Share thisWant a successful health and safety program? With these 14 essential elements, you are sure to succeed! No, this isn’t like the hype for one of those trendy diet programs that will magically shed pounds and inches from your waistline or one of those get rich quick systems featured on late-night infomercials that will allow you to stay home by the pool, work only minutes a day, and triple your income.
Want a successful health and safety program? With these 14 essential elements, you are sure to succeed! No, this isn’t like the hype for one of those trendy diet programs that will magically shed pounds and inches from your waistline or one of those get rich quick systems featured on late-night infomercials that will allow you to stay home by the pool, work only minutes a day, and triple your income. This is, however, a recipe for success for developing a solid, comprehensive approach to protecting your employees from potential hazards in the workplace. These 14 elements represent a consensus of opinions of health and safety professionals from research conducted by the National Safety Council (NSC).1This compilation represents a framework for modeling an effective health and safety program or a basis for performing gap analysis on your existing approach. These elements are compatible with the Injury and Illness Prevention Plan (IIPP) required in some states.
In past issues we have discussed many of these items as stand alone topics but looking back we realized we have never really provided a holistic picture of how a health and safety program should be structured. Instead of trying to reinvent an already good approach we will present the same program elements and same order as the NSC with added commentary and explanation. In practice, these are all interrelated and a single issue will generally overlap into many of the elements listed below. So let’s get started.
Hazard Recognition, Evaluation, and Control
This element is key to any health and safety program. When asked, most people on the street would say is this is what a safety program is all about. This involves proactive hazard recognition in terms of environment (the surroundings of the workers), the people actually doing the work, equipment/materials used in the work process, and processes/practices themselves. A formal “Job Hazard Analysis” assists with the process and is integral to many of the other elements listed below. In the lab, as part of the Chemical Hygiene Plan, standard operating procedures (SOPs) are a product of this element. Once hazards have been identified and prioritized they must be controlled. The generally accepted hierarchy of controls is elimination/substitution, engineering controls, personal protective equipment, and administrative controls.
Workplace Design and Engineering
We often see failure in this aspect when we are called in to solve a problem. Designing safety into a workplace is as important as designing in efficiency (and these often go hand in hand). Some of this is already done by building code (e.g., electrical standards, fire suppression, and egress requirements) but other aspects must be consciously addressed such as ergonomics, ventilation, and noise requirements for the anticipated work at hand, equipment and machine safeguarding, materials handling and storage, use of automated processes, and added reserve capacity.
Safety Performance Management
This can be thought of as the measurable actions of employees in relation to safety in their work. Performance measurement should reflect how workers (management and workers alike) are actually doing compared to applicable regulatory requirements and identified corporate goals. This should include a system of accountability for meeting those standards within their control.
Regulatory Compliance Management
Animal care facilities must meet OSHA, EPA, DOT, and often accreditation agency specific standards. Non-compliance can have serious ramifications in terms of financial liability (penalties and fines), institutional reputation, and in some cases the ability to continue operations. It is very important to have a mechanism for staying informed and complying with existing regulations and standards. It is also very important to keep abreast of new or evolving regulations that will impact your operations. A self-assessment or assessment conducted by an outside party is a good tool for determining level of compliance.