900 Safety and Management connection with
Lost Time
• Bureau of Mines: 1907 Investigate Accidents-Examine Health Hazards
Significant Achievements in the Safety
Movement
(A time line of events)
• Workers Compensation Idea: 1908 (Federal Employees)
• First Effective Worker’s Compensation, Wisconsin: 1911
• First Cooperative Safety Congress meets in Milwaukee: 1912
• National Council of Industrial Safety formed: 1913
• National Safety Council is formed: 1915
 Significant Achievements in
the Safety Movement
(A timeline of events)
 Concept of Negligent Manufacture: 1916
 U.S. Secretary of Labor convenes the 1st National Silicosis Conference: 1936
 Occupational Safety and Health Act Passed: 1970
 Federal Mine Safety Act Passed: 1977
 Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act Passed: 1986
 Amended Clean Air Act of 1970 Passed: 1990
 Safety Management Concept: 1996
 ISO 14000 sought by U.S. firms for environmental safety management: 2000
 Workplace Terrorism becomes a growing concern of S&H professionals: 2003
 Tragedies That Have Changed the Safety Movement

Hawk’s Nest Tragedy

Hawk’s Nest Incident (1930s,)
the health problems suffered by employees who worked in dusty
environments.

Asbestos Menace
Asbestos/Asbestosis (1964)
Dr. Irving J. Selikoff told 400 scientists at a conference on the biological
effects of asbestos that this widely used material was killing workers. -
asbestos to lung cancer and respiratory diseases.

Bhopal Tragedy
Bhopal/Union Carbide (1984)
over 40 tons of methyl isocyanate (MIC) and other lethal gases, including
hydrogen cyanide, leaked into the northern end of Bhopal, killing more
than 3,000 people in its aftermath.

Factory Fire in Bangladesh (2012)

In November 2012, a garment-factory fire in Bangladesh killed 112
employees
Milestones in the safety movement.
Milestones in the safety movement. (cont)
The Role of Organized Labor
Safer Working Conditions
Worker Compensation
Overturn Anti-labor Laws/Fellow Servant
Rule
Specific Health Problems

• Lung Diseases and Law Enactment

• Gauley Bridge Disaster
• Mercury Poisoning
 Why Is Occupational Safety and Health Needed?
These consequences include but are not limited to the following:

• Injury or illness to members of the workforce

• Loss of profit
• Loss of credibility as a responsible company
• Liability of not addressing safety and health
• Loss of productivity
• Loss of employees due to danger, risk, injury, illness, death, or
unsafe/unhealthy work environment
• Decrease of employee morale
• Damage to or loss of capital investment (e.g., equipment or facilities)
• Decrease in reputation and integrity of the company
• View that the company does not exhibit good business practices
 Development of Accident
Prevention Program
 In the modern workplace, there are many different types of accident prevention
programs ranging from the simple to the complex.

 Widely used accident prevention techniques include failure minimization, fail-safe

designs, isolation, lockouts, screening, personal protective equipment, redundancy,
timed replacements, and many others. These techniques are individual components
of broader safety programs. Such programs have evolved since the late 1800s
 Development of Accident Prevention Program (cont)

For example, according to the Society of Manufacturing

Engineers (SME), around this time industry began to realize
the following:

Improved engineering could prevent accidents.

Employees were willing to learn and accept safety rules.

Safety rules could be established and enforced.

Financial savings from safety improvement could be reaped

by savings in compensation and medical bills.1
Development of Accident
Prevention Programs
The 3 E’s of Safety
 Development of Safety
Organizations
National Safety Council (NSC):1915
National Institute for Occupational Safety
and Health (NIOSH) and Centers for
Disease Control (CDC)
Organizations concerned with workplace safety.
Government agencies and other organizations concerned with workplace safety
 Safety and Health Movement Today

 The safety and health movement has come a long way since the
Industrial Revolution.

 Today, there is widespread understanding of the importance of providing

a safe and healthy workplace.

 The tone was set during and after World War II when all the various
practitioners of occupational health and safety began to see the need for
cooperative efforts.

 These practitioners included safety engineers, safety managers, industrial

hygienists, occupational health nurses, and physicians
 Safety and Health Movement Today (cont)

One of the earliest and most vocal proponents of the cooperative or

integrated approach was H. G. Dyktor. He proposed the following objectives
of integration:

Learn more through sharing knowledge about health problems in the

workplace, particularly those caused by toxic substances.

Provide a greater level of expertise in evaluating health and safety

problems.

Provide a broad database that can be used to compare health and safety
problems experienced by different companies in the same industry.

Encourage accident prevention.

Make employee health and safety a high priority.

 Safety and Health Today
OSHA and the Integrated Approach:
1. Employers must provide appropriate medical
treatment for injuries and illness.
2. Employees that have been exposed to toxic
substances must be examined regularly.
3. Employers must have a qualified first-aid
person present during all working hours.
 Integrated Approach to Safety and Health

According to A. Hamilton and H. Hardy, the health and safety staff in a

modern industrial company may include the following positions:

 Industrial hygiene chemist and/or engineer.

 Radiation control specialist.

 Industrial safety engineer or manager.

 New Materials, New Processes, and New Problems

The job of the safety and health professional is more

complex than it has ever been.
The materials (but also liquid-fuel, oil and gas)out of
which products are made have become increasingly
complex and exotic.
Engineering metals now include carbon steels, alloy
steels, high-strength low-alloy steels, stainless steels,
managing steels, cast steels, cast irons, tungsten,
molybdenum, titanium, aluminum, copper, magnesium,
lead, tin, zinc, and powdered metals.

Each of these metals requires its own specialized

processes
 Lesson Review
1. List some of the early causes that have had the greatest
impact on Workplace Safety to date.
2. What does the “Code of Hammurabi” have to do with
Safety History?
3. What circumstances where responsible for the first
safety program?
4. How is Fredrick Taylor connected to the safety
movement?
5. Explain the development of the National Safety Council.
6. What impact did labor shortages in WWII have on the
safety movement?
7. Explain how workplace tragedies have affected the safety
movement? List examples.
8. Explain the primary reasons behind passage of the OSHA
act.
9. What role did organized labor have on the safety
movement?
10. Explain the three E’s of safety.