Health & Safety Management Lecturing Resource

for

Quarrying Related Degree Courses

LECTURE NOTES:

INTRODUCTION TO HEALTH & SAFETY IN INDUSTRY

Objectives of this Section

To define the basic terminology of the subject area.

To outline the reasons for a safe and healthy workplace.

To show the accident trends in the UK industry as a whole and the quarrying industry in particular.

1.0 Basic Terminology of the Subject Area

As terminology used in relation to health and safety has different meanings in different

contexts within industry, it is useful to distinguish some commonly used terms that will be

used throughout this course.. The following definitions are those put forward by the HSE1.

Accident –undesired circumstances which give rise to ill-health or injury, damage to property, plant,

products or the environment; production losses or increased liabilities.

Incident –undesired circumstances and ‘near misses’ which could cause accidents.

Ill health –Acute and chronic ill health caused by physical, chemical or biological agents as well as

adverse effects on mental health.

Hazard –The potential to cause harm. Harm including ill health and injury, damage to property, plant,

products or the environment, production losses or increased liabilities.

Riskmeans the likelihood that a specified undesired event will occur due to the realisation of a

hazard by, or during work activities or by the products and services created by work

activities.

1 HSE (1997), Successful Health and Safety Management, HS(G)65, 2nd Edition, HSE Books.

The concept of hazards and risk will be discussed in greater detail later in this course. The

relationship between these concepts is shown in the following diagram (from Glendon &

McKenna, 19952)

Hazards/DangerObservable or predicted from knowledge

Risk

Not directly observable - probability of harm to system elements being realised from exposure to hazards and danger.

Harm

Damage to system elements - long or short term

Accidents

Injuries Ill-Health Damage

SafetySafety may be considered at the control of all the above elements but a more functional

definition is given by Bird & Germain 3(1985) which is the ‘control of accidental loss’.

2 Glendon AI & McKenna EF (1995), Human Safety and Risk Management, Chapman & Hall.

3 Bird FE & Germain GL (1985), Practical Loss Control Leadership, International Loss Control

Institute, Institute Publishing, Loganville, Georgia.

2.0 The Size of the Problem:

The increasing size and complexity of industrial processes creates increased scope for

major disasters, leading to greatly increased public concern about industrial safety. The last

two decades have seen a series of such disasters both world-wide (e.g. Bhopal, Seveso,

and Cheroybl) and the UK (e.g. Clapham Junction, King’s Cross, Piper Alpha, Herald of Free

Enterprise, Ladbrock Grove, Paddington).

It is estimated that each year there are 3 million fatalities resulting from accidents or

poisoning, the majority of which occur in under developing countries. Occupational

accidents, defined as those accidents that occur at the place of work, are also of major

concern. Each year 180 000 people are killed as a result of accidents at work, whilst 110

million are injured (Harms Ringdahl, 1992)4.

According to data collected in 1988 (Hoyos & Zimolong, 19885), in the USA a fatal accident

occurs every 6 minutes, a fatal occupational injury occurs every 46 minutes and a work

accident that results in an injury occurs every 17 seconds. In 1992, more then 86,000 people

died in the US.

In the UK, the 1990 Labour Force Survey stated that there were an estimated 1.6 million

accidents at work where 750,000 people suffered ill health caused or made worse by

working conditions. In all 30 million working days were lost in which 20 000 people were

forced to give up work.

4 Harms-Ringdahl, L. (1993), Safety Analysis – Principals & Practices in Occupational Safety, Elsevier

5 Hoyos, C.G & Zimolong, B (1988), Occupational Safety & Accident Prevention, Elsevier

3.0 Reasons for Preventing Accidents

There are three main reasons for preventing accidents and ill-health, these are

moral/humane, cost and legislation.

Moral

No-body comes to work to get injured or to become ill. No-one likes getting injured or seeing

their colleagues or friends injured in accidents. Nothing is more important than the humane

aspects of accidental loss: injury, pain, sorrow, anguish, loss of body particles or functions,

occupational illness, disability and death. Employers and employees have a moral

responsibility to prevent accidents and ill-health at work.

Costs

Whether or not people are hurt, accidents do cost organisations money and the actual injury

or illness costs represent only a small part of the total. A recent study by the HSE6 has

shown that for every £1 of insured costs (i.e. the actual cost of the injury or illness in terms of

medical costs or compensation costs) the uninsured (or ‘hidden’ costs) varied between £8

and £36. This has been traditionally depicted as an ‘iceberg’ as the largest part of an iceberg

is hidden under the sea.

6 HSE (1997), The Cost of Accidents at Work, HS(G)96, 2nd Edition, HSE Books.

In October 1999 the HSE published new data7 on the costs to the UK of workplace accidents

and work related ill-health in 1995/96 which estimated that:

The costs to employers is estimated at between £35 billion and £73 billion a year

(between 4% and 8% of all gross company trading profits).

Work related accidents & Illnesses cost between 2.1% and 2.6% of the Gross Domestic

Product each year – equivalent to between £14.5 and 18.1 billion.

7 HSE (1999) The Costs to Britain of Workplace Accidents and Work Related Ill Health in 1995/96,

HSE Books.

Legislation

Organisations have a legal obligation to prevent accidents and ill-health. Health and Safety

Legislation in the UK consists of a number of Acts that are supported by subordinate

legislation in the form of Regulations.

The principal act is the Health and Safety at Work Act, 1974. This Act sets in place a system

based on self-regulation with the responsibility for accident control placed on those who

create the risks in the first instance. It also allows for the progressive replacement of existing

safety law so that the general duties set in the 1974 act could be backed by Regulations,

setting goals and standards for specific hazards and industries. Any breach of this statutory

duty can result in criminal proceedings.

4.0 Accident Statistics and Trends in the UK

The number of injuries to employees, self employed and members to the public that have

occurred and been reported over the last ten years are shown in the table below.

1989/90

1990/91

1991/92

1992/93

1993/94

1994/95

1995/96

1996/97 (a)

1997/98

1998/99

Fatal 681 (b)

572 473 452 403 376 344 654 667 625

Major workers 21706 21222 18698 18053 17979 18354 17734 29320 30002 28821

Non-fatal

Public 11378 9981 11009 10669 11552 12642 13234 35694 28613 23588

+3 day 167109

162888

154338

143283

137459

142218

132976

129568

135773

131191

TOTAL 220874

194663

184518

172457

167393

173590

164288

195236

195055

184225

Notes:

(a) Figures from 1996/97 are higher than previous years because of changes in accident reporting

brought about by RIDDOR’95 (Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences

Regulation). Hence these figures cannot be compared with those of earlier years.

(b) This figure includes the 95 persons killed in the Hillsborough Stadium Disaster.

Accident Trends 8

Fatals – During the year 1998/99 the three most common causes of fatalities to

employees were falls from height, being struck by a moving vehicle, and being struck by

a falling object. However, the causes varied from sector to sector. In construction, most

deaths were caused by falls from height (46%). In manufacturing and the service sector,

falls from height accounted for 20% and 16% of deaths respectively. Within the service

sector, 40% of all deaths were caused by being struck by moving vehicles, up 33% the

previous year.

Non Fatal Major Injuries – The four most common causes of major injuries to all

employees in 1998/99 were slips, trips and falls, falls from a height, being struck by a

moving or falling object, and being injured whilst handling, lifting or carrying. HSE figures

mention that an estimated 591 major injuries were caused by violence at work, this is a

reduction from the previous year’s number (680) but still represents 2 per cent of all

major injuries experience by employees.

8 Taken from an article in the “Safety and Health Practitioner” December 1999

+3 day Injuries – Lifting, handling or carrying, slips, trips or falls, and being struck by a

moving or falling object were the three most likely ways in which employees were likely

to sustain over three day injuries during 1998/99. These figures also pick up the number

of injuries caused by violence in the workplace (4335) which is down on the previous

year.

Ill-health – The most prevalent forms of work related ill-health in the UK are:

Musculoskeletal disorders – an estimated 1.2 million people were affected in

1995 (including back-problems & RSI)

Stress – an estimated 0.5 people were affected in 1995.

Both these conditions accounted for over three-quarters of people suffering from an illness

caused by their work. A significant number of people were suffering from a lower respiratory

illness, including asthma (an estimated 200,000) and ear conditions, including deafness (an

estimated 170,000) which were caused by their work.

5.0 Accident Statistics and Trends in the Quarrying Industry.

Accident StatisticsThe Quarrying industry is a dangerous industry. It has injury rates that are greater then those

in construction and far higher than all industry rates which are shown in the table below9

(Accident rates are expressed as per 100,000 employees):

Quarry Industry Construction All Industry

Fatal 20 6 1

Major 400 382 128

+3 Day 1,400 966 589

Over the past five years the actual number of fatalities, major injuries and +3 day injuries is

shown in the figure below. There has been little discernible improvement in the industry’s

safety performance over this period.

Accident TrendsOver the ten year period (1983-93) there were 81 fatal accidents in the quarrying industry in

the UK. At the time an analysis was undertaken into the types of accident and this is

presented below10.

9 Baker G (2000) Hard Targets, Paper presented to the Quarries National Joint Advisory Committee,

March.

10 Scott A (1995), Killing Off Errors, Mine & Quarry, May.

OHL (3%) Maintenance (5%)Contact with Overhead Electricity Lines While maintaining plant or equipment.

Other (11%) Crusher Blockages (4%)Other accidents involving machinery, asphyxiation, burns or explosions.

While clearing crusher or feeder blockages.

Vehicles (41%) SFS (13%)Runover by a vehicle, vehicles running over open edge of quarry face, bench or ramp, trapped under vehicle body, vehicle overturned on quarry floor or road, and vehicles colliding with plants or other vehicles

Stumbling Slipping or falling

Falling (8%)

Struck by falling objects or ground

Conveyors (11%)

Engulfed (4%) Trapped between belt and head/tail drum rollers.

Buried in material

There are also significant health problems within the quarrying industry, for example

respiratory diseases (arising from silica and other dusts), hand-arm vibration syndrome

(arising from the use of hand tools), hearing loss (caused by noisy plant and equipment) and

muscular-skeletal disorders (from lifting and carrying).