Introduction to Occupational

Safety and Health

An Approach to addressing injuries
and illnesses at work

Global Burden of Occupational

Injury and Disease/Year
Injuries

Diseases

Total

Fatal

100,000

700,000

800,000

Non-Fatal

99,000,000

10,300,000 109,300,000

100,000,000

11,000,000 111,000,000

*From Leigh, et al., Epidemiology 10(5):626-31, September

*Estimated Annual Incidence of

Occ Injury & Disease Worldwide
# New Cases/year
Injuries

100,688,000

Diseases
Pesticide poisoning

109,000

Other poisoning

122,000

Cancer

191,000

Mental disorders

318,000

Pneumoconioses

453,000

Noise-induced hearing loss

1,628,000

Skin disorders

1,895,000

Chronic respiratory disease

2,631,000

Musculoskeletal disorders

3,337,000

Global Burden Non-fatal Occ

Illness & Injury, WHO
SKIN
NON-FATAL OCCUPATIONAL INJURY
DUST/LUNG
12%

12%
1%
4%
1%
4%

RESP TOX
POISONING

66%

TRAUMATIC INJURY

PHYSICAL
AGENTS

Primary Prevention
Identify and eliminate hazards
Systems to protect workers health and
safety
Eliminate and reduce exposure

Secondary and Tertiary

Prevention
first aid
treatment
emergency services

Introduction to Occupational
Safety and Health
Identification
recognition
assessment

Control

eliminate
manage
personal protection

Prevention

Framework

Framework
Awareness
Qualitative Assessment
Exposure
Health

Hazard Judgment
Acceptable
Unacceptable
Uncertain

Quantitative Assessment
Exposure
Health

Risk communication

Interventions
Engineering
Administrative

Framework
Awareness of Exposure Hazard
Sentinel Event
Observations
personal
newspaper
reports

Complaints
Near misses

Framework
Qualitative Assessment
Exposure assessment
epidemiology
reports
historical data

Health assessment
toxicology
surveillance reports
historical data

Framework
Exposure Profile and Hazard Judgement
Where do I begin?????
Acceptable

--Unacceptable

--Uncertain

Framework
Hazard Judgement----uncertain
quantitative health assessment
medical surveillance
health surveys

quantitative exposure assessment

personal monitoring
workplace/environmental monitoring
exposure surveys

Framework
Risk communication
principles of risk communication
policy

Resources

Training
Internet
World Health Organization
International Labour Organization
Other
Local Expertise
scientists
physicians
nurses
public health practitioners
health educators
Reference Materials
journals
ILO encyclopedia

Cost of injuries and illnesses to

employers

Payment for work not performed

Medical payments
Reduction or interruption of services
Administrative costs
Replacing injured or ill worker
Training new workers
Poor public relations

Course Objectives
Recognize a sentinel event as a warning signal that
preventive measures need to be taken
Conduct a basic incident investigation
List the occupational hazards in a complex manufacturing
workplace
List the adverse health outcomes from exposures in this
workplace
Interpret data from a follow-up investigation of this
workplace.

Course Objectives
Develop a surveillance program that serves as an evaluation
tool for health risks in tanneries
Develop a questionnaire surveillance tool for monitoring
hazards and adverse health outcomes in industry
Discuss issues related to worker surveillance
Present data in a form that can be understood by employees
and policy makers, including employers and local/state
enforcement agencies
Apply information gathered from above activities to develop
policy recommendations for the tannery industry

Skills

develop incident investigation questions

create a report from incident investigation
take a work history
categorize hazards
develop workplace exposure and health
questions
organize questions into a surveillance tool
administer a survey
communicate findings of a survey

Defining Terms

Hazardous Source
Hazardous Agent
Hazardous Effect
Assessment
Sentinel
Tannery Complex Manufacturing Process