Deck 16: Safety and Health in the Workplace

Question 1

If you have ever become injured or ill as a result of a job, explain what happened to you. In a two-page paper, identify the causative agent, how the injury could have been prevented, and what kind of training you had to prepare you for a safe working environment.

Answer 1

Occupational disease and its impact faced by an individual:
An individual suffer pneumoconiosis as an occupational disease that caused from the coalmining. Pneumoconiosis is a lung disease that caused by the inhalation of dusts. By affecting pneumoconiosis, he/she loose the physical fitness to engage in mining plant. Hence, he/she resigned from the organization.
He/she reveals that dust is the causative agent of pneumoconiosis. Exorbitant inhalation of dusts affects the lungs of workers and it leads to severe lung disorder. Lack of proper safety equipments is the reason to increase the rate of pneumoconiosis among workers. Hence, providing effective inhalation equipments to coalmining workers can prevent this disease up to an extent.
The organization only provided pre-placement examination and certain safety programs to prepare safe working environment. They failed to provide safety equipments that required in the mining industry. It became a major reason to suffer pneumoconiosis. Therefore, pneumoconiosis is the occupational disease that suffers by an individual and these are the causes of this disease.

Question 2

What determines whether a musculoskeletal condition or skin condition should be considered an injury or a disease?

Answer 2

Determinants for consider musculoskeletal condition as a disease:
Musculoskeletal disorders are an acute and chronic disorder to the muscles, nerves, bones, and joints. It affects the movement of human body and the whole musculoskeletal system. Most significant type of musculoskeletal disorder is trauma disorder. It means musculoskeletal disorders specifically damages the human body and leads to various diseases.
It may be skin disorder like skin allergy and chrome ulcers, hearing loss due to huge noise in the work environment, and respiratory disorder due to toxic inhalation. It means all musculoskeletal disorder leads to certain diseases. Therefore, these are the determinants for consider musculoskeletal condition as a disease.

Question 3

Ambient smoke in a restaurant or bar is an example of situations that occur daily in the workplace. Suppose you suspected that you were being exposed to a toxic agent where you worked. What would you do? Who would you contact? How could OSHA be of assistance?

Answer 3

Case synopsis:
This case reveals details about the safety in work environment. In this case, Mrs. JN is a 21 years old woman working at a restaurant. Further, she is selected in TL restaurant as a waitress. She was excited about the new job because, the tips were more, and she believed it would help her to earn more income than previous job.
Mrs. JN is a pregnant woman and this extra income will help her to buy things, which are needed for her baby. However, TL restaurant serves alcohol and lacks no-smoking policy in its premises. After two months, Mrs. JN started suffering some problems due to the inhalation of cigarette smoke such as burning eyes at the end of the work and burn throat too.
Then, she started to take ten minutes break for breathing clean air. In the first checkup doctor asked her about smoking. Now, she feared about working in a smoky environment because, it will affect the health of her baby. Whereas, she did not want to quit this job due to good income and her manager complements her work.
Attitude of an individual towards the toxic agent exposed in the workplace:
There are particular rules and norms that protect the workplace from any hazards. These rules and norms focuses to provide safe and healthy environment to employees. However, toxic agents distort this safe and healthy environment. In this case an individual has right to raise complaint against toxic agents like cigarette smoking.
Hence, he/she has to approach concerned departments of an organization and raise a complaint against the violation of safety rules in the workplace. This has an internal move to solve the issue. The appellate authority includes safety department, human resource department, and the concerned line managers of the worker.
Once the complaint is not resolved, then an individual will register a complaint in OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health administration. OSHA is a federal agency established under the law of Occupational Safety and Health Act 1970 (OSHAct). This agency functions under the department of labor. The intention of OSHA is to administer and manage the provisions of OSHAct.
They ensure that an employer provide proper safety for his/her employees as per the standards of OSHAct. It is very easy to raise a complaint in OSHA. A written complaint has to be submitted in the office of OSHA.
Based on the complaint they will conduct an inspection and take decision as per the inspection. Hence, it is an easy method to solve the problem of toxic agents exposed in the workplace. This is the attitude of an individual towards toxic agent exposed in the workplace.

Question 4

List four well-documented lung conditions that are related to occupational exposure. Name the occupations whose workers are at high risk for each of these conditions.

Question 5

How did the Industrial Revolution contribute to an increase in occupational health problems?

Question 6

Why is it often difficult to prove that a disease or condition resulted from workplace exposure?

Question 7

Go to the school library and research the injuries and diseases connected with your future profession. In a two-page paper, identify the major problems and what employers and employees should do about them and express concerns that you have about working in the profession because of these problems.

Question 8

Outline some features of a workplace program to prevent or control occupational diseases. For each activity, indicate whether it is aimed at the agent, host, or environment aspect of the disease model.

Question 9

Think about some of the jobs held by your fellow classmates. Do any of those jobs expose them to hazardous substances? Do any of the jobs students have put them at risk for injuries?

Question 10

List five health occupations that deal with worker safety and health. Describe their training and job assignments.

Question 11

Who was Alice Hamilton? What did she do?

Question 12

Name and describe four occupational safety and health programs.

Question 13

Visit any job site related to your future profession. At that site, find 10 things that employers and employees are doing to make it a safe work environment. List these 10 things briefly and explain the benefit of each one.

Question 14

What are some of the benefits of worksite health promotion programs for employers and employees?

Question 15

What were the deficiencies in state occupational safety and health laws in the early 1960s?

Question 16

Discuss briefly the purpose of the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 and outline its provisions.

Question 17

What is OSHA and what does it do? What is NIOSH and what does it do?

Question 18

Examine your local newspaper every day for a week for articles dealing with occupational injury or illness. Find three articles and, after reading them, provide the following: a brief summary, the resulting injury or disease, the cause of the injury or disease, and a brief plan for how the organization could eliminate the cause.

Question 19

What are some of the most frequently reported workplace injuries? Which are the leading causes of workplace injury deaths?

Question 20

If you were Jen, what would you do?

Question 21

Which age group and gender of workers suffer the most occupational injuries? Which have the most fatal injuries?

Question 22

Provide definitions of the terms occupational injury and occupational disease and give three examples of each.

Question 23

Why is farming a particularly hazardous occupation? What are ROPS and how do they prevent deaths? Describe some of the workplace hazards experienced by migrant farmworkers and their children.

Question 24

Interview an individual who works in the profession you wish to enter after graduation. Ask him or her to describe what he or she feels are the most prevalent injuries and illnesses connected with his or her job. Also ask about specific preservice and in-service education the interviewee has had to protect against these problems. Finally, ask him or her to propose measures to limit future problems. Summarize your interview on paper in a two-page report.

Question 25

What are the risk factors for encountering violence in the workplace? Which occupation is at greatest risk for workplace homicides?

Question 26

In 1998, California passed legislation protecting waitresses like Jen and bartenders by outlawing smoking in not only restaurants but also in bars. Do you support such legislation? How likely is it that your state legislature would pass a similar law?

Question 27

Outline some general control strategies that can reduce the number and seriousness of workplace injuries.

Question 28

In what ways are health problems in the workplace related to health problems in the general community?

Question 29

What is the most frequently reported occupational disorder?