The Importance of Safety Inspection - Essay Example

Itnroduction

A healthy workforce is critical to the sustainability of an organization. Therefore, occupational safety and health is essential in ensuring the conduction of quality work. Statistics on workplace injuries underscore the necessity of protecting employees from work-related hazards and risks. A workplace or occupational injury is described as personal injury, ailment, or mortality emanating from an occupational accident. Occupational accidents entail the sudden and unplanned happening of acts of violence resulting from work, which leads to one or more workers experiencing injuries or death. In the workplace, non-fatal occupational injuries result from various causes such as contact with objects and equipment, falls, slips and trips, overexertion and body reaction, transportation accidents, and fire and explosions, among others. The increased cases of non-fatal occupational injuries resulte in increased costs to technicians and the organization. Therefore, it necessitates the promotion of safety inspection. Implementing safety inspections will potentially reduce cases of occupational injuries by the technicians and reduce the cost of medical experiences for the company. This report examines the problem of occupational injuries and asserts the importance of safety inspections by providing a pre-inspection sheet or devices to aid in the adherence of safety procedures.

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Findings and Discussion

Findings

Statistics indicate the presence of a lot of non-fatal occupation injuries. The United States Bureau of Labor Statistics provides statistics of injuries, illnesses, and fatalities result from occupational hazards for the year 2019. These statistics provide incidence rates of non-fatal and occupational injuries. These incidences are illustrated in Figure 1 below. It demonstrates the number of non-fatal occupation injuries by their cause. These include contact will objects and equipment, falls, slips, and trips, overexertion and bodily reaction, transportation incidents, violence, fires and explosions, and exposure to harmful substances, among others. For instance, contact will objects and equipment result in 229,410 non-fatal occupational injuries and falls, slips, and trips lead to 244,000 non-fatal occupational injuries (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2020). Overexertion and bodily reaction result in 103,900 non-fatal occupational injuries.

Figure 1: Number of Non-fatal Occupational Injuries in 2019

Discussion

The Problem

The injuries, illnesses, and fatalities program by the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics provides detailed information concerning workplace injuries and illnesses. The details in Figure 1 above illustrates data on non-fatal injuries and illnesses by their source. According to the statistics provided by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics for the year, 2019 indicate that slips, trips, and falls (STF) are most common in the workplace contributing to 244,000 non-fatal occupational injuries. It is followed by contact will objects and equipment with 229,410 non-fatal occupational injuries. The costs of these hazardous conditions in the workplace cannot be understated. They are responsible for a minimum of 888,220 non-fatal occupational injuries in a single year (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2020). The economic costs of these injuries entail the expenses incurred in treating these problems. There are also increased costs to the company through the downtime when the employees do not work due to injuries. The occupational injuries result in great pain, suffering, and mortality to the involved employees and their dependents. It means there is a loss due to the cost of medical treatment, compensation, and replacement of the damaged work equipment. There is also the loss of skilled and unskilled labor due to these injuries. Lastly, there is material loss due to the destruction of machinery and equipment.

Importance of Occupational Safety

The OSHA regulations mandate employers to provide a workplace devoid of noticeable hazards that can potentially cause harm or death to employees. The utilization of worksite inspections is critical in documenting hazards and their abutment. Workplace safety inspections are not only compliance but also a critical constituent of injury prevention efforts (Usrey, 2017). It also serves as a reassurance to the employees of the safety of the work environment. Random inspections have been evidenced to enhance workplace safety. It is evidenced that firms undergoing random safety inspections had reduced workplace injuries by approximately 9% over four years (Norton, 2012). The random safety inspections have led to a reduced cost of injuries by an estimated 26% (Norton, 2012). A study by Toffel indicated that randomized inspections function well by enhancing safety in the workplace without disrupting the company’s ability to operate.

Recommendation

It is recommended that technicians and employers implement a safety inspection strategy using a pre-inspection sheet. The implementation of the random pre-inspection sheet will seek to help the organization improve safety and reduce occupational injuries. The methodology for the implementation of the random safety solution is described below:

Plan: It is essential to detail the purpose of providing the pre-inspection sheet in the workplace. The main objective is preventing injuries, and the pre-inspection sheet will encompass the critical observations of all the areas in the workplace. The recording of the pre-inspection sheet should enable the creation of appropriate patterns (Usrey, 2017). The information collected should be used to prevent injuries. It is also important that the purpose of the exercise to communicated to all stakeholders in the company.

Do: It entails the formulation of a detailed inspection strategy for the use of a pre-inspection sheet. It will involve the definition of who performs the inspection when the inspection happens, the parameters observed, and the specific areas to be expected.

Study: After the respective data has been collected, it is possible to examine it and identify patterns and gaps. A gap represents an action that needs to be done to prevent an injury (Usrey, 2017). A pattern is an action that repeats itself until causal factors are established and corrected.

Act: It is important to act after data has been collected and studied. It includes various actions such as providing feedback to the employees or changing how operations are conducted to avert future injuries. The understanding of the data is also used for data-driven decisions on the improvement of workplace safety measures.

Conclusion

Occupational injuries encompass injuries, diseases, or death occurring to an employee due to occupational accidents. Occupational injuries have significant implications, such as increased expenses in terms of medical expenses and loss of labor during the downtime. There is also reduced productivity, and the organization suffers. The most non-fatal occupational injuries resulting from falls, slips, and trips are the most common. The United States Bureau of Labor Statistics records that these injuries amount to 244,000 non-fatal occupational injuries. Therefore, the cost of occupational injuries cannot be understated. It is has been established that random inspections can enhance workplace safety. Employers and technicians need to implement a random safety inspection to reduce the rate of occupational injuries. It has been suggested that a random pre-inspection sheet can potentially reduce occupational injuries. The methodology used for the implementation of the pre-inspection sheet includes planning, doing, studying, and acting on collected. The result is the collection of appropriate data and making appropriate decisions to reduce injuries in the workplace.

References

Elizabeth NortonMay. 17, 2012. (2012, May 17). It's Official: Random Inspections Improve Workplace Safety. Science. https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2012/05/its-official-random-inspections-improve-workplace-safety.

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2020, November 4). TABLE 1. Incidence rates of nonfatal occupational injuries and illnesses by industry and case types, 2019. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. https://www.bls.gov/iif/oshwc/osh/os/summ1_00_2019.htm.

Usrey, C. (2017, June). Why Do Safety Inspections? Occupational Health & Safety. https://ohsonline.com/Articles/2017/05/12/Why-Do-Safety-Inspections.aspx?Page=3.